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almost every day accompanying a solemn cortége, at the head of a band, playing a funeral march. With this professional work and his labor of love in the printing and distribution of handbills, the reformer was then a popular figure in the streets of Cincinnati. The Peaceful Revolutionist, Warren's first periodical, appeared in January, 1833, but did not survive the same year. It was a four-page weekly of conspicuously clear and neat typography, devoted to the principles of Equity. So primitive at this time were his resources, and so marvelous his skill and ingenuity, that the plates from which the paper was printed were cast over the fire of the same stove at which his wife cooked the family meals. The printing press he used was his own invention, and with his own hands he made type-moulds, cast the type and the stereo-plates, built the press, wrote out the articles, set them up, and printed off the sheets. Was there ever a more self-dependent enterprise? What enthusiastic devotion to an idea, what determination were here displayed! Let us pause for a moment and with the eye of imagination cast a glance at this remarkable and unassuming man as he lived seventy years ago. In a remote and sparsely settled region he supported his little family by his precarious earnings as a band musician. But his heart was in the movements devoted to the general good, which he deemed paramount. His talents were dedicated to the Cause, his spare moments occupied upon inventions designed to simplify and cheapen the art of printing, in the interest of the propaganda. His thoughts were not of personal advancement. Material interests swayed him not. Yet he put forth no claims as a philanthropist; no note of conscious self-sacrifice took the edge off his devotion. Impelled to his chosen work by simple love of his kind, through every vicissitude and disappointment he remained steadfast to his faith in the ultimate regeneration of the race. Tuscarawas County, Ohio, was selected as the place in which to commence the village of Equity. Land to the extent of four hundred acres was purchased by the pioneer and his friends. Some half-dozen families, including the adherents from Spring Hill already mentioned, early in 1835 took possession of the estate. In a short time it was discovered that the locality was malarial, breeding low fever, ague, and constant sickness. A saw-mill and several houses were, however, erected, but the settlers had not the temerity to invite any more to join them while influenza and malaria were undermining their health and carrying off the less robust of their members. The idea of building up a community in this region was abandoned, but having invested their last dollar in land and buildings, they could not at once get away, and it was nearly two years before they were able to provide themselves with homes elsewhere. Even then they could leave the ill-starred place only by sacrificing nearly all their labor and investments. Warren, repulsed but not defeated in his first encounter with the impercipient elements and raw material of nature, in 1837 again returned to New Harmony, which, despite the failure of communism, had grown into a prosperous town. The leaven of social discontent and aspiration first introduced by Robert Owen appears never to have been quite exhausted, and was wont to manifest itself at intervals in waves of communistic enthusiasm. Ten or twelve years later, when the events of 1825-26 at New Harmony had been forgotten, co-operative effort took the form of Fourierism, active propaganda was carried on by bands of devoted workers, phalanxes were organized, and communities multiplied throughout the land. Horace Greeley became their sponsor in the press, and Brook Farm, with its noted participators, gained for them a reputation which has survived in American literature. Until this wave subsided, and the sincere but mistaken communists had time to learn by experience the inevitable but melancholy lesson, the Individualist reformer decided to remain quiescent. He then spent some years in mechanical pursuits, during which he invented the cylinder-press. VI
THE NEW HARMONY "TIME STORE" In 1842 Warren determined to make another public effort on behalf of Equitable Commerce. A store, he believed, would most readily familiarize the people with his ideas. But as soon as the project became known in New Harmony there were mutterings and threats from certain quarters where the effects of an enterprise conducted on the Cost principle were dreaded. For this reason Warren, having in mind his Cincinnati experiences fifteen years before, began to deliver lectures upon the subject in the surrounding country and soon created among the people a strong sentiment in favor of the idea. When the store in New Harmony was about to open, an incident occurred which shows the feeling that prevailed. Intelligence was received by some of Warren's adherents outside the city that an attempt would be made to prevent by force the opening of the Equity store; whereupon five men at once jumped up and declared that they would shoulder their rifles and march into New Harmony to protect the enterprise and its founder. The danger passed, however, with nothing worse than covert sneers, studied misrepresentation, and petty falsehoods from some of the neighboring storekeepers. Before many days the store was so crowded with customers that some had to wait two hours before they could be served. Opposition of an underhand nature continued, but, as Warren observed: "It was not a wordy war but a war of things; everybody had a pocket, even the storekeepers, and the subject which could get no hearing before the pocket was touched was now either supported or opposed by everyone within its reach. It was not necessary to reply to the opposition; the people took the subject into their own hands. Although they did not pretend to understand its whole philosophy, they saw that all its practical workings were in their favor, and its influence spread rapidly outward and began to affect the prices in the surrounding towns. The people would not buy at home, but came twenty, twenty-five, and even one hundred miles, to the 'Time store,' as they called it, and found themselves benefited. There was but one way left for the common stores, -- that was, to come down. But they could not come down to the prompt-pay prices and at the same time keep up their credit system. Then down came the credit system, that second monstrous feudalism, by which the storekeepers were rapidly getting possession of the homesteads of the people of the surrounding country.... "Whatever may be thought of the hopelessness or the unpopularity of reform movements, I will venture to assert that no new institution, political, moral, or religious, ever assumed a more sudden and extensive popularity than the Time store of New Harmony. But it was principally among the poor, the humble, the downtrodden. None of those who had been accustomed to lead, none who had anything to lead with, offered the least assistance nor aid, nor scarcely sympathy, though they did not attempt to deny the soundness of the principles.... When all the stores in the surrounding country had come down in their prices to an equilibrium with the Equity store the custom naturally flowed back again to them, and the next step was to wind up the Time store and commence a village." This experiment, also, lasted about two years, being conducted on principles identical with those of the first store. Labor notes were used as on the former occasion, with this difference, -- that Warren learned when exchanging his labor for the labor of others to appraise the various kinds of labor at different valuations not according to equal time, but according to equal value, measured by the ultimate cost. Some time before the store was closed, two gentlemen in whom the public had confidence were invited by the reformer, and readily consented, to audit the books covering the operations from the start. They found a small surplus, which was merely sufficient to cover the expenses of winding up. It is an interesting fact that the best friends of the Equity movement were found to be those who made no professions of reform. Out of fifty reform papers to which was sent a printed account of the store and the principles underlying it, not one vouchsafed a public acknowledgment. When the New Harmony Equity store was closed Warren once more turned his mind to invention. He produced in 1844 an original system of music denominated by him "Mathematical Notation," designed on scientific principles to accomplish in the representation of harmonic sounds a service similar to that performed by phonography in the representation of the elements of speech. The author printed the book by his newly perfected "Universal Typography," and, as may still be seen in a copy preserved in the library of the New Harmony Workingmen's Institute, it was a beautiful example of his stereotyping process, reproducing his own handwriting in delicate copperplate. It would be beside my purpose to go into a description of this unique invention which, though in print, was never really published or put before the musical world, owing doubtless to the author's absorption in plans of social reform; but one musical authority, Dr. Mason, examined the new mathematical notation and admitted its comprehensiveness and simplicity, believing, however, that it would be a hopeless undertaking to attempt to supersede the universally accepted system. The perfection to which his typographical inventions were brought in 1845-46, brought Warren some financial prosperity, and revived his desire to found another village. The seven thousand dollars he obtained by the sale of his stereotyping patents enabled him to secure land in the vicinity of New Harmony for this purpose; but he soon had reason to believe that the prospects would be better in Ohio, near Cincinnati, where it was anticipated land could be obtained on favorable terms. One of his followers, however, wanted to open another Time store on the ground already secured, and to this plan Warren consented. They set out together for Evansville on Jan. 25, 1847, to purchase stock for the new enterprise, and found the roads almost impassable, but met many sympathetic friends who kindly entertained them while the discoverer of Equitable Commerce devoted most of his time to exposition of the Principles. A teamster who was one of the old cooperators, agreed to bring the goods from Evansville to the store, a distance of twenty-five miles. The roads were so bad that the journey occupied four days; the wagoner was nearly frozen, and declared that if the goods had not been for the Time store he would have left them on the road and returned without them. But when Warren paid a higher price for the work than was first agreed upon, he not only gave satisfaction to the teamster, but showed that the limits of contract may not be the limits of equity. Upon the opening of this co-operative store on May 18, 1847, the reformer planned and successfully held a social reunion to which were invited the people of the surrounding country, to celebrate the opening, twenty years before, of the first Time store in Cincinnati. The new store was conducted by the person whom Warren had assisted to open it, whilst the latter departed for new fields of labor that claimed his attention. No account remains of the subsequent course of this undertaking. It was not until 1846, after twenty years' study and experience, that Warren put forth the fruits of his thought and labor in a book, published by the author under the title of "Equitable Commerce." Although the date of publication is given in his later writings as 1846, Warren's first reference to the work is found in a letter he wrote from New Harmony, dated April 25, 1847, wherein he speaks of it as being "out at last." A second edition was printed in 1849 at Utopia, Ohio, and Fowler and Wells of New York in 1852 issued another edition which they followed with Warren's " Practical Details of Equitable Commerce, "...these works and the author's subsequent writings being usually referred to under the general title, "True Civilization," all of which are now out of print. After Warren's death, Benj. R. Tucker in 1875 at Princeton, Mass., reprinted a small edition of " Equitable Commerce." This also has long been out of print. VII
THE VILLAGE OF UTOPIA To describe the next event in Warren's career we must return to 1844, when the Claremount Phalanx, a Fourier association, was about to be organized in Cincinnati. The founder of Equity delivered an address to the projectors in which he warned them that their communistic enterprise would certainly fail, giving them three years in which to discover the error of their principles. He begged them to remember, when his warning should come true, that, despite the failure of their attempt, there was yet a road to success. At the same time he gave an outline of the principles and methods of Equity. Just two years and eight months later he learned that the community, after a hand-to-hand scramble for some of the "common property," had broken up. Then he concluded the time had come to interest them in his ideas, and in June, 1847, he landed from a steamboat where the community was located on the banks of the Ohio River, thirty miles from Cincinnati, and was met by one Daniel Prescott, who said, "Well, we have failed just as you foretold; it worked exactly as you said it would, and if you had been a prophet you could not have told more accurately what would happen. Now I am ready for your method." Warren found six families almost destitute. Homes must be erected and land secured. About a mile above Claremount there was some land owned by Mr. Jernegan, a believer in Equitable Commerce, with whom an arrangement was made to lay out the estate in quarter-acre lots. The price was determined on the Cost Principle. To the value of the land by the acre was added the cost of laying out streets, of surveying, etc., and of the time spent on the work by the proprietor, who agreed in writing to keep unchanged the original price upon all unsold lots for three years. It was afterwards discovered by the pioneers that three years were too short a time to be insured against a speculative rise in land values. Warren considered a uniform price for ten years at least to be necessary for the successful building up of a community. It should be remembered that all Warren's attempts in this direction were made with those whose only means was their labor force, and his purpose was to demonstrate that such people, with free access to natural resources, could, by exchanging their labor on equitable terms through the use of labor notes, build their own houses, supply their prime necessities, and attain to comfort and prosperity without dependence on capitalists or on any external authority for the means of life. "I would not," said Warren, "urge the capitalist to use his capital in our cause." To do so he regarded as a waste of time, and he preferred to use his efforts to show the victims of capital how they could escape from its tyranny. If he succeeded in this, he declared, capital would be powerless, and "its holders the dependents." When they began on the new plan in the middle of July, there was not ten dollars in possession of all the settlers; but by the following December most of the families had good houses, some being built of brick two stories high, nearly or wholly paid for. The village consisted of eighty quarter-acre lots, and as the surrounding land was controlled by speculators, there was no room for expansion. Within three years a steam saw-and-grist-mill was running, its owner having the assistance of all the residents because he furnished lumber at cost and thus rendered it to their advantage to co-operate with the mill. But this mode of co-operation left everyone connected with the enterprise free from obligations, pledges, or involved interests. Here is an extract from Warren's notes written at this period in Utopia, as the village was named. "The owner of the mill issued his labor notes payable in lumber. H. B. Lyon paid for his lot with his labor notes. The mill needed his labor and the owner of the mill needed lumber. Mr. Lyon issued his notes promising his labor in the mill -- the owner of the mill took them of the landowner for lumber, and Mr. Lyon redeemed them in tending the mill. With all my hopes I had not dared to expect to see land bought with labor notes so soon as this. " In an article published in 1848, Warren describes the conditions which then prevailed at Utopia, and after showing how the people got along without rules or organizations, not even having a single public lecture to expound their principles, he says: "I do not mean to be understood that all are of one mind. On the contrary, in a progressive state there is no demand for conformity. We build on Individuality. Any differences between us confirm our position. Differences, therefore, like the admissible discords in music, are a valuable part of our harmony. It is only when the rights of persons or property are actually invaded that collisions arise. These rights being clearly defined and sanctioned by public opinion, and temptations to encroachments being withdrawn, we may then consider our great problem practically solved. With regard to mere difference of opinion in taste, convenience, economy, equality, or even right and wrong, good and bad, sanity and insanity, -- all must be left to the supreme decision of each individual, whenever he can take on himself the cost of his decisions; which he cannot do while his interests or movements are united or combined with others. It is in combination or close connection only that compromise or conformity is required. Peace, harmony, ease, security, happiness, will be found only in Individuality. " Mr. E. G. Cubberley, one of the first settlers, in October, 1872, while still residing in his original house at Utopia, wrote: "The labor notes put us into a reciprocating society -- the result was, in two years twelve families found themselves with homes who never owned them before.... Labor capital did it. I built a brick cottage one and a half stories high, and all the money I paid out was $9.81 -- all the rest was effected by exchanging labor for labor. Mr. Warren is right, and the way to get back as much labor as we give is by the labor-cost prices, -- money prices, with no principle to guide, have always deceived us." It may naturally be asked, What became of the village? Why did Equity villages not multiply? Why did the pioneers keep from the public as far as possible all information concerning them? To such questions no satisfactory answer in a few words can be given. Owing to the high price of the surrounding land most of the settlers after about four years moved from Utopia into Minnesota, where land was cheap and abundant. VIII
MODERN TIMES Leaving the scenes of his labors in Ohio and Indiana, Warren, in 1850, took up his abode in New York City, where he formed an intimacy with the philosophical writer and reformer, Stephen Pearl Andrews. From this time forth Andrews became the literary exponent of the philosophy of Equity. He delivered in 1851 a course of lectures on "The Science of Society," embracing an exposition of the Sovereignty of the Individual, and Cost the Limit of Price. 1 Andrews' "Science of Society," containing a scholarly essay on government, has probably done more toward calling the attention of independent thinkers and reformers to Warren's philosophy than anything ever put forth by himself, and is by far the ablest statement of the Principles which has yet appeared. It was but a short time after Warren came to New York that earnest people in that city, in Boston, and elsewhere began to evince much interest in the individualistic form of cooperation advocated by him. Warren, though never assuming to be a public speaker, developed his conversational gifts to such a degree that his "Parlor Conversations" became noted in reform circles, and proved a valuable means of disseminating his ideas. At these informal meetings it was his custom to introduce the topic for the occasion -- always expository of his distinctive opinions -- in a brief talk, after which he invited questions from the audience, that usually were forthcoming with a readiness and spirit evincing a warm interest in the subject. In his replies the reformer invariably proved himself quick, witty, and convincing; but he never allowed himself to be drawn into wordy disputation, deeming it a waste of time to engage with opponents in fruitless argument. It was at one of the "Conversations " held in New York that Stephen Pearl Andrews, then an enthusiastic Fourierist, was converted to the principles of Equity. Many years later another able writer and determined opponent, C. T. Fowler, was won over to Warren's ideas by the light thrown upon social problems at one of these gatherings in Boston. This method of propaganda was utilized almost to the end of his life wherever he happened to sojourn and could find appreciative listeners. A spot on Long Island, forty miles from New York by the Long Island Railroad was selected for another experiment. The soil was considered worthless, and several attempts by capitalists to turn it to account had failed. But this seemed no deterrent to those imbued with the principles of Equity. There was no lumber on the land save scrub-oak, even for fuel, but it was thought that the soil might be adapted to market-gardening, while manufactures could be introduced to furnish employment. "One man," says Warren, "went to the ground alone and built a shanty ten or twelve feet square where there was not so much as a cow-path in sight. He was joined in a few days by two others, and they built the first house with funds supplied by a sympathizing friend. More pioneers arrived, and soon the houses went up, apparently without means, and many now possessed houses who had never owned one before." Thus matters progressed until someone published in the New York Tribune an account of the colony, which the projectors had named Modern Times. This undesired publicity quickly brought many people, mostly ignorant of the ideas on which the village was founded. True to the principle of Individual Sovereignty, or non-interference, which gives equal rights to all in natural opportunities, the pioneers refrained from taking any steps toward excluding the newcomers, so long as they did not invade the rights of others. This freedom was not at first without its drawbacks, though in the end it invariably proved a self-corrective. Again to quote Warren: "One man began to advocate plurality of wives, and published a paper to support his views; another believed clothing to be a superfluity, and not only attempted to practise his Adamic theories in person, but inflicted his views upon his hapless children. A woman with an ungainly form displayed herself in public in men's attire, which gave rise to the newspaper comment that 'the women of Modern Times dressed in men's clothes and looked hideous.' Still another young woman had the diet mania so severely that after trying to live on beans without salt until reduced almost to a skeleton she died within a year." Whereupon the newspapers cried, "The people of Modern Times are killing themselves with fanatical ideas about food." These were some of the burdens the real settlers had to bear because they respected the rights of others, and accorded liberty to do even the silliest things, knowing that experience, and the principle which allows such things to be done at each one's own cost, would work the best and surest cure. A reporter, in the course of an interview with one of the residents, asked, "Do you hold to Marriage?" "Marriage? Well, folks ask no questions in regard to that among us. We, or at least some of us, do not believe in life partnerships when the parties cannot live happily. Every person here is supposed to know his or her own interest best. We don't interfere; there is no eavesdropping or prying behind the curtain. Those are good members of society who are industrious and mind their own business. The individual is sovereign and independent, and all laws tending to restrict the liberty he or she should enjoy are founded on error and should not be regarded." Among the strangers who came to live in Modern Times was a slanderer, who committed innumerable ridiculous acts, abused the leading spirits, made himself generally obnoxious, and finally wrote a long description including the very doings he himself had perpetrated, which was published as a picture of the villagers. Such misrepresentations often found their way across the Atlantic, and greatly chagrined Warren, who had numerous sympathizers in England. A minister of the gospel from Cincinnati visited the Colony to investigate, and was courteously treated. He returned home, and published in the Gazette a virulent attack upon the inhabitants of Modern Times. Of twenty-six statements therein purporting to be facts, Warren declared that "twenty-five were wholly or partly false and one was equivocal." Nevertheless the pioneers of Equity prospered, and after reaping so much of the undesirable fruits of notoriety, decided to change the name of the place to Brentwood, the name it still bears. More than this, they often let the statement go forth that the experiment had come to an end in order to escape the interminable annoyance of sensational press reports and equally obnoxious visiting cranks. Free from the illusions of mere enthusiasts, Warren and his disciples differed from other schools of reformers in accepting the world as it really is. They did not expect their villages, even if these became numerous, to solve the social problem, nor did they ever consider them as anything but an illustration of what might be done by labor, freed from the curse of monopoly and the blight of authority, through the practice of Equity, toward building up a self-dependent, prosperous, and happy community. To secure the welfare of a handful of isolated individuals was never the ultimate aim they had in view, but to show, in a quiet, practical, noninvasive way that equity and justice in human relations would promote happiness to a degree unattainable in the present selfish scramble for place and power. The spirit of the movement may be gleaned from letters written by residents of Modern Times after it had been several years in existence. Only a few brief extracts can here be given. Under date of Aug. 22, 1857, Edward D. Linton, writing to his English friend, A. C. Cuddon, says: "For more than twenty years I have been interested in the subject of societary reform; I have examined many if not all the theories that have been put forth at various periods in the history of mankind.... My mind was thus occupied when, more than ten years ago, I heard the principles enunciated from Mr. Warren's own lips....The more I study and examine them, the severer the tests I apply, and the more practically I apply them, the more certain am I that they constitute the grand and fundamental laws of individual rights and social life.... But the practical realization of the principles will be a thing of growth. They cannot be instituted, inaugurated, by any means or appliances under heaven.... Any attempt at their realization, in any of the hitherto popular modes of reform, will fail.... "You have been here, Sir, and I ask you, considering the natural obstacles to overcome, if you ever saw greater material success attained in so short a time, by the same number of people without capital, and with only their hands and brains to operate with, under all the disadvantages of habits formed by a false education and training.... And as it regards individual and social happiness and the entire absence of vice and crime, I am confident this settlement cannot be equalled. This is, emphatically, the school of life. It is what has been learned here, infinitely more than what has been done that constitutes what I consider the great success of the settlement. What has not been done is, I think, of far more consequence than what has been done.... I would rather that my children (six in number) would live here and have the advantages of the society and the practical lessons taught here than for them to have what is called an education in the best institution of learning in the world.... "But whether I ever live to see the practical realization of the principles or not, here or elsewhere, I can never feel sufficiently grateful to the unostentatious man whose remarkable and peculiar constitution of mind enabled him to discover the most subtle and sublime truths ever made known to man for his self-government and the regulation of his intercourse with his neighbor. In my own person and in my own domestic affairs I have been incalculably benefited." The following year Mr. A. C. Cuddon of London paid another visit to Modern Times about which he writes from Long Island, July, 1858: " They (the principles) are comprehensive and of universal application. They cover the whole ground of social economy, extending into all the ramifications of life and penetrating into every particular case.... They are not a mere speculation or preconceived theory. They are the fruit of extensive and long-continued research conducted upon principles rigidly scientific, moral, and religious. If true, and I challenge the closest scrutiny and severest criticism, they create a new era in social science. The arguments which support them are neither difficult nor subtle; the facts on which they rest are numerous, plain, and accessible; they are very simple conclusions from very simple evidence. If they to some appear startling when confronted with existing opinions, it is only because they introduce real science with all its acquirements into a branch of knowledge generally abandoned to speculative reasoning or unsuspecting credulity." Broad avenues, tree-shaded streets, pretty cottages surrounded by strawberry-beds and well-tilled gardens, formed the outward appearance of Modern Times. The occupants were honest, industrious, and had learned to mind their own business, while readily co-operating with their neighbors for mutual advantage. They were free from sectarian dissensions, courts of law, policemen, jails, rum-shops, prostitutes, and crime. No one acquired wealth save by his own industry. Long afterwards, the people who lived there during the years that the principles of Equity were the only law looked back with regret mingled with pleasure on those pioneer days of effort to achieve a higher social ideal. Moncure D. Conway visited Modern Times about 1858 and wrote a description of what he heard and saw of the village and its inhabitants, which was published in the Fortnightly Review, No. 4, July 1, 1865. The article may be consulted in Vol. I., p. 421, but contains many statements, evidently hearsay, concerning the early history of the Equity movement and its founder that are by no means reliable. There is no reason, however, to impugn the trustworthyness of a writer so painstaking and scholarly as Conway when giving the results of his personal observation on the spot. His impressions were favorable, and he carried back with him into the world a lasting sympathy with the pioneers and their aims. "Not being sure whether a place where people attended to their own affairs and did without money was to be reached by railroad or rainbow," he felt not a little trepidation when the train set him down at " Thompson's," about a mile from Modern Times. Having received a cordial welcome when the obEpisode 10 time!
“Steven’s Lion” sounds pretty interesting, espically since so far all episode titles have been literal.
I love this kid so much.
Also, it’s nice to see they are still bringing him on missions with them!
First gem-powered mechanisms, now that? Is this structure powered by a gem as well? Or is it just magic?
The design of this desert is really neat, though
I mean you guys are just leaving him alone in a magical desert that is building structures out of nowhere uncontrollably, gems don’t seem to feel heat but Steven is probably going to pass out from the hotness sooner or later, if he doesn’t get crushed by some structure until then.
I think sometimes they forget how humans work.
Very great mantra. Keep reminding yourself that, Steven.
OH BOY HERE WE GO
HELLO. YOU MUST BE THE LION THE TITLE TOLD ME ABOUT.The Federation of Cuban Workers and Cuban trade unions declare our unconditional support and militant, internationalist, revolutionary solidarity with the energetic, resounding response of worker-President Nicolás Maduro Moros, to the debate on the situation in Venezuela convoked by a small group of countries in the Organization of American States (OAS) Permanent Commission, March 28, 2017, in defense of the country's sovereignty, independence, and self-determination, asserting the dignity of Venezuela and all of Our America.
We reject and condemn the interference of OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro, who with his destabilizing actions has encouraged a minority of Venezuelans and representatives of the right on our continent, with the support of Washington, to invoke the Inter-American Democratic Charter against Caracas with the objective of intervening in Venezuela's domestic affairs, and eliminating the popular, social conquests achieved by the workers and people, among them the labor and salary improvements contained in the new Comprehensive Labor Law, which presents as its objective an overriding interest in guaranteeing the comprehensive protection of all workers, without exception, strengthening social services, reducing the work week, guaranteeing stable jobs, as well as the recognition of other trade union rights, such as the right to organize, to bargain collectively, and to work in a safe and healthy environment.
Cuban workers call on popular, social organizations of Our America and the world to express their solidarity with the government and the entire people of Venezuela, who have taken to the streets to support the glorious Bolivarian, Chavista Revolution.
No to imperialist intervention against our peoples!
Venezuela is not alone!
Unity, solidarity, struggle, and victory!
Havana, March 30, 2017Happy 4th of July! With Independence Day right around the corner everyone is either purchasing fireworks or scouting the best location to view a fireworks show around town. Every year you’ve seen pictures of fireworks that other people take and post online. Every year you take a bunch of pictures that just don’t do the fireworks justice so you refuse to share your own images. But this year is different because you have help! Keep reading for some tips and techniques on how to photograph fireworks.
Photographing fireworks probably seems like a difficult task. You may have tried it and taken hundreds of blurry, completely black, or overexposed (very bright) images while only having a few that are worthy of keeping. I’ve been there so let me help you get started. In this short tutorial you will learn the basics of photographing fireworks. This tutorial is not meant to be an exhaustive lesson but rather a starting point for you to experiment on your own and share some of the awesome fireworks pictures you take after learning a few key techniques.
First, let’s go over a few requirements.
Requirements:
1) Tripod or similar device/object to steady your camera for multiple seconds without movement.
2) DSLR camera (recommended), compact point and shoot, or iOS/Android with app to control shutter speed. My favorite is the Camera FV5 iOS and Android App: http://www.camerafv5.com/
3) Fireworks. I recommend someone else shoot them while you snap.
Personally, I use a DSLR because I like the wide range of available functions. I am able to get a shot of some fireworks one second and then snap a quick image of my daughter’s expression after seeing the show. However, just because you don’t have access to a DSLR doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to shoot good fireworks images.
Fireworks Photography Tutorial
Step 1: Location and Setup
Plan the shot. Look for a place away from objects that will obstruct your view of the fireworks. If possible, make sure you have enough room to sit comfortably while taking the shots because 20 minutes crouched awkwardly on barrier rocks with waves crashing over your feet is uncomfortable. Worth the shot? Yes. But uncomfortable nonetheless. So plan the shot by taking into account power lines, trees, and the flow of people traffic around you. Keep in mind that just as you don’t want someone else in your picture they probably don’t want you in their’s. Be courteous to others.
Once you have your location picked out set up your tripod. Make sure you can trigger the shutter button without moving the device. Take a couple of practice shots while it’s still light outside and make sure everything is in your image that you want in the firework image later. Maybe there is a unique building or landmark that you could include in your shot. Using a bright flashlight to paint light on the building or object will cause it to stand out in the image and will add some unique lighting to your final image. Try moving the light on the object while the shutter is open on the camera to see how it effects your image.
Step 2: Settings and Practice
In order to get the most out of your device you need to be able to control the following settings: Shutter speed, Aperture, and ISO speed. Shutter speed is the length of time the shutter remains open. For fireworks photography I have found that 7 to 10 seconds works very well. Aperture is the focal length of the lens. Basically that means it is the size of the hole in the lens. A smaller hole in the lens is represented by a larger aperture number. When shooting fireworks I will often shoot with a f/8 to f/12 aperture range. The aperture can be adjusted to compensate for the amount of light entering the lens more easily than adjusting the ISO. Which brings us to ISO. This is the speed at which the sensor captures light. In a nut shell, raising the ISO is like adjusting the gain of the image. The image will become brighter but at the expense of adding noise to the file. This is because the camera’s sensor has to “make up” the missing information in order to increase the brightness of the image. An ISO of 200 will be acceptable for your fireworks image. This will keep the blacks nice and dark during our long exposure time. Set the focus and then lock it by changing the auto focus to manual mode. If you’re not using a DSLR you will need to have an object more than 100 feet away to focus on in the image at all times so the camera will not seek the focus with each image. Using focus lock will be helpful if your software allows that option.
Step 3: Take the Shot!
Now that you’ve made the proper preparations you can take the shot! Shoot as many photos as you can during the show and adjust the settings as needed to provide the best mixture of dark blacks and crisp colors. Changing from 8 to 10 seconds and f/11 to f/9 or f/7 will make small but noticeable changes in the photo. I recommend shooting in full manual mode and making adjustments on the fly. Trying to use an Aperture or Shutter Priority mode will cause the camera to look for a properly exposed shot and we don’t want that because the exposure takes place across a length of time not a specific moment. Hence the long exposure we are taking. Once you have played around with the settings a little you should gain a pretty good knowledge of how the small changes you make are effecting the final image.
Step 4: Share your image!
We would love to see your fireworks images! In fact, if you want to tag Techaeris to share your image with us please tag it with #July4Techaeris. We will share some of your submissions on our social media networks |
remain for it to fulfill moving forward?
A little over a month on from #S17, and only three weeks before the US elections, we in the Platypus Affiliated Society thus ask our panelists to consider:
1. What kinds of social transformation has Occupy brought about? What kinds of social conflicts remain unresolved? Where has it triumphed, and where has it fallen short?
2. How, if at all, has Occupy changed your political outlook? Has it modified the kinds of goals you hope to achieve through your activism? And has your approach toward organizing a mass movement in order to achieve these goals shifted at all?
3. What sort of new political possibilities has Occupy opened up that beforehand seemed impossible? Conversely, is there anything once felt had been politically possible at Occupy’s outset but now no longer feel is possible?
This event is free and open to the public.
HOSTED BY:
The Platypus Affiliated Society, established in December 2006, organizes reading groups, public fora, research and journalism focused on problems and tasks inherited from the “Old” (1920s-30s), “New” (1960s-70s) and post-political (1980s-90s) Left for the possibilities of emancipatory politics today.
For a media index of past Platypus events on Occupy, feel free to check out our online archive of video, audio, and writings on the movement.
MODERATOR:
Lisa Montanarelli (Writers for the 99%, Platypus Affiliated Society) is an author and activist who participated in the occupation of Zuccotti Park and collaborated with more than 50 other writers and researchers on the book Occupying Wall Street. She has since become a member of Platypus.
FEATURED PANELISTS:
Fritz Tucker (Occupier, journalist) is a native Brooklynite, writer, activist, theorist, and researcher of people’s movements the world over, from the US to Nepal. Last year he authored the article “A Chill Descends on Occupy Wall Street: The Leaders of an Allegedly Leaderless Movement.”
Victoria Sobel (Media & Finance working groups) is an activist and major organizer within the Occupy movement in New York, especially during its two months in Zuccotti Park.
Nicholas Mirzoeff (Strike Debt, NYU) is professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University. and lead organizer of Strike Debt, a prominent outgrowth of the Occupy movement.
David Haack (Occupy Your Workplace) is an underemployed artist an anticorporate activist who lives in New York City. He is also a leading organizer within the Occupy Your Workplace working group, and author of “How the Occupy movement won me over” (published in Britain’s The Guardian) and “The New Left Zombie is Dead! Long Live Occupy!” (published in Platypus Review 45).
Victoria Campbell (Occupier, Pacifica’s Occupy Wall Street Radio show on WBAI) is an artist and activist involved with Occupy Wall Street, also a host on Pacifica’s Occupy Wall Street Radio show.
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PinterestWhen a child protection worker walked into Marlene’s home in Toronto, two things were immediately obvious: the love between Marlene and her grandchildren was profound, and her broken-down home was unsafe. What happened next reveals gaps in Ontario’s child protection system that even the powerful love of a grandmother can’t bridge. Marlene’s three grandchildren were taken and placed in a Mississauga foster home — at a cost to taxpayers far greater than what it cost to fix Marlene’s home. “It was devastating, because I’ve always been the protector and now I couldn’t do anything about it,” says Marlene, 63, her eyes swelling with tears. “I walked around like a zombie thinking, ‘Oh my God, what will I do now?’ ” Marlene had been taking care of her grandchildren for a couple of months while her daughter struggled with an abusive relationship and other troubles. Children’s aid societies are supposed to give priority to placing children with relatives, but the state of Marlene’s home made it unsafe to do so, according to society documents seen by the Star. She couldn’t afford the repairs, so when friends and neighbours heard of her plight, they rallied and did much of the work for free.
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Her boss at the pet store where she works part time gave her the $900 she had accumulated in vacation pay. Three sisters who lived on her street took turns driving her to Home Depot, paying for materials and transporting it to Marlene’s home. Marlene, a proud woman, insisted on paying them back when she could. “She’s so sweet and kind,” one of the sisters told the Star. “She had a tough life but makes do. Most of the time you’ll find her smiling and happy and trying to lift you up. You can’t be upset when you’re around her.”
Ron Bridges, 72, is a family friend who helped a Toronto woman fix her house. He charged very little, doing it so she could have her grandchildren returned. ( Andrew Francis Wallace )
Ron Bridges, a 72-year-old family friend, put in new floors, a new door frame and new front door. He fixed the plumbing and delivered drywall, which Marlene put up herself. “She did a good job,” Bridges says.
Marlene paid Bridges some money, but not much. “He was amazing,” Marlene says. “He said, ‘Just take care of those kids.’” “I don’t think the kids should have been taken away in the first place,” Bridges says. “They never did without.” The work was finished in about two months. Exposed wires were covered with new drywall in the living room, a hole in the ceiling was patched up, broken ceramic tiles in the kitchen were removed, new floor tiles were laid in three rooms and plumbing was repaired. Marlene got her grandchildren back a year after they were removed and, late last December, was granted full custody by the courts. She is relieved, but still shaken by an experience that doesn’t add up.
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The repairs cost her $3,000, a debt she is slowly trying to repay while falling further behind in her property tax payments. A contractor would have charged more, but nowhere near what it cost Ontario taxpayers to keep Marlene’s three grandchildren in foster care for a year — about $50,000. And the trauma experienced by Marlene and the kids — now aged 9, 12 and 14 — is incalculable. (Only Marlene’s middle name is being used because, by law, the identity of her grandchildren must be protected.) “If only I could have done more,” she says. “I felt like I failed. I couldn’t save them. I broke down at work a few times. I can’t even tell you the stress. It has affected me in so many ways.” Why didn’t the provincial government or children’s aid society help with Marlene’s renovations, thereby ensuring the family reunited much more quickly? For families struggling with poverty, the workings of Ontario’s child protection system can seem painfully perverse. Told of Marlene’s story, Ontario’s Minister of Children and Youth insisted that children like hers should be kept out of care. “When a person goes into care because of poverty, as a society we know we can do better. It’s unacceptable,” says Michael Coteau, whose ministry spends $1.5 billion a year funding Ontario’s 47 privately run children’s aid societies.
A sign in Marlene's house, which she couldn't afford to fix until she got help. ( Jim Rankin )
Last fall, Coteau introduced a $5,000 renovation allowance to upgrade the homes of indigenous families that foster indigenous children. In an interview, he did not say if the allowance would be extended to non-indigenous families like Marlene’s. But he argued that province-wide programs — including free dental care for children in low-income homes, full day kindergarten and the Ontario child benefit — have helped reduce the number of children in care. Still, the government has to figure out ways to link different programs and remove institutional silos, Coteau adds. “It’s a culture shift. It’s having agencies, school boards and anyone who works for children understand that they need to go beyond their current roles. There needs to be a way for them to communicate,” he says. “Just getting that child into a safe spot, that’s not good enough,” Coteau adds, noting that proposed changes to the Child and Family Services Act will reinforce a priority of preventing children from coming into care. Examples of government ministries working at cross purposes include the slashing of Ontario Works benefits for parents whose children are taking into care temporarily, making it harder to achieve the goal of Coteau’s ministry to eventually reunite those families. Children whose families ran out of money for housing were twice as likely to be taken from their parents and placed with foster parents or group homes, according to an analysis of Ontario children taken into care in 2013. Similar rates were found for families who ran out of money for food or for utilities. Another study by leading child welfare researchers, published in February, found that Ontario child protection workers noted “unsafe housing conditions” in almost 4,000 cases they investigated in 2013. (On average, 15,625 Ontario children were in foster or group-home care in 2014-15.) Wendy Miller, manager of government relations with the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, notes that with many poverty-burdened families, child protection as generally understood — protection from physical, sexual or emotional abuse — is not an issue, she adds. “The case you describe is a beautiful, sad example of that,” Miller says, referring to Marlene’s ordeal. “I don’t think those children are served by being separated from the one caregiver who had provided the stability and the love and the care that they need.” But responsibility to fix poverty-related issues can’t fall solely on children’s aid societies, Miller insists. Prevention must involve co-ordinated action from multiple government ministries, she adds. The Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, which dealt with Marlene’s case, does everything possible to keep families united, but does not provide money for home repairs or renovations, says Mahesh Prajapat, the society’s chief operating officer. “When you remove kids it’s not single-issue-related,” he adds. “The house is unsafe, there’s parenting deficiencies, there are stressors related to it — there’s an entire assessment that goes into it rather than a single issue.”
Marlene's house is now in much better shape, leading the Children's Aid Society of Toronto to return her grandchildren. But officials say these cases reveal an expensive lack of co-ordination. ( Jim Rankin )
What Marlene changed to get her grandchildren back was the state of her home. Marlene doesn’t dispute that her home was unsafe. She and her sister inherited the three-storey house in the Dufferin and Bloor Sts. area when their father, a tire factory worker, died in 1986. Marlene occupies the main floor and the basement; her sister lives upstairs and receives disability payments. Marlene has worked four nights a week at a pet store for the past 13 years, earning $12 an hour. Ontario Works also helps her get by. The sisters couldn’t afford the upkeep and, over the years, the house fell into disrepair. When the Star first met her late last summer, the sisters were $6,000 behind in property tax payments and Marlene was kicking herself for having long failed to convince her sister to sell what she calls “this big albatross around my neck.” Marlene’s ex-husband passed on handyman skills that proved helpful. In September 2014, before the grandchildren began staying with her, she embarked on a slow renovation of her home by removing the drywall in her living room. Then, the life of her daughter, her only child, spiralled into crisis and her grandchildren came to stay. The children’s aid society was already involved with Marlene’s daughter, a victim of domestic violence whose children weren’t attending school regularly, according to interviews with both Marlene and her daughter. When the society realized the children were staying at Marlene’s, they were taken into foster care on Jan. 28, 2015. Marlene would visit with the children on the weekends, but she didn’t get them back, under a temporary care agreement, until Jan. 26, 2016. She got full custody 11 months later, but the stress remains. “I always feel like I’m being watched,” she says. “I’m always like, ‘Oh, my God, am I doing the right thing? “It should never have come to this.”Oregon track and field juniorhas been named the women's national track athlete of the year for the indoor season, while head coachearned the women's national coach the year honor and assistantwas named the women's national assistant coach of the year, the USTFCCA announced on Tuesday.The trio earned the honors after the Women of Oregon won their seventh indoor national title in the last eight years over the weekend at the NCAA Indoor Championships, scoring a meet record 84 points while doing so to break Texas' previous record of 71 set in 1988.Cunliffe won the national title in the 60 meters for her first-career national title, and then finished second in the 200 meters to teammateto wrap the meet tied for the most individual points scored on the women's side (18). The Ducks' 1-2 finish in the 200 was the first of its kind since Auburn accomplished the feat in 2010. Cunliffe also set the collegiate record in the 60 meters at the Don Kirby Elite in Albuquerque on February 10, winning in a blazing 7.07 seconds.Johnson claimed the sixth national coach of the year award of his career after leading the women to the dominant victory. Johnson guided the Women of Oregon to four individual titles at the Indoor Championships, as well as two collegiate records this indoor season, Cunliffe in the 60 meters and the DMR. The Ducks' national title marked the 12th total under Johnson and the seventh on the women's side.Taylor, the Ducks' sprints, relays and hurdles coach, became the first Oregon coach to win the national assistant coach of the year award since Johnson did so in 2010. Taylor's athletes were instrumental in the Ducks' record performance at the Indoor Championships, with 57 of their 84 points coming from athletes under Taylor's watch. Oregon got 20 points in the 60 meters with a 1-3-5 finish from Cunliffe, Washington and Stevens, respectively, and 18 more from the 1-2 finish in the 200.won the 60 hurdles to go along with an eighth-place finish from, and Oregon's 4x400 team finished second with the second-fastest time in collegiate indoor history.Right now, one of the most exciting space facilities in the world is a World War Two hangar in the Mojave Desert in California.
The wooden hangar belongs to Xcor, one of the start-up companies building rocket planes to fly tourists into space. In the hangar next door, you can glimpse Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane, slung beneath its carrier aircraft. Further along the runway, Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen’s company, Stratolaunch, is developing a new space launch system. Eleven other small space businesses are spread around the site at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
Later this year, Virgin aims to fly its first paying passengers into space. The experience will not come cheap. Virgin Galactic is charging $250,000 for the privilege of experiencing five minutes of weightlessness; Xcor plans to charge $95,000 for a ride in its two-seater rocket ship. The cost alone puts this fledgling space-tourism industry beyond the means of most of us.
So it is easy to dismiss the whole enterprise as private jets in space rather than benefits for all mankind (as BBC Future readers have done on our Facebook page). But having followed the development of the private space industry for the last 20 years, and after a recent visit to the Mojave Air and Space Port for a BBC radio programme, I thought it was worth outlining why I think space tourism matters.
1. It frees space ambitions from traditional burdens
The audacious plan to put men on the Moon was championed by politicians and backed with billions of taxpayer dollars. By the time men had actually stepped onto the lunar surface, Nasa’s budget was already being cut. Subsequent US, Russian and European space programmes – from the Shuttle to the International Space Station (ISS) – have suffered from political compromise and lack of ambition.
Private spaceflight, on the other hand, is unburdened by the favour of taxpayers or whims of politicians. If the company can raise the cash, it can build a spacecraft. Inevitably, this free market favours people who already have a lot of money. But that is not true of all the companies in the private space business.
“We don’t have a multi-billionaire funding us,” admits the CEO of Xcor, Jeff Greason. For him, building a sub-orbital tourist craft is part of a long-term strategy. “We started examining how a fully-reusable orbital system would look and realised we would need to develop earlier versions of that to learn how to build them,” he says. “Those earlier versions also have to make money.”
2. Failure is now an option
Nasa is forever burdened with the phrase “failure is not an option”. Private companies have no such restrictions until the money runs out.
The entrance to the Mojave Air and Space Port is dominated by a reminder that not all space projects succeed. Resembling a giant white traffic cone, the Rotary Rocket is one of the most peculiar flying machines ever built – probably best described as half-helicopter, half-spacecraft, and if you were being cruel, you might also call the concept half-baked.
It was one of the first spacecraft to be developed at Mojave and, in 1999, made some brief atmospheric test flights. The engineering proved sound but funding problems caused the company to fold. Today it is gathering desert dust in a small memorial garden.
One person who worked on the Rotary is Kevin Mickey, President of Scaled Composites – the company now building Virgin’s spaceplane. “I look at this, and I’m proud of it,” says Mickey, as we stand beside the white conical spacecraft.
“One of the hurdles in today’s society is an intolerance for risk and failure and if you are truly going to innovate, you are going to fail sometimes,” he says. The carbon composite materials technology that went into the Rotary is now being adapted for Scaled Composite’s aircraft and spaceplanes, so the expertise has not totally gone to waste.
3. It will inspire a new generation of engineers
The spaceport looks more like a college campus than a space centre. Take, for example, 26-year-old Xcor engineer, Jeremy Voigt. He proudly shows me one of the rocket engines he is helping to develop: currently, it’s a mass of pipes, wires and valves.
“It’s the engineer’s dream job,” he says. “Most engineers sit behind a desk all day, I don’t. I get to come out here in the shop, turn wrenches and fire rocket engines.”
He looks around the crowded hangar, crammed with bits of rocket motor and partially constructed spaceplane. “If I was at Nasa, I would be part of a large team of engineers working on something,” he says excitedly. “Here I actually lead the rocket test, I get to push the button.”
The way of working at Mojave, in small teams with limited resources, is completely different to the way the space agencies work. Many people compare what is going on at Mojave with the early days of Silicon Valley and it is easy to draw parallels between the garage where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first Apple computer, and the Xcor workshop. Maybe the young engineers here will have equally world-changing effects.
4. The cost of reaching space will go down
Right now, if you want to launch a satellite, it will cost upwards of $12m and that is before the compulsory insurance (which can sometimes double the price). Not only can conventional space rockets only be used once, they are extremely expensive to launch – and there is limited competition.
Compare that with the $250,000 cost of a flight on the reusable Virgin spaceplane. Scientific institutions have already signed up to fly experiments on these sub-orbital flights. If the next generation of space planes can reach orbit then that will massively reduce the cost of getting into space.
This means we will be able to launch satellites, spacecraft and space exploration missions for a fraction of the cost. The final frontier could finally become economically viable to a lot more people.
It is certainly something that gets CEO of Virgin Galactic and ex-Nasa employee, George Whitesides excited. “By lowering the cost of space access, we’ll be able to do things like sending little nanosats all over the Solar System and do all this incredible science, that is so expensive now,” he says. “If we are able to tackle some of these challenges by demonstrating access to space technologies, then I think that will be profound.”
5. Hypersonic travel could become a possibility
Remember the idea that you can take off from London, fly into space and touch down in San Francisco an hour or so later? When discussing technologies that are promised but never quite deliver, a close runner-up behind flying cars has to be so-called sub-orbital point-to-point travel. Could the space tourism companies at Mojave finally help make this dream a reality? George Whitesides thinks so: “This is fundamentally transformational for humanity,” he tells me.
“I really think of our customers as pioneers, opening up the new frontier,” he says. “For one thing, everyone would like to get there faster, another reason is that you’re not chugging through the atmosphere for 12 hours, so there could be environmental benefits to that.”
But few people are going to pay $250,000, or even $95,000, for a flight to San Francisco, however fast. Space tourism companies counter with the argument that as the technology evolves, costs will inevitably come down. The history of aviation suggests this is indeed the case.
“Most technologies at the front end are funded by wealthier folks,” says Whitesides. “If you go back to the dawn of commercial aviation, the real adjusted cost of crossing the Atlantic was $10,000 or if you look at the early cellphones they were thousands of dollars, now you can get them for free if you sign up for a contract.”
Right now, the space companies are only on their first-generation rocket planes. By the 10th generation, point-to-point travel via space may become a reality.
6. It will provide a new view of our planet
It is widely accepted that one of the greatest achievements of the Apollo Moon programme was the view of the Earth from space. Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders summed up the impact of the pictures captured by his mission: “We came all this way to explore the Moon,” he said, “and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth”. The images put us in our place, a blue marble against the backdrop of nothingness.
Every astronaut I have interviewed talks about how seeing the Earth from space changed their view of the world. So imagine what would happen if we started sending business and political leaders into space and back? Would that view of the world change them in the way it affected astronauts? And as a result, could it influence the decisions they make on border disputes, pollution or climate change?
If you would like to comment on this, or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook or Google+ page, or message us on Twitter.Which of these projects would you most like to see on screen?
The winning filmmaker will become a candidate for June Project of the Month. That winner will be in the running for Project of the Year.
The three projects up for this week’s Project of the Week are listed below, with descriptions courtesy of the filmmakers. You can vote at the bottom of the page.
One Halloween: The story of soldier who was wounded in the Afghanistan war, through one crazy Halloween night, as he tries to re-connect with his daughter.
20 Weeks: A film about a young couple who must decide on whether or not to move forward with their pregnancy after their baby is diagnosed with a serious health issue at the 20-week scan.
Flesh and Blood: When an apocalyptic virus threatens to turn her father into a violent monster, 18 year-old Max must lead him and her younger sister, Ellen, through a perilous mountain range in hope of finding a cure on the other side.
Voting will end Monday, June 6 at 6 p.m. ET.
Got a project that you’d like to be featured? Submit to Project of the Day!
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.Pandora (s P) updated its Android (s GOOG) app with social sharing, song lyrics and other contextual information for music geeks on Thursday. The app update, which is now available on Google Play, brings a set of features to the platform that was rolled out on the iPhone last month. Pandora CTO Tom Conrad told me at the time that it was the company’s effort to add more information for users who want it while still staying true to “the essential simplicity of Pandora.”
Check out a few screenshots of the new app, or continue reading below:
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The new Android app differs from iOS (s aapl) with a few design choices, including the placement of buttons, but the two apps essentially offer the same features. Many of these new features could soon make their way to the iPad, Conrad told me last month. A dedicated Android app is planned as well, but won’t be rolled out until after the iPad remake.Robert Reich: Corporate welfare is ravaging American taxpayers The former secretary of labor examines California's Proposition 13 and how it's robbed the state of billions
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Corporate welfare is often camouflaged in taxes that seem neutral on their face but give windfalls to big entrenched corporations at the expense of average people and small businesses.
Take a look at commercial property taxes in California, for example.
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In 1978 California voters passed Proposition 13 – which began to assess property for tax purposes at its price when it was bought, rather than its current market price.
This has protected homeowners and renters. But it’s also given a quiet windfall to entrenched corporate owners of commercial property.
Corporations don’t need this protection. They’re in the real economy. They’re supposed to compete on a level playing field with new companies whose property taxes are based on current market prices.
This corporate windfall has caused three big problems.
First, it’s shifted more of the property tax on to California homeowners.
Back in 1978, corporations paid 44 percent of all property taxes and homeowners paid 56 percent. Now, after exploiting this loophole for years, corporations pay only 28 percent of property taxes, while homeowners pick up 72 percent of the tab.
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Second, it’s robbed California of billions of dollars to support schools and local services. If all corporations were paying the property taxes they should be paying, schools and local services would have $9 billion dollars more in revenues this year.
Third, it penalizes new and expanding businesses that don’t get this windfall because their commercial property is assessed at the current market price – but they compete for customers with companies whose property is assessed at the price they purchased it years ago.
That’s unfair and it’s bad for the economy because California needs new and expanding businesses.
Today, almost half of all commercial properties in California pay their fair share of property taxes, but they’re hobbled by those that don’t.
This loophole must be closed. All corporations should be paying commercial property taxes based on current market prices.
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The giant corporations that are currently exploiting the loophole for their own profits obviously don’t want it closed, so they’re trying to scare people by saying closing it will cause businesses to leave California.
That’s baloney. Leveling the playing field for all businesses will make the California economy more efficient, and help new and expanding businesses.
Besides, California’s property taxes are already much lower than the national average. So even if corporations pay their full share, they’re still getting a great deal.
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Right now, a grassroots movement is growing of Californians determined to reform this broken commercial property tax system, and who know California needs more stable funding for its schools, libraries, roads, and communities.Rep. Dennis Kucinich may be shopping for a new district — and a new state — but he shouldn’t expect his colleagues to embrace the quirky plan if it comes to fruition.
The reaction within the delegation from Washington state, where the Ohio Democrat appears to be eyeing moving if his district gets eliminated in redistricting, has been tepid at best. Furthermore, moving out West might be more complicated than Kucinich has considered because of the state’s redistricting process.
“That’s a long, long way from Ohio to Washington state,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said. “I would be skeptical about whether or not that would be well-received by the bulk of the people in the state of Washington, but I guess we’ll wait and see.”
Kucinich has been traveling through the Evergreen State this year and his office has done little to tamp down speculation that he is looking to run there.
When Kucinich was questioned Tuesday about whether he is looking for a Washington address, he stared directly at the reporter and quickly walked onto the House floor for a vote without responding.
Earlier this week, Kucinich spokesman Nathan White boasted in a statement that the Congressman has “received request[s] from people in twenty states, including Washington State, encouraging him to move and run in their area.”
“As he has repeatedly said, he fully intends to remain in Congress; he just doesn’t know in what district he will run,” White said.
Democrats in the Washington delegation, however, remain skeptical that Kucinich can pull off the move. Rep. Jim McDermott (D) chuckled when asked about a Kucinich candidacy, then quipped: “I don’t know. I came from Chicago.”
Other members of the delegation punted, saying it was up to the voters to decide whether they like Kucinich.
“That’s an interesting idea,” remarked Rep. Jay Inslee (D), who is considering a gubernatorial bid in 2012. “I would say that our views are almost totally irrelevant.... It would be the voters’ views that would be relevant in this issue.”
Kucinich might find it challenging to change his residency, even though he does not have to live in his next potential House district.
In order to run for Congress in the state, Kucinich must be a registered Washington voter before the June 2012 filing deadline. But to register to vote there, Kucinich must prove residency for at least 30 days — including a paper trail that shows he has established a domicile in the state. Local election officials cautioned that Kucinich would have to follow the law perfectly or be susceptible to a lawsuit.
“We’re not New York. You can’t just move here. I think he would have a lot of headwinds if he were to just move in and instantly run,” said David Ammons, a spokesman for the Washington secretary of state’s office.
Relocating to Washington state could also be a tricky move for Kucinich, given that it’s unclear where the state’s new 10th district will be and Members will not know until the end of 2011. Washington is gaining a district in reapportionment, but because a bipartisan commission draws the new Congressional map, the district’s location is anybody’s guess.
“Obviously, up front, we prefer to have Washingtonians run for Washingtonian Congressional seats,” Smith said. “But at this point, it’s pretty much a hypothetical.”
It’s highly likely that there will be major changes in the overpopulated exurban Seattle districts represented by Rep. Dave Reichert and freshman Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler.
Not surprisingly, those two Republicans seemed more welcoming to a Kucinich bid than their Democratic colleagues. If a strong Democrat such as Kucinich runs in the growing, traditionally Democratic area, it could make the Republican duo’s districts less competitive.
“I guess he’s free to run wherever he feels like he can win,” Reichert said. “I’m happy to work with any Member of Congress.”
Herrera Beutler said Kucinich reached out to her before his last visit to her district — a courtesy that she “really appreciated.”
“It’s a free country, and constitutionally, he would have the right. It’s up to the people of Washington to determine whether or not that’s a run or it’s not a real run,” she said. “We may disagree on a lot of issues, but someone who’s willing to be upright and forthright about it you can work with.”
Kucinich’s office has been mum about other aspects of a bid in Washington, which was first reported by local media and confirmed by the Daily Caller.
Kucinich’s travels have done most of the talking so far: He has spent a significant amount of time in the state, hosting a low-cost fundraiser at a union hall and a town hall forum at a church in Tacoma on Friday, followed by events on Bainbridge Island and a march for immigrants’ rights in Seattle over the weekend. In February, Kucinich attended a union rally and the state Democratic Party’s annual crab feed.
Kucinich also briefly stayed in the state in the 1980s with actress and friend Shirley MacLaine. It was during that time that Kucinich and MacLaine famously spotted a UFO at her home in Graham.
Public speculation about an out-of-state bid most likely originated when the Congressman appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” last month. In what was widely interpreted as a satirical segment, cast member John Oliver pressed Kucinich about where he would run for Congress if his district is eliminated.
Kucinich topped off the segment by saying he would “take his talents to Edgewater Beach in Cleveland, Ohio, and stay in Cleveland” in a scene set up to mimic NBA player LeBron James’ much-anticipated announcement last summer that he was leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.
Like James, perhaps Kucinich won’t be sticking around Cleveland much longer either.A cross-party group of Members of the British Parliament will present a Bill on Monday July 11, 2016 which would annul decisions taken 200 years earlier to “state sanction the improper acquisition” of half of the sculptures from the Parthenon in Athens by Lord Elgin; during period when Greece was under Ottoman rule.
The MPs are supported by a UK campaign body, The British Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures. The campaign has attracted strong support from celebrities like Stephen Fry and Amal Clooney and has been the subject of many debates and publications over the years; perhaps most notably Christopher Hitchens’ The Parthenon Marbles: The case for reunification.
MP Mark Williams will present the Parliamentary Bill during Monday afternoon’s Parliamentary business. He is supported by MP Jeremy Lefroy and 10 other MPs from various political parties.
Mr Williams said, “If there had been a justification for taking these sculptures into safe keeping in the UK in the early 1800s that moment has now long passed. These magnificent artefacts were improperly dragged and sawn off the remains of the Parthenon.
“Indeed they have hardly been in safe keeping. Nearly lost altogether on their journey back and damaged by inept management whilst in the British Museum.
“This Bill proposes that the Parliament should annul what it did 200 years ago. In 1816 Parliament effectively state-sanctioned the improper acquisition of these impressive and important sculptures from Greece. It’s time we engaged in a gracious act. To put right right a 200 year wrong.”
Polls have consistently shown that a majority of the British people support reunification. A poll for the The Times newspaper found the general public backed sending the marbles back to Greece by two to one. And an Ipsos-Mori poll found 69 per cent of those familiar with the issue were in favor of returning the sculptures, compared to just 13 per cent against.I’m probably going to to go a slightly different path on this review versus my previous film reviews about the Hobbit and not give you a standard walk-through. I mean lets be honest, most people have read the book now anyways and know the story based on where the previous movie ended and what happened at the beginning of the Lord of the Rings (for those that have no clue … here’s a hint – Bilbo lives!) and for those that haven’t there are lots of other sites online that will do this for you. I think in this review (which will still contain *SPOILERS*) I am going to focus more on my opinion and thoughts and while I might at times refer to specific elements of the movie, that won’t be the primary way throughout this guide.
OK, with all that out of the way, lets get down to it shall we?
The Battle of the Five Armies is the 3rd part of Peter Jackson’s rather epic trilogy of the Hobbit. The Hobbit (book) while only a relatively short book (especially in relation to the Lord of the Rings) was targeted more towards a younger audience than its successors and that is evident in the first two films also. There is singing & lots of humor in the earlier films and while there are some darker sequences and scenes the earlier films manage to balance this out. By contrast however the Battle of the Five Armies is much darker in context and scope. It focuses a lot on “lust” – in this case, the lust for gold and how that can drive even the strongest of willed (Thorin Oakenshield) to ruin.
By the end of the 2nd film – The Desolation of Smaug – there was really only 65 pages remaining to the Hobbit … basically a sequence in which Smaug the dragon sets fire to a town built on a lake; another sequence in which some dwarves, elves and humans bicker over which of them gets to keep the dragon’s gold; and a battle between these bickerers and an orc army. It’s not much material for a two-and-a-half-hour film. So how does Jackson fill the running time?
Well I think its fairly obvious that Peter Jackson also has realized that he won’t be revisiting Middle Earth again (unless of course he is able to do something with the Silmarillion) – he has perhaps gone a bit overboard in this movie as to some extent it almost feels like a travelogue of/for New Zealand while at the same time its very obviously a going away present for himself.
Some key complaints that I had are probably as follows:
Legolas – while I know in my previous post I indicated that his inclusion |
earners and the rest has widened, but so has the gap between the top 0.1% and the rest of those in the highest bracket. Similarly, the gap has widened between the top-paid doctors and their fellows, and among all other sub-groups of society. Rich doctors spend more as they get richer, which leads to all other doctors wanting to spend more as well. Not all of them can afford to maintain the spending habits of their better-off peers, and as a result they borrow. The result, contrary to what Keynes may have imagined, has been a collapse in savings ratios in the US and Britain. Debt levels and bankruptcies have soared.
It's not entirely clear how this will change, since there is no guarantee that people actually want things to change. A greater degree of income equality would help, for two reasons.
Firstly, there is evidence that those on low pay have no choice but to work long hours. In his essay, Richard Freeman notes that more Americans than Europeans say that they want to increase hours worked than to decrease at given wage rates, and that's probably a function of a lower minimum wage and stagnant real incomes for all but the highest earners.
The second reason is that the widening earnings gap creates an incentive to put in longer hours, since the rewards for doing so are considerable.
Keynes's big failure was to recognise that distribution matters. The economic problem will not be solved while a quarter of the world lives in abject poverty, nor while a good slice of those living in developed countries are not sharing in economic prosperity or feel they need to spend longer and longer on the treadmill just to make ends meet.
· Revisiting Keynes; edited by Lorenzo Pecchi and Gustavo Piga; MIT Press; £19.95.
larry.elliott@theguardian.comCLOSE That was over six years ago and the women thought it was just a fun story to tell until last month when another one of their friends tried the same trick, and it worked! Time
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Pregnancy.
It should be the most exciting time of a woman's life. You're gearing up to meet that tiny person who's been growing inside your body for almost a year and preparing for the biggest change you will probably ever experience.
It can also be the scariest time, too, especially if you've lost a baby or struggled with infertility.
Carrying my son was the most amazing thing, and I appreciated every single moment because motherhood was something I desperately desired.
But miscarrying my first - a baby girl - was like getting hit by a truck - and after learning I was pregnant for the second time, I was scared as hell to "step back into the street," so to speak, at risk of being knocked down again.
MY STORY:The brutal truth about losing my baby girl
At the beginning of my pregnancy, trips to the bathroom were plagued with fear. In the second trimester, worries evolved. Was he kicking enough? Did that pothole I ran over cause permanent damage to my growing baby? Or how about last night when I rolled onto my belly? The list went on and on.
I watched what I ate like a hawk. Gone were the days of deli meat, sushi and beverages containing caffeine or artificial anything.
I treated my body like a glass bubble that could shatter at any moment.
It's easy to develop that mindset after experiencing a loss, where the innocence is ripped away and your entire existence is dedicated to your baby's survival.
That was the case for Maggie Downs, a southern California mother-to-be who was prepared for anything, but never expected the nightmare that occurred when she went into labor with her son in 2014.
Positive for methamphetamine
At two weeks past her due date, Downs checked into the hospital, ready to meet her baby boy. She spent the last nine months living clean as a whistle, eating organically and staying away from everything on the list of pregnancy "no-no's."
Maggie Downs. pregnant with her son, Everest.
(Photo: COURTESY OF MAGGIE DOWNS)
About seven or eight hours into her labor, a nurse followed her into the bathroom.
"Just so you know, you've tested positive," she tells her.
Thoughts fill Maggie's head - but nothing could prepare her for what came next.
Maggie Downs and her son, Everest.
(Photo: MARISA MCDONALD PHOTOGRAPHY)
"You tested positive for methamphetamine."
Maggie laughs to herself, thinking that the hardest "drug" she ingested during pregnancy was Tylenol. She offers another urine sample.
While waiting for the results, Maggie's labor progresses. Her husband plays "Push It," the Spotify playlist she created, and focuses on a picture of Beyonce, her inspiration for the day.
Contractions rip through her body like electric shocks, causing the baby's heartbeat to drop each time.
In the mist of this, the nurse returns to her room with the latest test results.
Maggie comes up positive for methamphetamine again.
“This isn’t right,” she screams.
Her husband is livid.
“You tell them," he yells to the nurse. "I don’t care who you have to call. The lab, the social worker, the doctors. You tell them they’re wrong.”
The nurse tells her that the baby will be tested for drugs and that Child Protective Services will be contacted to evaluate her fitness as a parent. She's told she can not breastfeed her baby.
Maggie is speechless and in a state of shock. What on earth could possibly be causing this horrific mix-up?
Her hands shake as she makes the connection.
Pleading for one more test
"My inhaler," she says, realizing that's what's causing the positive result.
Maggie suffers from asthma and takes puffs from a prescribed albuterol inhaler, which was obviously cleared with her doctors during pregnancy.
Maggie Downs and her son, Everest, overcame the ultimate hell.
(Photo: COURTESY OF MAGGIE DOWNS)
Her husband and doula race against the clock, scouring the internet for information about asthma inhalers and drug tests.
He flips through through articles from Drugs.com and CBS News as proof, frantically waving his phone in front of every nurse who walks by.
Maggie pleads for one more test to prove her innocence.
"The more I insist I'm not on drugs," she says. "the more I sound like I am."
Baby Everest as a newborn.
(Photo: COURTESY OF MAGGIE DOWNS)
“You can take this up with CPS,” a nurse tells her, showing absolutely no emotion.
Hours pass by, and the nightmare - something Maggie can't believe is real - continues.
At 9:56 the next morning, her son is born via emergency c-section. What should have been the happiest and purest moment of her life had somehow turned into the most convoluted scenario imaginable.
RELATED:Family fears for each moment of daughter's life
"When I change my son’s diaper for the very first time, there is a plastic bag covering his genitals," she explains, "a band of tape cinching it tight. It doesn’t strike me as abnormal until the nurse peering over my shoulder shakes her head no."
“I don’t think that’s enough urine for a sample,” the nurse says. “We’ll have to do it again.”
"Of course," Maggie realizes. "They have to test my child for drugs, and this is how it’s done. It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen, this tiny baby part wrapped in plastic, this uncomfortable, squawking child. His skin is so silky and new, the plastic so crinkly and manufactured."
For the next three days, Maggie recovers from surgery while trying to breastfeed her son. Nurses are reluctant to hand him to his mother, calling her irresponsible.
“This woman tested positive for methamphetamine,” nurses say to one another during shift changes. “She has been briefed on the risks associated with breastfeeding, and she refused our advice. She is breastfeeding at her own risk.”
A social worker visits on the day Maggie is set to take her son home. He says her son's drug test is negative and that he doesn't think she's on meth.
But his hands are tied.
Every night shreds me to pieces
“Just expect (CPS) to show up at any moment, is all I’m saying,” he tells her.
Maggie Downs' son, Everest.
(Photo: COURTESY OF MAGGIE DOWNS)
Maggie and her husband take their baby boy home, watching the anticipated perfect moment wash away before their eyes.
"The weeks that follow are dark," she says. "I don’t know if I would have experienced the same level of postpartum depression without failing those drug tests. But I do know most other mothers don’t spend their first few weeks with baby the way I do – the shades drawn, peeking out from behind the blinds, examining each car that drives past. Every phone call, every knock at the door, every pop of gravel in the driveway sets my heart racing. Every night shreds me to pieces, wondering if my son will be whisked away by morning... It seems insane to think someone could take my child away, yet testing positive for meth once seemed insane too."
Three weeks pass, and the hospital social worker calls. He tells Maggie's husband that further testing revealed that she was not taking drugs.
"My son is asleep against my shoulder, and I don’t want to disrupt him," Maggie says. "Instead I walk over to the patio door, pull open the blinds, and for the first time in weeks, let the light in."
To read Maggie Downs' whole story, the whole story, visit narrative.ly.
MORE STORIES LIKE THIS:South Dakota Department of Transportation Guidelines for Roadside Memorials (THINK signs)
Printable Version
Loss of life from a motor vehicle crash leaves a lasting and devastating impact on families and friends of the victim. The South Dakota Department of Public Safety recognizes this, and in partnership with the Department of Transportation, established the "THINK" sign program in 1979. This program is to provide a memorial to the victim and to also remind motorists of dangerous behaviors such as driving under the influence, not wearing seat belts, speeding, and distracted driving.
One sign is erected on the state highway for each person killed in the crash, with each sign mounted on a separate post near the edge of the right of way.
Upon official notification of a fatal crash on a County, City, or Township road, the Department of Public Safety- Accident Records will notify the Department of Transportation to furnish a sign to all participating local governments (Some local governments have requested not to participate in the "Think Sign" program) to be placed on the County, City and Township road.
These signs remain in place until:
An immediate family member of the crash victim objects to the sign, at which time the sign will be expeditiously removed
The sign is no longer in a satisfactory condition because of damage or deterioration
The section of roadway is reconstructed to new standards, at which time all "Think" signs on that segment of roadway are removed
Once removed, these signs are not replaced unless a request is made from an immediate family member of the crash victim to do so. This also applies to signs that may have been removed by others.
The Department of Transportation recognizes that some people grieve by placing a roadside memorial within the highway right of way near the crash site. While the department acknowledges this, the placement of memorials within the highway right of way is not allowed as these roadside memorials may themselves be a safety hazard. The department will immediately remove a roadside memorial if:
It poses a safety concern, for example:
If it interferes with roadway safety features or obstructs the view of motorists
If it impacts the flow of traffic
If it would be a hazard if hit by a vehicle
If it is a distraction to motorists
It interferes with routine highway maintenance
It falls into disrepair
The Department of Transportation receives a complaint
Individuals should understand that any roadside memorial placed on the highway right of way is temporary and should not expect that it remain in place indefinitely. The department typically does not know who placed the memorial, and individuals should also understand that the department is not responsible for any items placed at the memorial. When a memorial is removed by the department, the items from the memorial are kept for a period of two weeks to allow time for the owners to retrieve them by contacting the local Department of Transportation Area Office. If items are not claimed within two weeks, they are disposed of.
No one wants to see a tragedy such as a subsequent crash at the site of a roadside memorial. This is the reason that regulations specify that only items that perform a specific highway function be allowed within the highway right of way. Individuals should consider that mourners who stop to maintain a roadside memorial not only place themselves in danger, but they also put other motorists at risk.Are you unsure about whether an electric car is the right choice for you? You’re not alone. Shopping for a new car is hard enough even without taking the time to learn about a new option. Plus, there is a lot of confusing information out there about electric cars. What’s a responsible car shopper to do?
To help improve your car-shopping experience, we have compiled, and busted, some of the most prevalent myths about electric vehicles (or “EVs”). Don’t let these misconceptions prevent you from experiencing the cost savings, environmental benefits, and the pure fun of driving electric!
Myth #1: Electric cars are too expensive.
BUSTED: Electric cars are among the most affordable car options on the market.
There is no need to choose between a wallet-friendly and planet-friendly car. All in all, electric vehicles are a smart choice for the cost-conscious consumer.
There are many electric models with a starting price that is below-average or relatively average for light vehicles. For instance, the world’s best-selling electric car, the Nissan Leaf, lists for less than $30,000, as do the Chevrolet Spark EV and Volkswagen e-Golf. The Kia Soul EV and Chevrolet Volt both list for less than $35,000. The Chevrolet Bolt (MSRP: $36,620) and Tesla Model 3 (MSRP: $35,000) are coming soon, too. Plus, there are used EVs available at discounted prices.
What’s more, consumers can take advantage of federal and state EV incentives to sweeten the deal. Electric vehicle purchasers are eligible for a federal tax credit of up to $7,500, and many states offer additional incentives on top of that. For instance, Massachusetts and Rhode Island each offer a rebate of up to $2,500 for an electric car purchase, and Connecticut offers a rebate of up to $3,000. (Additionally, Massachusetts is soon unveiling a pilot program to make EVs more viable for low-income consumers.) Vermont and Connecticut EV drivers also receive discounted registration fees.
On top of these rebates and incentives, note that electric cars are cheaper to operate and maintain than a gasoline-powered vehicle – which is likely to save you thousands of dollars over the car’s lifetime. Electric car motors have fewer moving parts than a combustion engine, which translates into lower maintenance costs. Plus, imagine never having to purchase gas again! On average, the total cost to charge an EV is only $2 to $4 – significantly less than a tank of gasoline. Electric cars save families money with every drive.
Myth #2: Charging an electric car is a hassle.
BUSTED: It is simple to charge at home, and New England has some of the nation’s most extensive EV charging infrastructure.
Most EV drivers plug in at home and let their car charge overnight. Plugging in is easy: it takes only seconds, and you can use any ordinary electric outlet, just like charging your cell phone. When you wake up the next morning, your car will be charged and ready to go. Special equipment allows for quicker charging with higher voltage. Several states offer incentives for installation of such equipment. For instance, Massachusetts and Connecticut offer grants to businesses to reduce the cost of installing workplace charging.
If you are out and about and want to charge, fear not – New England has a sizable and growing network of refueling options for electric cars, with more charging options being constructed all the time. Many shopping centers, workplaces, and parking garages offer charging for free or at low cost. There are even “fast chargers” going in at Mass Pike service plazas that can fully charge an electric car in 20 minutes; that’s just enough time to stop at the restroom and grab an iced coffee.
Myth #3: Electric cars are not reliable, especially in cold New England weather.
BUSTED: Electric cars are more dependable than gasoline-powered cars.
Consumers may worry about how far electric cars can drive between charges, but the most popular electric cars have ranges that far exceed our typical need. The average car trip is less than ten miles, and most of us drive less than 30 miles per day. (Monitor your mileage for a few days and see for yourself!) By comparison, the Nissan Leaf’s range is 107 miles, and the range of the Chevy Bolt is 200 miles. That’s likely enough range, for example, to take you from Boston down to the Cape for a beach weekend, or from Portland up to Sunday River Ski Resort on a single charge. Should the car battery run out, you just plug it in to charge it up again. Still worried? The Chevy Volt comes equipped with a gasoline-extender and can run on gasoline if necessary.
Be assured, too, that today’s electric cars are safe to drive in cold New England winters. New Englanders such as Vermont’s gold-medalist snowboarder, Ross Powers, are buying, driving, and loving their EVs in cold weather! It is true that all cars are somewhat less efficient in the cold (including gasoline cars). In the case of EVs, cold weather can mean that you use additional power to warm up the car’s interior, for example. But even in cold weather, the range of an electric car is still more than enough for many drivers, especially for newer, long-range EVs. Take a cue from drivers in even colder climes than New England. Electric cars make up approximately 20% of all new cars sold in frigid Norway, and they are popular in snowy Canada, too.
Electric car battery technology is very durable and is continually improving as costs fall. A recent study demonstrated that current batteries are likely to retain functionality for 10–12 years of driving.
Furthermore, as noted above, EVs cost less to maintain over their lifetime. Electric vehicle brakes also have a longer life because the motor helps to slow the car down by storing recaptured energy in the car’s battery (cool, right?). For all of these reasons, electric cars are a dependable and practical option for many consumers.
Myth #4: Electricity generation is dirty, so there is no real advantage to switching from gasoline.
BUSTED: Electric cars are much better for the environment and public health.
With the current electricity mix in the Northeast, a car fueled by electricity will emit 50–70 percent less greenhouse gas pollution than a comparable gasoline-only car. This is good news for our climate. Electric vehicles are critical to helping New England states meet their ambitious climate pollution reduction goals.
Additionally, electric cars have little or none of the tailpipe emissions from gasoline-powered cars that have been linked to asthma, heart attacks, and premature death. In other words, more EVs means fewer emergency room visits, hospitalizations, lost workdays, deaths, and healthcare costs.
Even now, many consumers have the option to power their homes – and thus, charge their EVs – with 100 percent renewable energy. As New England’s electricity system continues to become greener with more power from renewable energy resources such as wind and solar, the public health and environmental benefits of driving electric will only increase.
Myth #5: I do not own a car, so there is no reason for me to care about electric vehicles.
BUSTED—Having more EVs on our roadways is in everyone’s interest.
Even if you do not plan to own an EV yourself, you can still benefit from more EVs on our roadways. Electric vehicles are better for the climate, which is good news for everyone. Anyone who cares about protecting our region from the impacts of climate change or reducing our dependence on imported oil should support EVs.
Replacing gasoline-powered vehicles with EVs also improves air quality wherever electric cars drive. Better air quality means fewer health complications, fewer premature deaths, and cost savings for everyone.
Additionally, electric cars have the potential to provide important services to support our electricity grid. When car batteries are plugged into the grid, they can provide energy storage and help to moderate supply and demand to keep the grid functioning smoothly. A more efficient, resilient grid supported by EVs can thereby benefit all families and businesses.
What’s more, buses, trains, and ride-sharing services can be EVs, too! There are already electric transit buses on the roads in Worcester and the Pioneer Valley, with electric school buses coming soon. CLF will continue to advocate greater investment in electrified transit for New England. All communities can and should benefit from transportation electrification.
A little-known California regulation has the potential to bring even more electric vehicles to local dealerships in New England – but we have to tell regulators that we are interested in driving electric! Sign this letter to the California Air Resources Board to help bring more EVs to New England.ISIS claimed responsibility Sunday for a late-night car twin bomb attack in the heart of Baghdad that killed at least 19 people, saying it was targeting a Shiite militia. The extremist group, however, did not shed any light on accusations by Yazidi lawmakers that it had executed at least 25 prisoners from the minority community in the northern city of Tal Afar.
The two car bombs in Baghdad went off about 10 minutes apart late Saturday in the Karrada district, known for its restaurants, cafes and ice cream parlors.
ISIS radio outlet Al-Bayan said the jihadi group carried out the attack and targeted a Shiite militia helping Iraq's government forces fight the extremist militants.
Iraqi forces are engaged in a see-saw battle in Anbar against ISIS militants, who control some 65 percent of the province.
...Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kenny MacAskill said the emergency legislation "potentially impinges" on Scots law
Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has accused the UK government of a "lack of prior consultation" over surveillance powers.
Emergency powers to enable police and security services to continue to access phone and internet records are being rushed through the UK Parliament.
The move has the backing of the three main Westminster parties.
Mr MacAskill said the legislation could affect Scots law and matters devolved to the Scottish government.
Prime Minister David Cameron defended the move in a joint news conference with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, saying it was about maintaining existing capabilities - not introducing new snooping laws.
An EU directive requiring phone and internet companies to retain communications data - when and who their customers called, texted and emailed but not what was said - for a 12-month period was ruled unlawful in April by the European Court.
Mr Cameron claimed the emergency legislation, which would mean firms can retain data for 12 months, was needed to prevent companies fearing legal challenges destroying the information within weeks, meaning police and the security services would not be able to access it.
MacAskill said: "We are disappointed at the lack of prior consultation and discussion from UK government on today's announcement given how much this legislation potentially impinges on areas of Scots law that are clearly devolved and under the jurisdiction of the Scottish government or our law enforcement agencies, including the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
Image copyright BBC News Image caption David Cameron and Nick Clegg held a joint news conference on the emergency legislation
"While the retention of communications data is currently a reserved matter, the Scottish government takes the safety and security of our communities extremely seriously.
"In an independent Scotland, this government will set out clear arrangements for investigatory powers, updating existing legislation where necessary.
"This will ensure that law enforcement agencies have the powers that they need to do their job and keep Scotland safe, while also clarifying the limit of those powers and the extent of the controls over them."
Mr Cameron said: "We face real and credible threats to our security from serious and organised crime, from the activity of paedophiles, from the collapse of Syria, the growth of Isis in Iraq and al Shabab in East Africa.
"I am simply not prepared to be a prime minister who has to address the people after a terrorist incident and explain that I could have done more to prevent it."
He stressed that the measures were about "plugging holes" in the legislation but were not about any "new obligations for phone and internet companies, nor any new intrusions on civil liberties".
The UK government claimed the planned legislation would contain safeguards, including the creation of a new oversight board and a "sunset clause" ensuring the powers end in 2016, enabling a longer and wider debate about what would replace them.On the eve of its Tech World conference in San Francisco, Lenovo has signed a deal that will allow it to bring virtual reality to more of its products in the future.
The deal allows Lenovo to use Movidius's Myriad 2 vision-processing chip in upcoming devices, bringing capabilities like head tracking, motion sensing, and image and gesture recognition to Lenovo products.
Tech World takes place Thursday, and among other announcements Lenovo is expected to provide more details about its Project Tango smartphone, a product co-developed with Google that includes augmented reality features.
Google uses Movidius technology in its own Project Tango development kit, which sells for US$512 including a tablet. It seems likely that Lenovo is using a Movidius chip in its own Project Tango smartphone, too. Lenovo didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Project Tango devices use their cameras and other sensors to track motion, such as hand gestures, and they can also create a 3D map of their surroundings. The device could scan your living room, for example, and use that map as the basis for an augmented reality game.
It can also have more practical uses, like indoor navigation, or just measuring the distance from one wall to another.
"Myriad 2 is unique in its ability to deliver the kind of vision compute performance we need for our next-generation VR products," Li Xiang, Lenovo's research and technology group manager in Shanghai, said in a statement.
The Myriad 2 processor is used in DJI’s Phantom 4 autonomous drone, which can sense obstacles and make navigational decisions. It's also used in Movidius's own Fathom Neural Compute Stick, a USB stick that developers can use to bring computer vision to robots and other devices.
Lenovo already sells a headset called ANT VR, which uses a smartphone to provide VR capabilities, much like the Samsung Gear. The company has also said it's open to making a competitor to Microsoft's HoloLens augmented reality headset -- something that will be a lot easier since Microsoft opened up the HoloLens platform to third parties.
The deal with Movidius suggests there could be a lot more Lenovo VR goodies to come.Despite the fact that there haven’t been any security updates or patches rolled out for Windows XP – with some industrial solutions being the exception – the system still runs on almost every tenth computer worldwide.
Two years. That is how long it’s been since Microsoft abandoned its record-beating operating system, Windows XP.
Despite the fact that during all this time there haven’t been any security updates or patches rolled out for its users (with some industrial solutions being the exception), the system still runs on almost every tenth computer worldwide.
On the other hand, this figure is considerably lower, compared to April 8th 2014, when Microsoft pulled off one of the most controversial conclusions of support in computing history.
At that time, about quarter (27.7%) of machines around the globe were still using Windows XP and users weren’t really keen to upgrade. Even a month after the platform’s end of life (EOL), in May 2014, only about 2.4% had moved on to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
“While down to a fraction of its original market share, 8-11% globally and somewhat higher in emerging markets, Windows XP stills remains in use.”
“While down to a fraction of its original market share, 8-11% globally and somewhat higher in emerging markets, Windows XP stills remains in use,” commented ESET’s distinguished researcher Aryeh Goretsky on the current statistics of the old Microsoft system.
If you too are an XP loyalist, there are some good reasons why you should finally say goodbye to your old friend:
Without updates, your PC may become vulnerable to all kinds of malicious code that can steal or damage data. Unfortunately, even if you are running an updated and reliable security software, it might not be able to fully protect you because of unreported and therefore unknown vulnerabilities in the system.
All those security loopholes don’t only put your devices at risk, but practically everyone out there. According to Mr. Goretsky, computers still running XP “can act as springboards for attacking other systems as well. While it is critical that users protect these unpatched, unsupported systems, it is even more important for them to migrate to newer versions of Windows which are more secure.”
Windows has also followed up on its other promise from 2014, ending support for older versions of Internet Explorer by January 2016, including version 6.0 – the web browser included as native with XP.
Other software vendors are also slowly abandoning the platform, one of the most prominent examples being Google Chrome. “Such older platforms are missing critical security updates and have greater potential to be infected by viruses and malware,” states the blog post announcing the end of support for XP and other older operating systems.
This will probably not be the last vendor to make such a decision and with new zero-day vulnerabilities lurking in the shadows, (CVE Numbering Authorities kept track just until April 2014) the number of companies abandoning XP will only gain pace.
If you are looking for an alternative to the aging Windows XP, read this blog post to help you decide whether you should stay or go to Windows 10. To make an informed decision you can also read Aryeh Goretsky’s whitepaper about Windows 10.BANGKOK — A former boxer fallen on hard times was arrested for allegedly snatching what he thought was a gold necklace from a pig walking with a monk Monday morning in a Bangkok market.
Wichai Wichayo and his male pig, called Boonchuay, were collecting morning alms at the Khlong Toei market at about 8:35am when the suspect struck, snatching a gold necklace worn by the animal, which was also mounted with a radio and stuffed monkey.
The monk called for help and people nearby apprehended the thief until police arrived.
The suspect was soon identified as Songpol Buasoot, 34, a former professional boxer based in Maha Sarakham province. Songpol was charged with theft. He confessed to the crime, Lt. Col. Prachaya Grasaelap of Tha Rua police wrote in response to an inquiry.
Apparently the monk and pig duo pass through the market every morning without incident.
Prachaya said Songpol recently retired from the ring and had unsuccessfully sought work in Bangkok.
He ran out of money, the officer said, so when he saw Boonchuay, who also wore heart-shaped sunglasses propped up on its snout, he made a grab for the necklace, thinking it was pure gold.
The necklace was actually just made of plain metal, Prachaya noted.Oppo U3 has already made the news and it should be launched in China on January 14 - a day before the Xiaomi's big event for the Redmi Note 2 premiere. The Oppo U3's most notable feature is the 4x optical zoom on the rear 13MP camera.
Today we get to see yet another intriguing handset - the Oppo R1C. The phone is yet to be revealed soon, but it has already leaked online. The R1C is rumored to pack a rear sapphire crystal glass, but this is yet to be confirmed.
Oppo R1C
So, the Oppo R1C features a 5" 720p display and runs on the Snapdragon 615 chipset with an octa-core Cortex-A53 processor and 2GB of RAM. The rest of the rumored specs include a 13MP rear and a 5MO front camera, 16GB expandable storage and LTE connectivity.
Oppo R1C
The Oppo R1C is also rumored to go official on January 14 with the Oppo U3. With all of these new devices coming from China these days it sure will be one very interesting January. Oppo's event will take place on January 14, Xiaomi's - on January 15, and Meizu's - on January 27.
ViaThe worst GTA game I have ever played is GTA IV. The reasons for this involve multiple factors such as the Liberty City in GTA IV is not the same Liberty City many fans from GTA III and GTA: Liberty City Stories knew and love. Many characters from the GTA III era were not in GTA IV and the city’s layout was completely different and did not feel like Liberty City at all.
To me it felt like all the history from the GTA III era games was just brushed aside and forgotten about and just replaced as if those games and the events never happened in GTA IV. Granted it is a different universe, however we could of simply had an expanded version of GTA III’s Liberty City with massive improvements. And they could of included some of the well known bosses from GTA III in the future. What we got was something different and most of it wasn’t really as good as it should of been.
The radio stations also did not make any sense to those who played GTA III and Liberty City Stories, as there was no Head Radio – one of the flagship radio stations for Liberty City from GTA III which everyone knew. Instead we got some other stations and even on the talk radio station the popular radio station chatterbox from GTA III has just vanished, as if it never even existed.
Finally, the online mode for GTA IV felt to me like it was completely rushed. If you look at GTA V’s online mode and compare it to GTA IV’s it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence knowing GTA IV’s online mode looks like it should of been much better than it actually was. On top of this GTA IV was a next generation game at the time Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 was released and there was a massive amount of GTA III era fans who simply would not realise that GTA IV is set in a different universe.
Imagine their disappointment going to a different Liberty City where the characters from that era do not exist and are replaced with characters they do not even know or have never even heard of. Not something any GTA III era fan would even want to cheer about, especially when it was a next gen game and was £40 at the time.
Also, there was DLC to GTA IV’s credit, as this was eventually released on disc with Vice City FM as a bonus. Sadly this meant players had to fork out more money to update GTA IV with the DLC, yet the DLC for GTA V is actually free.
GTA IV did have its moments but to me it didn’t feel like a GTA game, as it could of been much better.
gaz be rotten (gamertag)The Nintendo 64DD is often regarded as being one of those highly collectible items we’d all love to own, but in reality the lack of available games for the add-on make it a tough purchase to justify. Although the lure of an F-Zero X Expansion Pack, Sim City 64 and the first appearance of Doshin The Giant may be tempting, there’s finally an alternative to importing all this expensive gear from Japan - and all you need is a Nintendo 64 flash cartridge.
As of late the emulation scene has made some phenomenal progress where the Nintendo 64DD is concerned. Despite the console add-on and its games first arriving sixteen years ago, it’s only as of now we’re seeing the very first 64DD ROMs containing these obscure releases. This in turn has allowed developers to make further progress with 64DD emulation, with a selection of the games library now playable on the likes of MESS and Project 64 without the kit in sight.
What makes this even better though is how the more advanced Nintendo 64 flash cartridges already out there are able to play these add-on exclusives, as long as the right firmware is installed. The most commonly owned flash cartridge of the bunch, the Everdrive 64 can boot up 64DD games through a new custom menu and alternative firmware, as can the more expensive (yet feature packed) 64drive running the official firmware version 1.12d or above.
Needless to say we’re amazed that such a feat has been made possible and the Nintendo 64DD has finally become a possibility for all retro gamers after all. As a heads up though, you’ll need to do a little bit of research into the whole process to ensure your flash cartridges are set up correctly.
Link: Nintendo 64DD Conversions Discussion Thread and Instructions
Link: How to play Nintendo 64DD Conversions on the EverdriveBy Kevin Barrett, Veterans Today Editor
Today, on the 16th anniversary of the 9/11 neocon coup d’état, the New York Times editorial page has published a column by economist Paul Krugman calling the official narrative “totally false” – and accusing the Bush-Cheney Administration of “rejoicing” at the successful attack on America.
Here is Krugman’s key passage:
In the weeks and months after the atrocity, news media had a narrative about what it meant – basically, that it was a Pearl Harbor moment that brought America together with a new seriousness and resolve. This was comforting and reassuring. It was also totally false, literally from the first minutes. The truth, as we now know, is that Bush administration officials rejoiced, even as the fires were still burning, at the opportunity they now had to fight the unrelated war they always wanted.”
Krugman does not come right out and say that the Bush-Cheney gang “rejoiced” because they were celebrating a successful covert operation. Nor does he mention the many Israelis who were even more blatantly celebrating their New Pearl Harbor deception:
*The “dancing Israelis,” Mossad agents all, who according to the NYPD had been pre-positioned to film the attacks, and who photographed themselves cheering wildly and flicking cigarette lighters in front of the burning and exploding Twin Towers.
*Benjamin Netanyahu, whose first reaction was that the attacks were “very good,” and who reaffirmed that years later by saying “We are benefitting from one thing” – 9/11.
*Mike Harrari, the legendary Mossad chief, who threw a celebratory party and openly claimed credit for 9/11, according to self-proclaimed eyewitness Dmitri Khalezov.
From ex-Chief Harrari to its agents on the ground in New York, the Mossad wildly and openly celebrated 9/11. The CIA’s reaction was somewhat more ambivalent. According to CIA Iraq Desk asset Susan Lindauer, her Case Officer, Richard Fuisz —who had known ahead of time that |
the machines fails (given that writes were performed at quorum). Additionally, a distributed database can accept client connections from both machines where as a master-slave system can only perform writes on the master.
WORDS OF CAUTION:
Distributed databases are wonderful data stores in theory, but in practice tend to be far buggier than established relational databases. Some products claim to provide strong consistency guarantees, but exhibit non-deterministic inconsistent behavior which results in you losing your data. Another issue is that many products do not make their default settings evident in their respective APIs. MongoDB is an example of a product that is that has struggled with both a lack of clarity and long living consistency bugs (one of these bugs was in their product for almost 2 years). This cautionary note is not intended to discourage you from using a distributed database, but instead to encourage you to thoroughly vet the one you decide to go with.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment if you have any questions.FIH Player of the Year
The FIH Player of the Year Award is the annual award for the best men’s and women’s player in international hockey in a given calendar year as determined by a peer and public vote.
Click here for all past winners
FIH Goalkeeper of the Year
The FIH Goalkeeper of the Year Award is the annual award for the best men’s and women’s goalkeeper in international hockey in a given calendar year as determined by a peer and public vote.
Click here for all past winners
FIH Rising Star of the Year
The FIH Rising Star of the Year Award is the annual award for the best men’s and women’s young player (Under 23 and under) in international hockey in a given calendar year as determined by a peer and public vote.
Click here for all past winners
FIH Coach of the Year
The FIH Coach of the Year Award is the annual award for the best male and female coach in international hockey in a given calendar year as determined by an FIH panel.
Past Coach of the Year winners
FIH Umpire of the Year
The FIH Umpire of the Year award recognises one male and one female who have made outstanding contribution to umpiring, as determined by the FIH Officials Committee.
Past Umpire of the Year winners1 Clinical forms Boys Girls Rectourethral fistula (prostatic and bulbar) 72 (69.2 %) Rectovesical fistula 8 (7.7 %) ARMs with no fistula 6 (5.8 %) Cloaca 13 (12.5 %) Rectovaginal fistula 5 (4.8 %) Total 86 (82.7 %) 18 (17.3 %) From 2007 to 2014, we performed 104 laparoscopic-assisted anorectal pull-through procedures in children with ARMs. The patients had a mean age of 11.3 ± 0.4 months, and all procedures were done at the Departments of Pediatric Surgery [Central Clinical Hospital of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, Moscow; Stavropol State Medical University, Stavropol (Russia) and Dnepropetrovsk Regional Children’s Hospital, Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine)]. The studies were approved by the ethics committees of the participating institutions, and informed consent was obtained from the parents of the patients, as their legal representatives. There were 86 (82.7 %) boys and 18 (17.3 %) girls. ARMs in the boys included rectourethral fistula (prostatic and bulbar; n = 72, 69.2 %), rectovesical fistula (n = 8, 7.7 %), and ARM without fistula (n = 6, 5.8 %, Table). ARMs in the girls included persistent cloaca (n = 13, 12.5 %) and rectovaginal fistula (5, 4.8 %). Girls with persistent cloaca had a short cloacal channel of <3 cm. Two of these patients had a genitourinary sinus <3 cm and high inflow at the rectum into the vagina. All of the patients had different types of stomas: a double-barrel colostomy in 88 (84.6 %), an end colostomy in 3 (2.9 %), a double-barrel ileostomy in 4 (3.9 %), and an end ileostomy in 9 (8.6 %).
The following measures were implemented to prevent complications. First, both a distal loopogram and an urethrogram were performed. Second, colonoscopy was performed through the stoma. Third, five girls with persistent cloaca underwent intravenous contrast-enhanced computed tomography, performed with additional contrast enhancement of the distal colon. Finally, colonoscopy was performed in five children and urethroscopy in seven children. A comprehensive survey helped in planning the operations.
1 2 Open image in new window Open image in new window Before starting the operation, the peridural space was catheterized for ropivacaine anesthesia, administered perioperatively and postoperatively to children without sacral anomalies. A sterile 6- to 10-Ch Foley catheter was positioned, depending on the size of the meatus and the age of the child. A 5-mm port was then fitted through a puncture at the top of the navel, after which two 5-mm ports were introduced in the right half of the abdomen. For improved visualization in the deep pelvis, we used a U-stitch on the bladder wall, placed through the abdominal wall. Mobilization was performed only at the distal rectum, avoiding the fistulous opening into the bladder, or into the urethra in boys or the vagina in girls, taking care to prevent future prolapse. The distal part of the colon was transfixed using an extracorporeal or intracorporeal suture, thus cutting off the fistula (Fig.). The fistula at the confluence of the pelvic organs (urethra, bladder, and vagina) was ligated with a transfixing suture. Double bipolar myostimulation was then applied using a modified Peña electrostimulator, first in the abdomen and then at the perineum. Laparoscopy included bipolar stimulation of the puborectal muscle via a trocar, followed by bipolar perineal electrostimulation to determine the topographic projection of the anus. The levator ani muscles and the pull-through site were clearly visualized from both the abdomen and the perineum. At the site of the projected perineal anus, the skin was dissected to 1 cm to create a tunnel, which was then progressively dilated using increasingly larger Hegar’s dilators. The distal end of the dissected rectum was brought through the tunnel in the perineum under direct laparoscopic vision. The bowel was fixed to the skin with absorbable sutures (Fig.). A partial genitourological mobilization was conducted in five girls with persistent cloaca, using a perineal approach. The abdominal intestine was fixed to the parietal peritoneum of the seromuscular coat. Particular attention was paid to the correct formation of the anal canal in the musculofascial complex of the pelvic diaphragm and an adequate bowel through the anal sphincter.
Postoperatively, all patients were administered antibacterial therapy for 7 days. Feeding began 1–2 days after the operation, when peristaltic sounds were heard. Epidural spinal anesthesia was continued for 2–3 days. The urethral catheter was removed on postoperative day 8. The first anal dilation was started 2 weeks after the operation. Laparoscopic-assisted anorectal pull-through by ileostomy or closure by colostomy was conducted 3–6 months postoperatively.
The operative techniques and follow-up were similar in all hospitals participating in the study. Two pediatric surgeons from each hospital took part in the surgical and clinical assessments. Follow-up of the patients was conducted within 3–6 months and after more than 1 year after the laparoscopic-assisted anorectal pull-through. The data were recorded in the medical charts. The Krickenbeck diagnostic criteria were used in the diagnosis of ARMs and in the postoperative evaluation [22]. Clinical assessment of the circular symmetry of the anal reflex was estimated in all of the patients. Voluntary bowel movements were evaluated in patients older than 5 years of age. All of the patients underwent a barium enema study. The findings were classified according to the three categories defined by Kimura et al. [17]. Good: The anorectal angulation was acute, and an empty segment corresponding to the anal canal was recognized. Fair: The anorectal angulation was less prominent, and the mucosa of the anal canal was slightly outlined by its barium coating. Poor: The anorectal angulation could not be identified. The mucosa of the anal canal was well outlined by its barium coating, and there was no identifiable empty segment. Numerical data are expressed as the mean ± standard deviation. Student’s t test was used in the statistical analysis. A p value <0.05 was considered to indicate statistical significance. This study was conducted with the approval of the respective institutional review boards.President Obama will join Senate Republicans for lunch Tuesday to make his case for retaliatory strikes against Syrian President Bashar Assad in response to his government’s alleged chemical weapons attacks on civilians.
“After calling the White House today, we learned that the president would like to attend the Senate GOP lunch tomorrow to discuss the Syria resolution. He is welcome to join the lunch, and we are told that he will in fact attend,” said Don Stewart, McConnell’s spokesman.
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Obama will also attend the Senate Democratic lunch.
The dual meetings are part of an all-out push by the president to build political support for U.S. military intervention in Syria’s bloody civil war.
Momentum behind a use-of-force resolution has stalled in the Senate in recent days as senators have received thousands of calls opposing military strikes.
One undecided senator said that constituent calls opposing military action have outnumbered calls in favor of missile attacks by a 9-to-1 margin.
Proponents of the use-of-force resolution expected at the start of last week that it would pass easily. The Senate outcome now appears less likely.
Sen. Roy Blunt Roy Dean BluntPence meeting with Senate GOP ahead of vote to block emergency declaration Dems set to challenge Trump during his foreign trip Demands grow for a public Mueller report MORE (R-Mo.), a member of the Senate GOP leadership, announced Monday he would vote against the resolution.It began with roof tiles sliding off in the night. Within days, Dmitry Abzhan's family home was being upended in slow-motion by the earth beneath it.
The cause was a landslide triggered by trucks illegally dumping waste on a slope above their street — part of the preparations for the Winter Olympics in Sochi that are set to begin on February 7.
A court ruled that Abzhan was entitled to compensation, but the order was never executed, leaving him and his extended family struggling to live in a dilapidated, crooked, and often dizzying home. Abzhan, 27, jokes laconically that it is like being "in outer space," adding that his appeals to the authorities have gone unanswered.
“There has been no action whatsoever. We don’t know what to do, who we should appeal to and what more we can do. The children are getting older. There should be some future ahead, but the fact is we — local residents who were born here and grew up here — have effectively been left homeless,” Abzhan says.
Welcome to the wrong side of the tracks in the Olympic city of Sochi. Preparations for the games have cost a record $51 billion. But beyond throwing up shiny stadiums and ski lifts, Sochi's makeover has turned the lives of hundreds of residents like Abzhan upside-down — sometimes almost literally — in recent years.
The gulf between Sochi's winners and losers is particularly stark on the road linking the seacoast to the showcase ski resort at Krasnaya Polyana, where many Olympic events are due to take place. The 50-kilometer car and rail link cost more than $8 billion to build, prompting the Russian-language edition of "Esquire" magazine to quip that for that price tag, it could have been paved with shredded Louis Vuitton handbags, caviar, or foie gras.
Less than a kilometer from the road, the village of Akhshtyr has been shrouded in thick white dust since preparation for the games kicked off. The wells here have run dry. There is no gas. Residents can’t sell their homegrown persimmons because they are blanketed in cement dust. Moreover, the road to Krasnaya Polyana has cut off Akhshtyr's access to public transportation to Sochi's southern Adler district. The authorities never built an access road to the new highway, as locals say they promised.
This is a major concern for people like Viktor Kolenin, a 65-year-old pensioner who is disabled due to his work following the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear disaster. He worries about how he will get to the hospital and about the strain on his lungs from the plumes of construction dust.
Another local, 53-year-old Yelena Runovich, says she had to give up her job in order to walk her young daughter back from school through construction sites and across two highways.
Kolenin, Runovich, and other villagers recently gathered around an old roadside well in Akhshtyr and spoke to RFE/RL about the impact of the Olympic bid on their community.
“You have to ask: Why is it that some people get everything and for the remaining residents there is nothing?” Runovich says.
“This was the cleanest village in the Adler region of Greater Sochi. They've turned it into a garbage dump. The administration knows this perfectly well — and not a peep from them,” Kolenin says.
Back on Baku Street where Abzhan lives, many also blame the local authorities. Next-door neighbor Polina Kalayzhan, 85, lives in a house that tilts precariously and is slowly sliding down the hill. She lives there with nine relatives including her 89-year old husband. They also are due compensation, but seem powerless to obtain it.
“We wrote to [President Vladimir] Putin, wrote to [Prime Minister Dmitry] Medvedev, wrote to the Krasnodar [administration], we've written everywhere,” Kalayzhan says. “They reply: Let the local authorities deal with it. But the local authorities don't pay any attention. They say we can't help you."
Across the city, the massive scale of construction has caused regular electricity cuts that are often extended beyond their planned duration. One blogger, Olga Agalakova, wrote that the moon in Sochi has taken on a new significance.
“It's not just the moon!” she says. “It’s our main source of light in Izmailovsk and Semyonovsk! It’s already been two months every day that they have turned off the electricity for twelve hours or more. Sometimes, for two days!”
Some look forward to the return of regular electricity and dust-free air after the Olympics. But those like Abzhan, who have suffered material damages, fear their plights will be forgotten.
“In fairness, we didn’t just come here for a couple of days — we were born here, grew up here. And not just us. Our grandfathers and great grandfathers were born and grew up here. And we end up homeless and can’t do anything about it,” Abzhan says.
“And it’s not our fault. In ways, we are happy that the Olympics are here — it’s the Olympics after all and they built some roads and all that. But just don’t insult the local people. If you take something away, then give them something back. And don’t destroy things, leaving locals homeless, hold the Olympics and then leave, forgetting about everything.”
Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio LibertyLONDON (Reuters) - After killing off Batman’s Robin and re-inventing the X-Men, Scottish comic book writer Grant Morrison is looking for other superhuman legends to transform with his pen.
Posters of the film "The Dark Knight Rises" are displayed outside as people wait for the midnight premiere of the final instalment of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy at the National Auditorium in Mexico City July 23, 2012. REUTERS/Henry Romero
Morrison - who has also taken on Spiderman and Superman in a 25-year career - has decided to leave the caped crusader in the hands of other writers after the final issue of his “BATMAN, INCORPORATED” DC Comics series comes out this month.
“The seven years has exhausted everything I ever had to say about the character,” Morrison told Reuters in a telephone interview.
Morrison, 53, said his final iteration of Batman had used ideas from the character’s entire journey from the crime fighter created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane in 1939 through his slapstick portrayal in the 1960s US TV series to director Christopher Nolan’s brooding 2008 “Dark Knight” film.
“Batman seems to be endlessly pliable and malleable in that he can assume all kinds of guises from the comedy pop-up Batman of the 60s to the very militaristic, realistic, trending Batman of Christopher Nolan,” Morrison said.
In his latest guise, the writer created a Robin character who was the son of Batman by the daughter of a master criminal.
Raised by a criminal gang to rule the world, Robin discovered his true father was Batman, decided to become a superhero but died saving the planet at the tender age of 10.
“The story was always going to be about this little kid’s journey from being trained by assassins and raised by an evil cabal of people finding out that he is the son of Batman and trying to live up to that legacy,” he said. “The story for that character was always that he would die in the end.”
Morrison likened his efforts to reinvent the pantheon of superheroes to the evolution of the King Arthur and Robin Hood legends passed down through oral tradition.
“I think it’s important to basically find what was the core of the character and then to see how that applies to the way we think in the real world and see if it can be updated and matched to interests and ideas that people have in a contemporary setting,” he said.
His next projects include a re-working of Wonder Woman and a series called “MULTIVERSITY”, where superheroes exist in parallel universes. In one alternative scenario, Hitler won the war and Superman is a Nazi. In another, superheroes have vanquished evil and their gifted children have nothing to do.
Morrison, whose popularity is so vast he had his own comic book convention last year in Las Vegas, said his interest in American comics came out of a childhood spent near a naval base, which once had a huge American presence.
“We were getting comics and records and a very strong American influence for a long time, for the entire postwar period right into the 80s,” he said.
“Once you consider that, it’s not much of a surprise that I grew up with American culture and American superheroes looming very large in my life.”
His favorite childhood character was The Flash.
“The whole notion of super speed and that beautiful red costume that he wore really appealed. But the character that gave me the most joy to write has been Superman and the character that has given me the most intellectual pleasure to write has been Batman.”
So why are comic books so dark these days?
Morrison says it is partly older readers looking for more mature story lines, partly the darker movies in cinemas and partly the profusion of apocalyptic videogames.
“I wouldn’t say it’s only comics,” he said. “To be honest our whole entertainment system seems to be obsessed with the end of the world.”
(Corrects name of series to MULTIVERSITY)Travis Allen, a Republican assemblyman from Orange County and self-anointed candidate for governor, dropped this Twitter bomb the other day: “11 counties in California have more total registered voters than citizens over the age of 18. How is this possible?”
As a matter of fact, it isn’t possible. Allen’s tweet just parrots a subtle falsehood that California’s voter rolls are packed with countless names of people who either don’t exist or are ineligible to vote.
Such assertions in California and other states are the fallacious basis for President Donald Trump’s crusade, via a presidential commission, to root out what he claims is massive voter fraud, but that no one, save himself and his sycophants, believes exists.
On Aug. 1, a conservative, Washington-based organization called Judicial Watch sent a letter to California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, demanding that he clean up the state’s voter rolls in compliance with federal election law.
Judicial Watch alleged “strong circumstantial evidence” that at least 11 California counties have more registered voters than they have American citizens over the age of 18, the fundamental threshold of voter eligibility. The highest cited was 138 percent in San Diego County.
“Allowing the names of ineligible voters to remain on the voter rolls harms the integrity of the electoral process and undermines voter confidence in the legitimacy of elections,” Judicial Watch told Padilla, threatening a federal lawsuit if he didn’t act.
Breitbart, a right-wing “news site” that’s closely aligned with Trump, quickly publicized the Judicial Watch letter in an article that described Padilla, correctly, as “one of the main voices in opposition” to Trump’s “election integrity” commission, refusing to provide voter data it had been demanding.
Allen evidently relied on Judicial Watch and/or the Breitbart piece for his tweet, without attribution.
Were Judicial Watch’s allegations accurate, it certainly would be, of course, a serious scandal and would undermine voter confidence.
However, they bear almost no resemblance to reality.
The Census Bureau provides the basic data about potential voters by calculating how many residents of the state, and of each county, are citizens over the age of 18. Election officials then adjust the estimates incrementally to account for population growth.
Currently, 24.9 million of California’s 39 million residents are adjudged legally eligible to vote and 19.4 million – or 77.9 percent – are registered. Individual counties range from a low of 58.68 percent in Merced County to 88.28 percent in Marin County.
So how did Judicial Watch come up with 11 counties having more than 100 percent of their eligible populations on the voter rolls. It added the counties’ “inactive voters” – names of those who have voted sometime in the past but have been dropped from current registration rolls – and carelessly branded them as registered voters.
However, those inactive voters are just names, now about 5 million statewide, and any that seek to actually vote again must prove their eligibility and, in effect, re-register. Most are no longer living in the counties where they had once voted, which explains why adding registered voters and inactive voters together could total more than 100 percent.
“They are using bad math and flawed methodology,” Padilla said in a statement, adding that maintaining the inactive voter files complies with federal voting laws to avoid eligible citizens from being administratively disallowed from voting.
At any rate, there’s nothing there to justify Judicial Watch’s injudicious allegations and lawsuit threats. It is, quite literally, fake news.A surprise meteor strike over central Russia this morning lit up the skies, blew out windows on the ground and injured roughly 1,000 people in and around Chelyabinsk, a city of 1.1 million. The inbound object, thought to be a small asteroid, had not been discovered prior to impact. But already teams on the ground are reportedly collecting possible fragments of the meteorite, and researchers around the globe are scrambling to figure out what happened. Scientific American contacted Margaret Campbell-Brown, a professor in the Meteor Physics Group at the University of Western Ontario, to get the latest.
[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]
What do we know, as of now, about what caused the fireball over Russia this morning?
We’ve actually seen it from at least two infrasound stations. Infrasound is very low frequency sound waves, which are produced in, for example, loud explosions. There is a global network of infrasound sensors whose purpose is to detect nuclear explosions in the atmosphere. It’s part of the Comprehensive [Nuclear] Test Ban Treaty. Two of the nearest stations in this network, which were both in Russia, did detect this very large event.
So, from that, we know that the energy of the explosion was about 300 kilotons of TNT equivalent. So it was a very, very powerful explosion. It was the biggest explosion from a meteor that we’ve seen in the atmosphere since the Tunguska impact of 1908.
We know that the meteor lasted about 30 seconds. It came into the atmosphere at a very shallow angle, which is why it lasted so long. The object was moving at about 18 kilometers per second, which is about 65,000 kilometers per hour, which is typical of an asteroidal speed.
From the energy of the impact, we think that it was about 15 meters in size, so it would be the largest object to hit the Earth since the Tunguska impact, as far as we know—we haven’t recorded an object larger than that. It had a mass of probably about 7,000 metric tons, so it was a very large object.
You may have seen that the Russian Academy of Sciences issued a statement with a lower estimate for the size of the object—something in the few-meter range producing an explosion of a few kilotons.
Right. It’s the most uncertain part of the calculation, but I would be very surprised if it’s less than 100 kilotons. It was a very, very large event. And the fact that there was so much damage on the ground supports the conclusion that the energy was high. You need a lot of energy to shatter windows in the way that was seen.
Is there any reason to suspect that it was anything other than an asteroid?
An asteroid is certainly the most likely suspect. The size of it, the speed that it was going and so on, all point to an asteroid. The fact that it exploded in the atmosphere implies that it was probably a stony asteroid, maybe a chondritic type, for example, as opposed to something iron, because iron things are stronger and tend to make it to the ground, where they release their energy.
Where was most of the energy released as this object made its way through the atmosphere?
In this case the final destination, which seems to have been the largest deposit of energy, was somewhere around 15 to 20 kilometers altitude. The actual fireball probably started significantly higher than that, maybe 50 kilometers, but most of the energy was apparently deposited during that last explosion lower in the atmosphere.
Is it possible that if this meteor had hit over the ocean rather than over a populated area, we might not have known about it?
We certainly would have known about it. The CTBT, the Test Ban Treaty, constantly is monitoring for large explosions in the atmosphere, and this one was large enough that no matter where it occurred over the Earth it would have been detected by the CTBT array.
You mentioned that this event showed up in two nearby CTBT sensors. Is it possible that the explosion was picked up by other stations as well?
Not all the sensors are as straightforward to get the data from. We’re trying to get data from other sensors. It would surprise me if there wasn’t data on other sensors because this was a very powerful wave, and I would expect it to propagate a very long distance because infrasound can travel a very long way in the atmosphere. But we don’t have data from other stations yet.
How often should we expect to see an event like this?
In the 15-meter size range, we think it happens about every 50 years. It’s been more than 100 years since we’ve seen something of this size, but statistically it happens approximately every 50 years.
When you consider all the areas of the Earth that are uninhabited—the oceans, the ice caps, the deserts and so on—it’s very surprising that this happened over such a populated area. Very unlucky.Home Secretary set to announce new powers against non violent
Bullying husbands who make their partners' lives a misery through emotional insults face up to 14 years in prison under a new crackdown on domestic abuse, Theresa May is expected to announce.
The Home Secretary is considering new powers which will put psychological abuse on a par with physical violence in the home, it was reported today.
Partners who use controlling behaviour, as well as violence, to subject their partners to a life of misery could be convicted of 'coercive control'.
Home Secretary Theresa May is expected to unveil new powers to target bullying husbands who make their partners' lives a misery
Ministers hope the new law will encourage much earlier reporting by victims, according to Sky News.
Domestic abuse victims do not contact police until they have suffered 30 incidents of domestic abuse.
Despite the reluctance of victims to come forward police receive a domestic abuse call every 30 seconds, according to research by the Home Office and the charity Women's Aid.
Research also shows 1.2 million women a year are victims of domestic abuse and two are week are killed by a partner or ex-partner.
Mrs May launched a consultation on how to reduce domestic violence and is still considering which new powers to implement, a Home Office source told MailOnline.
But according to Sky News a new law is expected to come into force before next year's General Election.
DCI Trish Owen, from Greater Manchester Police's domestic abuse unit, told Sky News that the law would be 'another tool for us to be able to tackle domestic violence'.
Earlier this year a Labour frontbench MP suggested that husbands who constantly criticise their wives over their weight or appearance may be guilty of domestic abuse.
Nicky Morgan has responsibility for countering domestic violence in the Cabinet
Seema Malhotra, Labour's new shadow anti domestic violence minister, said such abuse could be part of a wider pattern of 'controlling behaviour' which can be as bad as a physical attack.
She said: 'It can be part of a pattern of controlling behaviour that leaves people feeling fearful and terrorised in their own homes.'
Ms Malhotra said repeatedly criticising a woman's appearance could be seen as an 'indicator of physical abuse in the future'.
She told MailOnline that one woman she spoke to had been forced to flee her home after her husband attempted to control her entire life. But she said it started with him criticising her appearance.
The Labour MP said: 'She felt traumatised. For this woman her journey – her nightmare – started out with him making these comments about her appearance and progressed to wanting to control what she looked like and where she went until he had total control over her.'
Ms Malhotra said she was not talking about arguments between couples or snide remarks made in anger, but a wider pattern of behaviour which leads to abuse.
She told the Times that that domestic abuse 'affects women and men of all backgrounds — rich and poor, white and black and ethnic minority' and needed to be tackled. But she said it was often misunderstood.
Ms Malhotra, who entered the Commons in 2011 after winning a by-election in the London seat of Feltham and Heston, said that victims were often let down by police.
She said there are women 'who spend their lives not just recovering from the trauma of having survived domestic violence but then are left on the run, picking up the pieces and trying to protect their children'.
She said figures showed there were 12 million women and 2.5 million men that had been the victims of domestic abuse – but the number of prosecutions was nowhere near that figure.
Ms Malhotra said her new position of anti-domestic abuse spokeswoman was created because 'victims need a greater voice at the heart of the system'.
She will work on a variety of issues – including forced marriage, genital mutilation abusive porn.
She said: 'Porn is now easily available on mobile phones. Young people are accessing it who are sometimes not even in their teens.'
Such images were often violent and offered unhealthy portrayals of sex and relationships, she said.Potentially offering help for those who suffer from extreme weight loss caused by a host of debilitating ailments, the CBG cannabinoid (Cannabigerol) has recently sparked the interest of the scientific community as a safe and effective means of stimulating appetite.
That’s right, yet another one of marijuana’s lesser-known cannabinoids has received scientific vindication and a clean bill of health. Found to work synergistically with CBDA and THC, the CBG compound has recently been credited with stimulating appetites without some of the nastier side effects of the Western world’s toxic pharmaceuticals.
Long-praised as a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that eradicates and inhibits bacterial growth, reduces inflammation, inhibits tumorous cell growth and obstructs the growth of deadly cancer cells, the cannabis compound Cannabigerol (a.k.a. CBG) has now been scientifically recognized as a safe and effective appetite stimulant, according to research conducted at Berkshire’s University of Reading that was recently published by the U.S. National Institute of Health.
After extensive research into the study’s stated objective of examining “the effects of CBG on food intake and feeding pattern microstructure,” the test subjects were administered either the CBG cannabinoid or a placebo substitute and assessed.
Providing holistic hope for those who suffer from health-related weight loss issues, the study concluded, “CBG elicits hyperphagia.”
As the DEA announced their intention to keep marijuana listed as a Schedule I narcotic on Wednesday, this long-maligned plant, backed by the political henchmen of Big Pharma and restricted by its Schedule I status within the Controlled Substance Act, has many beneficial secrets to share. Despite those inspired and thoughtful politicians who voiced opposition to marijuana’s current classification, cannabis has again been relegated to the shadows of ignorance and fear.
(Main Photo Courtesy of TruthonPot.com)It’s 1994. You’re 13 going on 14. Kurt Cobain is dead, but your mourning is mostly just posturing because you don’t totally understand what the huge deal about him was. You knew he was important, though, and you just learned to play the opening chords of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on the guitar. You say you’re punk, but you had your friend buy your Crass shirt at the Hot Topic, instructing him to turn the bag inside out as soon as he exited the store. You carry a skateboard everywhere, but the jocks who used to call you a “fag” have taken over all the good spots so they can do tricks on rollerblades. Clinton is president, you scam mail-order services to send you a bunch of free CDs because you heard they can’t make you pay since you’re under 18, and you spend a lot of time alone listening to those CDs as a form of escape. Some of them are good, others you try to forget right away. These are the early days of your obsession with music; you want to hear Minor Threat because you like Fugazi, you want to listen to more reggae because The Clash covered “Police and Thieves,” and you learn more about America listening to Public Enemy than you have from any history teacher. All of this, and there’s a new Beastie Boys album.
If that sounds familiar, then you and I might share a similar biography. The above is culled from my own personal history, stopping short of what comes after I popped Ill Communication into my CD player — not telling you that from the opening seconds of “Sure Shot” and onward, it had a profound influence on me. It was with this album that my teenage mind started to comprehend the trio beyond screaming along with them about fighting for your right to party at a bunch of suburban bar mitzvahs. This was where they started to really impact me; weird kids grow up into strange adults every day, but with Ill Communication, the Beastie Boys made me realize that you had to figure out ways to think outside of the box when it came to rebellion.
The release of Ill Communication is when I started to relate to the Beasties in a way that I’d been unable to relate to a band before. It’s when I began to realize that they shared a lineage with other anti-authoritarians in search of easy fun — from the Marx Brothers to the Ramones. But it’s also when I began to pick apart the cultural references in their songs and started to care about the samples. The “Sabotage” video had popped up a few months earlier, in anticipation of the record, and it was basically the greatest thing I’d seen in my 13 years on the planet. I was already ripping off the group’s style from the “So What Cha Want” video from their last album, but just watching them fuck around was magic.
There’s “Sabotage,” and there are songs that show they’re still as cocky and edgy like they were a decade earlier, unafraid to call out their former Def Jam label boss (“Got fat bass lines like Russell Simmons steals money”), and willing to experiment with the instrumentals, as in “Eugene’s Lament,” which could be classified as “Balkan psychedelic funk.” “Flute Loop” opens with one of my favorite samples ever (guess what instrument it is — on loop), while “Tough Guy” and “”Heart Attack Man” recall the band’s old hardcore days. But maybe most importantly, there’s the opening track, “Sure Shot,” kicking off with its own flute loop and MCA taking the mic to say: I want to say a little something that’s long overdue
The disrespect to women has got to be through
To all the mothers and sisters and the wives and friends
I want to offer my love and respect to the end
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE]
I rewound it over and over, frying it into my brain, thinking about how I’d never heard somebody say something like that in a song, how zen it felt with that flute, and how it was cool that the Beasties were saying something so diametrically opposed to so many of their earlier lyrics. I wouldn’t necessarily call it redemption, but it showed me people can change, and that personal enlightenment is possible. I could fuck up, but I could change and get better too.
I walked down the hallway of my school, slowly so my Discman didn’t skip, and listened to the CD over and over. I don’t know if people didn’t like me or if they could tell I disliked them for some reason I still can’t quite explain, but it didn’t really matter as long as I had “Root Down” in my ears. Its unfuckwithable funk sound, with a sample borrowed from Jimmy Smith, still sounds badass. I’m looking back at that walk, and |
aspects of it.”
Certainly, the experience Vaudreil brings from his playing and coaching career to date will bring a new impetus to the Roughnecks. From playing for Bob Bradley at Princeton, to claiming the first MLS Cup alongside current FC Cincinnati Head Coach John Harkes with D.C. United under Bruce Arena, Vaudreuil’s has gone on to apply the lessons he learned as a player to his time in the coaching ranks.
“Whether things are going well or going poorly at that time, you’ve got to have that same attitude,” said Vaudreuil said. “You’ve got to be calm, you’ve got to instill confidence in your team and in your staff, and everybody – even the people in the stands – they’ve got to know that we’re going to have ups and downs in a season, but in general we know what it takes to win. We have the right mentality and the right philosophy, and we’ll be successful if we can be very consistent, and consistently keep a high level of professionalism on the field and off the field.”SAPD: Officers had sex on duty
San Antonio Police Department headquarters
San Antonio Police Department headquarters Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Photo: Edward A. Ornelas, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close SAPD: Officers had sex on duty 1 / 17 Back to Gallery
Two San Antonio police officers repeatedly had sex on duty, which sometimes affected the way they responded to 911 calls, police say.
Officers Rebecca Martinez and Eman Fondren were both suspended indefinitely in April for disabling their GPS units and having sex with each other while on duty, according to suspension paperwork obtained by the Express-News through an open records request.
They appealed the decisions by Chief William McManus and will likely appear before an arbitrator this year.
According to the suspension documents, Martinez and Fondren disabled the GPS units on their vehicles two times in October 2015 and met while on duty, once in the rear parking lot of a Home Depot store and another time at a private residence.
During the investigation, Martinez and Fondren denied that they had sex while on duty, but investigators said they did not believe either officer.
On the same day the two met at the private residence, Martinez was dispatched to a disturbance with a knife call and waited 20 minutes from the time she was dispatched to begin driving to the scene.
Once she arrived, according to the documents, she did not activate her vehicle’s video recording device, violating department rules. Fondren also didn’t activate his mobile video recording device on two occasions, police say.
Martinez and Fondren were two of about 20 San Antonio police officer who were indefinitely suspended last year, out of the 2,400 officers on the force.
Read the full story at ExpressNews.com.
eeaton@express-news.net
Twitter: @emilieeaton2 years ago
We're four years into this, y'all know the drill - every week there's captioned screenshots, the occasional bad photoshop (it's a Roosterteeth tradition, to be fair!), and lots of text that recaps, analyses and predicts all things RWBY. Below is the masterpost for all content created within Volume Four's airing, and older recaps can be found at masterposts for Volume One, Volume Two, and Volume Three. Cool? Cool.
..:: RWBY VOLUME FOUR RECAPS ::..
-- Volume Four Trailer Recap/Annual Predictions Post (100% Accurate! Every Year!).
-- Chapter One: The Next Step.
-- Chapter Two: Remembrance.
-- Chapter Three: Of (Joan Jett And The) Runaways And Stowaways.
-- Chapter Four: Family.
-- Chapter Five: Menagerie.
-- Chapter Six: Tipping Point.
..:: ADDITIONAL CONTENT ::..
-- Volume Three Recap Recap.
UPDATE: RWBY Recaps are now on hiatus. Whether or not they'll be taken off hiatus to finish off Volume Four's remaining recaps or to even do Volume Five when the show comes back in the Fall is unknown at this time. If they don't come back, don't worry - the recaps will remain archived, and I'll never exclude the possibility of making future content for the community. Until further notice, thanks to all who stopped by, and, as always, for reading.ATLANTA -- The No. 657 northbound car on the MARTA train left the downtown Five Points station just after 11 p.m. without a seat available and jammed with people standing shoulder to shoulder.
If anyone was tired, it hardly showed.
If anyone was uncomfortable, you'd never know.
About 60 percent of the passengers on this Gold Line train to Doraville were white and the majority of the rest were black. And just about all perked up when the train pulled into the next station, where a middle-aged black man who just got off work stepped on and immediately asked the question after spotting noise-making sticks and replica jerseys.
"Did the Hawks win?"
The answer was shouted from four rows of seats away by a white man with a beard and brown hair.
"We were the best team in the league before tonight's game," he said loudly enough for the entire train car to hear. "And we're definitely the best team in the league after what we did to those Warriors."
Loud cheers and laughter erupted. By the time the train pushed into the North Avenue stop at11:08, the "Let's Go Hawks" chant ripped through the car. Although the Hawks were roiled by questions of racial insensitivity in ownership and management during the offseason, the only version of race that seemed to matter on No. 657 northbound to Doraville was the one to the best record in the NBA this season.
This is just a small slice of the Atlanta that these Hawks are playing for as they took another step in a magical season in Friday's showdown between the two best teams in the league. The Hawks ran away from the Golden State Warriors 124-116 in a game that was widely billed as an NBA Finals preview -- and certainly drew the media coverage of a playoff series in June.
Since having their franchise-record winning streak snapped at 20 games Monday with a loss in New Orleans, the Hawks have regrouped by beating the rugged Wizards on Wednesday and then taking out the swift, sharp-shooting Warriors on Friday. Atlanta's gantlet of a week wraps on the road Sunday against a Memphis team that has the second-best record in the West behind Golden State (39-9).
The Hawks (42-9) have won 35 of their past 38 games, have already eclipsed their win total from 2013-14, have dominated the best teams in both conferences so far and eventually wore down a Warriors team that boasts the most explosive backcourt in the league. The always humble Hawks didn't celebrate or get too emotional about Friday's victory, but 3-point specialist Kyle Korver did take a little aim at skeptics who might still be reluctant to believe in what his team is capable of accomplishing.
"I feel like last year, we kind of put the bones in of who we were going to be," Korver said. "We've been confident. We feel like when we're healthy, we have a lot of unique pieces. It's a lot of talk of us not having a so-called superstar. But we have good players, man. And we fit well together."
Al Horford and the Hawks couldn't be stopped by Marreese Speights and the Warriors. AP Photo/John Bazemore
There was indisputable evidence of that on the way to making their latest league-wide statement. Seven Hawks players scored in double figures, led by their All-Star trio of Jeff Teague, Paul Millsap and Al Horford. During a pregame ceremony, they were presented their official All-Star jerseys for next week's game in New York. Then Teague went out and scored 23 points and forced Stephen Curry into a rough start after the MVP candidate came off a 51-point effort in Golden State's previous game.
Millsap did what he always does -- a little bit of everything on both ends of the court -- and finished with 21 points, four rebounds, three assists, three steals and a block. And Horford, perhaps the one irreplaceable player on this team, added 12 points, 14 rebounds and six assists.
The good pieces extend far beyond those three and to a supporting cast that saw Korver knock down five 3-pointers, Mike Scott come off the bench for 17 points on a combination of dunks and long-range daggers, and both Kent Bazemore and DeMarre Carroll provide essential defensive energy. Backup point guard Dennis Schroder had nine points and dished seven assists.
This is who they've been all season, and that balance and brilliance were rewarded when the league office made an unprecedented decision to award the NBA player of the week award to the Hawks' entire starting unit of Teague, Horford, Millsap, Carroll and Korver.
Carroll said Atlanta is successful because everyone keeps the formula simple. There's no showboating or gloating after dunks, no excessive celebrations during timeouts after big plays, no nonsense.
"We go out there and handle business," Carroll said. "You go out there and do your job. Then you go home to your family. We don't try to humiliate anybody or show anybody up. We let the ATL fans do that. This was two of the best teams playing. It's one of those games that you dream about."
Both teams tried to downplay the significance of the matchup. But that didn't last very long. Before the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr saw the massive media presence at the morning shootaround and greeted reporters by saying, "welcome to the Finals."
"It's one game out of 82," Kerr said. "I think in the end, win or lose, it probably doesn't mean that much. But whenever you play the team from the opposite conference that is clearly the best team and has been dominating... it's a great challenge."
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer also acknowledges there was a measuring-stick element to the game.
"You learn more about yourself," Budenholzer said. "There are some things we can build on. You always look forward to these games when you're going to be really tested and really challenged. You learn how much focus it takes to beat a team like this."
Teague said the Hawks didn't need the victory to validate anything.
"We already know we're a good team," Teague said. "We come out every night and just try to play like we're supposed to play. We do that and everything really does fall into place."
Yet still, this is a franchise that draws motivation from the doubters.
Seconds after the final buzzer sounded, the arena announcer posed a question over the loud speakers.
"Now do you believe?" he said. "Any questions?"
That swagger spilled into Atlanta's downtown streets Friday night.
And it permeated the city's train transit system.
Back on the No. 657 train car, a Warriors fan among the dozens of Hawks supporters was asked by someone in the group how it felt to root for "clearly the second-best team" in the league.
"I like the Hawks, too," the fan said. "I grew up here in Georgia, but I went to college with Steph Curry."
Another Hawks fan seated near the front of the train overheard the conversation and chimed in.
"So you were going to get on here after the game in a win-win situation, no matter what," he said.
Both men, initially strangers, got off together at the Lenox having agreed on at least one thing.
Inside the arena and out, these high-flying Hawks are taking this city on a harmonious NBA ride.Keenan Kewis interception throw kiss to fans, Saints vs Bucs 2013
New Orleans Saints cornerback Keenan Lewis (28) celebrates his Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Mike Glennon (8) interception with New Orleans Saints cornerback Corey White (24) during the game at the Superdome in New Orleans, Sunday, December 29, 2013. (David Grunfeld, Nola.com / The Times-Picayune)
Philadelphia -- The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for southeastern Pennsylvania on Thursday and Friday. Freezing temperatures, 4 to 8 inches of snow and wind gusts as strong as 35 miles per hour are expected to hit the Philadelphia area in the next 24 hours.
And here's a scary thought: The inclement weather won't be the most formidable challenge the New Orleans Saints face in their NFC wild-card playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
As bad as Mother Nature could be Saturday, Philadelphia's notoriously rowdy fans will make life even more miserable for the Saints at Lincoln Financial Field.
If the Saints thought they were treated inhospitably in road playoff losses in Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco, their eyes -- and ears -- are about to be opened this weekend.
Over the years, Philly fans have earned a reputation as the some of the loudest, rowdiest and most mean-spirited in sports. GQ Magazine named Philadelphia sports fans the meanest fans in America in 2011, and with good reason.
Philly fans have booed Santa Claus and their own star players. Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels received the "South Philly Cheer" when he had the gall to lose his first start of the 2011 season -- after the Phillies had started the year 3-0.
Philly fans once cheered Michael Irvin... after he suffered a season-ending neck injury.
Stories of fans throwing snowballs, batteries and empty liquor bottles at players and coaches from the opposing team are legendary. A few years back one drunken Philly fan intentionally vomited on an 11-year-old girl.
"I think (Philly fans) are very supportive, but they keep it real with you," said New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday, who played his first three NBA seasons for the Philadelphia 76ers. "If you're playing bad, they are going to let you know you are playing bad. Like in basketball they talk about the sixth man, the crowd is going to be their (Eagles) sixth man. They are very vocal. It's going to be fun for the Saints."
"Fun" isn't the word that immediately comes to mind when I think of Philadelphia's hospitality to visiting teams and fans. In fact, I can't think of a more hostile environment for the Saints than playing the Eagles on the road in the playoffs.
My lasting memory of covering a football game in the City of Brotherly Love came in the 2002 NFC Championship Game. The game between the Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the final event at infamous Veterans Stadium, and no one in Philly gave the Bucs a chance that frigid afternoon.
By sheer happenstance, the pregame media shuttle buses merged with the caravan of buses transporting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers players and coaches to the stadium. As we exited the highway and circled the parking lots outside Veterans Stadium, every green-clad fan saluted us with his or her middle finger.
One elderly woman, an adept multi-tasker, turned bratwursts with her left hand and flicked us the bird with her right -- never once looking up from the grill.
"That place is rough," said NFL analyst John Lynch, who started at safety for the Bucs in that game. "Philly fans are passionate to say the least. Even when I come back here as an analyst, there's still a part of me that feels, 'I'm not welcomed here.'"
Philadelphia police are reportedly going undercover for Saturday's game in an effort to curb the, um, enthusiasm. Officers will Saints jerseys and hats to monitor -- and potentially bait -- unruly fan behavior. During the Eagles' last home game against Chicago, 15 fans were arrested and 68 were ejected.
"People thought Raiders fans were bad, but they had nothing on Philly fans. " said Lynch, who forbid family members to wear Bucs colors to games in Philly. "I just remember people chucking stuff at us in warmups and getting the bird flipped at us going to the game."
The Saints can expect similar treatment this weekend. The Vet is long gone, replaced by a more user friendly Lincoln Financial Field in 2003. But the loud, rowdy Philly fans remain.
Sean Payton knows firsthand the reception his team will receive this weekend. He spent his formative years in nearby Newtown Square, Pa., before moving to Illinois in junior high. The first pro football game he attended was at the Vet. And his first NFL coaching job was with the Eagles in 1997-1998.
"The sports fans are amazing there, very passionate and a real die-hard fan base," Payton said. "That presents challenges when you play, especially in the playoffs."
In his 2010 book, "Home Team," Payton described some Philly fans as "masters at being miserable" and documented how he cautioned his team about the rude reception they would receive in their first trip their in 2009, including an egging of the team buses.
"Going into Philadelphia is the antithesis of going to a place like Green Bay with all their bratwurst hospitality," Payton wrote. "The Philadelphia welcome to a visiting football fan is more like: 'We really don't (expletive) want to see you on game day.' It's even worse for an away team that has come to Philly for a game."
The Saints have not played in Philadelphia since 2009, when they routed a good Eagles team 48-22 on their way to Super Bowl XLIV. Only 10 players remain from that unit, so Payton might need to issue another warning this week if he hasn't already. "It'll be loud," Payton said. "It's a hostile environment and a very difficult place to play. I think their fan base does a great job of certainly pulling for their team. It's a challenge, especially this time of the year when you're in the postseason."
But there is one possible silver lining to all of the hate and hostility. It makes for one hell of a victory celebration if you can pull it off.
After the Saints won in Philly in 2009, Payton directed the entire Saints caravan on a victory lap around the stadium because, as he wrote, "There is no more gratifying city to win in on the road than Philly.... We can't get enough of people pissed off at us and flipping us the bird."
Win or lose, the Saints will certainly get their fill of both this weekend.
(Editor's note: This column has been edited to correct a reporting error. The original story incorrectly stated that hand transplant patient Matthew Scott was booed at Philadelphia Phillies game in 1999. The incident occurred in Cincinnati not Philadelphia.)Former Louisiana Ragin' Cajun Shawn Long has inked a new deal with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Long showed Philly enough on his 10 day contract to earn a deal that guarantees him a roster spot the remainder of the season. It's a 3 year deal, but the team holds the option for years 2 and 3, according to a source. Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer was the first to report Long's signing.
Typically when a rookie on a 10 day deal ends up signing for the remainder of the season, it's a contract with team options on years 2 and 3.
However, what is uncommon is an undrafted rookie on a 10 day contract earning a deal for the rest of the season before even playing on a second 10 day contract.
While financial details of the contract are unknown at this time, it's likely for the rookie minimum.
Long obviously impressed the 76ers over the last week and a half. In 3 game appearances, he averaged 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in 10.3 minutes per game.
Philadelphia is scheduled to play at Orlando against the Magic on Monday, pitting Long against Elfrid Payton, his former teammate at Louisiana.EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck believes the Pittsburgh Steelers' offense has been the beneficiary of some loose officiating.
"I hope we get some holding calls because they have gotten away with murder," Tuck told ESPN's Rachel Nichols on Thursday. "They've done a very good job protecting Ben (Roethlisberger) -- they don't hold on every play. But we've seen a whole lot of it."
The Giants host the Steelers on Sunday.
This isn't the first time a member of the Giants has voiced his displeasure about what he perceived as excessive holding by an opponent.
Three weeks ago, prior to a game against the 49ers, Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride targeted San Francisco defensive end Justin Smith.
"Smith is a beast on the inside -- he's strong, he does as good a job (as anybody) of grabbing a hold of offensive linemen and allowing those twists to take place," Gilbride said. "He never gets called for it, so he gets away with murder."
Niners coach Jim Harbaugh took exception to the comment.The way NFL teams can maximize talent on a roster is to not overpay players unless they are absolutely, unquestionably worth it. Bill Belichick is an incredible on-field coach, but his work off the field is arguably just as important. He identifies a player's value and will pay him up to that point. If he wants more, he's gone.
This calculus -- it's smarter to play a B+ player $700,000 a year than an A- player $3 million -- is one that every team in the NFL more or less understands and says it adheres to... but it's another thing entirely to actually act upon it.
The Patriots have no problem in this regard. They are willing to make the hard decisions, decisions that would give nightmares to other coaches and GMs. When Darrelle Revis wanted more money, off he went. Belichick didn't care about the fan reaction or how much harder it would become. When the Patriots shipped off star linebacker Jamie Collins to the Browns in the middle of the season, it was another clear message: No one is above the team, and we will do anything to win.Next week, it will be National Novel Writing Month, and I will once again find myself biting my tongue. Every November, thousands of writers publicly declare their very earnest intentions to write a book in 30 days, and every November, I fill my Drafts folder with tweets mocking their daily word counts, their new sense of community, their suddenly tireless dedication to the cause.
I suspect NaNoWriMo irritates me so much because my impulse to insult it is nearly matched by my impulse to join.
My natural mode has always been to write fast first drafts, to just get it down, and then spend weeks revising. When I started a novel in May 2014, I tried the same approach. Aiming for a goal of 1,000 words per day, I finished the 104,000-word first draft in only four months. My story about two friends using Detroit as training grounds for the Olympic Marathon Trials was heavy enough to be used as a blunt object when I printed all 302 pages and laid them on my desk.
And yes, I even celebrated monthly word counts on social media:
“May novel totals: 25 days, 30,047 words (85 pages). Onward to June!”
“June novel totals: 30 days, 30,159 words (86 pages). July goal: finish this beast.”
“July totals: 30 days, 28,512 words (86 pages). August goal: survive.”
I do understand the social aspect of NaNoWriMo, the desire to be praised and encouraged by a community of writers who understand the work of a novelist can be frustrating, exhausting and largely thankless.
If given the chance, though, I would have done things much differently. That first draft was a mess I’ve spent more than two years exploding, filling and, finally, starting to polish. My self-imposed daily word count produced tens of pages of filler, and not the good kind, the first-draft fat that helps us heavy revisers apply better fitting flesh to the bones in future iterations. No, I spent more than a calendar year wading through useless, aimless prose I lopped off in bulk: awful metaphors for muscled quadriceps and calves; a 10,000-word race scene composed mostly of stream-of-consciousness observations of scenery; a three-page conversation about how many stairs each character thought he’d climbed in his life.
It was a harsh discovery to find I hadn’t written the first draft of a novel, but the loose and foolish outline of an ambitious book with hollow characters, an inconsistent point of view and no style to speak of. I’d written a set of unkind instructions for the hard work to come.
One of the reasons for that first-draft hurry comes from my own fear of wasting time. Stories of shelved novels abound in literary circles, but the thought of wasting months–years, even–on a draft that never leaves my desktop was–and still is–terrifying to me.
But I also think the pressures and constraints of my MFA program might have had something to do with it. I started my book the day after I finished the first year of my three-year program. It was a good time to start a novel, a professor wisely told me. I had two years to write it and revise it into a polished thesis, or else I had two years to scrap it and put together a collection instead. And I had the summer: while some writers were plugging through Camp NaNoWriMo, a “virtual retreat” in July, I too was just getting it down, working toward a word count like the rest of them.
Those pressures and constraints were mostly wonderful. I wrote and submitted like a madman during those three years: serious essays about running; surrealist prose poems about moons and skin and heartsick wanderlust; stories about aliens and guava peddlers and Rasheed Wallace. I owe much of my productivity to the structure my graduate program provided. But the fact remains: at the end of those three years, I needed something to submit to my thesis committee. I started my novel with the expectation that it would be my thesis. It had better be, I thought, the March 2016 deadline always in the back of my mind.
There’s a reason I try to hold my tweets, to limit the shots I take at NaNoWriMo participants. I’m no expert writer or teacher; I have no right to advise. Each of our creative processes feels unconventional and unique, because it is. But for many writers, serious or fledgling, trying to write so much so quickly is a stunting mistake. NaNoWriMo can be as dangerous as it is enticing, the potential for failure and frustration more likely than the chances of walking into December with your magnum opus under your arm.
I was once a morning writer; now I work a day job. At night, I shake the weight of the day from my shoulders and close the door to my home office to nip and tuck and deepen the novel that’s so close to becoming the book I want it to be. I keep columns of color-coded sticky notes on my wall: loose ends to be tied, thematic tones to be struck or avoided. I could write, or I could not write. I have no deadlines but my own, and I work slowly: each chapter, each paragraph, each sentence requires more attention as it nears completion, more time to do the good, hard work I’ve made for myself.
Note: The opinions expressed by guest bloggers at the Submittable blog are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Submittable.
Justin Bouckaert’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Rumpus, Catapult, Smokelong Quarterly and Bat City Review, among other publications. He lives and writes in Columbia, SC.It sounds like a bad sci-fi movie or an Orwellian Novel about a government gone mad with power; unfortunately, it could be our very near future: Robocops and drones keeping tabs on everyone.
A Silicon Valley company called Knightscope is currently testing a prototype robot that they say will help patrol the streets of America – monitoring the public and using analytical data to “predict future crimes.” The Knightscope K5 is a five-foot-tall autonomous robot that looks closer to R2-D2 than it does Robocop, but this robot is no Hollywood creation, it’s the real deal.
According to the company, the new Robocop is built to “Predict and Prevent crime.” William Santana Li, CEO of Knightscope, says the robot is, “everything that’s great about Silicon Valley, its robotics, big data, predictive analytics, its sensors,” and it could be patrolling your neighborhood very soon.
The company not only hopes to use these robots to track your every move, but they’re seeking to combine them with social media platforms so everyone can become a mini-spy for the police state.
From the companies website:
Data collected through these sensors is processed through our predictive analytics engine, combined with existing business, government and crowdsourced social data sets, and subsequently assigned an alert level that determines when the community and the authorities should be notified of a concern. If an alert is pushed, the K5 machine will turn on all of its sensors to allow the entire community to review everything and also contribute important real-time information. Our approach alleviates any privacy concerns, engages the community on a social level to effectively crowdsource security, and provides an important feedback loop to the prediction engine.
Silicon Valley is the Big Brother Surveillance State we all feared.
Over the years, Silicon Valley companies have generated a treasure trove of information. These companies control massive databases filled with private information on everyone who has ever spent any time on the internet. Things you would be reluctant to tell even your doctor, are sitting somewhere in a database profile because you searched for it online.
I don’t think people realize how much information these companies, and the government, really have. Between the information you share on social media, to the pictures you upload from your smart phones, they pretty much have it all. Your face, your habits, the things you buy, and anything you’ve ever done online is sitting somewhere inside a massive database just waiting to be abused.
We used to fear the Big Brother surveillance state, but for some reason people looked the other way when these private companies started to build detailed profiles on every person in the world. Now, there’s really no turning back.
These companies are actively pushing for the surveillance of everybody, and every square inch of the world. Is this video below, the company shows how it’s Robot can be combined with drone technology to create an atmosphere where no one can hide.WASHINGTON — The Senate approved a crucial bipartisan budget agreement early Friday that would avert a government default and end nearly five years of pitched battles between congressional Republicans and the Obama administration over fiscal policy.
The measure, which passed 64 to 35, now goes to the White House, where President Obama has said he will sign it.
“This agreement is a reminder that Washington can still choose to help, rather than hinder, America’s progress,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.
The Senate vote, held in the dead of night, was perhaps a fitting cap to the clashes between Republicans and the White House, which many warned had put the United States on the edge of economic calamity and which, in 2013, forced a 16-day shutdown of the federal government.Jeanne Manford, the founder of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and an all-around pioneering straight ally in the LGBT rights movement, has died at 92.
Manford died at her Daly City, Calif. home and had been in declining health for some time, daughter Suzanne Swan confirmed.
“She is known to thousands of people as the mother of the straight ally movement, but to me –- she was my mother," Ms. Swan said in an email statement. "She was someone who would always do the right thing, the good thing. She supported all people, and that meant so much to us growing up.”
Born Jeanne Sobelson on Dec. 4, 1920 in Queens, N.Y., Manford became active on behalf of LGBT rights in 1972 after her son Morty was beaten during a Gay Activists Alliance demonstration. After Morty's attack, Manford penned a letter to the editor of The New York Post, declaring "I have a homosexual son and I love him."
She subsequently joined her son in the 1972 Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade (predecessor to NYC's LGBT Pride Parade), carrying a placard stating "Parents of Gays: Unite in Support Of Our Children." The first meeting of PFLAG (which was then known as "Parents of Gays" or "POG") was held in New York's Metropolitan Community Church the following year.
"All of us -- people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and straight allies alike -- owe Jeanne our gratitude," PFLAG officials said in an email statement. "She paved the way for us to speak out for what is right, uniting the unique parent, family, and ally voice with the voice of LGBT people everywhere."San Diego, Calif., June 6, 2013 -- Bioengineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a computational model of 1,366 genes in E. coli that includes 3D protein structures and has enabled them to compute the temperature sensitivity of the bacterium’s proteins. The study, published June 7 in the journal Science, opens the door for engineers to create heat-tolerant microbial strains for production of commodity chemicals, therapeutic proteins and other industrial applications.
Students of microbiology learn early that bacterial growth is temperature sensitive. For most pathogens, the optimum growth temperature is approximately the same as the body temperature of humans, or 37 C, but some bacteria, called thermophiles, grow well at high temperatures. Determining what precisely causes some bacteria to be more heat sensitive than others has eluded scientists thus far.
“Evidence has accumulated over several decades that proteins are what limit the heat tolerance of cells, but pinpointing the weak points represented by specific proteins has never before been accomplished except when researchers have engineered certain proteins to be sensitive to temperature,” said Roger Chang, the first author on the paper who earned his Ph.D. in bioinformatics and systems biology at UC San Diego in 2012. “Not only have we predicted some of these weak points in E. coli but we did so through an unprecedented integrative computational approach drawing from both three-dimensional protein structure analysis and genome-scale cellular network modeling.”
Chang completed his Ph.D. in the Systems Biology Research Group of Professor Bernhard Palsson and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School.
Chang said the predictions about thermosensitivity of specific proteins in E. coli have been overcome by nutrient supplementation experiments, as predicted by the computational model. The next step is toengineer or evolve thermostabilizing mutations in these proteins to yield genetically thermotolerant strains.The results thus far demonstrate the potential capabilities offered by the emerging field of systems biology, which leverages the power of high-performance computing and an enormous amount of available data from the life sciences to simulate biological activities.
“Broadly speaking, this study demonstrates how fundamental understanding of biology can be revealed by integrating network and structural biology at the genome-scale,” said Professor Palsson. “Representing cellular functions in chemically accurate terms enables quantitative computation of cellular behavior. It is quite remarkable how far this field has come in just the past couple of years, and it appears that we can look forward to continuing advances in the near future.”But beyond the obvious problems, the proposed change in the tax code would cascade through the economy in many other ways.
A 25 percent rise in the value of the dollar, the most widely used currency on the planet, would have enormous consequences. Supporters think the dollar will rise that much if the plan is enacted — indeed, it must happen, to avoid sticking Americans with much higher prices for imported consumer goods.
But according to calculations by Michael J. Graetz, a Columbia law professor, a currency shift of that scale implies that Americans who hold foreign assets would lose $6.1 trillion, and foreign holders of assets in the United States would gain as much as $8.1 trillion. Meanwhile, because the dollar is the world’s benchmark currency, many businesses and governments outside the United States borrow in it, especially in emerging-market countries where confidence in the domestic currency is low.
That means that a steep run-up in the value of the dollar generally makes those debts more onerous, and causes big trouble for countries including China, South Korea and Turkey. Consider that the Asian financial crisis in 1998, the Latin American crisis in 2001 and an emerging markets slump in 2015 all had their roots in debt problems and a spike in the dollar.
What’s more, global markets in oil and other commodities are priced in dollars, so a dollar spike could unleash hard-to-predict reactions from commodity producers. Oil would become much more expensive, and oil price shocks have helped set off recessions in the not-too-distant past.
Perhaps the most irony-rich consequence of such a tax overhaul — which would, presumably, be signed by President Trump — would be the damage to the tourism and education sectors in the United States. These businesses would have a serious problem, unlike conventional exporters — companies that ship things overseas, say.
For the exporters, the disadvantages caused by a run-up in the dollar would just cancel out the advantage received from changes in the tax system. But businesses that are not exporting anything across the border would suffer from the damage of a more expensive dollar without receiving advantages from border adjustment.Ireland is not the first country you think of when the conversations turns to surfing. Everyone who surfs has checked out spots like Jaco, Costa Rica and just about anywhere on the coast of California. As it turns out’ Ireland can hold its own as a surfing destination for surfers from the amateur to professional level. It is not well known but the country that gave us Jameson and Guinness also has some quality waves.
The sport even has a governing body called the Irish Surfing Association. The ISA runs yearly competitions in towns like Antrim. Kerry and Sligo. This is the time of the year to check out some very cool surfing action on the Emerald Isle. This video is from January of this year just off the west coast of the country. The waves are ten meters and as you can see the crowd is loving the action. Make sure you check surfing on your next visit to Ireland.
Related articlesWASHINGTON — Medicare’s prescription-coverage gap is getting noticeably smaller and easier to manage this year for millions of older and disabled people with high drug costs.
The “doughnut hole,” an anxiety-inducing catch in an otherwise popular benefit, will shrink about 40 percent for those unlucky enough to land in it, according to new Medicare figures provided in response to a request from The Associated Press.
The average beneficiary who falls into the coverage gap would have spent $1,504 this year on prescriptions. But thanks to discounts and other provisions in President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law, that cost fell to $901, according to Medicare’s Office of the Actuary, which handles economic |
uelling aircraft are expected to join the exercise.The training event will include low-altitude flights in Palanga and Vilnius airports in order to improve the corresponding procedures and to train cooperation with civilian airports.The Baltic Regional Training Event (BRTE) has already been arranged for five years in succession by Headquarters Allied Air Command (COM AIRCOM) Ramstein and Combined Air Operations Centre Uedem (CAOC Uedem).Usually, three BRTEs are organised every year. The first and the third BRTEs of the same year cover coordination of the actions between the participating contingents and air capabilities of NATO allies and partners. The second training event is dedicated to honing air-land communications procedures.BRTEs demonstrate NATO commitments to collective defence, Alliance solidarity and confidence. Also, it is an opportunity for NATO member states to work and train side by side. (via Amb. Eitvydas BajarunasA new school curriculum ordered by the Education Secretary Nicky Morgan after the Trojan Horse scandal could lead to a plunge in the numbers of pupils taking Religious Studies, a leading headmistress has warned.
Fiona Boulton, head of Guildford High School in Surrey, one of the UK’s most academically successful schools, said there was increasing “distress” among teachers about the new GCSE course which could dramatically reduce the opportunity for pupils to engage in moral and ethical debates.
Under draft plans announced before Christmas, teenagers who take RS for GCSE will have to study two world religions for the first time in an overhaul intended to increase “religious literacy”.
It is part of a series of changes following revelations that hardline Islamists had attempted to take over schools in Birmingham.
RS has proved remarkably popular as a GCSE subject despite a marked decline in formal religious observance in the UK in recent decades.
One likely explanation is the fact that the current curriculum allows schools to teach a large element of philosophy and ethics alongside religion, enabling pupils to take part in lively debates about issues such assisted suicide, sexuality, genetics, business ethics and the environment.
Mrs Boulton said there is now growing concern for the future of the subject as a result of the changes.
“My biggest fear is that we will have a drop in numbers for what at the moment we perceive to be an exciting subject and we will lose those numbers as it becomes a very dry and introspective subject,” she said.
“We don’t know if they realise the implications of their decision-making
“At this stage I’m not really sure many people are aware of what is happening but within the Religious Studies teaching community the distress is there.”
She added that making changes to GCSEs and A-levels – where RS is an optional subject – rather than focusing efforts on compulsory Religious Education classes for younger children, could ultimately defeat the Government’s aim of improving religious literacy.
“Of course there was a problem with the Trojan Horse issue but I don’t think this is the way to tackle it,” she said.
“We applaud the aim of increasing religious tolerance but we don’t feel that the proposed specifications will meet that aim and we feel it is a real shame that many of the most interesting bits of the specification are being lost.”
She added: “It is one of those things that you look at and think ‘this isn’t going to work’ and it isn’t going to work because the Government is dictating it.”
Mrs Boulton’s comments were supported by an unlikely alliance of secularists and faith leaders.
Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said: “Together with the exclusion of Humanism as an annex for study – also widely supported by teachers and academics the marginalisation of ethics in GCSE and A-level Religious Studies, is one of the main things that makes the Government's new criteria so poor.
“The 2013 curriculum framework produced by the Religious Education Council made it clear that non-religious world views needed to be studied alongside so why isn't the Government listening?”
Canon Robert Cotton, a member of the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, said the current curriculum is not only popular but effective at increasing religious literacy precisely because the ethics and philosophy elements allows students to discuss issues as diverse as medical ethics and marriage law.
He said: “It is a withdrawal from that engagement, it is a withdrawal into theology, into to purely religious interests – that is not what our society needs.
“This curriculum is becoming more like a catechism.”
But a spokesman for the Department for Education said: “The new GCSE requires students to have an understanding of the beliefs, teachings and practises of two religions but still allows them to spend up to 50 per cent of the course studying philosophy and ethics.
“It is clearly not acceptable that the current system allows students achieve a religious studies qualification without studying any religion.
“It is vital that the Religious Studies GCSE provides young people with a knowledge and understanding of the diversity of religious beliefs in Great Britain.
“Every major faith group agrees the current qualification fails to do this, that’s why we have developed a new GCSE, which we have consulted on.”But the culinary action has especially taken hold in the heart of the Old City. There, behind the gilded and imposing St. George statue in Freedom Square, three restaurants have opened. Strolling the quiet streets, this visitor was pleasantly surprised to come across Ezo, tucked in a residential courtyard. Ezo, its name meaning yard, opened two years ago, and while it’s rustic, don’t be fooled. One can feast like the 12th-century Queen Tamara there for $25 per person. Many of the flavorful organic ingredients are from the owners’ farm.
Proletariat options like the salt-cured jonjoli (bladdernut flowers), staples on any Georgian table, get an unusual twist with familiar walnut garlic sauce. Tender veal in herbs is a customer magnet. Wash it down with glugs of family chacha (grappa) for an authentic accent. Walk another few minutes, on uneven cobblestones and broken sidewalks, past unmarked boutiques and fruit stalls that never seem to shut, and you will find the more upscale Azarphesha, now four years old. With walls of museum-worthy displays showcasing ancient drinking vessels, the restaurant remains of the moment. Yet with its mix of traditional tablecloths and fresh wild posies, the room couldn’t feel less pretentious, especially when a table spontaneously burst out in the traditional, emotional polyphonic village songs, as often happens.The FundStrat cofounder Tom Lee says: "If you build a very simple model valuing bitcoin as the square function number of users times the average transaction value, 94% of the bitcoin movement over the past four years is explained by that equation."
This model is based on Metcalfe's law, which says the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users on the network.
Bitcoin has been trading at a level above the price projected by the model. FundStrat remains positive on bitcoin in the long term but sees the risk of a short-term correction increasing.
Tom Lee, the cofounder of FundStrat Global Advisors, is bullish on bitcoin and has a unique way of valuing the cryptocurrency.
He says his short-term valuation model, built on Metcalfe's law, can explain the majority of bitcoin's volatility. He explained his reasoning on Business Insider's cryptocurrency show, "The Bit."
Metcalfe's law says the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users on the network.
For example, a fax machine is utterly useless if you are the only one who has one, but the value increases exponentially as other people get fax machines.
This is also true for social networks — Facebook is valuable because so many others are on it. It'd be a boring place to surf alone.
"If you double the number of users, you're more than doubling the utility value," Lee said.
Lee says the same is true for bitcoin. FundStrat looked at unique addresses as a proxy for users on the bitcoin network and found that the square of this value explained 63% of the variation in bitcoin prices since 2013.
Here's the portion of "The Bit" that explains his thinking. You can watch the full interview with Lee here.
Lee: In the short term, we think bitcoin has really followed very closely the idea of acting like a social network — meaning the more engagement there is, the greater the value rises. And in the short term, we think bitcoin will reach at least $6,000 by mid-2018.
Sara Silverstein: And you're using Metcalfe's law. Can you explain that?
Lee: So Metcalfe's a professor. He actually came up with a theorem based on George Gilder, which is the value of a network is the square of the number of users. And so if you build a very simple model valuing bitcoin as the square function number of users times the average transaction value, 94% of the bitcoin movement over the past four years is explained by that equation.
FundStrat expanded its short-term model by adding the bitcoin transaction volume per user. This linear factor explained 83% of the variation in bitcoin's price.
FundStrat found a formula by regressing the price of bitcoin against both unique addresses squared and transaction volume per user. This model explained 94% of the variation in the cryptocurrency price since 2013.
The chart below plots the projected price of bitcoin based on this model (light blue) against the actual price (dark blue dotted line). The model has a relatively good fit through the middle of this year.
FundStrat can then use this model to project the future value of bitcoin. The model requires an estimate of the number of unique addresses on the bitcoin network (squared) and an estimate of the number of transactions a day.
Lee says the model provides "a method to suggest a short-term range for bitcoin." Given this premium, Lee is a little more cautious in the short term.
"Bitcoin's longer-term technical trend remains positive," he said, "but short-term upside appears limited, and the risk of a correction is growing."Elliott Hauser is CEO of Trinket, a startup focused on creating open sourced teaching materials. He is also a Python instructor at UNC Chapel Hill.
Well-developed tools for teaching are crucial to the spread of open source software and programming languages. Stacks like those used by the Young Coders Tutorial and Mozilla Software Carpentry are having national and international impact by enabling more people to teach more often.
The spread of tech depends on teaching
Software won’t replace teachers. But teachers need great software for teaching. The success and growth of technical communities are largely dependent on the availability of teaching stacks appropriate to teaching their technologies. Resources like try git or interactivepython.org not only help students on their own but also equip instructors to teach these topics without also having to discover the best tools for doing so. In that way, they play the same function as open source Web stacks: getting us up and running quickly with time-tested and community-backed tools. Thank goodness I don’t need to write a database just to write a website; I can use open source software instead. As an instructor teaching others to code websites, what’s the equivalent tool set? That’s what I mean by Teaching Stack: a collection of open tools that help individual instructors teach technology at scale.
Elements of a great teaching stack
Here are some of the major components of a teaching stack for a hands-on technology course:
You can see the key components: Where the instructor got the materials, how the students will access them, and what development environment each will use. All too often, one or more of the components of an instructor’s teaching stack amounts to “Whatever I was able to throw together myself”. A homegrown curriculum, student development environment, and course website can be extremely confusing for students. They’re also an extraordinary amount of work for instructors, which means fewer courses are taught.
Based on my experiences teaching and observing workshops around the country, here are my three simple recommendations for Teaching Stack design:
Provide open access to your materials. This will let students revisit them after class. It also makes it possible to build relationships and collaborate with other instructors teaching the same thing. Use the same coding setup as your students. Great for you if you’re a Vim ninja; if the course isn’t about Vim, it’s probably better to get everyone using Sublime Text or another editor with a visual interface. Even if you are using command line editors, use a vanilla configuration of something like nano instead of your custom setup. It will help avoid confusion. Use materials that at least one other person has used or seen. Collaborate on or reuse materials! It’s good for the teaching community and it will be good for your students. As instructors, sharing materials with others before class gets us out of our heads and can help us realize insidious assumptions we make about background knowledge.
Below I’ll describe two teaching stacks that take these approaches and are working well at scale: the Python Young Coders Tutorial and Mozilla Software Carpentry. My message to instructors is once you’ve got a teaching stack that works, follow these projects’ example and make it easy for others to replicate and contribute to!
The stack analogy: web stacks and teaching stacks
Before we dive into teaching stacks, I’d like to briefly explain where the concept came from: the Web Stack.
At my day job, trinket.io, our web stack looks like this:
Some of these names might be familiar to you, but their categories are more important. They are major components that any Web application must have:
Thanks to open source software, almost no one writes their own software for each of these levels. We certainly didn’t. By choosing to use the open source projects listed above, we were able to get to the real work of making our application using tools built for the job instead of spending our time making tools ourselves.
Most teaching stacks are much less developed in comparison. Even though many instructors need the same tools to be successful, they still spend time creating these tools themselves when preparing to teach. The analogy isn’t perfect, of course, but I think it’s instructive.
My two examples of teaching stacks are very different but both demonstrate how great teaching stacks can have a direct and measurable impact on teaching at scale. The first is for teaching kids and the second is for teaching PhD scientists how to incorporate sophisticated tools into their workflows.
Teaching kids: Young Coder’s tutorial
The Python Young Coders Tutorial teaches kids the basics of programming by making games on a Raspberry Pi. Katie Cunningham and Barbara Shaurette gave a great talk about how to put on a Young Coders Tutorial at PyCon 2014 in Montreal. Katie’s written before on this blog about how to hold a Young Coders Tutorial in your area, and her talk with Barbara went into even more detail about the practicalities of holding an event.
The ‘Stack’ they use looks something like this:
Katie and Barbara have done an excellent job sharing their resources and equipping others to repeat their successes. In fact, they’ve inspired others like Brian Painter to run their own coding camps. A programmer by profession, Brian was able to mix elements of Craig Richardson’s resources for teaching Programming with Minecraft into his workshops for kids at the IronYard in South Carolina. Brian’s been able to get his own teaching stack up and running much more quickly thanks to Katie, Barbara, and Craig sharing what’s worked for them. Similar events are now being held for entire schools.
Well-developed teaching stacks aren’t just for teaching kids. Our next group is teaching scientists how to incorporate good software practices into their research and has one of the most well-documented teaching stacks in the world.
Teaching scientists: software carpentry’s stack
Mozilla Software Carpentry is an exceptional organization pushing the limits of open education. Their mission is to help scientists “spend less time wrestling with software and more time doing useful research”, and they’ve helped thousands since their founding in 1998. They cover the command line, Python, R, and version control. Software Carpentry’s Teaching Stack looks like this:
Over the years it’s evolved into a robust and relatively convenient way to get new scientists up and running with pro tools, complete with the best setup instructions of any workshop I’ve seen. From my experiences assisting some of their workshops and conversations with instructors, I can tell you that the experience of a SWC workshop has changed markedly since they’ve codified these instructions. Before, some instructors would go so far as to install virtual Linux machines for Windows users rather than deal with installation and compatibility problems. With their teaching stack and excellent troubleshooting Wiki page, Software Carpentry lets its students and teachers more quickly move on from installation and configuration to their real goal: teaching scientists software tools.
It’s important to zoom out and note that Software Carpentry is enabled by a much larger surrounding community. Two large communities, Python and scientific research, combine to support the project’s deeply collaborative approach to teaching. With groups like the Python Software Foundation supporting innovative teaching, events like the annual PyCon Education Summit, and support for the new Mozilla Science Lab Software Carpentry has grown to hundreds of instructors teaching thousands of students each year.
Zooming out: teaching tech takes a community
We need to define and cultivate teaching ‘stacks’, analogous to the web stacks we use every day. These stacks should be suited to different purposes and related back to different student needs. Already, successful workshops like Railsgirls, GirlDevelopIt, and Github’s Training Workshops are leading the way by making and using innovative open materials. Companies and groups that place an emphasis on teaching and learning are positioning themselves for strong growth in the future.
The takeaway: teaching stacks drive growth
Here’s the real question: Does your company or open source community have a well-maintained teaching stack so others can spread the word? If so, it’s likely to be a large component of your growth over the next few years. If not, see who else you can find who has the same teaching needs as you do and work together to build the stack that works for your subject matter and your students.
What teaching stacks have you seen that are working?
This year at OSCON we’re partnering with Devoxx4Kids to host an entire day of workshops for school aged children interested in learning more about computer programming. Workshops will include Java, Python, Scratch, Minecraft Modding, Arduino, and more.On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015
MSNBC's Chris Matthews rants, 'Where was Obama tonight?'
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Wednesday had one major question after the debate: “Where was Obama tonight?”
Matthews — who said Wednesday night's showdown “wasn’t an MSNBC debate, was it?” because it didn’t mention the “key fighting points of this campaign" — blasted Obama’s debate performance, saying he went into the night “disarmed.” What Romney was doing tonight, unlike Obama, was "winning," Matthews said.
(Also on POLITICO: Not debatable: Obama stumbled)
“Where was Obama tonight?” Matthews asked. “He should watch — well, not just ‘Hardball,’ Rachel [Maddow], he should watch you, he should watch the Reverend Al [Sharpton], he should watch Lawrence [O'Donnell], he would learn something about this debate. There's a hot debate going on in this country. Do you know where it’s being held? Here on this network is where we're having the debate. We have our knives out. We go after the people and the facts. What was he doing tonight? He went in there disarmed.”
Matthews described Obama’s debate performance as “like, ‘I’ll wait an hour and a half, I think I can get through this thing. I don’t even look at this guy.' Whereas Romney — I loved the split screen, staring at Obama, addressing him, like the prey. He did it just right. I'm coming at an incumbent. I've got to beat him. You gotta beat the champ, and I’m gonna beat him tonight. And I don't care what this guy moderator, whatever he thinks he is, because I'm going to ignore him. What was Romney doing? He was winning.”
Matthews said he didn’t know what Obama “was doing out there — he had his head down. He was enduring the debate rather than fighting it.”
Romney, though, went out there with a “plan” to dominate the evening, and he succeeded, Matthews said.
(Also on POLITICO: Romney’s 5 best debate lines)
“He was going to dominate the time. He was going to be aggressive. He was going to push the moderator around, which he did effectively. He was going to relish the evening, enjoying it. Nothing to do with the words he spoke. Here's my question for Obama. I know he likes to say he doesn't watch cable television, but maybe he should start. Maybe he should start. I don't know how he let Romney get away with the crap he threw out tonight about social security,” Matthews said.
Matthews also criticized the president for not invoking Romney’s history at Bain Capital and his “47 percent” comments that were secretly filmed during a private fundraiser.
“Why didn't Obama say that? Why didn’t he say that?” Matthews asked.Carlsberg is developing the world’s first fully biodegradable bottle for its beverages. The “Green Fiber Bottle” will be made from sustainably sourced wood fiber or paper pulp—think of the material used in egg cartons and protective packaging for electronics products—and will be much lighter than glass bottles, according to the company’s Senior Packaging Innovation Manager, Håkon Langen. “It will be a new look and feel. It will be non-transparent, non-breakable and with a visible fiber structure,” he told Quartz.
The Danish company is working with moulded packaging specialists ecoXpac, Innovation Fund Denmark, and the Technical University of Denmark to bring a product to market in the next three years.
The Carlsberg Group The Carlsberg Green Fibre Bottle being developed in collaboration with ecoXpac and experts from the Technical University of Denmark. The development is estimated to cost DKK 10M (USD 1.5M), a significant part funded by Innovation Fund Denmark.
Carlsberg’s bottles will be fully biobased and biodegradable, including the cap. Unlike a similar technology announced by the US company PaperBoy Wines last year that use a plastic bladder, Carlsberg’s bottles will be produced in one piece and use an inner coating. The bottles can be recycled like cardboard or newspapers and will decompose naturally.
PaperBoy Wines PaperBoy wine bottle conceptualized by English designer Kevin Shaw of packaging design firm Stranger & Stranger
Carlsberg is also taking great pains to make sure that the taste will not be not affected. “We never compromise on beer quality,” assures Langen. He also said the bottles are expected to stay colder for longer than aluminum cans.
The Carlsberg Group is one of the largest brewery groups in the world, owning 500 beer brands including its flagship brand, Kronenbourg, Elephant, Tuborg, and Baltika. In 2013, it sold a total of 36 billion bottles of beer in 150 markets worldwide. According to its latest annual report, packaging accounts for approximately 45% of the group’s CO2 emissions.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption About 800 registered sex offenders travelled overseas from Australia in 2016
Convicted paedophiles would be denied passports in Australia under a "world-first" plan proposed by the government.
The proposal, to be introduced to parliament, would prohibit registered sex offenders from travelling overseas.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan said it would affect about 20,000 offenders who had completed punishments but remained under monitoring by authorities.
Sex offenders would be able to apply for passports if they were no longer on the register, the government said.
"No country has ever taken such decisive and strong action to stop its citizens from going overseas, often to vulnerable countries, to abuse kids," Mr Keenan said.
About 800 registered sex offenders travelled overseas from Australia in 2016, according to the government.
Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Australian man Robert Andrew Fiddes Ellis (R) was jailed in Indonesia last year
'Abhorrent crime'
The government said about 3,200 sex offenders would never be eligible for passports because they were being monitored for life.
Mr Keenan described child sex tourism as an "absolutely abhorrent crime".
The proposal was reached with independent Senator Derryn Hinch, long time campaigner for tougher laws to deal with sex offenders.
Mr Hinch said the proposal would protect children.
"You go to Bali, you go to Phnom Penh, you go to Siem Reap, and you see these middle-aged Australian men there, Caucasian men, with a young local kid - they are not there to get a suntan," he told reporters on Tuesday.
Last year, Australian man Robert Andrew Fiddes Ellis was convicted of sexually abusing 11 girls in Indonesia and jailed for 15 years.Aussie market hits nine-month high, dollar surges
Updated
The Australian market has posted a nine-month closing high dragged upwards by gains in the major banks.
The finance and materials sub-indices demonstrated their dominance of the overall stock market - they were the only two sectors to rise, with the other eight groups falling, yet the overall market gained 0.5 per cent.
The All Ordinaries index finished at 4,271, while the ASX 200 gained 19 points to 4,263.
Major movers
ANZ and NAB led the charge of the big banks, with both up 2.5 per cent, and CBA and Westpac both up by just under 2 per cent. The banks have benefited from broker upgrades as the wave of economic optimism has led analysts to upgrade their profit forecasts. The ANZ also gained after sources told several media outlets that ANZ is close to a deal worth around $1 billion to purchase some of RBS' Asian assets.
Aquarius Platinum was amongst the best gaining miners, surging 8 per cent on a broker upgrade.
Wheat exporter GrainCorp jumped 6.7 per cent to $8.00 after it raised its profit forecast for a second time. Competitor AWB also gained 4.2 per cent on the news.
Sino Gold picked up 2.8 per cent on the discovery of gold mineralisation near its White Mountain mine in China.
Industrial and mining equipment maker Bradken led a charge by those companies that provide goods and services to the mining industry. It was up 5.1 per cent to $5.55.
Casino operator Crown slipped 2.9 per cent to $7.28 after a broker downgrade.
Property groups were also generally weaker, with Mirvac slipping 2.8 per cent.
World markets
Chinese stocks helped drive the main index of Asia-Pacific stocks (excluding Japan) to an 11 month high, as two surveys showed accelerating Chinese factory output growth. Car and tyre makers were among the biggest winners, after the US Government announced increased funding for its "cash for clunkers" program to encourage households to trade up to more fuel efficient vehicles.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei finished flat at 10,352.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 1 per cent at 5:38pm (AEST).
Mainland China's Shanghai composite index gained 1.5 per cent to 3,463, its highest level since March last year.
Singapore's main share index was flat at 2,659.
European markets have opened up, and US stock futures are also higher.
West Texas crude oil has surged back above $US70 a barrel, and was fetching $US70.91 at 5:48pm, and Tapis is worth $US73.93.
Gold has also surged almost $US15 to $US953.38 an ounce, largely on today's sharp decline in the US dollar.
The US dollar has fallen to its lowest level so far this year, and that decline helped the Australian dollar hit a 10-month high.
It hit a peak of 83.94 US cents, which is its highest level since last September.
The resurgence is due to increased optimism about a global economic recovery, and demand for currencies linked to commodities. At 5:53pm the Australian dollar was fetching:
83.60 US cents
79.41 Japanese yen
58.80 euro cents
49.96 British pence
1.2612 New Zealand dollars
Topics: stockmarket, business-economics-and-finance, company-news, markets, currency, futures, australia, asia
First postedAs told to Nancy Dillon:
Donald Trump is the chaos President — and it's time that he resign.
He has failed this country in less than two weeks on the job, decimating sacred American ideals and sparking momentous protests in our streets and airports.
His executive order selectively banning people from seven Muslim-majority countries as well as vulnerable refugees goes against the Constitution.
Homeland Security boss didn't see last draft of Trump refugee ban
It clearly places a religious litmus test at the border, with minority religious groups receiving preferential treatment over their Muslim counterparts.
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates made a courageous and principled stand against the egregious order, and Trump's ego couldn't take it. He fired her.
He is ignorant of history and facts and has no interest in learning. He reacts based on his emotion and his "alternative facts."
When he previously called for a "total and complete shutdown" of Muslims entering the U.S. in 2015, I invited him to see my Broadway musical "Allegiance," based on my personal experience as a child in two U.S. internment camps during World War II.
New York officially joins legal fight against Trump’s travel ban
We reserved a seat for him every night. He never came.
I wasn't surprised. I was on his show "Celebrity Apprentice" and know how stubborn he is. Part of education is having students willing to learn. He isn't willing. You can present him with empirical data, and he chooses his own "alternative facts."
It's a fact that more than 120,000 innocent Japanese Americans were rounded up and placed in camps starting in 1942. "Allegiance" is a reminder that we as a country have the capacity to do something that horrific and un-American.
Less than two weeks on the job and Trump has already failed the nation, Takei says. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
I will never forget the terrorizing morning two soldiers marched up the driveway of my family's two-bedroom home in Los Angeles carrying rifles with shiny bayonets. They stomped up the front porch and pounded on the front door with their fists.
Brooklyn judge who granted stay presides over naturalization
Tears were streaming down my mother's face as we left.
Our first stop was the Santa Anita racetrack because the camps were not built yet. We were herded over to the stable area, where each family was assigned one horse stall. The stench of horse manure was still pungent.
For my parents, it was a degrading, humiliating, terrifying experience.
About two months later, we took a long train ride to a camp in Arkansas. I went to school behind barbed wire fencing. Outside my schoolhouse windows, I could see machine guns pointed down at us from the sentry towers as we recited the Pledge of Allegiance each day.
Protesters rally in NYC against Trump's travel ban
Sally Yates tried to do the right thing as acting attorney general by opposing Trump's travel ban. Then Trump's ego got in the way, Takei says. (SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
I was too young to understand the stinging irony of the words, "with liberty and justice for all."
I would still like Donald Trump to see "Allegiance." We filmed one of the performances and will screen it at more than 600 theaters on Feb. 19, the 75th anniversary of the executive order, signed by President Franklin Roosevelt, that began my family's forced relocation.
If President Trump would like a private viewing at the White House, we would be happy to accommodate his schedule. We would love for him to get a little education on this important chapter in history.
But it likely wouldn't change his mind.
Muslim brothers signed away their visas under Trump order: suit
During a press conference for "Celebrity Apprentice," I got him to agree on the record to meet me for lunch to discuss marriage equality. I fully expected him to demur, but he surprised me and accepted the invitation.
Syrian refugees wait to board a Jordanian army vehicle after crossing into Jordanian territory with their families, in Al Ruqban border area, near the northeastern Jordanian border with Syria, and Iraq in September 2015. (MUHAMMAD HAMED/REUTERS)
The day of our meeting, he rushed in and said very excitedly, "I went to a gay wedding, and it was beautiful. You gays have such great taste."
I asked why he didn't publicly support marriage equality, and he said that wasn't possible. He only believed in "traditional marriage," he said. Never mind his own track record and what he'd just said.
Trump can profess a principle and then go blatantly against it. He is ignorant, and because of his ignorance, he is fearful. Actually, the real terrorist is Donald Trump. He's the American terrorist.
2,000 Google employees protest Trump’s travel ban
After a Trump surrogate recently cited the Japanese AMERICAN camps as a "precedent" for a possible Muslim registry, I heard a chilling echo from the 40s. On Jan. 10, I started a petition on Care2.com stating my support of Muslim people and opposing any policies that target them unfairly.
In just 21 days, it received more than 249,500 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.
President Trump should take notice. He should resign before he is forced out or impeached. It's clear he cannot govern.
George Takei is an actor, author and activist. He famously portrayed Hikaru Sulu, the helmsman of the USS Enterprise, in the "Star Trek" TV series and six feature films.The Pentagon today halted all discharges of gay troops under "don't ask, don't tell" and will now accept applications from prospective recruits who are homosexual, the Army Times reports.
But it's still not clear whether the Obama administration will turn to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court Wednesday banned further enforcement of the policy, which has prohibited gays from serving openly, writes the Army Times, which is published by USA TODAY's parent, Gannett Co. Inc.
Congress repealed the law in December after a federal judge ruled that DADT was unconstitutional. The repeal stipulated that DADT would be formally repealed 60 days after the defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs "certify" that it will not adversely impact military readiness.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he expected certification in late July or early August.
The Pentagon's moratorium came on the day the U.S. House voted to prohibit chaplains from performing same-sex marriages on military bases regardless of a state's law.The Verge We're two weeks away from Microsoft's Windows 8 launch, scheduled for Oct. 26, but it seems at least one Walmart store got ahead of itself and placed the software on store shelves.
Today The Verge received a tip from one of its readers showing boxed copies of Windows 8 Pro, a high-end consumer version of its popular PC operating system, on Walmart store shelves.
The reader spoke with employees and was informed that the software was available for purchase and that "the store just wasn't fully promoting them yet — despite being on display fully."
Last week the box art for Microsoft's newest operating system was released along with pre-order pricing and availability.
If your local Walmart doesn't have Windows 8 available for purchase, MaximumPC is reporting that Best Buy stores are already displaying Windows 8 PCs.
These are demo machines, not units available for purchase, but if you want to get an idea of what Windows 8 is like, you can play around with them.
Don't miss: If You're Jumping Out Of Your Skin To Get Windows 8, Here's How To Order It Now >Image caption Talks over North Korea's nuclear programme have stalled repeatedly in the past
North Korea says it is eager to resume six-party talks on its nuclear programme "at an early date" and "without preconditions".
North Korea remained "unchanged" in its desire to restart the talks, a foreign ministry statement said.
Six-party talks involving North and South Korea, the US, Russia, China and Japan were last held in late 2008.
North Korea's statement came after two days of exploratory talks between the US and North Korea in New York.
The week before, North Korean officials met counterparts from the South on the sidelines of a security conference in Indonesia.
North Korea pulled out of the six-party talks in April 2009, shortly before carrying out a second nuclear test.
The North Korean statement said the government was ready to fulfil commitments it signed up to in 2005 to end its nuclear programme in return for energy and economic aid.
Following talks in New York on Friday, a US official said the path was open to better relations with North Korea, if the country was really committed to stopping its nuclear programme.Even here in Alabama, which has the highest prevalence of diabetes in the country, the rate of new cases has begun to taper. According to figures for 2013, the most recent available by state, 12.7 percent of Alabama’s residents had the disease.
In the tiny town of Eutaw, Lynette Carpenter got serious about staving off diabetes around the time her cousin’s leg was amputated because of the disease. She started to make a dish she called Sexy Pork Chops, involving a bell pepper, an onion and the oven. She weaned herself off Coca-Cola, going from about 50 cans a week to fewer than seven. And she started walking, leaving rubber bands in her mailbox to pull onto her arm — one for each mile walked — to remind her how many miles she had gone. The result made her doctor proud: She lost 42 pounds, and two years later has still not developed full-blown diabetes.
Diabetes “has got my respect and attention,” she said. “I take it real serious.”
Robin Williams, a music teacher in Birmingham, lost 33 pounds by cutting out candy, packing her lunch and not buying fast food during long bus trips to band practice, habits she learned in a Y.M.C.A. program on diabetes prevention. She started watching “My 600-lb Life,” a television show about people losing weight, with her teenage daughter. The show frightened her, as did her father’s leg amputations two years ago. She is down to 222 pounds, and is determined to keep going.
“I want to see my child grow up,” Ms. Williams said. She uses an app on her phone to track her calories. “It made me much more conscious of what I was putting in my mouth.”
Diabetes has been particularly devastating here in what is known as the Black Belt, a strip of counties that originally got its name for its fertile soil. Its majority black populations |
Rigondeaux, who quit after the sixth round with an alleged injured hand. But everyone who saw the fight, saw the truth. By the third round it was clear that Rigondeaux too, like everybody else, is not in the same league as this Ukrainian wizard who uses his two fists as magic wands.
Trying to fight Lomachenko, is like trying to extinguish a raging, out of control fire with one bucket of water. Or a two armed fighter trying to defeat a six-armed Mike Tyson.
There’s just too many moves, too many unpredictable punches and onslaughts to deal with. All the sudden Lomachenko throws three straight jabs or hooks, then when his genius urges take over, he unleashes this absurd five-punch volley of a combination no man has ever tried or even imagined to throw before.
Even a renowned mastermind like Rigondeaux, one of the greatest and most accomplished boxers in history, was simply overwhelmed and no match at all for Lomachenko’s symphony of violent artistry.
Yes, we must consider that Rigondeaux did courageously move up two weight classes for this fight and was the smaller combatant but even if he was the same exact size as Lomachenko, it was quite obvious the outcome would not have been any different. Rigondeaux has about a dozen different arrows in his arsenal, Lomachenko has about ten dozen, maybe more.
As for the future for Lomachenko, there aren’t many legit challengers on the horizon in his weight class of around 135-140. The most interesting fight for Lomachenko is probably against Floyd Mayweather at 147 but one could easily see the risk-averse American dodging that option with another inventory of excuses. Unusual as the match up appears, this fight would make a lot of sense and surely would fascinate the public.
The problem is Mayweather could very easily lose it and lose it badly, and Mayweather and his protector Al Haymon rarely will ever put themselves in a position where Bob Arum would have the last laugh.
But the reality is, Vasyl Lomachenko put on one of the all time greatest ring performances last night, on the same level, if not even higher than the very best we ever saw from Roy Jones, Manny Pacquiao, Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Salvador Sanchez, Ray Robinson, Roberto Duran, and Sugar Ray Leonard.
And it was a privilege last night to watch Lomachenko, who may not only be the pound-for-pound best boxer in the sport right now but the number one, most amazing athlete today in all sports, ahead of Roger Federer, Serena Williams, LeBron James, Sidney Crosby, and Tom Brady.Photo
Dani Dayan is articulate and charming, a lively and provocative conversationalist. An immigrant from Argentina and a Spanish speaker, he is an Israeli settler from the West Bank, and the controversial former head of the settler movement.
Mr. Dayan is also a fervent opponent of a Palestinian state and believes Israel has a historic claim to the West Bank. That is not the position of Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who says he supports two states.
Yet, Mr. Dayan, 60, is the man Mr. Netanyahu has sent to be Israel’s consul general in New York. It was the consolation prize after Brazil rejected his appointment as Israel’s ambassador to that country because of his settler background. The consul general job is an important and sensitive one, especially in a year when partisan divisions in Washington have widened over the Iran nuclear deal, which Mr. Netanyahu and the Republican-led Congress oppose. Mr. Dayan met with the Editorial Board this week to discuss his latest career challenges. Excerpts from the hour-long conversation, condensed and edited, are below:
You are not a run-of-the-mill diplomat or bureaucrat. How do you see your new job?
I really have no difficulty representing this government. It is well known that I identify with this government. I campaigned for the formation of this government. I endorsed Mr. Netanyahu in the last two elections and campaigned for him. My role is to garner support for Israel in New York. I’m a diplomat today, not a leader myself or a decision maker.
How will you deal with conflicts between AIPAC, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which is seen as supportive of Mr. Netanyahu’s policies, and J Street, a more liberal group that has often been critical of Mr. Netanyahu?
I can’t ignore it. And you know I think that any position within the Jewish community for sure, but any position that does not preclude Israel’s right to exist, is legitimate. I’m not talking about those fanatics or demagogues that, in fact, are against the existence of Israel. But all the other groups that are pro-Israel, that are empathic towards Israel — they love Israel but criticize it, sometimes strongly, and have been disenchanted with Israel on some of its policies or even most of its policies with the current government — they are not only legitimate interlocutors, in some sense they are going to be my main interlocutors in the Jewish community. Look, I didn’t come here to preach to the choir. I will allocate a disproportionate amount of my time to those that in some sense love Israel but are disappointed. The perception that Israel in some sense is becoming a partisan issue in American politics is also a matter of grave concern to me.
Are you including J Street in that outreach because you have been quoted in the press as being critical of them, suggesting they are anti-Israel?
No, I never said they are anti-Israel. There was a minor incident that I took responsibility for the phrasing. You know, English is not my native language. I had a TV interview and my opponent said that the welcome to Donald Trump at the AIPAC convention contradicts Jewish values. And I said, look, I am much more concerned about some candidates that are endorsed by J Street, which are — not J Street, the candidates — anti-Israeli, and I intended to say, you know, symmetrically, that contradicts Jewish values, and at the end I said it’s un-Jewish. And that was a mistake to say un-Jewish. I never said J Street is un-Jewish; I just said a certain position by J Street contradicts Jewish values. I have personal very good relations with J Street leadership. I don’t believe in ostracizing.
Isn’t your position on the West Bank quite different from Mr. Netanyahu’s, given that he has committed himself to a two-state solution and you say it is impossible?
Prime Minister Netanyahu is committed to establishing the Palestinian state as a way to achieve peace if it is a demilitarized Palestinian state and it recognizes Israel as a Jewish state and there are security arrangements that will prevent further attacks on Israel. I think that I do not disagree with Prime Minister Netanyahu in the perception that it is not going to happen in the near future and the reason it’s not going to happen has nothing to do with Israel or with the settlements. It’s 100 percent because of the Palestinian positions.
Do we understand correctly that Israel has plans to do outreach among Latinos in the New York region, including targeted scholarships?
Definitely I am. We identified different communities in the New York area as a priority; I will dedicate a very large amount of my time and effort to the Hispanic community, the Latino community.
Who is better for Israel, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?
Any American president is good for Israel.Why are we making this film?
In our featured Vietnam veteran's words, Guy Spagnoli "has been trying to tell this story for years and no one has ever listened." We are making this film because we believe that providing viewers a portal into this one veteran's and his family's experience with his PTSD will help give insight to understanding the condition on a humanistic level and open the doors of conversation on broader social issues that need to be addressed around the treatment of PTSD.
THE FACTS:
Nearly 50% of veterans suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) do not seek treatment. With your help, we hope that this story can help raise awareness about PTSD, alternatives to medication, and help support and inspire both veterans and their loved ones.
What is the background of the film?
About a year ago, Brent was an editor on a short documentary film about a Vietnam War veteran, Guy Spagnoli. The film was about his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result from the Vietnam War.
The one thing missing was that the film had not touched on the parts of Guy's life that had clearly inspired him to overcome the daily adversities of PTSD and to have made his dream come true of graduating from Columbia College Chicago with a degree in cinematography.
Guy Spagnoli
As an editor, Brent spends a lot of time getting to know his subjects, and he ended up sending Guy a friend request on Facebook so he could stay in touch. Almost immediately, he started to notice a trend with Guy's posts...EVERYTHING was about Disney! More than half of his pictures were at Disney World or of him dressed as a Disney character. In fact, just about every single post he shared was from a Disney Facebook page.
Guy as Mr. Incredible
Then, one day, Guy shared this Walt Disney quote: "We seek to estimate the future and its bearing on our existence, as well as dwelling fondly on the past or indulging in escapist dreams." Brent started to wonder...were there underlying psychological factors in this obsession over Disney that helped him escape the events he experienced in the war?
Guy in Vietnam
He realized he had finally found the other half of the film. He told Guy that he wanted to continue filming him but focus on his Disney fascination and the support he receives from his family, and Guy insisted that the filmmakers come out to his home.
Laura and Guy Spagnoli
What the filmmakers hope to achieve with this film is to raise awareness of PTSD and its victims, explore alternatives to medication, and most of all, share a story about a brave friend who despite the war in his mind, uses a little imagination, and keeps moving forward.
Visit our website: www.keepmovingforwarddoc.com
How Will Your Donation Be Used?
Your donation will be used to help pay for the additional shooting we have left and towards the post-production of the film, as well, including an music and color grading.
Who We Are
Brent Bandemer (Director, Editor, Co-Producer) Brent discovered documentary filmmaking while studying post-production at Columbia College Chicago. When directing a short documentary on a sub-culture quickly transformed into a character story, he saw the true dynamic nature of the documentary genre. After winning the Audience and Jury awards for his film Gone at Columbia’s student film festival, he immersed himself in documentary courses and his affinity continued to grow along with his editing and directing skills. Upon graduating, he was accepted into Kartemquin Films’ internship program where he was able to experience film production at various stages.
Emily Strong (Producer, Sound Recorder) Emily is currently a multimedia producer for The School Project, a 6-part mini-series on the aftermath of the unprecedented permanent closing of 49 neighborhood schools in Chicago. She is passionate about sharing authentic and inspiring stories from diverse perspectives that help move the conversation forward and promote social change.
Stephanie V. Strauss (Director of Photography) Stephanie is a documentary filmmaker and photographer from Chicago. She attended the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine; her final photo story she produced at Salt documentiing eleven women studying to be midwives was published in February 2015 on the storytelling website, Narratively. Stephanie received her BA in Humanities with a concentration in Art History from University of Colorado at Boulder, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, Summa cum Laude. Stephanie uses her camera to spread awareness about dyslexia and is interested in the way science and art interact. You can visit Stephanie’s work here: http://www.svstraussphotography.com/about
Taylor Sitton (Second Camera) Taylor is a recent graduate of Columbia. He has shot and directed multiple music videos and documentaries, including the original interview with Guy Spagnoli at Columbia College. Taylor is interested in social change in documentary as well as fiction. His most recent film in production, Judges, tells a story about a gifted teenager hoping to transcend the stigma of African-Americans living on the south side of Chicago
Mike DeCarlo (Cartoonist) We're fortunate enough to be collaborating with Mike on this project. Check out his work below and our reward section to see how you can get your own personal caricature! Mike began his commercial art career in the late 1970's as a Sports Cartoonist and Medical and Textbook illustrator. By 1980, he had moved on to the Comic and Animation fields, working with both Marvel and DC Comics on such titles as Thor, Iron Man, Conan The Barbarian, Batman, Green Lantern and Superman. In the mid-90's he graduated to doing licensing and animation drawings for Warner Publishing, Disney Press, Nickelodeon Magazine, The Cartoon Network and Archie Comics. He currently has a 15 year affiliation with The Simpsons, working on their internationally distributed Comic Book line. Mike also is very involved with using his website (www.mikedecarloart.com) to do privately commissioned drawings for clients all over the world. He is married for nearly 34 years and has 4 grown children.
Mike DeCarlo IllustrationAbout ten mosques in the Netherlands received threatening letters over the past days. The letters contain swastikas and texts like "You will soon receive important visitors, pigs" and "Islam is the devil's religion".
Mosque leaders are very concerned about the tone of these "disgusting threatening letters", the council for mosques in the Netherlands RMMN said to broadcaster NOS. the RMMN advised mosques to be alert and to press charges of file police reports.
"We hope that the police track down and prosecute the perpetrators. We also call on politicians to pay more attention to security at mosques. It would be good if mosque leaders are supported by the government and feel protected in their rights", a spokesperson for the RMMN said to the broadcaster. "That this is happening precisely on the day that the Netherlands commemorates the February Strike of 1941, makes us sad and anxious at the same time."
A spokesperson for the police confirmed to the broadcaster that they know about the letters and are taking it very seriously. The investigation is ongoing.When last week Hong Kong's overnight CNH funding rates exploded to the highest since January, many ascribed it to the liquidity scarcity ahead of Chinese holidays on Thursday and Friday. However, we claimed that as the PBOC continues its struggled to prevent USDCNH from rising above 6.70, pushing funding costs to stratospheric levels was precisely one of the tools it was using.
As we explained last Wednesday, "one reason for the latest surge in funding costs is that with Chinese and Hong Kong holidays on deck, liquidity is scarce. The Hong Kong market will be closed on Friday for the mid-autumn festival and the China markets will be closed on Thursday and Friday. China has traditionally intervened in currency markets just before holidays: last October using illiquidity just before its long National Day celebrations to intervene in Hong Kong and reduce an embarrassingly wide gap between the offshore and onshore rates. Of course, next week we will have the Fed and BOJ meetings as well, where uncertainty is leading to even more illiquidty."
However, the most likely explanation is that in order to force Yuan shorts to capitulate as 6.70 remains just barely within reach, the PBOC is simply continuing to squeeze the yuan shorts and raising the cost of shorting yuan, as explained last week. Ultimately, the PBoC weakened its yuan fix by 169 pips to 6.6895 versus yesterday’s 6.6726, even as many were expecting the USDCNY to finally breach the the 6.70 resistance level, the defense of whjich may have explained today's aggressive spike in HIBOR tightening.
This theory was validated overnight when the overnight interbank yuan rate surged the most since January in Hong Kong amid what Bloomberg said was "speculation China’s central bank is intervening to fend off bearish bets on the currency." The offshore yuan funding cost, known as Hibor, jumped 15.7% points in its second-biggest gain on record to 23.7% according to a fixing from the Treasury Markets Association. That’s the highest since January, when the People’s Bank of China was also suspected to be mopping up liquidity to boost the exchange rate. Funding conditions tightened on Monday even after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said Thursday banks in the city had tapped its liquidity facilities. The three-month yuan interbank rate climbed 81 basis points in Hong Kong to 5.86%, the highest since February, while the one-month rate increased to an eight-month high.
As we explained previously, amid expectations that the Yuan was tumbled following the end of last week's G-20 meeting in China, the yuan instead stabilized as offshore funding costs climbed ahead of last week’s holidays and amid speculation the PBOC was engineering a squeeze. Such a crunch would help discourage short positions on the currency before the Federal Reserve’s review of monetary policy this week and the yuan’s entry into the International Monetary Fund’s basket of reserve currencies next month.
A jump in yuan Hibor hurts bears in two ways: by increasing the cost to borrow the currency and sell it, and also by prompting lenders that want to avoid paying the higher rates to buy the yuan they need in the spot market instead, bolstering the exchange rate. The rate surged to a record 66.8 percent in January, prompting turmoil in local and global financial markets.
“The result is to support the currency at a time when 6.70 suddenly seems a very important line in the sand,” said Michael Every, Hong Kong-based head of financial markets research for Asia-Pacific at Rabobank Group. “You’d almost think it was a pegged currency.”
Sure enough, the USDCNH has remained under 6.70 however at a price: namely the PBOC tipping its hands that it has to actively punish Yuan shorts by making shorting effectively impossible.
Additionally, despite last week's dollar gains, the PBOC strengthened the yuan’s fixing by 0.16 percent Monday, in another sign stability is preferred before the U.S. and Japan both deliberate monetary policy this week.
There is another reason why rates have soared: according to Sue Trinh, Royal Bank of Canada’s Hong Kong-based head of Asian foreign-exchange strategy, the recent crunch was partly caused by the PBOC not rolling over its forward positions from last year. Chinese banks were suspected to have sold dollar-yuan forwards last year at the PBOC’s behest, and now that these positions aren’t being extended, the lenders have to settle the contracts by delivering yuan.
“It is reasonable to say that the Chinese authorities are increasingly ‘de-sensitizing’ the yuan from external uncertainties and potential shocks from the Bank of Japan and Fed this week,” said Christy Tan, head of markets strategy in Hong Kong at National Australia Bank Ltd. Tight liquidity before Mid-Autumn Festival holidays last week and the weeklong break in October “provides an additional avenue for the Chinese authorities to maintain the squeeze and ward off speculative selling in the offshore yuan,” she added.
Some more sellside observations on the ongoing liquidity squeeze in the Hong Kong overnight market:
Rabobank Group (Michael Every, head of financial markets research for Asia Pacific)
Hibor isn’t as high as in January but same message is being sent
CNH liquidity is tight either by design or by error; result is to support the currency at a time when 6.70 suddenly seems a very important line in the sand. See more
RBC (Sue Trinh, head of Asian FX strategy)
If China doesn’t roll over positions built during the intervention last yr as they come to maturity it removes CNH liquidity from the market
As intervention was heaviest in Sept. 2015, funding squeeze related to 1-yr fwd intervention last year maturing will abate
Societe Generale (Frances Cheung, head of Asia ex-Japan rates strategy)
CNH Hibor rates are probably boosted by temporary demand on offshore yuan as China might choose not to rollover previous positions in forward market
Liquidity is tightening as previous forward/swap positions that China probably built since last August mature. See more
Mizuho Bank (Ken Cheung, FX strategist)
CNH liquidity remains tight despite HKMA yuan injection, suggesting market participants are cautious in offering CNH in the interbank market
Soaring carry costs for short positions appear to reverse bearish sentiment on the yuan
Cash supply will remain relatively tight as HKMA’s liquidity injection looks to have failed to smooth over concerns
NAB (Christy Tan, head of markets strategy)
Chinese authorities are increasingly “desensitizing” yuan from external uncertainties from BOJ and Fed meetings this week; Preference is for currency stability ahead of the October 1 SDR entry
Thin liquidity ahead of the Mid-Autumn holiday and then the Golden Week holidays provides an additional avenue for China to maintain the squeeze and ward off speculative selling in CNH
Commerzbank (Zhou Hao, economist)
Betting against yuan won’t be profitable now
PBOC is trying to squeeze out bears by pushing the costs to short the currency very high
It remains to be seen how long the PBOC can maintain this charade of stability and lack of outflows at the expense of crushing shorts and anyone else who dares to take on the Chinese central bank.Coach Allison McNeill hadn’t really thought much about the name of SFU’s sports teams until she brought her women’s basketball team to the American South for the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) national championships for the first time in 1990.
She remembers the 32 competing teams sitting down for a banquet in Jackson, Tennessee and each team being introduced and applauded in turn – until SFU’s turn came up.
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“They said, ‘the Simon Fraser University Clan,’ and there was an absolute hush around the room,” she said.
SFU players hoist coach Allison McNeill onto their shoulders after the team secures its first berth into the NAIA national championship in 1990.
At first the SFU players and coaches were confused, thinking it might have something to do with them being Canadian, McNeill said.
They only clued in after the guest speaker, U.S. soccer star Kyle Rote Jr., stepped up to the podium and took it upon himself to explain the team name, McNeill said.
Aside from a 10-year partial transfer to Canadian Interuniversity Sport between 2000 and 2010, SFU has spent most of its existence competing in the U.S., first in the NAIA and, since 2010, in the NCAA as a Division 2 school.
For decades, SFU coaches and athletes have found themselves explaining the team name to American competitors to differentiate it from that other Klan, the white supremacist hate group, the Ku Klux Klan.
Holly Andersen, an SFU philosophy professor originally from Montana, says it’s time to pull the plug – especially in light of recent Neo-Nazi and Klan rallies as close to home as Seattle.
She has launched a petition aimed at convincing the powers that be to change the SFU team name.
“I think the term ‘clan’ has vastly different meanings in the U.S. and in Canada,” she told the NOW, “and so, in the Canadian context, it’s not a problematic term. But in the U.S. context, it’s one of the worst words you can say.”
Since SFU has invited itself into the NCAA, “into their house,” Andersen said, it’s disrespectful, especially to black American opponents, for the university to keep competing under a name with so much racist baggage.
“Everybody in the U.S. knows that that’s not what the Canadians mean by it,” she said. “There’s nobody who thinks we’re actually members of the Ku Klux Klan. Nevertheless, it’s like standing in someone’s face and swearing at them really loudly.”
SFU philosophy professor Holly Andersen has launched a petition to change SFU’s team name to something other than "the Clan." - Youtube
With the university already in the NCAA and getting ready to build a brand new stadium on Burnaby Mountain by 2020, Andersen said the time is perfect for a name change.
Without it, SFU will make it hard for her and others who share her view to get behind the university’s sports teams, she said.
“It’s just not a thing you can cheer or be proud of,” she said.
Some SFU sports alumni disagree.
McNeill, who after 13 seasons at SFU and 11 trips to the NAIA nationals went on to coach Canada’s national women’s basketball team for 11 years, said she was always proud of the university’s unique team name.
“We used the name when we talked about our teams – we’re family, we stick together, we work together,” she said.
That being said, McNeill said discussion is always good.
“Maybe it has to be looked at, but I know, traditionally, it was a positive thing for our team,” she said.
Richard White, who played football at SFU from 1979 to 1982 before playing four years in the CFL, is even more passionate about the team name.
“It would be very painful for me, a name change,” said the Oakville, Ont. native.
For him, “the clan” is a powerful symbol of strength and resilience.
“That’s how the Scottish people survived; it’s because of family,” he said. “They were persecuted and taken advantage of and everything, but the one thing that they always had is that they had their family.”
His pride in his Scottish heritage (Murray of Tullibardine) comes from his mother, whose own mother was Scottish and whose father was a merchant marine from Africa.
A 1977 SFU football program features the name "Clansmen." - SFU archives
“She grew up in Scotland as a black person, and the prejudice and the attitude toward black people in Scotland was kind of tough for her,” White said, “but the other part of it was that my whole life I understood the idea of clansmen because she was from a clan.”
White said he and his mother were excited when he was recruited by a Canadian university with Scottish roots.
As one of the Clan’s few black players between 1979 and 1982, however, he often took the brunt of the team name’s negative baggage in the U.S.
“I would get questioned quite quickly; maybe the other guys didn’t,” he said. “But right away, whether it was from a bellhop helping us with our bags or the guy at the desk, usually
One of his most “nerve-racking” moments came at the University of Idaho.
“There was a big banner across the stadium and it said, ‘Help the Idaho Vandals wipe out the KKKlan,’” White said.
Worse yet, he said, were the fans who seemed to like the idea of a connection between the Clan and the KKK and who yelled racist slurs at him and told him to get off the field.
For White, though, “clan” has remained a powerfully positive word.
“To change it, I feel like we’re giving in,” he said.
Alternatives suggested by Andersen (including the Tartans, a nod to SFU’s first student newspaper, and the Pipers, a reference to the university’s world famous pipe band) don’t pack the same clout for White.
In the American context, however, Andersen maintains there is no way to save the word “clan” from its association with the Ku Klux Klan and the ideas that group represents.
The SFU Clansmen take on the Portland State Vikings in NAIA basketball action in 1977. SFU's nickname was emblazoned on the front of the team's uniform that year. - SFU archives
“They already own that word,” she said, “and they owned that word for more than 50 years before SFU ever decided to pick that name. Within the U.S. context, there is no way for it to ever mean anything other than what it means. There’s no reclaiming it from them. The black student athletes that we play against are the people that we’re actually punishing by sticking to that name.”
Andersen said she’s found current student athletes and more recent alumni don’t feel a personal connection to the name.
“It’s only when you look further further back that people really feel this deep connection to that name as sort of representing their thing, and I think the university itself has really changed. …While the past is important, it also really matters that it’s not somehow more important than anything that will ever happen at SFU.”
Andersen’s petition had 325 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.
In the petition, she calls on people to leave comments with their signatures, especially if they are student athletes in the U.S. or work at an American college or university.
“Some Canadians think the Klan is old history – we need to show them it is not,” she writes.
Andersen met with athletics director Theresa Hanson on Aug. 31, according to a petition update, and hopes to meet with SFU president Andrew Petter on the matter later this month.
The university is aware of the criticisms about the Clan name, according to SFU communications director Kurt Heinrich.
“This concern is not new, but it has been given new impetus by recent events in the United States,” Heinrich wrote in an emailed statement. “We will be reviewing the situation in light of recent events, and will consider what further steps, if any, might be taken to avoid possible misunderstandings relating to the use of this name by our athletic teams.”
To read Andersen’s petition, visit tinyurl.com/ClanPetition.
What's in a name?
When the university atop Burnaby Mountain decided to take on the name of North West Company explorer Simon Fraser in 1965, it adopted his Scottish roots as well.
From its motto and coat of arms to its world famous pipe band and current mascot (a tartan-wearing Scottish terrier named McFogg the Dog), the university has taken on numerous Scottish symbols over the years.
From the beginning, its teams have been known as the Clan, the Clansmen and, later, the Clanswomen.
While the gender neutral “Clan” is more commonly used today, there’s no evidence the change from Clansmen and Clanswomen was ever officially made, according to SFU reference archivist Paul Hebbard.
A Scottish clan (from the Gaelic word for children) is a kinship group among Scottish people that gives members a shared identity.
The “Klan” part of the Ku Klux Klan derives from the same Gaelic word.HOUSTON (Reuters) - A tanker carrying disputed Iraqi Kurdish crude oil reappeared on satellite tracking on Monday near Texas, days after having gone silent with a $100 million cargo, but the latest vessel data showed it had not offloaded at sea.
A still image from video taken by a U.S. Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft shows the oil tanker United Kalavyrta (also known as the United Kalavrvta), which is carrying a cargo of Kurdish crude oil, approaching Galveston, Texas July 25, 2014. REUTERS/US Coast Guard/handout via Reuters
According to AIS ship tracking data used by the U.S. Coast Guard and Reuters, the United Kalavrvta, which has been in limbo for weeks, was still 95 percent full.
Its would-be U.S. buyer has balked at taking delivery of the cargo, and Baghdad has filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court saying exports by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) are illegal. The KRG argues they are allowed under the Iraqi constitution.
The vessel was anchored on Monday in the Galveston Offshore Lightering Area, essentially unmoved from its previously known position.
Vessels such as the United Kalavrvta, which are too big to enter ports near Houston, use the lightering area to transfer their cargoes to smaller ships before delivery.
Baghdad has made clear it could file more legal challenges to regain control of the cargo if it comes ashore.
Several other tankers carrying crude from Iran or Iraqi Kurdistan have in the past unloaded cargoes after switching off their transponders, which makes their movements hard to track.
The partially full Kamari tanker carrying Kurdish crude disappeared from satellite tracking north of Egypt’s Sinai about a week ago. It reappeared empty two days later near Israel.
And in July, the tanker United Emblem offloaded part of its cargo of Kurdish crude onto another ship in the South China Sea.
The U.S. suit shows Baghdad is stepping up a legal and diplomatic push to stop Kurdistan from exporting crude, which the Kurds say is crucial to their dreams of independence from Iraq.An emotional plea from a homeless family to landlords in the district asked the owners to make it easier for families without homes to rent an apartment. News4's Mark Segraves reports.
An emotional plea from a homeless family to landlords in the District asks owners to make it easier for families without homes to rent apartments.
Melinda and Ezra Bryant lost everything when a fire destroyed their home. They are living in a shelter with their two young daughters.
They recently stood shoulder to shoulder with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, asking landlords and other business owners in the city to contribute to a fund that will help them qualify for a lease.
Ezra Bryant has never turned his back on his family or his country. He served as a Marine and works two jobs, so his wife can finish college and he can provide for their daughters.
After a fire destroyed their home, they were unable to qualify for a new lease.
"You go into an apartment, fill out application and get denied because of credit, or you don’t make enough money," Ezra Bryant said.
"It’s been a struggle with both work and trying to find a place, so it’s hard," Melinda Harris-Bryant said.
Bowser said the Bryants' plight is not unique. Many families live in shelters because they have bad credit or don’t make enough money to qualify for leases, she said.
Bowser is starting the Landlord Partnership Fund. She gathered dozens of landlords at D.C.'s city hall and asked them to contribute to a fund that would guarantee that landlords get paid if a family is not able to pay rent. In exchange, landlords would lower the restrictions on qualifying for a lease.
It was the Bryants who stood before those landlords and told them their story and asked them to participate in the program.
"We’re hoping to make a new start," Ezra Bryant said. "It’s not easy. We need help."
Bowser is hoping to raise $500,000 in tax-deductible contributions from the private sector to pay for the new program. Meanwhile, the Bryants will keep working and keep hoping they will get the break they so desperately need.Ed Boons Teases Possible MKXL Release On PC!!
After an initial announcement tweet from Mortal Kombat X producer Ed Boon about “big news” that would be arriving tomorrow, many started to speculate what this could possibly be.
Big news coming as soon as tomorrow… pic.twitter.com/rPw7eEL88q — Ed Boon (@noobde) March 29, 2016
Not long after the initial tweet Ed, in old Ed fashion, sent out a very kyptic tweet leading us to believe that the news coming tomorrow is going to be pretty big indeed!!
500,000 — Ed Boon (@noobde) March 29, 2016
Some of you may already know where we are going with this but for those who don’t, the PC version of MKX was said to have over 500,000 sales on the steam PC client, so there you have it!!
All signs seem to lead to a PC release of Mortal Kombat XL which would include the improved roll back netcode and the Kombat Pack 2 which features special guest characters Xenomorph from Aliens and Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre!!
Definitely check back with us tomorrow as we will be covering this big announcement once it is released into the wild(aka the internet)!
Source: Ed BoonTornado Tour of South America – Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil
An overnight trip from Buenos Aires to visit Montevideo and Colonia Del Sacramento in Uruguay with stops in Plaza Independencia to see Palacio Salvo and Solís Theatre, Plaza de la Constitución with the Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral, Mercado del Puerto, Museo del Carnaval, and Plaza Mayor with the Faro in Colonia. An overnight trip from Buenos Aires to visit Montevideo and Colonia Del Sacramento in Uruguay with stops in Plaza Independencia to see Palacio Salvo and Solís Theatre, Plaza de la Constitución with the Montevideo Metropolitan Cathedral, Mercado del Puerto, Museo del Carnaval, and Plaza Mayor with the Faro in Colonia.
“Libertad o Muerte” A motto that shows the country’s dedication to freedom. Uruguay gained independence in 1825 after a tug-of-war between Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Brazil. The current democracy has a popular president and is considered one of the most developed countries in South America. It is also the second smallest country after Suriname on the continent.
Visiting the country is extremely convenient from Buenos Aires as it is just over the Rio de La Plata.
We planned for an overnight visit taking the Seacat Colonia ferry to Colonia followed by a bus to Montevideo. From the terminal in Buenos Aires we checked in and went upstairs to go through immigration. Interestingly, after exiting Argentina, the Uruguay immigration officer is also onsite stamping the entry stamp. So technically we were in Uruguay without even leaving Argentina! Country 66 complete!
The ferry was full and there were no more window seats available, but the ride was only an hour or so. There were some great views of the city from the boat, though the windows were filthy.
On arrival, the bus terminal was right there. Staff guided the passengers to their respective buses. After two hours of green farmland scenery, we arrived in the capital.
Mall and Terminal in Montevideo
Montevideo
Founded in 1724, Montevideo is the largest city of the country and is highly ranked in terms of economy and quality of life. The majority of the tourist sites are located in Ciudad Vieja.
At the massive bus terminal/mall we purchased our tickets to Colonia for the evening, took out some Uruguayan pesos then headed downtown. Hopping onto a bus, we had an awkward ride with our bags and the rush hour crowds.
Plaza Independencia
We got off at a main square where we stopped into a hotel to store our bags for the day. In the center of the plaza is the Artigas Mausoleum, where the hero of Uruguay, Jose Artigas, is buried.
Palacio Salvo
This Italian designed building was constructed in 1925-1928. With its antennas, which were removed in 2012, it held the title of |
. Ruby, semantically, has the same capabilities for constructing, passing, and using closures. However, Ruby uses oddball syntax for these things, for no benefit that I can discern. There is a specially distinguished argument position available in a call, specifically for passing a closure. If you are going to construct a closure in that position, the syntax is simple. But the closure in its simplest syntax is not an expression. It only goes in that special position in the syntax, or has to have a word put in front of it, "lambda", to be turned into an expression that could be put in an ordinary argument position or any other expression context (e. g., right side of assignment). If a method is expecting to receive a block as an argument, the designer has to choose between having it take the block as an ordinary argument or as the special block argument (either can be chosen, in the monomorphic case). And if the method needs to take two blocks, at least one of them has to be passed as an ordinary argument, so the decision has to be made whether to pass one as the special argument and if so, which one. Conversion in both directions is available in all contexts where it makes sense, between the special argument or parameter and an ordinary expression. I think this exceptionalism in Ruby's syntax imposes significant extra conceptual load to understanding the syntax. Smalltalk's treatment of blocks is plenty economical, whether they are being passed as arguments right at the point of construction or not.
I guess I can see why this exceptionalism arose; it avoids having the closing parenthesis of the argument list coming right after the end of a block, which I can see would look ugly. But, so much twisting and turning and squirming for a tiny increment of beauty.
03 The Cascade
Smalltalk has the cascade syntax, which Ruby lacks. Perhaps this lack is not as costly to Ruby programmers as it would be to Smalltalk programmers if the cascade syntax were dropped from Smalltalk, because in cases where the receiver is self, a cascade would buy nothing in Ruby because you can leave out the receiver in those cases anyway.
03 Special Characters Permitted in Selectors (speaking here of selectors other than "+", "*", and the like)
Ruby permits "!" in selectors, which is useful to warn code readers that a functional style is not being used. Smalltalk allows only alphanumerics in its unary selectors and in the keywords of its keyword selectors (not counting the colon, which has a specific role in the syntax even though the jargon of discussion of Smalltalk usually speaks of the "keyword" as including the colon). Ruby also permits "?", but below, I argue that this doesn't help because I prefer Smalltalk's convention for choosing selectors indicating Boolean results.
02 Control Constructs
Smalltalk's syntax includes no control constructs except the "^" (early return). Any kind of "if", "while", etc., are made by message calls using blocks. At least, syntactically they appear that way. As the Self designers point out, in reality you can't override ifTrue:ifFalse: unless the Smalltalk compiler resorts to the sophistication characteristic of the Self compiler. If you could, many programs would run too slowly because they are laced with much conditional code. But anyway, syntax-wise, the control constructs don't have their own syntax in Smalltalk, other than the "^". Ruby on the other hand, includes syntax for a number of common control constructs even though blocks (closures) are almost as convenient to express in Ruby as they are in Smalltalk (but not quite; sometimes you have to throw in an extra word to make the block an expression). When I was a religious Smalltalker, I might have laughed at languages with control constructs and praised Smalltalk for its syntactic simplicity in using pure object orientation to express the control constructs. But I can also see a Rubyist's point that these control structures are in common use in all imperative programming, so why not have the syntax make it straightforward for a programmer to just write what she means? It doesn't cost much.
02 Returned Value
Mentioning "^" above reminds me, that in Smalltalk, if you don't explicitly write "^" with an expression (which means, return the value of the expression as the result of the call), a Smalltalk method returns "self" (I mean, what "self" means in the languages, not the string "self"). In Ruby (as in Lisp), the last expression in the method gives the value returned (absent an early return). This supports a functional mindset; I have written any number of methods that consist of just one expression. Also, it says that if you are not doing an early return, which is in fact a control construct that violates Dijkstra's structured programming, and that should stand out as a warning to readers, you don't have to write "return". I'm not saying I'm against early return; it can be very convenient and can contribute greatly to brevity. I'm saying, early return should stand out. In Ruby you can make it stand out by uttering "return" only in the case of early return. In Smalltalk, you have to write "^" something or you'll get "^ self".
For any Smalltalker who argues in favor of the programming style that says a method (or rather the whole suite of methods implementing the same selector) should be either designed to return a value or to have a side effect but generally not both, I agree; sometimes I prefer that style. And Smalltalk's default supports that style. But in Ruby, you can, with ease and clarity and economy, stanch any accidental return of a value some other programmer might seize on, by just ending your method with "true", having it return the Boolean true to indicate success in achieving the desired side effect. I think Smalltalk's support of returning self by default is more costly than beneficial, because I think the two considerations in the paragraph just above outweigh the advantage of support for ask-or-tell-but-not-both-at-once style via the default.
On edit: A comment below by user "renox" refers to a lesson from E, that there can be significant hazard of accidentally returning an object you don't want to. I accord that argument much weight, and I question the opinion I gave in my initial version of this section, strongly in favor of having the last expression be the returned value by default. Anyway, that is one of the differences between Ruby and Smalltalk, and it affects the flavor of the way they read, I find.
01 Declarations
Smalltalk requires declaration of all local variables and instance variables. In Ruby, you introduce both simply by usage; Ruby does not require declarations for them. This makes a major economy in writing in Ruby.
01 Scope
Ruby absolutely makes the wrong choice by denying the programmers any way, just in the syntax in a block of code as you could observe without looking outside the block, to specify a local variable scoped just to that block. You can write, for example, "foo" as the name of your variable, and you can limit its use to the block, and you can hope it will be scoped locally to the block. And indeed it will, if no one writes an assignment to "foo" above the block. In Smalltalk, you can easily declare a variable local to the block (although one or more older Smalltalk implementations would scope the variable wrongly at runtime; I hope all modern Smalltalk implementations have cleared this up).
01 Practices and the libraries
02 Choice of Selectors
As reflected in the libraries used widely in the respective languages, Smalltalkers make better choices of message selectors than Rubyists make. For example, I like "isNil" better than "nil?", and "asString" better than "to_s" (which means, "to_string"; I'm nitpicking here about the "to" vs. "as" rather than about the abbreviation of "string" as "s"). All the question-mark selectors can be expressed in a more English-like way by using the conventions Smalltalkers have coalesced around, using "is", "includes", or other verbs. "as" selectors express a more functional attitude, and "to" selectors express a more imperative attitude.
02 Array Stores
Smalltalkers choose on the basis of efficiency, whether to store a sequence of values in an OrderedCollection (for the non-Smalltalkers among the readers, note that in Smalltalk, "OrderedCollection" denotes a particular implementation, not a type -- not every ordered collection is an OrderedCollection) or an Array. Rubyists just use the Array type (it's a class, but it might as well be a type). If they need to add to the end of it, they just do.
Smalltalkers use SortedCollection if they want their data sorted, and the class makes sure to keep the instance sorted through its history of mutations (by and large); rubyists just tell the array to sort itself when they want it sorted.
So, in practices around arrays, the Ruby world looks simpler. Programmers face fewer choices, and fewer concepts to learn. You just write what you mean.
01 Private Methods
Ruby enforces declared privacy of methods at runtime. Smalltalk implementations I used do not attempt this. If I recall correctly, Dolphin does. As a Smalltalker, I treated the software-engineering declaration that a method is private, simply with discipline, not looking for enforcement support from the language itself. Ruby backs away from enforcing method privacy when the call is indirect via "send", and taking advantage of this is the only way to do certain useful metaprogramming. I wish the relevant methods were public. Bottom line, maybe others will argue strongly for or against privacy enforcement; I guess it's not a big deal to me.
01 Development Environment
Every Smalltalk implementation except the Gnu one offers a development environment where your data can be present along with your software to be modified. You can set up conditions very quickly and try out code, and examine it in any intermediate state of execution, and modify the code at any point, and so on, as pointed out elsewhere. No Ruby implementation so far offers this. Ruby practices depend on the file system as the repository for the software; Smalltalkers use the image. Either practice may fall back on a different repository for the real code repository for version control and sharing with other programmrs (Subversion, or Envy, or whatever), but I'm talking about the development environment here. Smalltalkers look at their code through the class browser. The source code seems to live in the environment along with the values of variables, etc. The practice with Ruby is to organize the code in a file system. I think Smalltalk has it all over Ruby in this regard. It's great to see the source code of any method instantly, and browse the senders or implementers of a given selector.
01 What the language environments could easily learn from each other
I submit that Ruby could learn the class browser and browse senders and browse implementors and the whole image with the data and software being present at the same time, the easy debugging and incremental tracing and trying code on the fly and changing it on the fly, all that, from Smalltalk. And that Smalltalk could learn to put some macros in the class definitions. Just keep the source code for the class definition (excluding the methods), as one snippet of text (or maybe more that one, if you have a module system where different modules could contribute to the definition of "open" classes), keep that snippet of source code along with the class (or in modules if you go there), make it visible in the browsers, and every time it is touched, execute it again. Some practices would have to be added to both languages so for the generated consequences of running the macro calls in the class definition would not survive when you edit the definition. Yes, there are issues with how that affects existing instances of the classes, but the languages could solve that more or less the way Smalltalk handles schema evolution today. All the metaprogramming that Ruby supports that make those macros work well, plus the modules and mixins, and the adding methods to objects dynamically, I think that those could be added to Smalltalk without disrupting what Smalltalk already is and does. None of these changes would require touching a parser or a compiler in either language environment, nor the virtual machine that runs either language. Such changes fit with the basic class (or "behavior") model shared by the two languages. I suspect I could sit in a Smalltalk image right now and look at how Class and Metaclass and ClassDescription are subclassed off Behavior, go back to basic Behavior, subclass it differently and implement Ruby's modules, mixins, and the attachment of methods to objects, basically the same way Ruby does it. The languages as implemented have no fundamental difference in their virtual machines. Under the hood, Ruby puts all methods in behaviors just as Smalltalk does. She simply gives any object that has custom methods, a special "virtual" behavior (class), which inherits from the object's nominal class. Just as easy to do in Smalltalk.
01 Paid Work
I am glad to see Ruby on the scene, because as a very Smalltalk-like language semantically, with even some advances over Smalltalk both in semantics and syntax, and as a language that judging by the count of ads on Monster and the like, is catching on somewhat in the corporate world as Smalltalk itself dies out, seems as though it might be the rescue vehicle for Smalltalk-like languages as a professional tool. A fine development to tide me over until the whole programming world switches to declarative programming (or dies out due to the end of oil, but that's another subject).
01 Web Support
Ruby has Rails and Smalltalk has Seaside. These are not the same, so I understand.PS4, PSVR, PS3 & PS Vita New Releases: October 23 to 29, 2016 – World of Scrolls
The busy holiday season is in full effect this week, as you’ll find Skyrim Special Edition, Titanfall 2, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, Just Dance 2017, Mark McMorris Infinite Air, Farming Simulator 17, World of Final Fantasy, Yomawari: Night Alone, the Ashes of Ariandel DLC for Dark Souls III, and much more.
This week is also going to see the unveiling of the November 2016 PlayStation Plus free games, which will go live on Tuesday, November 1.
*All games/content are releasing in North America and Europe, unless otherwise noted.
PlayStation 4 Games
Big Buck Hunter Arcade (PSN) – NA
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Retail & PSN)
Exile’s End (PSN) – NA
Farming Simulator 17 (Retail & PSN)
Forestry 2017: The Simulation (PSN) – NA
Ginger: Beyond the Crystal (Retail & PSN in EU; PSN in NA)
Just Dance 2017 (Retail & PSN)
King’s Quest The Complete Collection (Retail)
Kyurinaga’s Revenge (PSN) – NA
Lithium: Inmate 39 (PSN) – NA
Mark McMorris Infinite Air (Retail & PSN)
Minecraft: Story Mode Complete Adventure (Retail)
Monster Jam: Crush It! (Retail & PSN) – NA
Nebula Realms (PSN) – NA
Nobunaga’s Ambition: Sphere of Influence – Ascension (Retail & PSN)
Party Golf (PSN) – NA
Root Letter (Retail & PSN) – EU
Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter (Retail & PSN) – NA
Snow (PSN, Paid Beta)
Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon (PSN, cross-buy) – NA
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition (Retail & PSN)
Titanfall 2 (Retail & PSN)
Wick (PSN) – NA
World of Final Fantasy (Retail & PSN)
PlayStation VR Games
Carnival Games VR (PSN)
Tethered (PSN)
Weeping Doll (PSN)
Windlands VR (PSN) – NA
PlayStation 3 Games
Just Dance 2017 (Retail & PSN)
Minecraft: Story Mode Complete Adventure (Retail)
PlayStation Vita Games
Exile’s End (PSN) – NA
Root Letter (Retail & PSN) – EU
Spider: Rite of the Shrouded Moon (PSN, cross-buy) – NA
World of Final Fantasy (Retail & PSN)
Yomawari: Night Alone (Retail & PSN)
DLC/Demo/Beta
Batman: The Telltale Series ‘Episode 3: New World Order’ (PS4)
Dark Souls 3 ‘Ashes of Ariandel’ (PS4)
King’s Quest ‘Chapter 5: The Good Knight’ (PS4, PS3)
*Keep in mind that all release dates are subject to change, and more games/DLC will likely be added during the PlayStation Store updates in North America and Europe on Tuesday. For PlayStation VR game requirements, be sure to check out the product page before buying.
Check out our October 2016 and November 2016 release date pages to see what else is releasing soon, and feel free to let us know in the comments if you’ll be picking up anything this week.
[Source: PS Blog]The author would like to thank internationalist activists in Rojava, Kashmiri and Tamil activists, Greek anarchists and especially Hawzhin Azeez, without whom the article would not have been half as good, for their feedback.
A German man is not impressed with the grassroots democracy project in Rojava because he has seen something similar decades ago in Latin America. A French woman reproaches Kurdish women for a lack of preparation for her visit because they are not as organized as the Afghan women she observed in the 1970s. A person passes as Rojava’s revolutionary insider after a one-week trip and without access to media and literature in any Middle-Eastern language, but his opinion is regarded as more legitimate and authentic than that of struggling people.
What do these people’s experiences have in common?
They all show genuine interest and care, and their efforts deserve due credit. But there’s something more: the element that underlies a system that enables people to complete the checklist of revolutionary tourism — in the past decade especially in Palestine and Chiapas, now in Rojava. This element is something that revolutionaries must actively problematize: privilege.
To clarify from the start: as someone who writes mostly for an international audience, who facilitates communication and encourages delegations to Kurdistan, I belong to the people who fundamentally value such exchange and work. But people who claim solidarity and who are in a privileged position that enables them to travel and be listened to have a moral obligation to use this privilege for the better. The intention of this article is to contribute to a conversation about problems that emerge when hierarchical relationships are established in the name of solidarity.
Challenging privileges
In a world of capitalist, patriarchal nation states, regarding oneself as a world citizen and opposing ideas of nations and states is an act of defiance. However, understanding oneself as an internationalist revolutionary does not erase unequal conditions and privileges. One has to go further than that.
First of all, there is a series of material privileges and resources that one benefits from: passports of states that help one travel almost everywhere; speaking international languages and possessing a theoretical vocabulary that enables one to articulate and shape a discourse; mastering intellectual tools due to basic education, as well as sufficient time, security and money to provide for most of these things. The absence of war, death, destruction, displacement, starvation and trauma enables one to safely and comfortably conduct research, make long-term decisions and plans, and live by principles without much interference.
The very fact that one is able to sit down with some coffee, read up on a topic through sources written in Western-centric historiography, theory, language and epistemology is a privilege that the vast majority of people of color and workers do not have. And even if they did, they often lack the safe political environment to be able to discuss their findings.
The very fact that I am writing this piece also indicates the privilege of someone who is from an oppressed and marginalized group but who, relative to my own people, has access to some resources and advantages. Wherever there is privilege, there is an associated responsibility to challenge that privilege. The mere existence of privilege is not so much the problem, as is the creation of hierarchical relations and — unintentional — patronizing and appropriating behavior in solidarity work, which disrupts mutual understanding and progress.
Some people have expressed their astonishment about local people’s ignorance concerning struggles similar to theirs on the other side of the globe, and have attempted to tone down a victim’s discourse because his or her everyday reality is too much for soft Western ears to bear. Others have refused any form of self-reflection when being criticized for distorting the discourse on a people’s struggle through imposing narratives in a way that is alienating to the people in question, suggesting instead that oppressed people should just be glad to receive any attention.
The problem lies in the ease of a privileged person’s sense of entitlement with which they can write entire books on an entire region without ever visiting the place. It is the male whiteness of entire “radical” conference panels on struggles led by people of color. It is the famous white person’s expression of sympathy for a cause that gives a heads-up to their followers to jump on the bandwagon. It is the speed with which causes concerning struggles over life and death are dropped like a hot potato if they appear to be more complicated than anticipated.
How convenient for a revolutionary, being able to brush responsibility and identity off one’s shoulder without further complications! While many leftists from privileged countries often militantly stress that they do not represent any state, army, government or culture, they can easily analyze millions of people as one gigantic monolithic block. In erasing their own contexts, they often allow for themselves an individualistic, complex agency, thus feeling rather generous and charitable when discussing among themselves who “deserves” their support, while the Other is blurred into some abstract identity.
Meaningful comradeship in the coldest night
The ways in which solidarity today is designed for the Western gaze has another devastating effect on movements: the competition between struggling people for attention and resources. Instead of building solidarity ties between each other, struggling people are forced to fight for Western leftists’ care first, which pits communities against each other and is destructive to internationalism. As Umar Lateef Misgar, a Kashmiri activist, points out: it is like an evolved form of colonial divide and rule.
Especially the white educated male has the luxury and privilege of being able to visit any site of revolution, to appropriate it as he likes, and then provide his critique of it, with no strings attached and without ever feeling the necessity of looking at his own backyard. Often with a sense of ownership without responsibility, he can attach himself internationally, detach himself locally and vice versa.
His identity transcends ethnicity, nationality, gender, class, sexuality, physicality, ideology, because he is the embodiment of the default, the status quo — barely does he live or know the meaning of deviance. He does not know that most struggles begin with a demand for recognition, a place in history, because he is the one writing it. Thus he often cannot grasp revolutionary motivations beyond theory.
That is why ideological purism allows him to so easily give up solidarity with struggles, which is perhaps one of the biggest expressions of his privilege: he can afford to be dogmatically ideologically pure; he can preach theoretical consistence, because his concern for a struggle is not a matter of survival but one of mere interest to him. He does not have to get his hands dirty. He can roll his eyes on the people who struggle for life, because he is not the one who has to balance ideals against all kinds of geopolitics, socio-economic realities, ethnic and religious conflicts, violence, war, tradition, trauma and poverty.
And that is why people can discard a cause just as quickly as they adopted it, because solving the mistakes, shortcomings, and obstacles that revolutions necessarily face would require an effort they are not willing to make — theoretical discussions or conferences with cake and coffee are more convenient sites for radical rants than the inferno called Mesopotamia.
When people do not receive the instant gratification, which their internalized capitalist mindset requires, in real-life struggles, they can drop historic moments of revolution quickly. The option to leave, to drop out of a cause when the initial romantic charm of it passes and the rawness emerges, is simply not available for people who struggle for life or death. True comradeship, after all, becomes meaningful not in sunshine, but in the coldest night.
Legitimized struggles put to the test
A while back, people on the far-left were writing articles on Rojava back and forth in a way that was out of touch with realities on the ground, through assumptions and themes that were non-issues to the people affected. Soon it turned into an exclusive inter-Western and heavily orientalist leftist discussion, where one white man was addressing the other, with neither having been to the region concerned or read more than the opinions of other white men online — with Rojava simply serving as the Third World trope on which all ideologies and assumptions could be projected.
Of course international critical analyses and perspective are crucial to revolutionary processes, but dogmatism, chauvinism and arrogance serve an opposite purpose. Nevermind the fact that these people were far from organizing revolutions in their own locations, yet they still felt in a position to authoritatively judge what makes a revolution and give guiding advice to people who form autonomous women’s communes while fighting ISIS.
In a way, such misrepresentation and distortion is necessary to legitimize orientalist images and colonialist intervention. As Sitharthan Sriharan, a Tamil activist elaborates, “privileged leftists often help produce and reproduce the very forces they claim to be against in the actions they perform.”
It is interesting to see how struggles that have been legitimized over the course of decades by the thousands of people participating in them are being put to a leftist litmus tests that must pass Western judgment before qualifying for care. Such assumptions harm liberation movements in the sense that they refuse to give appropriate attention and accurate representation; they can actually cause significant political, social, economic and emotional damage, perpetuate misinformation, and delegitimize whole struggles through the domination of discourse by detached groups.
These attitudes fundamentally stem from Eurocentric ideologies that established their cultural imperialism through colonialism, modernist dogmas and capitalism. The symbolic violence that portrays Western history as modern and universal manifests itself in the form of orientalism in the social sciences today and affects the way wide sections of the Western left understand solidarity.
Checking your privilege
The assumption that solidarity is one-directional, something one “gives” and the other “takes”, is flawed from the start. Solidarity today, especially in the age of information and digital technology, is expressed in a way that articulates a dichotomous relation between an active, thinking subject that “provides” solidarity with a cause and a group that can only react as a passive object without the right to give critical feedback about what kind of solidarity is required.
The solidarity givers can appear from nowhere, erase their own contexts and entitle themselves to dominating the discourse. They are granted an observant bird’s eye view, enabling distanced analytical perspectives and authority, due to supposedly being “impartial”. This immediately creates a hierarchy and the expectation that the group receiving the solidarity is supposed to demonstrate gratitude and deference to the solidarity giver, leaving the group “receiving” solidarity to the mercy of the person granting help. This often marks the end of solidarity and the beginning of charity.
However, oppressed groups are under no obligation or responsibility to provide anything back. As my dear friend Hawzhin Azeez points out from Kobane: “We should not thank privileged people for checking their privileges and doing the right thing. We should expect no less from them because this is the underlying unspoken assumption about ‘solidarity’.”
People claiming allyship must be willing to take up the burden of hard work. They should remind themselves of their privileges and constantly challenge and undo them in order to use themselves as tools to amplify the voices and the principles of the movements they claim to stand in solidarity with — instead of becoming the voice or the embodiment of the struggle themselves. They should not expect gratitude and medals of honor for being ethical, certainly not from marginalized people who are just glad someone is speaking about their existential struggle.
From charity to solidarity, teaching to learning
The Kurdish freedom movement utilizes “criticism and self-criticism” as productive and ethical mechanisms to improve oneself, the other, and the group. Criticizing another means also being able to criticize oneself. Criticism is not meant to harm others, but is fundamentally based on empathy, honesty and problem-solving.
Solidarity work certainly does not immunize anyone from criticism. On the contrary, it requires it. It even fundamentally relies on it, in order to be ethical. But, to date, solidarity work from the Eurocentric left has been largely devoid of this type of criticism, highlighting the stumbling blocks in the Western left and its inability to organize or even discuss on grassroots premises. Fundamentally, a true revolutionary is one who begins the revolutionary process internally and who starts with themselves.
Solidarity is not a charity undertaking, but a horizontal, multidimensional, educational and multidirectional process that contributes to the emancipation of everyone involved. Solidarity means to be on an eye-to-eye level with one another, to stand shoulder to shoulder. It means to share skills, experience, knowledge and ideas without perpetuating relations based on power. The difference between charity and solidarity is that one calls you “inspiring” and wants to teach you, while the other calls you “comrade” and wants to learn.
To tackle these issues, it is not enough for every individual to just self-reflect. We actually need a new solidarity paradigm within which we systematically challenge appropriation and power abuse and secure mechanisms of mutual education and perspective exchange.
Solidarity fundamentally means to empathize and respect each others’ struggle and to understand ourselves as fighting on the same side when engaging in a process of mutual self-liberation, without ignoring the different starting points, backgrounds, identities and contexts. The greatest reward of genuine solidarity is that everyone involved will learn from each other how to organize. Thus, ultimately, as people from places like Chiapas or Kurdistan stress, solidarity means to “go make revolution in your own place!”
Identity politics without internationalism will always remain limited, as it cannot bring about wider emancipation in a global system of oppression and violence, just as internationalism without respect for locally rooted struggles will remain superficial and unsuccessful, as it does not recognize the deep complexities of the different frequencies of the cries for freedom.
Strengthening my shoulder will strengthen yours as well — and this is the only formation in which we can fight against the sexist, racist, imperialist, capitalist, murderous world order.BANGKOK — Officials have clarified that entertainment in the private sector is free to continue if it takes place behind closed doors.
Entertainment businesses such as bars and nightclubs can operate normally so long as they are behind closed doors, according to a Sunday announcement by the Interior Ministry.
Fairs and ceremonies, such as weddings and ordinations, are permitted but advised to refrain from playing music and showcasing any form of entertainment, the bulletin said.
All kinds of concerts were asked to be postponed. No specific timeframe for their rescheduling was given.
Read: Bangkok, Famed Capital of Free-Wheeling Fun, Goes Dark Indefinitely (Photos)
However as first announced Thursday, a 30-day moratorium on all entertainment-related governmental events was reiterated.
The clarification came after concerns were raised regarding the entertainment sector, especially low-paid industry workers who would be strongly affected if their workplaces were ordered closed for a month.
The military government has attempted to maintain a balance between a mourning period expected to last a year and the private sector’s dependence on trade and tourism.
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Ultra-royalists Guilt-Shame People Who Don’t Wear Mourning Black
Bangkok, Famed Capital of Free-Wheeling Fun, Goes Dark Indefinitely (Photos)
Celebrities Mourn Death of King Bhumibol
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King Bhumibol, Monarch and Father to Millions, 88Trump speaks at a rally in Everett, Wash., August 30, 2016. (Reuters photo: Carlo Allegri)
If Trump loses, Republicans have no choice but to to heal the bitter split.
Editor’s Note: The following article is adapted from one that originally appeared in the August 29, 2016, issue of National Review.
Most people who work in Republican politics want Donald Trump to win but think he will lose. They hope that afterward the party will unify in opposition to President Hillary Clinton. They are, however, underestimating the divisions in their party that Trump’s campaign has revealed.
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From the standpoint of Republican unity, the worst possible outcome of the November election would be a narrow defeat for Trump. The nominee’s Republican supporters would be enraged at those Republicans who balked at Trump, and the party would be consumed by recriminations.
A larger defeat would be harder to pin on “Never Trump” Republicans. If Trump underperforms among independents as well as Republicans; if he runs behind most Republican Senate candidates, in a reversal of the pattern of the last two presidential elections; if he gets a lower percentage of the vote than Romney, even though Romney was running against an incumbent and a politician better liked than Hillary Clinton: The more such results, the more those Republicans who warned that Trump would be a disastrous candidate will be proven right, and be seen to be proven right.
If Trump were to fail by these measures, almost all of the many Republicans who are backing him solely because he is the party’s nominee would accept that verdict. Even some of the Republicans who backed Trump during the nomination contest would accept it and, if past political experience is a guide, would forget that they had backed him then. Only his most die-hard fans would maintain that Trump would have won if not for the treacherous opposition of Senator Ben Sasse and the treacherously equivocal support of Speaker Paul Ryan.
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But even a decisive result would not clarify other live debates within the party. The bulk of Republican politicians, activists, and commentators are not Trump loyalists, but they are themselves split between “establishment” and “tea party” factions. Republicans aligned with the first group generally blame the second for Trump’s rise: The tea partiers kept delegitimizing Republican officeholders as sell-outs and thereby, the argument goes, made Republican voters more open to a demagogic outsider. The anti-Trump tea partiers make a mirror-image argument: The establishment set up Trump by repeatedly selling out and thereby disgusting Republican voters to the point that they turned to a demagogic outsider.
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Neither theory is a close fit to the available facts. Exit polls suggest that primary voters who felt betrayed by Republican politicians did not back Trump at greater rates than other voters did. Voters who consider themselves “very conservative” — the voters one would expect to be most disappointed in Republicans for not repealing Obamacare — were less likely than other voters to support Trump. That’s not surprising when you consider that Trump sounded more favorable toward government involvement in health care than did any of the other candidates, but it runs counter to both the establishment and the tea-party theories.
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The weakness of those theories suggests that these factions are more interested in continuing their feud with each other than in understanding and responding to the Trump phenomenon. Any such effort would have to begin with the recognition that the core of Trump’s vote does not belong to either faction and has a very different set of preoccupations.
Trump drew many different kinds of voters during the primaries. In several of his crucial victories, he nearly ran the table among the demographic groups the exit pollsters considered. His strongest supporters, though, made up a distinctive group that had long been present in the Republican party but had never been organized as such or had an influential champion. These voters had less formal schooling and attended church less frequently than other Republicans. They often described themselves as “moderates,” perhaps because neither shrinking the government nor saving unborn children was a passion of theirs. But they were not Chamber of Commerce Republicans, either.
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“Working-class nationalist” might be a good label for these voters. They are, like the vast majority of Republicans, white: Is it fair, then, to describe them as “white nationalists”? Actual white nationalists — the kind of people who explicitly argue that whites should vote for an unapologetic champion of their racially defined interests — are certainly enthusiastic about Trump. But while they are active on Twitter, they are a small group.
A number of media outlets have drawn attention to scholars who suggest that a milder sentiment, which they call “racial resentment,” is the defining characteristic of Trump’s base. Their research showed, for example, that Trump supporters are especially likely to agree with the statement that a “growing number of newcomers from other countries threaten U.S. values.” Findings like this one have led some people to conclude that the Republican party as a whole is better described as “ethno-nationalist” than “conservative”: That’s how Trump was able to win its nomination without running on either economic-conservative or social-conservative themes.
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This view has been expressed both by liberals who see in Trump’s nomination vindication for what they have been saying all along about Republicans and by conservatives whom that nomination has disillusioned to the point of believing that the liberals were right. But it’s worth remembering that “racial resentment” is not the same thing as racism. The view that large-scale immigration has the potential to undermine some of the things Americans value, for example, strikes me as correct — even if this sentiment sits alongside less defensible and even ugly ones in some voters’ minds, with the proportion of each varying from person to person.
Republicans who do not wish to become a fully Trumpified party could respond to these voters in two ways in the event of a Trump defeat. The first would be to hope that a big loss would destroy Trump as a political force and that nobody else would be able to mobilize his core vote as he did; then Republicans could go back to ignoring the working-class nationalists in the expectation that this group would continue to vote for the GOP over the Democrats. The risk of this path would be that the calculation might prove incorrect in the presidential race of 2020. But it would have an advantage if the core Trump vote were composed of racist idiots, as some anti-Trump Republicans believe: It would not require Republicans to take the morally dubious step of courting them (and in the process alienating other voters).
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Since that view is a hostile oversimplification, however, Republicans should take a second path: Try to appeal to Trump voters on the basis |
salt pan land at the northern end of the Freeway.)However, it's far from certain that opening up the Mumbai Port Trust holdings to development of the sort proposed by Gadkari will be in the best interests of the woefully congested metropolis. For instance, it isn't clear why floatels and Ferris wheels should be a priority in a city that houses just under 50% of its population in slums. Using the land for low-cost housing, with a large rental component, would do much more to improve the quality of life for all Mumbai's residents.With so much at stake, it isn't surprising that property consultants have already described their vision of what the land-starved city should do with the waterfront. If the Mumbai Port Trust land is made available for commercial exploitation, Anuj Puri, chairman and country head property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle India, told Mint, it could “attract lot of high-end real-estate development such as malls, office complexes, residential apartments”.This will all sound sickeningly familiar to anyone who has tracked Mumbai’s land-use regulations in recent times.In 1991, when Mumbai’s ailing textile mills claimed they had no funds to buy new machinery or even pay workers their vast dues, the authorities altered a section of the Development Control Regulations to help mill owners modernise their factories. Mill owners would be allowed to sell 15% of their holdings to generate funds to revive their operations. Soon, mill owners began to sell off slivers of their land – but failed to reinvest the proceeds.The government then changed its strategy, allowing the owners to cash-out entirely. But there was a catch. They had to surrender one-third of their land for public housing and another third for open spaces and public utilities. This plan for the 600 acres of mill land in the heart of the city offered Mumbai the opportunity to revitalise itself and breathe again.Of course, it was too good to be true. In 2001, without any public discussion, the rule relating to mill land sales was modified again. The amended regulation clarified that the two-thirds rule did not apply to the entire plot on which their factories stood, but only to the open spaces between structures, such as the courtyards and passageways. The original formulation gave Mumbai 400 acres of land on which to re-imagine itself. The revised version would free up only about 50 acres — and shatter any prospect of implementing a holistic plan for city development.Citizens’ organisations eventually caught on to the surreptitious amendment, but it was too late. Their challenge was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2006. With that, the owners of Mumbai's mills began to develop their plots piecemeal, building a chaotic sprawl of malls and office complexes and gated-communities, with roads that are far too narrow to carry the increased volumes of traffic.Though Gadkari said that no private developers would be involved in Mumbai Port Trust project, citizens have every reason to be suspicious of this seemingly well-meaning plan. Mumbai’s politicians and bureaucrats have colluded on too many land swindles in recent years to retain much credibility. They will have to work much harder to convince Mumbaikars that the scandal of the mill land will not be repeated. This time, the stakes are three times as high.A sheriff's deputy has been fired, accused of using excessive force with a Taser stun gun.Deputy Jeff Ledlow, 24, was fired Friday after a three-month investigation.Ledlow was involved in arresting a man at the Quality Inn on U.S. 1 in Vero Beach in August. The suspect, Jamie Brown, was wanted for allegedly failing to register as a sex offender and battery.Ledlow used the Taser on Brown multiple times, but lied about it on the police report, according to the sheriff's office. Investigators had a Taser International representative check out Ledlow's stun gun to determine how many times it was used. They also interviewed other deputies and reviewed dashboard camera footage in the inquiry. The video shows Brown yelling at the deputies in the back of a squad car. According to the sheriff's office investigation, Ledlow told the other deputy to stop the car, which is when the alleged excessive use of the Taser occurred. "I can't feel my body," Brown said in video recorded as the patrol car approached the Indian River County Jail. "Please tellthem to call a nurse."The sheriff's office ultimately determined Ledlow used unnecessary force and he was fired.Supporters of the Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) argue that the federal government must subsidize American exports to "level the playing field” with foreign competitors who receive subsidies from their governments.
This week’s charts use data from the Export-Import Bank’s Annual Report 2013 and from a new Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on the Export-Import Bank. They show that while a small proportion of the Ex-Im Bank’s work is dedicated to counteracting foreign government export subsidies, the US government is actually one of the worst offenders when it comes to subsidizing domestic exports.
The first chart shows that less than one-third of the bank’s activities in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 were dedicated to countering subsidized foreign competition. The second chart compares US government-backed export credit amounts for medium- and long-term loans to other G-7 nations for FY 2012.
For a long time, the bank did not specify the exact purpose of all of its financial transactions in its reports, so determining how much of its portfolio was dedicated to which goals was a guessing game. As recently as 2012, economist Sallie James of the Cato Institute speculated, “Given the fall in export credit subsidies in the OECD, the need for countervailing activities likely has not increased since the late 1990s, when less than 20 percent of Ex-Im guarantees and insurance were for the purpose of countering officially supported foreign competition.”
However, as a condition of its most recent reauthorization in 2012, Congress required the Ex-Im Bank to provide more explanation for certain portfolio transactions. While the bank still does not provide justifications for all transactions in its portfolio, its current charter compels it to provide at least some explanation by category for all loans and long-term loan guarantees in its annual report. These transactions must be classified in one of three categories: 1) “to assume political or commercial risk that exporter and/or financial institutions are unwilling or unable to undertake”; 2) “to overcome maturity or other limitations in private-sector export financing”; or 3) “to meet competition from a foreign, officially sponsored export-credit agency.”
The first chart displays these data: $4.1 billion in estimated export value for loans and guarantees is justified in the bank’s Annual Report as necessary to counteract “political risks,” which is represented in dark green. The Ex-Im Bank reports that $2.1 billion in estimated export value for loans and guarantees is to address “private sector limitations,” as represented in light green. Finally, the bank justifies $12.2 billion in estimated export value for loans and guarantees is to meet “foreign competition.” The proper categories for the remaining $18.8 billion in estimated export value—more than half of the Ex-Im Bank’s remaining transactions—are simply unknown and represented in orange.
The estimated export value of the bank’s entire portfolio for FY 2013 was roughly $37 billion. Thus, less than one-third of the bank’s financing is claimed to counteract competitive disadvantages wrought by foreign export credit agencies.
What’s more, much of this financing goes to large corporations that are unlikely to need it to compete effectively in the global marketplace. For instance, roughly 66 percent of the value designated to “meet competition from a foreign, officially sponsored export-credit agency” went to the Boeing Corporation, whose own financial director publicly admitted that they could “find alternative funding sources” without Ex-Im Bank.
The second chart uses data from a CRS report released on June 3, 2014 (“Export-Import Bank: Overview and Reauthorization Issues”) that summarize the total export assistance that each G-7 nation provided through government export credits in 2012. We formatted the report’s data from its appendix dataset listing the total amount of government-backed export credit assistance to medium- and long-term projects for major international exporters.
The chart shows that the United States is the clear leader of the G-7 Export Credit Agency pack, dispensing $31.3 billion in 2012, or 42.4 percent of the total $73.9 billion for all G-7 nations that year. The second place export-subsidizer, Germany, doled out $15.3 billion—less than half the value of US subsidies. After France’s slightly more modest $13 billion, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada spent less than $6 billion each.
This chart shows that the United States is far from a victim in the world of export credit subsidies.
Together, these charts suggest that support for the Ex-Im Bank on the grounds that it effectively counters foreign subsidies is misguided at best. The bank backs less than two percent of the value of total US exports, which means that more than 98 percent of US exports compete effectively in the global market without any such assistance. In addition, the bank’s data show that it justifies less than one-third of this tiny portion of exports on the grounds of countering foreign government subsidies. In other words, the Ex-Im Bank itself only claims to counteract less than one percent of the value of US exports that are exposed to foreign-subsidized competition.
The United States committed a whopping $31.3 billion in export credits in 2012, while Japan and the United Kingdom still manage to maintain healthy exports with only $4.4 billion and $2.9 billion in respective assistance.
While the bank’s effect in countering foreign subsidies is negligible, its activities come at the great costs of corporate cronyism and irresponsible use of taxpayers’ money. It’s time to retire the Ex-Im Bank.
Note: An accompanying chart and dataset of CRS data on non-OECD nations like China, India, and Brazil can be found in the attached dataset. The data show that only China exceeded the US in ECA assistance during FY 2012, with a reported $45 billion for that year. Data on ECA assistance by population, GDP, and national export value can also be found in the dataset above.From Texas Standard:
HELP!
That's the message coming from two environmental groups petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency. The Environmental Defense Fund and the Caddo Lake Institute are asking the EPA to take over enforcing federal air and water laws in Texas. But why?
Environmental Defense Fund's regional director Jim Marston says the petition asks the EPA to take back authority that they delegated to the state "when Texas made certain promises about how they would run the federal programs."
Marston says the state promised to allow public participation "at the same level as one can participate in in federal court or in federal agencies."
"In Texas Legislature, this passed session, significantly narrowed the ability for citizens to participate in environmental hearings in Texas," he says.
The EDF's contention is related to bill SB 709, which Marston says reduced the ability for citizens to participate in hearings and reversed the burden of proof.
"Only in environmental cases in Texas, meaning you have to prove that the applicant for a permit to pollute is violating the law," he says, "contrary to the history of Anglo-American law, and also different from every other administrative type of proceeding in Texas."
Marston says they also object the past decade of consistent budget cuts of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) made by the Legislature, with the help of the governor's office.
"[The TCEQ] no longer can do an adequate job of enforcing or inspecting," he says.
While it may seem as though the EDF is criticizing the EPA for not enforcing its mandates, the EPA was aware of SB 709 and warned the Legislature passing the law "could endanger delegation," Marston says.
"The Legislature... 'thumbed its nose' at the EPA and, frankly, citizens like in our organization, and went ahead and passed the law," he says. Marston says his group's petition is the next step in holding the state accountable to the EPA.
"We're really trying to get the problem fixed," he says. "We hope EPA can convince the state to follow federal law and have a fair process and have a process that minimizing the amount of pollution that Texans are exposed to."
Terry Clawson, a spokesperson for the TCEQ, said in an email to the Texas Tribune that "Texas law has and continues to meet federal requirements – to suggest otherwise is misleading to the public."Message from GM of Business Operations and the Year Ahead! “It’s been over 3 years now that I have been involved in NBN Co’s roll out in new developments and it has been a challenging but exciting journey. To date we have over 30,000 residents in new estates across the country currently accessing the NBN for voice and broadband services, which is a fantastic achievement and would have not been possible without the support we have received from the development industry and in particular its ability to respond so quickly to significant changes to how telecommunications infrastructure is rolled out in new estates. With the change in government in September last year, the strategic review and also change in direction of NBN Co to look at a multi-mix technology, NBN Co still currently remains committed to delivering fibre in new estates where it is required to do so under the Fibre in New Developments Policyreleased back in June 2011. 2014 is set to be another exciting year for NBN Co in rolling out fibre in new developments with the key focus of NBN Co being: educating the development and building industry that undertake developments of less than 100 premises in areas where we are currently rolling out fibre to existing Brownfield’s premises that may be unfamiliar with the fibre in new developments policy and process to receive fibre
the annual review of master developer agreement and short form developer agreement on which NBN Co will receive industry feedback
increasing the awareness of NBN Co’s pre-installation process for builders currently constructing within estates where NBN Co is currently rolling out fibre Most importantly, our main focus in 2014, remains to ensure that when residents move into their new premises that an NBN service is available to be ordered without any delay. I would like to thank you for your continued support in making the NBN roll out in new developments possible and we look forward to working with you over the remainder of 2014.” Julian Nachmias
General Manager,
Business Operations
Developer Responsibilities Reminder As per the Fibre in New Developments Policy, developers have a number of responsibilities they need to adhere to in order to be eligible to receive NBN Co fibre infrastructure. Developers need to provide NBN Co with at least 3 months’ notice prior to the commencement of construction/civil works on site to ensure NBN Co can deliver fibre in line with the developer’s first service connection date. Below is a quick reference on the steps developers need to complete in order to be eligible to receive NBN Co fibre: Register your overall development and submit a fibre application for the first stage via NBN Co’s online process.
Submit your Master Plan for your overall development.
Developers need to give NBN Co at least 3 months’ notice prior to the commencement of construction/civil works to ensure NBN Co has adequate time to plan the installation of fibre.
Sign and return the Master Developer Agreement (MDA) or the Short Form Developer Agreement (SDA) - NBN Co cannot reticulate fibre into a new development without an agreement in place.
Design pit and pipe infrastructure or Pathway Designs to NBN Co specifications and standards and submit to NBN Co for review prior to starting construction/civil works -NBN Co Technical Guidelines.
Install pit and pipe/pathway infrastructure to NBN Co specifications and standards.
Transfer ownership of pit and pipe infrastructure to NBN Co. Please refer to NBN Co’s New Developments Process for further details.
Is Your Development in an NBN Area? We have some important information to help you set up for the NBN. The earlier you apply the better! If you are within an active NBN Co area, you can apply for fibre irrespective of your development size. A development within a Brownfields area is considered a 'new development' when additional/new infrastructure is required in order to provide fibre (telecommunication services) to the premises being constructed. A simple application is all it takes to get the ball rolling in delivering high speed broadband to a new home in an NBN area. Therefore, if you are building a new home please visit our website at: www.nbnco.com.au/newdevelopments and press the less than 100 premises button or click hereto find out if you or your client qualifies for high speed broadband.
Getting Homes ‘Fibre Ready’ – The Street Connection The Federal government’s Fibre in New Developments Policy released in June 2011, and changes to the Telecommunications Act 1997, impose a range of obligations on those developers and builders covered by the Act to prepare for the installation of fibre. These include an obligation to install pit and pipe and all other necessary infrastructure such as Lead-in Conduits and pathways, in sufficient proximity to each new premises to enable fibre to be readily connected. Developers covered by the Act are responsible for installing pit and conduit in the street/footpath to NBN Co specifications. As part of this installation, starter pipes are installed into each lot for a distance of 1m. The builder needs to connect the conduit to the house to provide a pathway for the communications cable. This pathway is called a Lead-in Conduit (LIC) In order for NBN Co to install fibre to each new home/premises a LIC needs to be installed. LICs should be installed from the new home to the appropriate property boundary and connected to the developer installed starter pipe. This starter pipe should be installed 1m into the property by the developer and contain a draw string. Typically the starter pipe will be located near the elec
NTD Pre-installation Requests To enable a smooth and efficient connection to the National Broadband Network, we encourage builders, developers and other persons in control of new development sites to request a pre-installation of the NBN in-home equipment. This approach minimises disruption to residents moving into their new homes and simplifies the developer's project and site management activities. Pre-installation of the NBN in-home equipment should be arranged to take place at least 10 days ahead of the estimated home completion date, so that once residents have moved in all they need to do is contact their preferred Retail Service Provider (RSP) to get connected to the NBN. The pre-installation will take approximately 1 hour and there is currently no cost from NBN Co associated with this. To arrange Pre-installation of the NBN in-home equipment, download either the Single Premise Request form or the Multi Premise Request form and submit your request via email to: newdevelopments@nbnco.com.au. To organise a Pre-Installation form to be sent to you by email, please call 1800 OUR NBN (1800 687 626). The following information will be required when completing the form: Confirmation that you have authority of all owners and any occupiers to make this request based on the Pre-install terms and conditions
Premises address or addresses
Developer estate name and stage number
Confirmation that power is available
Date by which the premises will be at lock-up stage
Estimated completion or handover date
Confirmation that a ‘Lead-in Conduit’ has been installed in accordance with NBN Co guidelines
Confirmation that you have the agreement of the owners and any occupiers to waive their right to be given notice under Schedule 3 of the Telecommunications Act in relation to the pre-installation
Preferred installation date
Confirmation that estimated completion/handover to the resident will not occur until after the preferred installation date You should receive a confirmation email and reference number from NBN Co within 5 business days from receipt of request. All NTD pre installation requests are subject to available resourcing – please refer to the Pre-Install Terms and Conditions for more information. Visit - www.nbnco.com.au/newdevelopments under ‘Technical Guidelines’ to view the Pre-Install terms and conditions and more details.Mixamo is a great animation resource, that enables you to quickly (and currently freely) add animations to your 3D models. However, if you want to incorporate the results into your Blender workflow, it can be a bit non-intuitive. The Mixamo documentation recommend using Collada, which simply does not work well. There instructions also skip completely the process of actually using the resulting animations... a rather key component. The following workflow is perhaps the easiest with the best results.
First off, when exporting your animations from Mixamo, use the following settings:
This will result in a zip file containing your model, as well as several animations, like so:
If you haven’t already, load Blender. Next go to File->Import->FBX. The next part is critical, in the Import FBX settings select Manual Orientation and Apply Transform
Your model and it’s armature should now load fine, with full proper textures showing up. I suggest you rename your armature something meaningful, as each animation is going to come in with the same name (Armature, Armature.001, etc.).
Next do the import again, with the exact same settings, this time bring in one of your animations. If you only need to wire up a single animation, you are nearly done. Just bring up the DopeSheet, switch to Action Editor
You can now toggle between any animation available in the Blend file:
Keep in mind, I renamed my main character Timeline, then the walk animation armature was renamed Walk, etc...
If however you need to use multiple animations, or want to create a single timeline with all of the animations on it, you are now going to have to break out the NLA Editor. It is simply a matter of Add Action Strip to your main character, for each animation in the timeline, like so:
And, the end result:
I glossed over part of the process, but never fear... I also did a video!
ArtJava 9 is scheduled to be released in July 2017. The Feature Extension Complete milestone was achieved in late December,. We will have a look at the new features in Java 9.
Java 9 Features
1. Module System – Jigsaw Project
The major change in Java 9 is the module System that has already been implemented in Java 9. The module system was introduced to make jdk scalable to smaller devices. The module system will provide application the capability to use only the jdk modules that are needed. The applications will no longer need the whole jdk framework. The module system will also encapsulate the public classes within a module. So a class defined public would not be available to the whole world until a module explicitly defines so. Because of this change the internal api e.g. com.sun.* of java will not be available anymore by default.
Let us now look at an example of a module in Java 9. Suppose we have a module com.programtalk.app and we would like to use java.logging module and com.programtalk.contract module in this module. We would have to define a file named as module-info.java and it has to be placed in the top of java code hierarchy. And the module-info.java sample is as below:
module com.programtalk.app { requires com.programtalk.contract; requires java.logging; }
In the below diagram, i will try to show a brief dependency model.
All the modules in the above diagram have the module-info.java file defining the dependencies and also defines what a module exports to the module that depends on it. All the packages that are not exported by module-info.java will not be available to dependent module.
To learn more about Module System you can read the Quick Start Guide
2. JShell – Java 9 interpreter
In Java, if we have to execute a simple statement, we do so by either creating a class with main method or creating a Test class that can be executed. This may not be that helpful when you are starting with Java and want to execute statements and see the results immediately.
JShell tries to solve this issue. JShell gives java developers the possibility to evaluate declarations, expressions, statements directly on the console without having to create classes. JShell also has the possibility of loading the statements from a file or to save the statements to a file. And JShell also has a very helpful autocomplete feature by using tab key. Here are some things to try with Jshell
| Welcome to JShell -- Version 1.9.0-ea | Type /help for help -> System.out.println("Hello JShell") Hello JShell
Did you notice I didn’t write the semi-colon after the statement as it is not needed in JShell. Will save millions of keystrokes 🙂
3. Collection Factory methods
In Java 8 and before, it was possible to create an immutable view of the collections but only with some utility methods e.g. Collections.unmodifiableCollection(Collection<? extends T> c). Let us create an immutable view of Collection in Java 8, with a one liner. This is the easiest way to do so in Java 8. It looks really bad and I even get a warning in eclipse about missing serialVersionUID.
Map<String, String> immutableMap = Collections.unmodifiableMap( new HashMap<String, String>() {{ put("key1", "Value1"); put("key2", "Value2"); put("key3", "Value3"); }});
As we have seen how hard it is to create an immutable view of Map in java 8 in a very simple manner, you would definitely agree with me that Java 9 has bought in something useful with the factory methods for creating immutable collections. Lets us now create the immutable Map in Java 9.
Map<String, String> immutableMap = Map.of("key1", "Value1", "key2", "Value2", "key3", "Value3");
Here are the examples of the factory methods
// empty immutable collections List<String> emptyImmutableList = List.of(); Set<String> emptyImmutableSet = Set.of(); Map emptyImmutableMap = Map.of(); // immutable collections List<String> immutableList = List.of("one", "two"); Set<String> immutableSet = Set.of("value1", "value2"); Map<String, String> immutableMap = Map.of("key1", "Value1", "key2", "Value2", "key3", "Value3");
4. Private Methods in Interfaces
Java 8 introduced default and static methods. Having private methods was first planned for Java 8 but got only implemented in Java 9. Private methods in interfaces would allow the default and static method to share same code thus making code less redundant and more clean. A private method can be either static so it belong to an interface. And a private method without static, and that can only be called on a instance of the interface but only within the interface.
public interface Java9InterfacePrivateMethod { private static String staticPrivateMethod2Share() { return "I belong to Interface"; } private String privateMethod2ShareOnInstance() { return "I belong to instance"; } default void callMyPrivateMethods() { // see the static method can be called right away just as any other static methods String result = staticPrivateMethod2Share(); Java9InterfacePrivateMethod instance = new Java9InterfacePrivateMethod() { // nothing to implement }; System.out.println(instance.privateMethod2ShareOnInstance()); } }
5. Reactive Streams – Publish Subscribe Framework
Java 9 will also be come with Reactive Streams API. The class java.util.concurrent.Flow encloses the following 4 interfaces
These interfaces support the Reactive Streams publish-subscribe framework. Java 9 also provides a utility class SubmissionPublisher. A Publisher produces items that are consumed by a number of Subscribers. And a Subscriber is managed by a Subscription. Subscription links the Publisher and Subscriber.
6. Multi Resolution Images API
Java 9 will support multi-resolution Image API in java.awt.image package. Interface java.awt.image.MultiResolutionImage would encapsulate images with different resolutions. And it provides two ways to access the images. Either get the list of all the resolution variants or get a particular variant based on the width and height.
Based upon the current display DPI metric and any applied transformations, the java.awt.Graphics class will retrieve the necessary variant from the MultiResolutionImage.
java.awt.image.AbstractMultiResolutionImage class provides the default implementation of java.awt.image.MultiResolutionImage. The basic implementation of AbstractMultiResolutionImage is java.awt.image.BaseMultiResolutionImage
7. Process API Improvements
Process API has been improved in Java 9 for controlling and managing operating-system process. With Java 9 it is possible to get information about any spawned process including the current process.
The enhancements to java.lang.Process that have been added in Java 9 are
provide operating specific process id of a process
information about the process
the command of the the process
start time of the process
accumulated cpu time of the process
user name for the process
For getting the information about the process java.lang.ProcessHandle has been added in Java 9. ProcessHandle can be used to destroy the processes. You can also add an action to ProcessHandle.onExit() which will be executed when a process exists.
Here is an example that gets the information about the current process. I have executed it in jShell.
jshell> ProcessHandle currentProcess = ProcessHandle.current(); currentProcess ==> 12508 jshell> jshell> System.out.println(currentProcess.getPid()); 12508 jshell> jshell> ProcessHandle.Info currentProcessInfo = currentProcess.info(); currentProcessInfo ==> [user: Optional[programtalk.com], cmd: C... me: Optional[PT0.671875S]] jshell> jshell> Optional<String[]> args = currentProcessInfo.arguments(); args ==> Optional.empty jshell> Optional<String> cmd = currentProcessInfo.commandLine(); cmd ==> Optional.empty jshell>
8. Try-With Resources
In Java 7 try-with-resources was introduced but we always had to declare a variable in the try block that had to be managed by the try-with-resources statement.
void printFileJava7() throws IOException { try(FileInputStream myInput = new FileInputStream("myfile.txt")) { int data = myInput.read(); while(data!= -1){ System.out.print((char) data); data = myInput.read(); } } }
Java 9 has relaxed this requirement and has allowed to declare a variable outside the try-with-resources statement but the only condition is that the variable has to be final or effectively final.
void printFileJava9() throws IOException { final FileInputStream myInput = new FileInputStream("myfile.txt") try(myInput) { int data = myInput.read(); while(data!= -1){ System.out.print((char) data); data = myInput.read(); } } }
9. Diamond Operator Scope Extension
Java 7 gave us diamond operator to make our lives bit easier.In the below example you can see that java 7 list is more readable and concise.
List<String> preJava7 = new ArrayList<String>(); List<String> java7 = new ArrayList<>();
But Java 7 diamond operator was not allowed on anonymous classes. But Java 9 has enhanced the Diamond operator to work even on anonymous classes. The below example will only compile in Java 9
List<String> list = new ArrayList<>(){ };
@Deprecated annotation is used to mark a Java API. It can have lots of meanings like an API will be removed in near future and no body knows when. It can also mean that this API is broken and should no longer be used. It can mean a lot of things. So as to provide more information with @Deprecated annotation, forRemoval and since have been added.
And Java SE 9 also provdes a tool jdeprscan that scans a jar file. This tool scans a aggregation of class for uses of deprecated API elements from Java SE. This tool will be useful for application that use libraries that have already been compiled and the user of that library has no idea as to what deprecated APIs it is using.
11. Unified JVM Logging
Unified JVM Logging tries to introduce a common easy-to-configure logging for all components of the JVM. With earlier Java versions it is hard to configure logging for various JVM components. e.g. If you want to log a message per GC you need to configure -XX:+PrintGC on the jvm start. And there are lots of other components that provide there own configurations for logging out messages. And often these messages would end of in different file rather than the logging file of the application.
Java 9 has shown a good intent in having minimal configurations needed and following the already existing logging message styles to log the JVM component logs. A set of tags has been defined by the logging framework in the JVM e.g. gc, threads, compiler etc. Each message logged has to have a one or more tags associated so that the logging compoenent is clear. A log message also has a level e.g; error, info, debug, trace. A message can also be decorated with other information like time, uptime etc.
A new command-line option has been added -Xlog which has options to be defined like the tagset, decorators, logging level etc.
-Xlog:gc=trace:file=gctrace.txt:uptimemillis,pids:filecount=5,filesize=1024 - log messages tagged with 'gc' tag using 'trace' level to a rotating fileset with 5 files with size 1MB with base name 'gctrace.txt' and use decorations 'uptimemillis' and 'pid' - default output of all messages at level 'warning' to'stderr' will still be in effect
One very nice feature that has also been taken care of the changes to the logging configuration at runtime. Logging can be controlled at runtime through Diagnostic Commands (the jcmd utility). It allows all the options that are available at runtime. jmcd usage
Usage: jcmd <pid | main class> <command...|PerfCounter.print|-f file> or: jcmd -l or: jcmd -h command must be a valid jcmd command for the selected jvm. Use the command "help" to see which commands are available. If the pid is 0, commands will be sent to all Java processes. The main class argument will be used to match (either partially or fully) the class used to start Java. If no options are given, lists Java processes (same as -l). PerfCounter.print display the counters exposed by this process -f read and execute commands from the file -l list JVM processes on the local machine -h this help
Read more JEP158
12. SafeVarargs Scope Extension
Until Java 8, @SafeVarargs could only be applied to static methods, final methods and constructors. None of them can be overridden. This list was missing one more candidate that could also not be overridden and that was a private method. And Java 9 has made it possible to add @SafeVarargs to the private method. Here is a valid example in Java 9 but in Java 8 it throws compile error “@SafeVarargs annotation cannot be applied to non-final instance method iAmSafeVaragrsMethod“
@SafeVarargs private void iAmSafeVaragrsMethod(String... varagrgs) { for (String each: varagrgs) { System.out.println(each); } }
13. HTTP 2 Client
Java 9 comes with a new HTTP client API which supports HTTP/2 and websockets. This would replace the legacy HTTPURLConnection API. This change couldn’t be finished in Java 9. It is available in the incubator module. So this module will not available on the classpath by default and would have to added to the classpath by configuring it using --add-modules command-line option.
Let’s create a HTTPRequest and get the response asynchronously.
URI testPageURI = new URI("http://127.0.0.1:8080/testPage"); CompletableFuture<HttpResponse> nonBlockingResponse = HttpRequest.create(testPageURI).GET().responseAsync(); int tries = 0; while(!nonBlockingResponse.isDone() && tries++ < 5) { Thread.sleep(5); } if (nonBlockingResponse.isDone()) { HttpResponse response = nonBlockingResponse.get(); System.out.println("status code : " + response.statusCode() + " --> " + response.body(HttpResponse.asString())); } else { nonBlockingResponse.cancel(true); System.out.println("Cancelling, could not get response"); }
14. HTML5 Javadoc
Java 8 and below generate the javadocs in HTML 4 which is quite old. In Java 9 a command line option is added to javadoc utility to request a HTML 4 or HTML 5 output. HTML 4 will be the default for now but in later jdk releases HTML5 would become the default. The three-frame structure of the javadocs has not changed and will keep to remain the same with HTML 5 javadocs.
15. More features
underscore character is reserved. A variable can no longer be named only _
Applet API is deprecated
javac will drop support for Java 1.4 and older source code.
will drop support for Java 1.4 and older source code. Java browser plugin is deprecated in Java 9
Stack-Walking API – API for stack walking that allows easy filtering of, and lazy access to, the information in stack traces.
Experimental support for cgroup memory limits in container (ie Docker) environments(See here)
Search box in java docs (JEP 225)- modules, packages, types and members are searchable now in javadocs. A very nice feature that will definitely be helpful for the developers.
Feature that couldn’t make to Java 9
JSON API
Local-Variable Type Inference (var) is most probably going to Java 10
Summary
I have tried to give an overview of the major Java 9 features. And would be updating the links to the detailed articles. I would be writing about these features in details. Java 9 seems to be an exciting change for the JVM framework itself as it will be a modular system.The first bad blocks appear
Solid-state drives have revolutionized the PC storage industry. Their wicked-fast access times deliver a palpable improvement in overall system responsiveness, and prices have fallen enough to make decent-sized drives affordable for all. There's just one catch: due to the nature of flash memory, SSDs have limited endurance.
Flash writes erode the structure of the individual memory cells. Eventually, cells degrade enough that entire blocks of them have to be retired. Those bad blocks are replaced by fresh ones pulled from the SSD's spare area, and business proceeds as usual.
SSDs only have so much spare area at their disposal, though. That area is also used to accelerate performance, so we've been curious about what happens to SSDs as wear accumulates. Do drives burn out or do they fade away—and what happens to performance as write cycling takes a toll on the flash? We're attempting to answer those questions in our SSD Endurance Experiment.
If you're unfamiliar with the experiment, I recommend reading our introductory article on the subject. Here's the short version: we have six SSDs from Corsair, Intel, Kingston, and Samsung, and we're hammering them with writes |
Hodgson resisted calls to try to convince Terry to end his retirement and play in this World Cup.
Keane, meanwhile, looks set to accept an offer to become Aston Villa ’s assistant manager, but will continue in the same role for the Republic of Ireland, at least until the end of the European Championship qualification campaign.
Keane’s decision not to go to Brazil appears to pave the way for him to be in place at Villa Park for the start of pre-season training.
ITV also confirmed Keane has decided to bring an end to a successful stint as a television pundit to concentrate on his coaching career.
A statement said: “Roy has been a tremendous part of our pundit team in recent years, but we fully understand his decision to concentrate wholly on his coaching. We wish him every success for the future.”
Keane has discussed the offer he received from Villa with Ireland manager Martin O’Neill, who has no problem with him combining the two roles, if that is what he wants to do.
O’Neill has done much to boost Keane’s coaching reputation by making him his assistant and the former Manchester United captain feels he is benefiting from being a number two. Keane would like to return to frontline management, but has decided to rebuild his career as an assistant following a disappointing spell in charge of Ipswich Town.
With that in mind, O’Neill has said he feels Keane will benefit from the day-to-day involvement of club football, rather than the intermittent player contact that comes with an international job.
The move also makes sense given Keane wants to learn as much as he can as an assistant and while O’Neill falls into the veteran manager category, Villa boss Paul Lambert, who played for O’Neill at Celtic – is younger and has different methods and ideas.
Lambert lost his former assistant manager Ian Culverhouse following a disciplinary hearing and made an approach to Keane last month to see whether he would be interested in helping him at Villa.
Keane also held an informal chat with Celtic about their vacant manager’s position, but subsequently informed them he did not want to be considered for the role.Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said the switch would allow Verstappen to showcase his ‘outstanding' talent, and also help Kvyat ‘regain his form'.
The move comes just days after Kvyat was heavily criticised - by Horner included - after twice coming together with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in Russia.
"Max has proven to be an outstanding young talent. His performance at Toro Rosso has been impressive so far and we are pleased to give him the opportunity to drive for Red Bull Racing," Horner said.
"We are in the unique position to have all four drivers across Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso under long term contracts with Red Bull, so we have the flexibility to move them between the two teams.
"Dany will be able to continue his development at Toro Rosso, in a team that he is familiar with, giving him the chance to regain his form and show his potential."
Kvyat was promoted to Red Bull ahead of the 2015 season, in place of the departing Vettel. He out-scored team mate Daniel Ricciardo in his maiden season with the team, by 95 points to 92. This year the Russian secured the second podium of his F1 career in China, but then cost the team a chance to score points with his double-collision with Vettel.
Verstappen, meanwhile, is widely regarded as one of the best talents on the grid. The youngest driver to compete in the sport, and the youngest points-scorer, he twice came close to scoring a podium during a superb debut campaign with Toro Rosso last year.
WATCH: Verstappen's top five overtakes of 2015By Ayden Scheim
In response to mounting evidence of the prevention benefits of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use by HIV-negative gay and bisexual men, a discussion recently emerged on social media about the perceived exclusion of trans men1 who have sex with men from PrEP research studies.
In fact, trans men participate in many HIV prevention research studies, whether or not they are identified as trans when results are reported. Some do not identify as trans, but rather as men of trans experience or transitioned men, and are happy to check the “male” box without qualification. Other studies have explicitly included trans men and allowed them to self-identify. Regardless, some were upset that when results were reported, PrEP effectiveness among trans men was not addressed. In response, a number of well-intentioned non-trans men voiced their support for greater inclusion of trans men in biomedical and other HIV prevention research. While these statements are a testament to the progress gay and bisexual men’s communities are making in embracing men of trans experience, I feel compelled to offer a reality check about the inclusion of trans men in HIV prevention research.
According to a recent estimate,2 about one in 200 people are trans. Therefore, unless greatly oversampled, trans men will never represent a large enough subgroup of a study to allow for well-powered comparisons of efficacy or effectiveness between trans and non-trans men. Further complicating matters is that we would likely see lower incidence rates among trans men overall, requiring even larger numbers to detect an effect. Trans people are not unicorns! We can cautiously infer from research on non-trans people. For instance, we can look to basic science research showing lower concentrations of tenofovir (one of the two drugs in Truvada) in vaginal and cervical versus rectal tissues to learn about how PrEP may work differently for trans men who have vaginal intercourse (e.g. requiring more frequent dosing, or a longer period to become efficacious at the beginning of use). Where we do need to find out more about prevention issues specific to trans people, studies that are trans-specific provide better opportunities to ask targeted questions, and to explore heterogeneity within trans communities. Inclusion of trans people in broader studies is important for identifying disparities, but is often less useful for identifying potential remedies for such disparities. While some gay, bi, and queer trans men are at risk for, or living with HIV, the impact of HIV in trans communities is largely experienced by trans women, who are at incredibly high risk of infection in many regions.3 At the moment, we don’t have evidence to suggest a similar HIV epidemic among trans men, in any setting. While we need more, and better-quality, data on HIV prevalence and incidence in trans populations,4 we can safely conclude that trans women should be prioritized in prevention research. Yet, trans women represented a pitiful 0.2 per cent of participants in PrEP trials that had reported results as of 2013.5
Moving forward, prevention research and interventions (e.g., PrEP demonstration projects) that focus on trans women are needed, rather than problematically lumping them in with men who have sex with men. While prevention, treatment, and care efforts for gay and bisexual men must accommodate the experiences and needs of trans men affected by HIV, gay and bisexual men (trans and non-trans) should be raising our voices to ensure that increased resources are dedicated to HIV prevention for trans women.
Ayden Scheim is a PhD Candidate, Trudeau Foundation Scholar, and Vanier Scholar in epidemiology and biostatistics at Western University in London, Ontario. Over the past decade, he has been involved in a number of community-based trans health research, promotion and education initiatives, including work with the Trans Men’s Working Group of the Ontario Gay Men’s Sexual Health Alliance.
1 I use trans men here to refer to those who are assigned a female sex at birth, but identify as male or masculine. Similarly, I use trans women as shorthand to refer to those who were assigned male at birth, but identify as female or feminine. These are imperfect terms, as many trans people do not necessarily identify as “men” or “women.”
2 Conron KJ, Scott G, Stowell GS, Landers SJ. Transgender health in Massachusetts: results from a household probability sample of adults. American Journal of Public Health. 2012;102(1):118–22.
3 Baral SD, Poteat T, Strömdahl S, Wirtz AL, Guadamuz TT, Beyrer C. Worldwide burden of HIV in transgender women: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infectious Diseases. 2013;13(3):214–22.
4 As trans status is not captured in HIV testing data and other surveillance data sources, seroprevalence estimates for trans women rely almost exclusively on convenience sampling, often from venues where we would expect higher prevalence (e.g. sexual health clinics and HIV prevention programs). In addition, we are not able to estimate HIV prevalence for trans people in Canada.
5 Escudero DJ, Kerr T, Operario D, Socías ME, Sued O, Marshall BDL. Inclusion of trans women in pre-exposure prophylaxis trials: a review. AIDS care. 2015;27(5):637–41.Advertisement Police: Transgender woman shot in back of head dies Share Shares Copy Link Copy
A transgender woman shot in the back of the head early Friday morning in northwest Baltimore has died, police said.City police said officers were called at 3:18 a.m. to the 3600 block of Fairview Avenue, where they found a woman who had been shot. She was taken to a hospital, where she died, police said.Police identified the victim as Crystal Edmonds, 32, who lives in southwest Baltimore.Baltimore police officers, detectives and cadets canvassed the neighborhood Friday afternoon, knocking on doors and talking to neighbors in search of information."I heard the shots. This area is getting so bad. I heard the shots, and then my cousin called me and said she called the police," said Sandra Johnson, a resident.T.J. Smith, chief of Baltimore police media relations, said police have generated no suspects and very few leads."The kind of person who can do this, who can shoot someone in the back of the head and leave them for dead on a sidewalk, this type of person will do it again," Smith said.Smith made a public plea for tips from the community, and he did so flanked by homicide investigators and the Police Department's relatively new, full-time LGBT liaison."At this time, we don't know if that played a role, if she was targeted because she was transgender. We don't have the evidence yet," Smith said. Neighbors complained about prostitution in the area."It's terrible around here late night. They're all around here and all in my back ally, everywhere," Johnson said.WBAL-TV 11 News asked police whether they're looking into any possible link to this case."We've had some complaints about prostitution. We've had some complaints of some illegal activity, so that's part of our investigation. We're not prepared to say that played a direct role in this, but it's certainly something we would follow up on as a possible lead," Smith said.A reward of up to $2,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and indictment.Anyone with information is asked to call police at 410-396-2100 or Metro Crime Stoppers at 866-7LOCKUP, or text a tip to 443-902-4824.Get the WBAL-TV News AppAs you’ve probably heard, October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, an annual campaign meant to raise awareness about the importance of cyber security. October is also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Understanding the importance of supporting women in the industry (who are largely underrepresented), Cybrary is honoring the community with a change to the logo for this month (pictured above). You will notice that in addition to the traditional mask logo looking more like a cancer ribbon, we have included the hashtag #CyberAware, which we encourage you to use in your discussions of cyber topics.
“Mature cyber security teams require a mix of skills and diversity of thought – you must foster teamwork that’s inclusive and integrates multi-disciplinary and diverse perspectives” said Angela Messer, a Booz Allen executive vice president, and leader of the firm’s Cyber innovation business and cyber talent development champion. “An overreliance on any one background or perspective leaves an organization vulnerable to adversaries and threats that rapidly change – only diverse, multidisciplinary teams can rapidly respond and problem solve on the next challenge. It’s also a security imperative that our industry broaden access to talent by becoming better at attracting, retaining and empowering female cyber warriors.”
It is this type of cyber awareness- knowing that teams are made up of unique backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints, that will allow for a cyber security mindset across organizations and with time, will hopefully assist us in bridging the cyber security skills gap.
“With increasingly sophisticated threats and the demand for security talent soaring, the cybersecurity field is one that absolutely cannot afford to neglect the population of women and the many talents they offer,” said Shamla Naidoo echoes, global chief information security officer, IBM. “The security industry needs the best and brightest to remain ahead in the fight against cybercrime, and creating a workforce with diversity of thought, gender and backgrounds is essential to this goal.”
For those who want an inside look at some of Cybrary’s female instructors working to spread the word about the importance of cyber security, check out this list of female- taught courses:
For the entire course list, including many more courses from Kelly Handerhan, visit the catalog. If you or someone in your network would like to contribute a course, you can submit your material here.
Don’t forget to donate for October’s special Breast Cancer Awareness badge and show your support, here.
Olivia Lynch (@Cybrary_Olivia) is the Marketing Manager at Cybrary. Like many of you, she is just getting her toes wet in the infosec field and is working to make cyber security news more interesting. A firm believer that the pen is mightier than the sword, Olivia considers corny puns and an honest voice essential to any worthwhile blog.Ringo Starr turns 75 on July 7th and we celebrate the great Beatles drummer…
It’s one of rock’s greatest urban myths, a story retold in a thousand pub conversations with a knowing nod…’Ringo Starr couldn’t drum…’. It usually comes accompanied by the dusty old tale of John Lennon saying that ‘Ringo Starr was not even the best drummer in the Beatles.’
Lennon would never have been so dumb to insult Ringo like that. In all the Beatle civil wars Ringo gets away scot free – not because he was the oldest and they all looked up to him but because the Beatles knew how lucky they were to have him on drums. When he joined the band in 1962 it was like Dave Growl joining Nirvana – the moment when they turned into a proper band. Joe Strummer once said ‘you’re only as good as your drummer’ and to insult Ringo is to prove you know little of the art of drumming.
Ringo is trapped by his history. The Beatles made him stupidly famous but stupidly famous for being the lucky man surrounded by supreme talents, the goofy fall guy with the funny face whose skill as a drummer was often overlooked.
In recent years he has sometimes become better known as the curmudgeon who won’t sign autographs and was rude about his birthplace of Liverpool. Both quotes seem to have been taken out of context- the autographs perhaps because professional autograph hunters sell on the signatures on the Internet and the Liverpool quip was a sarcastic aside on a TV chat show and didn’t seem to be a major condemnation of the fine city of his birth and was nothing worse than the kind of quip lennon would have been celebrated for.
And as for the drumming, Ringo is one of the greats, perhaps the best drummer in the sixties with his own highly influential, distinctive style that was a major part of the Beatles songs. The fact that he could pick up and play the songs very quickly was a major part of the Beatles incredible work rate and his style is very distinctive. There are several modern drum techniques and styles that he popularized and his hard hitting offbeat style is so much part of the Beatles style that it is impossible to imagine their songs without him. Whether he was technically proficient or not is irrelevant he made a generation of kids play drums and his own style and was perfect for the most influential band of all time and was both innovative and exciting- not bad going really.
And that’s not counting Tomorrow Never Knows built around his tape loops and his brilliant detuned toms – one of the best pieces of drumming ever. Solo Beatles never sounded so good again without Ringo – the band was the sum of its parts – each member was key and there was no lucky rider in the fab four.Last summer, my dad was in the hospital while he was being treated for pancreatic cancer. Because this is Romania, that meant that a doctor gave me a list of supplies I would need to buy for him: drugs, syringes, IV equipment, cannulas, catheters, bandages, and plasters. All this stuff cost me between $140 to $280, and in a country where the annual per-capita GDP is hovering around $13,000, that's a lot of money. Many families in that situation would have to choose between buying medical care for a loved one or feeding themselves.
Over the last five years, nearly 14,000 doctors have left Romania, a trend that shows no sign of stopping. The patience of resident doctors was tested to its limit last month when Prime Minister Victor Ponta promised them an extra monthly allowance of about $200 on top of their salaries, only to hold off giving it to them (not that it would have been of much use anyway, given how low their salaries were in the first place). Along with low pay comes corruption—employers sometimes solicit bribes from people who want to work in their hospitals.
To get a better idea of what’s going on, I joined about 300 doctors—who were holding a protest outside the prefect’s office in the city of Cluj—and asked them why the health care system is in such a state.
Delia and Darius Tăchilă are both residents. She works in the orthodontic and orthopedic section, and he works as an oral and maxillofacial surgeon. After I took their picture, they told me, “We're smiling, but we are desperate.”
VICE: What are you protesting?
Delia: The first thing is the lack of money. There are things we're missing, and we can't afford to buy good books. My residential course involves continuous practice, but how can we buy everything we need to do that?
Darius: We're living on a university campus. The rent and the utilities take up one of our salaries, and we use the other—which is €250 [about $350]—to live. We have low salaries, and sometimes we work unpaid shifts on the weekends. But people should realize that it's not just about us—doctors will leave and citizens will suffer from the lack of medical assistance.
Are you planning to leave yourselves?
Yes. We have some options, like Germany, England, Australia...
Maria, another resident, holding a sign protesting the low salaries of doctors
What difficulties are you having as a resident physician?
Maria: The salary is alarmingly low, the families of the people we're treating—and the rest of society—show us no respect, and we're always frustrated because we're unable to do our jobs at the highest level.
Why did you become a doctor?
To help people. And for this I need to practice during my residential course. If the state doesn't help me, what can I do? I will leave the country.
VICE: Why are you here today?
Andreea, resident physician: Let me tell you a story. One time, I needed gloves to do something, so I asked the nurse to hand me a pair. She gave me one glove. "Do you think I can pull this off properly with one hand?" I asked her.
"You have to—these cost money," she told me.
So you can't even buy the equipment that allows you to do your job properly?
No. I'm young, and I need help being convinced not to leave this country. I want decent work conditions in the hospital—my own toilet, space, equipment, a normal schedule. It's not OK to have 24-hour shifts... when the next day you have to start a new shift and be fresh. You can't make any mistakes, like having shaky hands. You have to pay a lot of attention to what you're saying, to what you're writing down, and to the diagnoses you give. The responsibilities are very high when you're working with people's lives.
What's your salary like?
It went up from €222 to €244 [from about $310 to $340] a month. Half of the students in my generation left the country before their residency exam, and the other half are starting to leave now. I don't know how long I'll be stubborn enough to remain here for—to fulfill my moral duty to people here. But if they keep on putting the stops on us, I'll think about moving on to more promising horizons.
VICE: How do you see your future as a resident physician?
Silviu, medical assistant: I'm not optimistic. The word that best describes my future prospects is terror. As students in Romania, we're pretty unlucky—we have to choose between putting up with the situation or leaving. Both choices are bad.
Why do you want to leave?
The health care system is neglected, but staff just have to deal with it and suck up all their frustration. Patients and their families don't understand that we're not guilty, and they're blaming us for all the problems. It’s hard to bear.
VICE: What's the most difficult thing about working in the Romanian health care system?
Andreea, medical student: Thinking about the welfare of your patient when you know your electricity at home might be turned off, that you might be pregnant and that you need to eat more, but that you don't have the time or money to do so. I'm a student, and I want to stay in this country, which is why I joined the protest.
What are you hoping to change?
I want decent work conditions. It seems humiliating for me to take money from my parents at the age of 30. When you can't be financially independent and responsible for your own life, how can one be responsible for another's?
VICE: Why are you protesting?
Vlad, resident physician: There are many reasons: We're not given food, and we have to bring it from home; the extra shifts aren't paid; we're working overtime, and some doctors don't respect the residents. We all get help from our parents. We can't dream of going on vacation. We need to buy our own expensive manuals. Another thing is the scholarship—besides the fact it hasn’t been paid yet, we don't know how long we'll get it for.
How are patients affected by the system’s shortcomings?
They have to buy the medicine themselves, and the food isn't so good. There are hospitals that, when you enter, you have a mental breakdown. The beds are old, the walls aren't painted, and the toilets look awful. The patients need rest and better conditions. And for us, no matter how committed we are, it's hard to keep a positive attitude.“The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payments of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion,” the critical sentence says, “shall not be questioned.”
The Supreme Court has said in passing that those words have outlived the historical moment that gave rise to them.
“While this provision was undoubtedly inspired by the desire to put beyond question the obligations of the government issued during the Civil War,” Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes wrote for the court in 1935, “its language indicates a broader connotation.”
In recent weeks, law professors have been trying to puzzle out the meaning and relevance of the provision. Some have joined Mr. Clinton in saying it allows Mr. Obama to ignore the debt ceiling. Others say it applies only to Congress and only to outright default on existing debts. Still others say the president may do what he wants in an emergency, with or without the authority of the 14th Amendment.
The words of the provision are in important ways quite vague. “Nobody would argue,” said Sanford Levinson, a law professor at the University of Texas, “that Section 4 is clear in its meaning, other than at the time everyone thought that the South, if they ever got back in control, would not pay Civil War debt.”
But Jack M. Balkin, a law professor at Yale, said it was possible to infer a broader principle.
“You’re not supposed to hold the validity of the public debt hostage to achieve political ends,” Mr. Balkin said. He added, though, that “Section 4 is a fail-safe that only comes into operation when everything else is exhausted.”
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Mr. Obama’s statement largely dismissing the possibility of invoking the provision may have had a strategic element to it. A deficit reduction deal would seem to be more likely, after all, if both sides thought there was no alternative but economic chaos.
Mr. Obama’s reference to “a winning argument” suggested the likelihood that the courts would weigh in if he took unilateral action. But that is not certain.
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“This is not a circumstance,” said Laurence H. Tribe, a law professor at Harvard, “in which the courts have any plausible point of entry.”
Professor Balkin agreed. “This is largely a political question,” he said. “It is unlikely courts would decide these questions.”
Some law professors have put forward possible legal claims that might overcome threshold requirements for lawsuits, like the one in which plaintiffs show that they have been directly injured and so have standing to sue. “It’s unthinkable,” Professor Tribe responded, “that the courts would allow a gimmicky lawsuit to proceed.”
The president, moreover, can move quickly, but court cases take time. “At the point at which the economy is melting down, who cares what the Supreme Court is going to say?” Professor Balkin said. “It’s the president’s duty to save the Republic.”
Another possible reaction to unilateral action from Mr. Obama is impeachment. Professor Tribe said that was “not politically a very plausible scenario.”
Professor Levinson was less certain. Impeachment by the House of Representatives “seems to me quite likely.” But, he added, “it is also literally unimaginable that the Senate would convict.”
A third possible response is what some law professors call “popular constitutionalism.” The meaning of the Constitution, these professors say, is in the end what the public believes it to be. The president and members of Congress may thus pay a political price for taking stands at odds with what the public understands to be their constitutional obligations.iPhone owners should have an easier time getting around the ballpark this season. Following a trial run last year, Major League Baseball is now deploying Bluetooth-based iBeacons at its stadiums. If you use the MLB At the Ballpark app, your iOS 7-equipped device will receive notifications as you visit different points at a given venue. MLB isn't yet saying just what those notices will involve, although the pilot project helped fans find their seats, score discounts and queue up videos. Only Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium and San Diego's Petco Park have the iBeacons so far. However, the league promises that more than 20 parks will have iBeacons when the season starts -- odds are that your home team will be ready on opening day.
[Image credit: Brendan C, Flickr]Living in the United States for the last 22 years and coaching ever since he arrived, Tony Annan has never experienced so much rigor, yet so much triumph, in the soccer realm quite like the last 12 months.
Before officially being named the Academy Manager for Atlanta United FC in 2016, Annan was initially approached by the MLS club’s President, Darren Eales and Technical Director, Carlos Bocanegra. In conversation about joining the club, a rare opportunity was brought to Annan’s attention:
The Elite Formation Coaching License (EFCL), a 52-week labor intensive French course introduced in North America just three-and-a-half years ago when the French Football Federation (FFF) and the MLS formed a partnership to escalate and advance youth player development in the United States and Canada. Only a handful of premier MLS Academy coaches have ever been selected to participate in this course. This was an exclusive break that all youth coaches endeavor to receive at some point in their career.
However, already in the process of completing the U.S. Soccer Academy Director’s Course, Annan found himself in a very fortunate but tough situation. With confidence and his future in mind, he made the decision to take on both courses simultaneously. As expected, this would be no cake walk. Multiple trips back and forth between the U.S and Europe, intense and demanding work both on-and-off the field, and hours-on-hours of absorbing new methods of coaching, managing, teaching and communicating lied ahead.
After months of sweat and determination, Annan passed both the EFCL and the U.S. Soccer Academy Director’s course becoming one of only six coaches to have ever reached this feat, as well as becoming the first ever to accomplish this in a one-year period.
What brought Annan to Atlanta United?
Both Eales and Bocanegra had heard countless exceptional remarks about Annan’s philosophy, attitude, and history of player development from many directors in the area. Eales noted one of the first times he and Bocanegra covertly attended one of Annan’s training sessions.
“It was really impressive. You can tell a lot by how a team acts before the coach even arrives. They were a very disciplined team.”
“It was apparent, he ran his youth club as if it were a professional organization,” Bocanegra added. “He had clearly earned the respect of his players.”
Eales and Bocanegra also pointed out that both of his eagerness to learn and constant strive to be better – in addition to his thorough local knowledge of soccer in the Southeast and the United States – made him a great fit for Atlanta United.
“He’s someone that has a real development heart to him,” Eales said. “He’s someone that cares about the players, cares about their development path, and that’s important to us at Atlanta United because not every player is going to make it to our first team, but what is important is that every player develops and gets to the best level they can.”
Bocanegra added, “With Tony knowing the landscape here in America, being in and around Georgia for over 20 years, coaching the top club team and having a very good knowledge of the youth market in Georgia and in the Unites States, he is vital for the growth of this Academy and will continue to be a main part of it going forward.”
“He’s very enthusiastic, very energetic, and very good at imparting his knowledge on the kids,” said Atlanta United Academy Director, Richard Money, who has worked side by side with Annan for the last 6 months. “We need people here that are really going to grind and work but also have a good knowledge base and good experience to bring the expertise that we need and I think Tony encompasses all of that, there’s no about it.”
What do his players have to say?
Remi Smith, U16 Academy midfielder that has played under Annan for three years, said, “He doesn’t take it easy on us. He makes sure that everyone is working, and I think that takes him to a different level than the rest of the coaches I’ve had.”
Also with Annan for three years is William Crain, U16 Academy defender.
“It’s a bunch of tough love,” Crain said about Annan’s coaching philosophy. “He’s always tough on you, but he knows that you’re a good player and that you wouldn’t be out here unless you’re not. Even though he’s hard on you, you know he’s doing it for a reason...he believes in you as a player.”
It’s clear that not only does Annan possess the incredible work ethic and drive to finish two labor intensive courses and help build an Academy all in one year, but also, his genuine care for his players and their development both on and off the field is a defining characteristic that classifies him as elite.
We sat down with Annan to discuss his experience with the EFCL and his opportunity with the Atlanta United Academy. Read the full interview below:
So the French Course is a 52-week program that only a handful of coaches have been able to be a part of. Can you talk a little bit about how you got involved in the opportunity?
Carlos Bocanegra called me one day when we were talking about me joining the club and threw out the idea of the French course (EFCL). Every club in the MLS gets a person that can go on the course and he asked me if I’d be interested in doing that. At the time I was doing the Academy Directors course, so it was a bit of a daunting invite, but it was one I couldn’t refuse or turn down.
Compared to other coaching courses, what aspects of the French course make it so rigorous?
It’s intense, it’s really intense. It stretched over a 12-month period rather than over a week or a 10-day coaching course, that’s the standard. It teaches different styles of pedagogy that you have to use while coaching, it really peels back your layers, it gives you a total different look, it makes you uncomfortable. It takes you out of the comfort zone of how you’ve been doing things your whole career.
It’s intense, it’s hard work, it’s a lot of labor on the field as well as off the field, a lot of practice, a lot of failure, which is a part of the whole learning process. It almost sets you up to fail, so you have to keep working at it to get better. Overall, it’s something like I’ve never done before.
To be one of just a few coaches to finish BOTH the French course and the USSF Director’s course, what does it mean to you to accomplish this feat in your career?
Personally, it was probably the hardest 17 months of my life. As far as how much work I had to put in and how much detail I had to pay attention to with both courses at the same time. A lot of people asked how I would do it and didn’t think I could I think. I managed and it was a lot of work, but it was well worth it doing both courses. I think it’s made me a better coach, a better manager, and it’s really improved me as a person both on and off the field.
What do you feel is your biggest takeaway from the French course and how has it influenced your coaching style?
I think like any course it doesn’t completely change you, you don’t lose who you are, you don’t lose your personality, but you do change. You do realize there’s another way another way of learning and teaching. It’s definitely changed my approach of how I structure my training sessions, how I talk to the players and how I communicate and present.
The management piece of the course really improved how I learn, how I teach, and how I talk to people whether they’re in football or not. In that sense, it’s changed my personality a bit, but I still have my passion intensity and drive that I had before. I think the best way to say it is that I’m a more polished coach than I was in a completely different way than I used to think.
The partnership between the FFF and MLS is fairly young, but what do you see as its long term impact on player development in the United States?
It will produce better coaches which in turn will produce better players for the academies, for the MLS, for first teams, for USL teams. The impact is massive. I think if it stopped it would be a shame, because it is a really good course that offers a lot and a completely different way of teaching and development.
Are there more coaches from Atlanta United that are going to take the French course in the next couple of years?
I certainly hope so. I think everyone on our staff would benefit from this course and I know some of the guys are really keen to get going on it. It’s up to the MLS and U.S. Soccer whether they continue the course, but again I think it would be a shame if it wasn’t
Can you describe what it is like to play a pivotal role in building a professional youth Academy from the ground up?
It puts a smile on my face, it’s amazing. It’s a fantastic organization that gives us all the resources that we need to take this academy where we have to take it, where it must go. To be on the ground floor every day to be working to build this thing is the best feeling, it’s great, it’s what I’ve always wanted, so following my dreams really.
The Academy is just 4 months old now, can you talk a little bit about where Atlanta United is at currently and what is next?
Everything is going quite well. I think we’re ahead of where we thought we would be. But we have to keep our feet on the ground, we have to keep working because everything is about hard work, intelligence, and dedication to development. If we don’t do that and we read the press and watch SportCenter and those sort of things, we can easily get distracted. Where we are right now we’re in a good place, but I think two, three years’ time we could be in a really good place. We could see a lot of these kids moving into our USL and first team setups. So were happy with where it is, but we’re never going to be satisfied.
What is your favorite thing about this group in particular?
Their work ethic. They’re disciplined, they’re a great bunch, we have no bad apples and they all work for each other. They all understand what their role is and they’re really talented.Montréal Impact 2014 Home Jersey
Today we are able to present the new Montréal Impact 2014 Primary Jersey, which is made by Adidas and features Bank of Montreal as main sponsor.The new Montréal Impact 2014 Home Kit was unveiled during MLS Jersey Week yesterday, while the 2013 Away Jersey is carried over to become the Montreal Impact 2014 Away Jersey. This is the new Montréal Impact 2014 Home Shirt.The new Montréal Impact 2014 Home Kit is blue and features a v-collar. There are white accents on the inside of the collar, as well as in the Adidas stripes and the typical horinzontal line on the back of every Adidas 2014 Kit. The Fleur de Lys is applied on the |
is generally seen as a way to judge the treatment of women in games. But how important is the playable character in the context of an entire game? Are other characters sometimes more important to a game's tone and message?
What’s Healthy Sexuality and What’s Sexually Objectifying? - This is something of an "I know it when I see it" obscenity test. Is there a definable line between sexy and sexually objectifying?
BONUS - backers who pledge $50 or more will get access to a special bonus episode looking at how we make video games more accessible and inclusive, instead of just more politicized.
These questions don’t come with easy answers, and that’s precisely the point. This show is about starting a conversation, not acting like I have it all figured out!
(Note: This project is in CANADIAN DOLLARS. Right now, $1 CDN is $0.73 USD, so a $25 pledge will cost you under $19 USD. $50 CDN is under $37 USD. Keep this in mind when deciding how much to back!)
I’m asking for base funding of $16,500 to cover the costs of production, which includes research, writing, designing & building a set, production/post-production equipment purchases or upgrades, hiring designers for more polished graphics & logos and commissioning some original music.
The per-episode cost of the original six episodes plus the bonus show works out to $2000 CDN an episode (under $1500 USD), plus fees and contingencies, which will mean better production values than I can usually manage on YouTube, while still being extremely cost effective.
I also want to offer a small honorarium to providers of game footage I can’t capture myself. If you have an older game system and are interested in contributing classic footage (with credit), please send me a message.
There are also a few physical backer incentives that also have to be produced. These incentives have been kept to under 10% of their attached funding tiers.
I have lots of ideas for extras if we exceed the base funding. Here are the first few. More will be added if necessary! (Here's hoping!)
Stretch goal #1: $25,000 - More Episodes! At this level of funding I can stretch a buck further. The set and equipment upgrades will already be done, so the cost per episode will go down to $1700 CDN. I’ll be able to look at these additional six questions:
What Were Women In Gaming Doing In The 1980s? - The popular idea is that women are newcomers to video games. But some women were making games in the 1980s. We’ll take a look at their contributions together.
What Were Women In Gaming Doing In The 1990s? - From the Nintendo Generation to Mortal Kombat fans to the female developers of that era, we’ll look at how women contributed to the growth of the industry after the Atari crash, and as the original PlayStation ushered in the era of 3D video games.
What Were Women In Gaming Doing In The 2000s? - With the rise of the dude-bro First Person Shooter era came the stereotype that video games are for slacker guys. Have women’s accomplishments and contributions been downplayed? And if so, why?
What the Heck Is Character Agency When The Whole Game Is A Toy? - Character agency is a literary concept that video game critics have borrowed. One theory is that Princess Peach is the ball in a game between Mario and Bowser, but Peach, Mario and Bowser are all balls; that is, they’re components of a complex, abstract toy in digital form. This episode explores the limits of character agency in the context of video games, where, unlike in linear media, the player expects some say in the way a game progresses.
Is Misogyny In Games Always Bad? - Films like Mad Max and books-turned-TV series like The Handmaid’s Tale are loaded with a fear and hatred of women so that their female characters have something to fight against. Are video games getting comparatively unfair scrutiny for the misogynist content in some games? Can misogyny have a place in interactive storytelling that doesn’t harm anyone?
Is The Damsel In Distress Trope Really So Bad? - This episode looks at the origins and history of the damsel in distress, and challenges popular opinion that “damseling” a character is inherently bad. Since there’s no male equivalent, is this aversion to an admittedly overused plot device unfairly restricting the inclusion of female characters? Can some games use the trope to tell stories that ultimately affirm the women in them?
Stretch Goal #2 - $31,500: 4K Series
This additional funding will allow us to purchase a 4K camera, meaning the entire series can be produced in 4K. A series in 4K can be shopped to cable and streaming services looking for 4K content.
Stretch Goal #3 - $36,000: Travel
The current Canadian/US currency exchange rate makes travel to the US extremely expensive. This funding level allows us to add one trip for two people to collect interviews for the series. If there are funds left over after the first trip, it will be applied to additional travel.
Stretch Goal #4 - $40,000: Part-Time Assistant Contract
At this funding level, we can hire a part-time project assistant to assist with bookings, project coordination, and other behind-the-scenes work for a couple of months. This will help speed up game captures, guest bookings, general inquiries, responding to email queries, and other day to day operations that suck up a lot of time.
Stretch Goal #5 - $50,000: Accelerated Production Timeline
This is what it will really cost to do this show properly as a truly full-time endeavour. At this funding level we can produce an episode every 2 weeks instead of every month, as well as increase the amount of original game capture and graphics.
Additional episodes and add-ons are planned if we surpass this amount. These add-ons include accessibility elements like described video and closed captioning that I would absolutely love to add, but we need to be able to afford them, or have the services donated.
These numbers may seem big, but they’re very achievable if you embrace the idea that you can help make the dialogue about women in video games more positive. If every regular viewer of my YouTube videos gives just twenty-five bucks, this thing is funded! And if everyone who’s watched one of my Gamer’s Guide to Feminism videos gives twenty-five bucks… we’ve got our $50,000.
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You get to be part of setting the record straight about what gamers really think and feel about these issues. You can help send a clear message that gamers believe that being a gamer has nothing to do with gender or anything else like that. A gamer loves games. Really loves games. That's all.
To symbolize this group effort, everyone who backs $10 or more will get their name or pseudonym put somewhere on the Lady Bits set to show the world that gamers do care, we are supportive, and we can handle a respectful discussion as long as negative stereotypes aren't being rammed down our throats.
Most of the other incentives involve access and inclusion, because if you’re anything like me, you really don’t care about extras that don’t directly involve the project. I also wanted to make sure that my very small team’s efforts were focused on actually making the show instead of producing and mailing out a bunch of swag.
Things like physical DVDs and t-shirts were added to certain funding tiers thanks to feedback from fans of Gamer’s Guide to Feminism, but overall I think that your financial investment should be just that: an investment.
Instead of financial profits, I’m offering the opportunity to be involved. You can nominate a game you love for inclusion. Suggest developers to talk to. And be part of surveys and feedback sessions that will be used in the series.
However, if there’s huge interest in other physical incentives, I can add them. Games are interactive, so I want this process to be interactive too.
Here's what you get at the various funding tiers.
That's probably too small to read on smaller screens, so here's an expanded breakdown. (Note: Kickstarter does not allow editing of tiers in the sidebar. In case of a discrepancy, the version on the above chart is the correct one)
$10 Backer Tier: You've Played Your Part!
You get your name somewhere on the Lady Bits set, and we'll send you a picture so you know where it is!
$25 Early Bird Backer Tier: For Gamers By Gamers! (Limited to 1500)
You get the backers only episode at lower pledge tier. If these sell out, we've funded the full 13 episodes! These limited tiers are designed to stop people from waiting until the very end. Think of it as a thank you for saving me stress.
You get:
- Your name on the set
- Access to the online blooper reel (likely featuring cats)
- Access to downloadable copies of every episode in full 1080p (4K upgrade if that stretch goal is met)
- Access to the backers only episode (in 1080p)
$25 Basic Tier: Better Late Than Never!
Missed out on the early bird extras but still only have $25 to spend? That's okay, you still get some goodies:
- Your name on set
- Access to the online blooper reel (likely featuring cats)
- Access to downloadable copies of every episode in full 1080p (4K upgrade if that stretch goal is met)
$50 Early Bird Tier: You Want Your Say! (SOLD OUT!)
This tier offers entry into the monthly online feedback sessions, access to polls, surveys, and other opportunities to have your say. The number of these spots is restricted to keep the group to a manageable size. Sessions will alternate times each month so that backers with different schedules, in different time zones, can participate.
These sessions will be online chats through Google/Youtube that keep you informed about the progress of the project, but will also give you the chance to ask questions, make suggestions, and submit quotes. If you're a great participant, you may even appear on the program! Think about this as a sort of studio audience and focus group in one!
You also get a physical DVD copy of the show at this tier, as well as...
- Your name on the set
- Access to the online blooper reel (likely featuring cats)
- Access to downloadable copies of every episode in full 1080p (4K upgrade if that stretch goal is met)
- Access to the backers only episode (in 1080p)
-Frank Cho Print
Cho Bits! (Frank Cho Exclusive Print)
To finish off the Kickstarter campaign in a big way, I'm adding a tier with a very exciting incentive! You will get all of the standard $50 reward goodies, PLUS, a limited edition print by comic book artist Frank Cho! (Note, backers at the $50 early bird tier will also get this incentive by default, as will all higher tiered pledges, so as not to penalize people for backing early.)
You also get:
- Your name on the set
- Access to the online blooper reel (likely featuring cats)
- Access to downloadable copies of every episode in full 1080p (4K upgrade if that stretch goal is met)
- Access to the backers only episode (in 1080p)
- DVD Copy!
$50 Basic Tier: Complete Content!
Early bird sold out? You can still get all the content available!
- Your name on the set
- Access to the online blooper reel (likely featuring cats)
- Access to downloadable copies of every episode in full 1080p (4K upgrade if that stretch goal is met)
- Access to the backers only episode (in 1080p)
- DVD copy
$75 Early Bird Replacement Tier - Patched!
This tier was added because the $50 early bird tier sold out so fast. You get everything at the previous $50 tier, plus an embroidered patch with a design that will be voted on by the feedback community you get to be a part of! Plus, you get a physical DVD copy of the show at this tier, as well as...
- Your name on the set
- Access to the online blooper reel (likely featuring cats)
- Access to downloadable copies of every episode in full 1080p (4K upgrade if that stretch goal is met)
- Access to the backers only episode (in 1080p)
- Frank Cho Print
$100 Tier: Been There, Done That, Got The T-Shirt!
If you miss the $50 early bird, you can still get in on the online feedback sessions by backing at this tier. And you get a t-shirt too! One of the things the feedback sessions will help determine is the t-shirt design.
You also get all the incentives from lower tiers.
$125 Tier: All The Things!
A tier added for people who like stuff! All the online stuff, plus the DVD, T-shirt, and embroidered patch. Plus! Anything that's added as an incentive to a lower tier will be added to this tier as well. It's the Lady Bits swag bag! You know you want it!
$500 Consulting Tier (Limited to 10)
All of the lower tier incentives, plus a consulting session. Got a project you want to make sure is female friendly? Get a skilled, informed project review with you or your team (maximum of 2 hours of consult, plus time to review project). It doesn't have to be a video game. This reward is open to any type of project, barring an unforeseen conflict of interest or other ethical concern. In case of conflict, this money will be refunded, or you will be referred to another expert who has no conflict.
$500 Personalized Video Tier: (Limited to 10)
This tier was added for those who want to make a big donation but don't have a project to consult on. You get your very own personal video from me, Momo and the other furballs, for a birthday, pick me up, get well soon, or other special occasion. (PG-Rated content only!) You get all the $100 tier rewards too.
If you want to see my last series, A Gamer's Guide To Feminism, the video below will take you to the playlist!
Here are some nice things some fancy people have said about me:
Liana is never one to shy away from hot topics in the gaming industry and always offers a well-informed & logical viewpoint on the issue at hand!
- Trisha Hershberger: Host, Producer, Writer, Discovery Communications
(Liana) is one of the most knowledgeable, insightful, and professional journalists I've had the pleasure of working with...someone who knows all corners of gaming, tech, or any realm of geekdom who can engage with wit and humor...
- Erika Ishi: Host/Producer, GeekandSundry.com
Liana Kerzner has a firm grasp of the issues surrounding gaming and social justice occurring in society today, and is able to communicate her views effectively and respectfully, even with people she doesn't agree with.
- Ashe Schow: Political columnist Washington Examiner/New York Observer
Compassionate and insightful, (Liana) is unafraid to ask serious questions about the way we write and enjoy stories in gaming. Her knowledge and love for the industry comes out in her work again and again -- and it's infectious
- Ana Valens: Games critic/contributor Killscreen.com DenofGeek.com Zeal.com
Liana's a triple threat geek - she's scholar-smart, wicked witty, and fearless. I find myself exhausted trying to keep up with her.
- Dr. Mike Perschon: Professor of Comparative Literature MacEwan University
When it comes to the world of video games, Liana K is a fountain of knowledge and a huge advocate for the role of women in the industry. Her passion for the world of games is unparalleled. (Liana) has a deep intuitive sense of what this genre is all about from a uniquely female perspective who lives and breathes this genre.
- Ellen Dubin: Voice actor, Fallout 4, Lego Star Wars, Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online
Liana was beyond a pleasure to work with, exceeding all expectations and delivering fantastic, well-written content that that client was impressed with. Working under such tight timelines did not affect Liana and she consistently delivered ahead of schedule – which is a hard thing to do in this industry. Aside from her wonderful work ethic, Liana’s work was thoughtful, engaging and well received by our target audience. The content performed well above industry standard and everyone was thrilled with the campaign. We are really looking forward to working with Liana again and anyone who has the privilege of getting to work with her is incredibly lucky.
- Deborah Gurofsky: Strategy & Innovation, Cue Digital Media
Meow.
- Momo: Cat
I don't think you should give your money to a person who doesn't show you who they are. I love animals and shoot my shows in my house. Sometimes the cats wander into the shots and I go with it. Gaming is a hobby that mostly happens in people's homes. Involvement of pets reflects that. If people get huffy because the videos have cats, I'm not sure they're really going to get the overall experiment of keeping things chill.
I wanted the Kickstarter to reflect what people can expect from the finished series. This has been a part of my videos on YouTube and Momo was a recurring part of Agents of Cosplay as well. Think of him as my animal familiar, since plenty of people call me a witch... and other things that rhyme with "witch".
And this is the internet. Cat videos come with the territory. And... come on, Momo is a giant matzo ball! You know you love him!
First of all, spread the word! The more people know about this Kickstarter, the better. You're the best advocates I have.
If you have a YouTube channel, website, podcast, or other media outlet and are interested in interviewing me about this project, please send me a message with information about your outlet.
If you have any suggestions for other backer incentives, please let me know! My YouTube subscribers will tell you that I'm very open to feedback!By By David Silverberg Oct 19, 2015 in Internet With Canada's impressively long 78-day election campaign culminating tonight with the final day of voting, Digital Journal examines how social media played a role in the campaigns launched by the Liberals, Tories and the New Democrats. Much ink has been spilled about the party platforms and the heavy campaigning courting voters across Canada, but another battle is being waged on the Web: social media continues to play an important role in endearing voters to party leaders, from Twitter engagement to Facebook video posts. First, let's look at how Twitter is a key pillar to the political landscape in Canada. Twitter Canada's Steve Ladurantaye told He noted all the parties are using Twitter a bit differently from each other: the Conservatives highlight policy and the Liberals are trying to reach younger voters. "The NDP is a blend of the two, but that it's the Green Party's Elizabeth May that is capitalizing on the power of Twitter by engaging directly with Canadians." Toronto Sun Justin Trudeau's Liberals are enjoying a But a caveat is necessary here: CBC Turning to Facebook, which more than 19 million Canadians have joined, the Liberals and Conservatives are top of the pack, in different ways. iPolitics “I think the Liberals have been very innovative in using new tools on Facebook. Two things that Trudeau did were really firsts, both in Canada and across the world. First, he did a Facebook 50-second challenge, which is basically a video where he answers in 50 seconds rapid-fire questions that are more personal, showing him more as an individual,” said Kevin Chan, the head of Canadian public policy at Facebook. “And second; what he did, or what the party did, was announce his whole platform live on Facebook. He went live from behind the stage and started it by saying ‘Hi everyone on Facebook, I’m Justin Trudeau and I’m about to announce my entire platform live just for you. Follow me on stage and let’s get started’. And people could send questions in while he did this live and they were answered live.” Let's not ignore the NDP's influence on Facebook, though. iPolitics adds that while the Conservative party holds the top position and has a high level of interactions, "if you look at all four parties over the past 12 months, the NDP demonstrated the highest percentage of growth, with an astounding 355.61 per cent, compared to the Conservatives at a still-impressive 297.15 per cent and far beyond the Liberals and Bloc with 76.62 and 81.74 respectively." It seems all parties are pouring all their efforts into Facebook and Twitter, and ignoring Google+ and LinkedIn. The Liberals haven't updated their LinkedIn On Google+, the We have long been curious about social media's impact on politics. It's meant to offer two-way conversations between voter and candidate, and to open the gates to a more democratic medium to give marginal voices their spotlight. As we've seen with the Arab Spring, social media can also be a catalyst for political movements and protests. But judging by the feeds of the Canadian parties, whether on Facebook or Twitter, social media isn't being used to its best abilities: more often than not, the Libs, New Democrats and Tories are using social networks to bullhorn their platform messages and promote policy, instead of having that conversation the medium could engender. Sure, Trudeau had a live Q&A via Facebook, but it's a rare bright spot in a grey desert of social engagement. Whatever the result of tonight's election, social media will be lighting up with reactions from Canadians home and abroad. And to be frank, that is where some of social's true value lies - not in seeing where party leaders use hashtags and Twitpics of campaign HQs, but in gauging how Canada feels about its future government. Tonight, be sure to follow Tonight by 11 p.m. ET, we should know who will be Canada's Prime Minister: Will the Progressive Conservatives' Stephen Harper remain in power, or will the Liberals' Justin Trudeau or NDP's Tom Mulcair helm the country?Much ink has been spilled about the party platforms and the heavy campaigning courting voters across Canada, but another battle is being waged on the Web: social media continues to play an important role in endearing voters to party leaders, from Twitter engagement to Facebook video posts.First, let's look at how Twitter is a key pillar to the political landscape in Canada. Twitter Canada's Steve Ladurantaye told CBC more than five million election-related tweets appeared on the network in the past 78 days.He noted all the parties are using Twitter a bit differently from each other: the Conservatives highlight policy and the Liberals are trying to reach younger voters."The NDP is a blend of the two, but that it's the Green Party's Elizabeth May that is capitalizing on the power of Twitter by engaging directly with Canadians."Toronto Sun reports the economy was the most discussed issue on Twitter throughout the entire campaign, "despite the best efforts of war rooms from all sides to draw attention to a series of odd scandals and past indiscretions by rival candidates."Justin Trudeau's Liberals are enjoying a lead right now in the polls, and also a substantial lead on Twitter. Even though Trudeau joined Twitter a year later than Harper, he has posted 9,255 tweets compared to Harper's 3,577 (at time of publication). Also, according to iPolitics.ca, Trudeau enjoys a high engagement rate on Twitter, at number one with 36 percent of tweets mentioning him, followed by NDP's Mulcair at second with 28 percent and Harper with 25 percent.But a caveat is necessary here: CBC writes that journalists, for whom Twitter has become a very important tool, "risk inflating its importance and distorting what is actually happening online. The people who are politically active on Twitter and other social media sites tend to be the small subset of people who are already very interested in politics."Turning to Facebook, which more than 19 million Canadians have joined, the Liberals and Conservatives are top of the pack, in different ways. iPolitics reports that in share of Facebook interactions, the Tories double the Liberals in percentage points, but Trudeau leads Harper in Facebook interactions via their leader Pages (compared to the party Pages).“I think the Liberals have been very innovative in using new tools on Facebook. Two things that Trudeau did were really firsts, both in Canada and across the world. First, he did a Facebook 50-second challenge, which is basically a video where he answers in 50 seconds rapid-fire questions that are more personal, showing him more as an individual,” said Kevin Chan, the head of Canadian public policy at Facebook.“And second; what he did, or what the party did, was announce his whole platform live on Facebook. He went live from behind the stage and started it by saying ‘Hi everyone on Facebook, I’m Justin Trudeau and I’m about to announce my entire platform live just for you. Follow me on stage and let’s get started’. And people could send questions in while he did this live and they were answered live.”Let's not ignore the NDP's influence on Facebook, though. iPolitics adds that while the Conservative party holds the top position and has a high level of interactions, "if you look at all four parties over the past 12 months, the NDP demonstrated the highest percentage of growth, with an astounding 355.61 per cent, compared to the Conservatives at a still-impressive 297.15 per cent and far beyond the Liberals and Bloc with 76.62 and 81.74 respectively."It seems all parties are pouring all their efforts into Facebook and Twitter, and ignoring Google+ and LinkedIn. The Liberals haven't updated their LinkedIn Page in two months, when they posted about a job position. The LinkedIn Page for the Tories feels like a placeholder for text. And there's not an NDP Page on LinkedIn to be found.On Google+, the NDP haven't posted anything since June 26, the Liberals have been AWOL on G+ since Aug. 2, and the Tories have neglected their Google+ Page since 2012. Ouch. Is Google+ such a dead zone as many marketers have claimed?We have long been curious about social media's impact on politics. It's meant to offer two-way conversations between voter and candidate, and to open the gates to a more democratic medium to give marginal voices their spotlight. As we've seen with the Arab Spring, social media can also be a catalyst for political movements and protests.But judging by the feeds of the Canadian parties, whether on Facebook or Twitter, social media isn't being used to its best abilities: more often than not, the Libs, New Democrats and Tories are using social networks to bullhorn their platform messages and promote policy, instead of having that conversation the medium could engender. Sure, Trudeau had a live Q&A via Facebook, but it's a rare bright spot in a grey desert of social engagement.Whatever the result of tonight's election, social media will be lighting up with reactions from Canadians home and abroad. And to be frank, that is where some of social's true value lies - not in seeing where party leaders use hashtags and Twitpics of campaign HQs, but in gauging how Canada feels about its future government.Tonight, be sure to follow @DigitalJournal on Twitter to stay updated on Canadian election coverage starting at 730pm ET. More about Election day, Election, Canada, Social media, Liberal party More news from Election day Election Canada Social media Liberal party Conservative party NdpIf Chardonnay is the queen of wine grapes, then Cabernet Sauvignon is the undisputed king. It's the world's most planted grape variety, and the driving force behind some of the most prestigious winegrowing regions, like Bordeaux and the heart of the American wine industry, Napa Valley. According to Vivino data, 11.1% of all wines in the world contain Cabernet Sauvignon.
But Cabernet Sauvignon wasn't always so tenacious a colonizer. Thanks to DNA testing, its origins have been traced to Bordeaux, where it was first cultivated in the 17th century. It's the offspring of an unintended and curious crossing between Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc.
Cabernet Sauvignon combines the best attributes of its parents. As a vine, it buds late, artfully dodging spring frosts in more marginal climates. And its bunches are loosely clustered, sparing the berries from rot and insect infestation. To top it off, Cabernet has a thick skin, a very useful trait that protects the grapes from the deleterious effects of sunburn and wind.
Add to all of this the fact that Cabernet Sauvignon has naturally high levels of tannin, high acidity, and relatively high alcohol, and you've got a wine that handles oak like a dream, with tons of aging potential. It's no surprise that Cabernet has dominated the world's stage.
The impacts of climate and terroir are perhaps less obvious than they might be with a lighter-bodied red like Pinot Noir, but there are still noticeable differences in style. Here's a quick and very general overview to get you started:
Continental and Maritime Climates
Continental climates have clear seasons, but tend to lack the extreme summer heat of the Mediterranean. Grown here, Cabernet expresses blackcurrants and cassis, but also complex aromas of violets, licorice, pencil lead, cedar, and tobacco. If the vintage year is too cool or too wet, troublesome herbaceous notes of green bell pepper can be an issue, a trait Cabernet shares with its parent, Sauvignon Blanc.
Key regions with continental climates: New World regions include the Columbia Valley in Washington State, Canada's Okanagan Valley, and Mendoza in Argentina. Ningxia, China is an up-and-coming region to watch. Old World regions include Szekszárd and Villány in Hungary and higher-elevation zones of the Rioja.
Taste it:
The Best Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon Under $35
Maritime climates are so named because of their proximity to large bodies of water. This moderates the weather even more so than in a continental climate, meaning the summer tend to be cool and the winters are rarely extremely cold. When grown in a maritime climate like the Haut-Médoc in Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon possesses firm tannins and moderate alcohol levels (usually above 13.5% but below 15%).
Key regions with maritime climates: Bordeaux, including sub-appellations Margaux, St.-Julien, Pauillac, St.-Estèphe, and Pessac-Léognan, along with Sonoma County, Santa Cruz, and Monterey in California. You might also explore Hawke's Bay in New Zealand as well as the Yarra Valley in Australia.
Taste it:
Top-Rated Cabernets from Bordeaux's Médoc Under $50
Speaking of Australia, keep an eye out for Cabernet Sauvignon from Coonawarra. Less than 15 km in length, Coonawarra is small, but defined by its unique red soil known as terra rossa that produces Cabernet with distinctive notes of eucalyptus and mint.
Hot Mediterranean Climates
Cabernet grown in hot climes are typically full-bodied and jammy in flavor, often sporting high levels alcohol that may exceed 15%. They can be quite decadent, brimming over with blackberries, black cherries, black olives, roasted meat, leather, and spice.
Key regions with hot mediterranean climates: Tuscany, California's Napa Valley region along with Constantia and Stellenbosch in South Africa, the Maipo Valley in Chile, Margaret River in Australia, and Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.
Taste it:
Napa Valley Cabernets 4-Stars And AboveFrench container line CMA CGM and port operator company PSA plan to create new dedicated container terminal in Port of Singapore. The container terminal will be the cargo hub of the company in Southeast Asia. Under the terms of the proposal to purchase the shares NOL, published by the CMA CGM this week, the container line and PSA will establish joint venture with shares of 49% and 51% respectively, to operate the container terminal in the port of Singapore, which will serve containers and container ships CMA CGM and its structures. The new container terminal will be located in four berths, leased from the PSA. The capacity of container terminal will be 3 million TEU per year.
The establishment of joint venture is part from the proposal for acquisition of the shipping operator NOL. PSA is 100% owned by Temasek, which is the major shareholder of NOL. The proposal for joint-venture has been designated as part of the original proposal for the purchase of NOL last year.
Currently, the cargo hub of CMA CGM in Southeast Asia is Port Klang and the company provides about 20% from the port traffic.
CMA CGM is the third largest container shipping company in the world, using 170 shipping routes between 400 ports in 150 different countries. Its headquarters are in Marseille, and its North American headquarters are in Norfolk, Virginia, USA.One of the great things about science fiction conventions is getting to rub shoulders with your heroes.
Some years ago I received an advance proof of an upcoming fantasy from Bantam Spectra, just before heading to Archon in St. Louis. I threw it in my luggage, and brought it to the author’s reading. There were only seven people in the audience, so afterwards I got to have a nice chat with the author, and he graciously signed my book for me. The writer was George R.R. Martin, and the book was A Game of Thrones.
In fact, writers who will draw huge crowds in public can often be vastly more approachable at small conventions. Perhaps this is because seeing Neil Gaiman at your local library is a big deal, but hanging out with him at the bar at World Fantasy is just a lot more casual.
Of course, there are rare exceptions. There are a few writers treated like superstars, even among fellow professionals. I saw it happen when Stephen King came to my home town of Ottawa for the World Fantasy Convention in 1984, and autograph lines spontaneously formed whenever he sat down. I got in line an hour early just so I could be in the front row during his reading from The Talisman (and ended up giving up my seat anyway, just so Tabitha King wouldn’t have to stand in the back.)
And I saw it happen again in June of this year, when the hottest new writer in science fiction, Cixin Liu, author of the Three-Body trilogy (The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End), arrived in Chicago for the Nebula Awards weekend.
Mr. Liu was in making his first trip to the United States as a published author to be on hand for the presentation of the awards. His first novel in English, The Three-Body Problem, published by Tor in November of last year, was up for Best Novel.
Cixin Liu, New Genre Superstar
[Click the photos for bigger images.]
It was like Stephen King in 1984 all over again. The buzz started immediately, bare minutes after Mr. Liu arrived and checked in at the registration counter. People started craning their necks, saying, “Is it him?” I was standing by the counter when noted book collector Dave Willoughby raced past me, heading to his hotel room to collect the copies of The Three-Body Problem he had standing by for just this eventuality. “It’s him,” he whispered breathlessly as he dashed by.
Mr. Liu barely had time to stroll across to the book giveaway table when the first line formed. Convention attendees cleared off a section of the table, and pressed him into service autographing books. I wandered out to check on a panel, and when I came back fifteen minutes later, Mr. Liu was still there, and if anything, the line had gotten longer.
While Cixin Liu was signing autographs, I had the chance to speak to his two traveling companions. They seemed not at all surprised at the treatment Mr. Liu was receiving.
“In China, he is a superstar,” one of them explained to me.
The Problem of Translated Fiction
I have a confession to make. I’m not the biggest fan of novels in translation. In fact, when I first saw a copy of The Three-Body Problem, I was instantly intrigued… until I saw that it was translated from Chinese.
My interest flagged immediately. Everybody knows translated science fiction doesn’t sell in the U.S, I thought. What was Tor thinking?
But it wasn’t long before the buzz started. And then the serious buzz. The book was nominated for the Nebula award, and then a Hugo. Not every book nominated for major awards also finds an audience, but this one sure did. By early spring it was obvious Tor had a major hit on their hands.
Something else that became obvious was that Tor — and the book’s editor at Tor, Liz Gorinsky — are a helluva lot smarter than I am.
Now, I know a lot of smart people in the publishing business. I may not be one of them, but I’m smart enough to know that publishing a Chinese book in translation — and ponying up the kind of marketing and promotion dollars Tor did — takes more than just smarts. It takes courage. Offering a book like this to the U.S. market was clearly a risk. Both the kind of risk you don’t see very often, and the kind of risk that, when it works, can transform the genre.
I wasn’t just lucky enough to meet Cixin Liu at the Nebula Awards weekend here in Chicago. I also met Liz Gorinsky. Gorinsky is the kind of person who always seems to be in motion — always moving, always talking (frequently both at once). But she’s also remarkably friendly, and was happy to sit down with me to talk about the book. I was glad for the opportunity to share my amazement at both the success of The Three-Body Problem, and in her ability to clearly see the kind of market-changing potential in its author, Cixin Liu, that most of the rest of us didn’t.
I didn’t mean it to turn into an interview, but it sort of did. Liz and I carried on the conversation via e-mail and phone over the next few months, and in that time she shared some terrific insights into American science fiction and fantasy publishing — and pulled back the curtain on what it took to get The Three-Body Problem into print in the United States.
The first thing I was curious about was what kind of obstacles she ran into trying to publish the book. Somebody at Tor is a genius — is it her? Was there internal resistance? Did she have to tie Tom Doherty to a chair and read it out loud? What about the sales team? What did she have to do the make this book happen?
Here’s Liz:
I’ve been talking to people about the logistics of publishing translated fiction for several years before I actually did it, and the thing that I heard the most often |
contribution to the architecture of early 19th century Edinburgh is found throughout the city – with many of his most impressive buildings and landscapes located within the Old and New Towns.
“The vision and ambition in both Playfair’s architecture and his exploitation of the city landscape aimed to place Edinburgh as a city of style and significance within the British Isles.
“His contribution to the development of Edinburgh from the neo-classical Northern Athenian city, to the rapidly industrialised Edinburgh of the Victorian agewas achieved through design processes that were nuanced in detail, and executed to an obsessive degree.
“Playfair’s role as an architect of significance in the 19th century therefore extends outside of Edinburgh, and places him within the realm o the British architectural greats of the late Georgian period.
“His work also highlights the huge influence major institutions had within the civic landscape of late Georgian Edinburgh, and the interconnectivity between these institutions during the 19th century.
“While the chosen drawings demonstrate a variety of architectural styles used during his career, the exhibition also explores how he developed his design skills through the study of historic buildings within the city.”The White House and President Obama’s supporters insist that he’s making his first trip to Israel next month to assure the Jewish state that if push comes to shove with Iran, he’ll have Israel’s back. But North Korea’s nuclear test Tuesday morning could indicate that it’s already too late for that. If North Korea has the bomb, then for all practical purposes Iran does, too. If that’s so, then Obama’s policy of prevention has failed, and containment—a policy that the president has repeatedly said is not an option—is in fact all Washington has.
If this sounds hyperbolic, consider the history of extensive North Korean-Iranian cooperation on a host of military and defense issues, including ballistic missiles and nuclear development, that dates back to the 1980s. This cooperation includes North Korean sales of technology and arms, like the BM-25, a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and reaching Western Europe; Iran’s Shahab 3 missile is based on North Korea’s Nodong-1 and is able to reach Israel. Iran has a contigent of Iranian weapons engineers and defense officials stationed in North Korea. Meantime, North Korean scientists visit Iran. And last fall, both countries signed a memorandum of understanding regarding scientific, academic, and technological issues.
Given all this, there’s a great deal of concern that, as one senior U.S. official told the New York Times, “the North Koreans are testing for two countries.” The classic case of testing for another country is when the United States tested for the U.K. under the 1958 U.S.–U.K. Mutual Defense Agreement. The situation with the Hermit Kingdom and the Islamic Republic is different: The North Koreans certainly aren’t going to make the cooperation quite so explicit, but they’re also not hiding it. In January, Kim Jong-un boasted that the United States was the prime target for Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile tests. Earlier this month, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected the idea of nuclear negotiations with the United States. So, neither North Korea nor Iran believe the White House can do much to stop their march—one that they seem to be conducting in lockstep.
Nuclear-proliferation experts I spoke with are reluctant to push the conclusion quite that far. “There’s no evidence of direct cooperation on nuclear tests,” Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at Monterey Institute, told me. “And it would be hard to know,” he added, given the paranoid, secretive nature of both regimes. Unless or until the North Koreans or Iranians volunteer that information, it is going to be hard to prove definitively that the North Koreans would give the bomb—or blueprints for one—to Iran.
For North Korea, the incentive to transfer technology, or an actual bomb, in exchange for money, or whatever else the regime needs, is powerful. The only world power capable of discouraging them from proliferating is China, but the Chinese are not going to push much harder than offering stiff rhetoric. The Chinese don’t necessarily want North Korea to have a bomb, but what they fear even more is destabilizing their neighbor such that the regime falls, the Korean peninsula is reunited, and they wind up with a pro-American government hosting 50,000 U.S. troops on their border. Beijing prefers to have a buffer.
Pyongyang’s nuclear program is the crown jewel of the North Korean state enterprise, a carefully guarded secret to which they have given only Iran access. Given how extensively the Iranian nuclear program has been penetrated by foreign intelligence services—which foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi openly admitted in 2010—the North Koreans surely understood they were taking an enormous risk by letting Iranians in the door. Whatever they’re getting from Iran in exchange—oil, money, or scientific cooperation on complicated issues—must be crucial. If Tehran has paid for access to Pyongyang’s program, it will also pay for a bomb. At this point, it could be only a matter of haggling over the price.
“Some of us have been saying this is something to worry about for five or six years,” said Henry Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington, D.C. “The North Koreans have been cooperating with Iran for about a decade on nuclear and missile issues, and the Iranians have several full-time weapons engineers on site in North Korea. Neither the North Koreans or the Iranians have made a secret of this. The Iranians were reported at North Korea’s last nuclear test as well. It’s hard to believe they had no access to the most recent test.”
North Korea’s previous test, its second, in May 2009 yielded an explosion half the size of Tuesday’s. The preparatory commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization measured Tuesday’s test as 5.0 in magnitude, which according to Sokolski is about half the size of the Hiroshima blast.
The fact that this is the third test, said Sokolski, is significant. “Either the North Koreans want to give the international community a nuclear Bronx cheer, or they’re testing something more advanced than they tested the first two times. If you’re trying to improve your technology you don’t keep testing the same first generation device over and over again.”
While details are still unclear, the widespread belief is that the North Koreans tested an enriched uranium device this time, while the first two tests used plutonium. The al-Kibar nuclear site in Syria, which the North Koreans helped design—and which the Israelis bombed in 2007—was a plutonium facility. Some experts suspect that if the bomb detonated Tuesday was using enriched uranium, this is yet another piece of evidence that Iran is likely “using North Korea as a backdoor plan for their own nuclear program.”
Lewis, who has written about the ties between Iranian and North Korean scientists, agrees that there has definitely been some coordination in the past on numerous defense issues. “Last fall North Korea and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding regarding science and technology issues. The North Koreans published a list of officials who signed the document, including the head of Iran’s atomic energy organization and its defense minister. We should be concerned about them exchanging information, and there are precedents for states passing on designs. The Chinese passed on designs to the Pakistanis who handed them off to the Libyans.”
Pakistan and Qaddafi’s Libya are open societies in comparison to Iran and North Korea. The regimes in Pyongyang and Tehran are highly ideological, where major policy decisions are made in a tight circle around the man on top—Kim Jong-un of North Korea and Ali Khamenei of Iran. Both regimes have made nuclear weapons a vital strategic interest, in spite of sanctions that have sent the Iranian currency plummeting and brought North Korea to the brink of starvation. But sharing nuclear information gives both a way out. North Korea will get billions that Iran will happily pay for a bomb or blueprints. Iran, once in possession of the bomb, will see Europe and perhaps even the United States relax their sanctions regimes in the hopes of getting Iran to the negotiating table by playing nice.
If this is the case, Obama will go down in history as the American president who presided over global nuclear proliferation, including rogue regimes. After four years of restraining the Israelis, he may now be going to visit them next month for a good reason: to apologize.
***
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Lee Smith is the author of The Consequences of Syria.Justice Department Will Track Police Killings And Use Of Force
Promising information that is more standardized and complete than has previously been available, Attorney General Loretta Lynch says the Department of Justice will collect data on the police use of deadly force in the line of duty.
Lynch's announcement amplifies a statement by FBI Director James Comey at the end of September, when he told a congressional panel that the bureau is in the process of setting up a database that can track police killings and other use of force during interactions with the public.
The Justice Department plans to have a pilot program collecting data in early 2017.
"Accurate and comprehensive data on the use of force by law enforcement is essential to an informed and productive discussion about community-police relations," Lynch said today. "The initiatives we are announcing today are vital efforts toward increasing transparency and building trust between law enforcement and the communities we serve."
In addition to collecting data, the FBI's pilot program will study the methodology used to collect that information. The agency's announcement of the pilot program also calls for public comment — "from all interested parties, including local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement, civil rights organizations and other community stakeholders."
A lack of a national database became a sticking point in recent years, particularly after a string of high-profile cases in which unarmed black men died at the hands of police. Attempts to fill that void have included the website Fatal Encounters, as well as a Washington Post database that tracks how many people are shot and killed by police. So far in 2016, the Post reports that law enforcement officers have killed 754 people.
According to the FBI, "The pilot study participants are expected to include the largest law enforcement agencies, as well as the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Marshals Service."
The push for collecting such data has also brought legislative action. From the Justice Department announcement:
"In 2014, Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA), which required states and federal law enforcement agencies to submit data to the department about civilians who died during interactions with law enforcement or in their custody (whether resulting from use of force or some other manner of death, such as suicide or natural causes) and authorized the Attorney General to impose a financial penalty on non-compliant states."
Noting that the law doesn't require the collection of nonlethal force, the Justice Department says it will also work to amass that data.Looking for news you can trust?
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The Boy Scouts of America teach young men how to build fires, pitch tents, weave camping chairs, and “be prepared”—unless your son happens to be gay. But the Boy Scouts long-standing policy of banning “open or avowed homosexuals” is starting to cost it some major financial backers: In the last six months, companies including UPS, United Way, the Merck Company Foundation and the Intel Foundation have announced they will drop or postpone funding for the Boy Scouts. Verizon Communications could be next: Over 70,000 people have signed a petition asking the corporation to stop funding the Scouts over their discriminatory policies.
“We more than understand how much value the Scouting program offers to our Nation and its youth,” Brad Hankins, a campaign director for Scouts for Equality, the organization behind the Verizon petition and others, tells Mother Jones. “However, we feel that over the long term the damage the ban has caused to Scouting’s perception in our changing cultural climate is much greater than a temporary loss of funds.”
Since at least the late 1970s, the Boy Scouts executive leadership has discriminated against gay members. In 2000, the Supreme Court ruled that forcing the organization to accept gay members would violate its rights under the First Amendment, and the Boy Scouts reaffirmed their ban on gay scouts and scoutmasters in 2012. Since then, hundreds of Scouts have returned their pins in protest, and the Boy Scouts anti-gay stance has even outlasted the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy.
Hankins says it’s hard to say how much money the Boy Scouts have lost from donors since the petitions began, because the “information isn’t immediately disclosed.” However, according to The American Independent, in the 2009 tax year, the biggest donor to the Boy Scouts was the Intel Foundation, who donated nearly $700,000. Intel announced in September it will stop funding Scout troops that adhere to the ban, and UPS followed suit (Scouts for Equality ran petitions against both companies.)
Verizon gave at least $300,000 to the Boy Scouts in 2009, according to The American Independent, and Scouts for Equality claims that Verizon’s donations conflict with its policy of not funding organizations that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. Harry J. Mitchell, a spokesman for Verizon, told Mother Jones that the company “does not discriminate on the basis of [sexual orientation]” and they expect “all of its grant recipients to comply with all applicable laws.”
But that won’t stop customers from boycotting the company. “Our family uses Verizon: each of our three sons included, one of which is gay. Two of them are Eagle Scouts and one is 13 and is a Life Scout. We fully support a full financial boycott,” writes Christie Draper, from Aliso Viejo, California. “Give the money to the Girl Scouts instead.”
The Boy Scouts did not respond to request for comment.However you choose to pronounce GIF, developer Andrey Sidorov has found a great new use for the recently-resurgent-thanks-to-Tumblr file format: displaying a remote device.
Sidorov used the weekend just passed to unleash a tool called VNC-over-GIF that does what is says on the can.
For the uninitiated, Virtual Network Control (VNC) uses the remote framebuffer (RFB) protocol to send images one computer's output to another. The VNC protocol builds on RFB to allow control of the remote computer, which becomes possible once one installs a server on the device one wishes to access remotely, then views and operates it with a client from remote machine.
VNC is useful for all sorts of sysadmin chores.
Melbourne-based Russian expat Sidorov told The Reg he's aware of VNC's many uses and of some tools that use VNC clients and JavaScript to display remote screens. Motivated by personal curiosity he found a solution in just 37 lines of code.
The biggest challenge, he said, was figuring out how to update new frames without creating one enormous animated GIF. “I had to add code to allow the GIF library to stream data,” Sidorov said.
VNC-over-GIF doesn't refresh at a set number of frames per second, relying on the output of the VNC client. Nor does it allow interaction with the remote machine.
Sidorov doesn't feel it solves any particular problem, but does believe there are occasions when just watching a remote device may come in handy.
You can find Sidorov's code here at GitHub. ®Brace yourselves, HBO. The pirates are coming.
With its popularity swelling and no easy way to watch for viewers without cable, HBO's hit series "Game of Thrones" is inspiring massive levels of piracy, according to numbers from the BitTorrent-tracking and analysis firm Big Champagne. By the firm's rough estimate, the second season of the show has been downloaded more than 25 million times from public torrent trackers since it began in early April, and its piracy hit a new peak following April 30th's episode, with more than 2.5 million downloads in a day.
"It certainly appears to be the most pirated show of the year," says John Robinson, a senior media analyst with Big Champagne. He says it's too early to measure definitively, but the company's data so far as well as the popularity rankings on download site the Pirate Bay point to "Game of Thrones" as filesharers' favorite show of 2012. "The fact that it's consistently at the top of the Pirate Bay's top one hundred TV show chart seems like a pretty in-your-face leading indicator of the huge volume at which this is being shared."
According to the BitTorrent-focused blog and measurement site Torrentfreak, the first season of "Game of Thrones" was the second-most pirated show of 2011 behind the sixth season of Showtime's "Dexter."
But Big Champagne's numbers show that downloads of the second season of "Game of Thrones" so far consistently top "Dexter"'s piracy numbers from the same point in its season last year. (See chart above left.)
It's worth noting that BitTorrent is just one way that shows are pirated online--I was able to find streaming episodes of Game of Thrones on sites like free-tv-video-online.me and zzstream.com after just a few Google searches. But those streaming options are even tougher to track and measure than BitTorrent.
While "Game of Thrones"' filesharing rates are probably driven in part by its appeal to the young, geeky male demographic that's most prone to using torrent sites, HBO hasn't helped the problem by making the show tough to watch online for the young and cable-less. The show isn't available through Hulu or Netflix, iTunes offers only Season 1, and using HBO's own streaming site HBO Go requires a cable subscription. (The situation was captured in the widely read comic strip The Oatmeal, in which the author attempts the rage-inducing process of trying to watch "Game of Thrones" online before giving up and downloading it from a sleazy porn-ad covered torrent site.)
"This is absolutely a reaction to the show's not being available elsewhere online," says Big Champagne's Robinson. "It's a very tricky game trying to create this kind of scarcity."
Update: Forbes contributor Erik Kain elaborates on why HBO has "only itself to blame" for the show's piracy.
Update again: Reddit's "Game of Thrones" forum has some interesting discussion around this post. Many of the users admit to pirating the show and explain why they do it.Q & A: Fixing the “Tuck Under” When Squatting – Part I
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NOTE (from August, 2014): I wrote this article back in March 2012. When I was an idiot. I still hope you read what I have to say below, because most of what I say still applies.
However, I’ve changed my thought process significantly since I originally posted this article. For a more up-to-date, um, update…check out the following article I wrote on T-Nation titled How Deep Should I Squat?
I.e., the hamstrings have little to do with the tuck under or “butt wink.”
Q: Hey Tony,
Just read this old article over at T Nation – Squat Like You Mean It: Tips for a Deeper Squat.
I’ve been trying to improve my mobility for a deeper squat and eventually got there ( I can sit in a squat position all the way down with heels still on the floor) but my problem lays in lumbar flexion at the bottom.
Obviously I’d need an assessment in front of you to pinpoint the issue but is there anything you can recommend for neutral spine. It’s driving me nuts that I cant keep a neutral spine. I’ve been retracting my shoulder blades, squeezing my lats and activating my core but still no cigar. Any common issues you see in this area?
A: Notably, it is completely bat shit crazy to say that everyone should squat to the same depth. Some people picked the right parents, have awesome levers, and are able to squat ass-to-grass with no issues at all.
PS: I hate you.
Conversely, there are others out there who try to squat deep and, well, bad things happen. Not everyone is the same, and it’s important – especially as a coach – to understand this. While admirable, the end goal for every single trainee shouldn’t necessarily be to go ass to grass from the get go – just because some meat head on a random forum who doesn’t know any better told you so.
Instead, the goal should be to teach proper squat mechanics and groove proper technique in a safe range of motion that won’t be overly deleterious to the spine.
As my good friend, Kevin Neeld, has mentioned prior:
Someone with limited hip flexion that attempts to squat deeper than their anatomy allows inevitably tucks their hips under at the bottom. Invariably this leads to lumbar flexion under a significant load.
The question then becomes: how can we remedy this issue? Can we ease our way to a respectable depth without the ol’ butt tuck?
Of course we can!
Since it is a fairly common occurrence in the general training population, to start, we should discuss what causes the tucking in the first place? While there are several things that need to be ruled out which are outside the scope of this particular post (nasty adductors – specifically with regards to sports hernia, and femoral acetabular impingement), one of the major points I want to hit on is that a vast majority of people (not everyone) are sitting in posterior tilt all day, and as a result the hamstrings tend to get stiff(er) relative to the anterior core.
It’s no secret that we spend a lot of time sitting.
In an ideal sitting posture, the pelvis is level or has a slight anterior pelvic tilt. With a posterior pelvic tilt, the PSIS are lower than the ASIS. A posterior pelvic tilt is accompanied by an increased kyphosis. In addition, the ischials travel forward and new pressure points are created at the sacrum and the spine.
For those who are a bit glassy eyed from reading that, try to visualize how you sit in your car, or on the bus, or even at your desk…..right now…..as you read this.
Chances are, it looks very similar to the picture to the right.
Not surprisingly, and as noted above, the hamstrings become short or stiff relative to the anterior core. Because the anterior core can’t counteract the pull of the hamstrings (and adductor magnus for that matter), the force couple on the pelvis is compromised and squatting may become problematic.
With that, I’m going to stop with the technical talk now because it’s making my brain hurt. Besides I’m sure many of you would rather swallow a live grenade than listen to me go on and on and on about PSIS and ASIS shenanigans.
Of course, the issue could be more far more reaching than just looking into the hamstrings/weak anterior core – but for simplicity sake, we’re going to focus our attention there. And, just a heads up, in Part II, I’ll discuss training modifications that can be implemented…..so be sure to check back then.
In the meantime…..
Here’s What I’d Do If I Were You
Incorporate more multi-planar hamstring mobilizations. I MUCH prefer these drills over just telling someone to haphazardly “go stretch.” Moreover, I find that these drills have much more of an effect since they address the hamstrings from multiple angles and not just “what’s easy.”
Note: this last one will be a doozy for most. The key point to consider is to make sure that you rotate through the hip and NOT the lumbar spine.
Other Stuff to Consider:
1. Notice how I don’t flex my lumbar spine when doing these drills? You should do the same.
2. Another thing that can’t be appreciated because of the camera angle is that the toes of my standing foot are pointing straight a head as I perform all the drills
I like to incorporate all of these as part of an (extended) dynamic warm-up, or they’re something that could easily be performed throughout the day in your office or home – all you need is a counter top or desk and you’re all set.
Bonus points if you bust them out during a business meeting!
And that’s it for today. Tomorrow (UPDATE: actually, it’s going to be on Monday. Had too many things to catch up on in the meantime) I’m going to discuss how you would differentiate between whether it’s a hamstring issue or weak anterior core (Hint: it’s usually the latter more than the former), as well as discuss some simple training modifications that can be done to help alleviate the “tuck,” and (hopefully) groove a more conducive squatting pattern.
Did what you just read make your day? Ruin it? Either way, you should share it with your friends and/or comment below.
Share This Post:The Panchkula court on Friday convicted Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a 15-year-old rape case, even as thousands of followers camped in the Haryana town. Here are the details of the case:
Charges against Gurmeet Ram Rahim
The sexual exploitation case was registered against Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in 2002 by the CBI on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Anonymous letters lead to the FIRThe rape allegations came to light when anonymous letters were circulated about the alleged sexual exploitation of two "Sadhvis" (female followers) by Dera Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim inside the Dera campus on the outskirts of Sirsa town in Haryana.
TrialDera chief was charged in 2007 and the trial began the following year after the CBI took the testimonies of the two women. The CBI submitted a charge sheet on July 30, 2007. The court framed charges against Singh under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code on September 6, 2008.
Dera chief on allegationsGurmeet Ram Rahim Singh had denied these charges.
The Dera had described itself as a'social welfare and spiritual organization'. Gurmeet Ram Rahim claimed to have 50 million followers and runs a spiritual empire.
Thousands of Dera followers are expected to gather at Panchkula for the verdict by a CBI court.Looking for news you can trust?
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Sarah Kliff—who really should be working the fiscal cliff beat, no?—highlights an interesting survey result today. In its latest healthcare tracking poll, the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 49 percent of the public wants to keep or expand Obamacare, while 33 percent want to repeal it. This is down considerably from August (the most recent previous poll), when 40 percent of the public wanted to repeal Obamacare. Likewise, overall unfavorability ratings are also down, from 43 percent to 39 percent.
As the chart below shows, this mostly happened all at once. The sentiment for repeal stayed pretty steady at around 40 percent for two solid years, and then suddenly dropped right after the election. The mere fact that Obama won, and therefore Obamacare was here to stay, apparently changed a lot of minds. Elections really do have consequences.Almost doubling the standard deduction might not amount to a tax cut for everyone.
Under his plan, Mr. Trump said, less income would be subject to taxation. He proposes to raise the standard deduction to $12,000 from $6,350 for single filers, and to $24,000 from $12,700 for married couples filing jointly. But it also eliminates personal exemptions, valued at $4,050 per person.
While the plan would double the standard deduction, people shouldn’t assume that “their income, subject to taxation income, would double” — though most taxpayers would see an increase, Mr. Greenberg said.
Under the current tax code, a single filer deducts a total of $10,400, which would increase by about 15 percent under the Republican plan.
An “archetypical American family” — which Mr. Williams described as a married couple with two children — might actually see its overall deductible income decrease. That family can deduct $28,900 under the current tax code, but just $24,000 under the Republican plan.
Taxpayers filing as the head of household are not mentioned in the plan, but if their deduction does not double or if the status is eliminated altogether, as Mr. Trump previously proposed, they, too, would see their deductions decrease. A single parent with one child, for example, can take $18,350 under the current tax code, but just $12,000 as a single filer under Mr. Trump’s plan.
The Republican plan also does propose increasing the child tax credit, so it’s possible — though currently unclear — whether the additional amount would offset these losses.
The claim that workers bear the brunt of corporate taxes is disputed.
Mr. Trump claimed that slashing the corporate tax code would benefit workers. Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, said at a news conference on Wednesday that 70 percent of the benefit of lowering corporate taxes goes to workers.Christian Horner has criticised F1 officials for acting “too conservatively” during Saturday’s rain-affected qualifying session at Monza.
The local and international audience reacted with frustration as race control repeatedly delayed in 15 minute increments the qualifying session due to rain.
“To be honest, I think they acted very conservatively. I would say too conservatively,” Red Bull boss Horner said.
“Formula one is not a sport that requires exceptionally normal weather.
“From a safety standpoint it is understandable that there was some caution in this instance, but we could have got back onto the track a lot sooner,” he added.
Asked if he will bring up the topic at the next F1 strategy group meeting, however, Horner said: “I think this is more an internal matter for the FIA.”“And if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbour, to slay him with guile; thou shalt take him from Mine altar, that he may die.” Exodus 21:14 (The Israel Bible™)
A Palestinian woman drove her car onto the pavement Wednesday afternoon at the Gush Etzion junction, south of Jerusalem, in an attempt to run over a group of a group of civilians and soldiers who were standing at a bus stop. The car was stopped by the yellow posts in front of the station. No Israeli casualties were reported.
The female terrorist was shot and neutralized. According to the IDF spokesman, she was transported by the army to the hospital after being treated by the IDF medical corps.
Medics and Magen David Adom paramedics provided medical treatment to a pregnant woman after she suffered a panic attack, but she did not suffer any physical injuries. She was then transported to the hospital.
Head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council, Shlomo Ne’eman, praised the IDF soldiers who neutralized the terrorist and called upon the government to increase building in Judea and Samaria as a response to the terrorists. “We call on the government to act against the terrorists which to us means build, build and build. All those who wish to see red among Israeli residents, will contemplate more red roofs, more construction, more settlement. This is what they fear from us, this is what they will get and this is how the government of Israel should respond”.
This is the second car-ramming attack in Judea and Samaria since the order to install yellow plots to protect bus stations. Towards the end of January, a similar attack occurred near the community of Kokhav Ya’akov, north of Jerusalem."The Don'ts and Be Carefuls"
Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, 1927
Resolved, That those things which are included in the following list shall not appear in pictures produced by the members of this Association, irrespective of the manner in which they are treated.
1. Pointed profanity — by either title or lip — this includes the words "God," "Lord," "Jesus," Christ" (unless they be used reverently in connection with proper religious ceremonies), "hell," "damn," "Gawd," and every other profane and vulgar expression however it may be spelled;
2. Any licentious or suggestive nudity-in factor in silhouette; and any lecherous or licentious notice thereof by other characters in the picture;
3. The illegal traffic in drugs;
4. Any interference of sex perversion;
5. White slavery;
6. Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races);
7. Sex hygiene and venereal diseases;
8. Scenes of actual childbirth — in fact or in silhouette;
9. Children's sex organs;
10. Ridicule of the clergy;
11. Willful offense to any nation, race or creed;
And be it further resolved, That special care be exercised in the manner in which the following subjects are treated, to the end that vulgarity and suggestiveness be eliminated and that good taste may be emphasized:
1. The use of the flag;
2. International relations (avoiding picturizing in an unfavorable light another country's religion, history, institutions, prominent people, and citizenry);
3. Arson;
4. The use of firearms;
5. Theft, robbery, safe-cracking, and dynamiting of trains, mines, building, etc. (having in mind the effect which a too-detailed description of these may have upon the moron);
6. Brutality and possible gruesomeness;
7. Techniques of committing murder by whatever method;
8. Methods of smuggling;
9. Third-degree methods;
10. Actual hangings or electrocutions as legal punishment for crime;
11. Sympathy for criminals;
12. Attitude toward public characters and institutions;
13. Sedition;
14. Apparent cruelty to children and animals;
15. Branding of people or animals;
16. The sale of women, or of a woman selling her virtue;
17. Rape or attempted rape;
18. First-night scenes;
19. Man and woman in bed together;
20. Deliberate seduction of girls;
21. The institution of marriage;
22. Surgical operations;
23. The use of drugs;
24. Titles or scenes having to do with law enforcement or law-enforcing officers;
25. Excessive or lustful kissing, particularly when one character or the other is a "heavy."
In 1927, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America — now the MPAA — produced and published the following list, titled "The Dont's and Be Carefuls," in an effort to clean up Hollywood's increasingly controversial output and help the studios avoid further clashes with the country's regional censorship boards. The list consisted of 11 things to be completely avoided in future movies (the "Don'ts"), and 25 things that required careful consideration before inclusion (the "Be Carefuls").The list was unenforceable however, and so to some extent ignored. In 1930, it was ditched in favour of the Motion Picture Production Code, which in turn gave way to the MPAA film rating system we now know.Creating a tutorial from Git repo
What if author of a programming book could maintain his content and related code in the same place? In this entry I'll share with you my experimental idea for code-heavy F# tutorials.
This post is part of the F# Advent Calendar 2016 initiative - make sure to go check out rest of posts as well. I'd like to thank Sergey Tihon for organising F# Advent. Previous edition of the event gave birth to this blog, encouraging me to write my first post ever.
Motivation
More than a year ago, as part of my master thesis I've written Suave Music Store tutorial. To my delight, this GitBook turned out to be a pretty good starting point for developers wanting to learn Suave for web development. As I'm not probably the best technical writer, I was wondering what could have made this resource that successful. I arrived at a conclusion, that what was special about format of this tutorial when compared to other tutorials available on web was the close connection of source code to content, which guided step-by-step, change-by-change through the process of creating a web app.
What did this mean in practice? Let's have a look at following example from tutorial:
In addition to thorough explanation of every single change, I included (at the end of each main section) a hyperlink to git tag pointing to GitHub commit with state of the codebase at the exact point of tutorial. Thanks to this, the reader could have a look at original sources in case he got stuck during his experiments.
To maintain the tutorial I decided to keep track of two separate repositories: first for the source code of the app, and second for the GitBook tutorial content. I could have probably done the same with a single git repository, however then I'd go for separate branches for source and content so that I could easily make distinction between source and content related changes. Also one of my main goals was to enable the reader go checkout the source repository and browse through the commit history, so I had to keep the history as clean as possible, with no junk commits in between.
As seen in above screenshot, git commit history for the source repository was linear, with few changes between commits so that the reader could easily check it out (or git checkout it ಠ⌣ಠ).
Keeping sync between those two repos wasn't very convenient. While copying pieces of code between source and content or fixing typos were rather kind of usual activities, one of the hardest issue to deal with was amending the source code. To ensure my initial goal of allowing reader to browse through each commit, I had to overwrite remote git history, which meant the (in)famous git push --force, as well as recreating proper git tags, so that the hyperlinks pointed to right commit.
I initially based the tutorial on Suave 0.28.1, which back then was the latest version. When Suave 1.0 got released, I wanted to update the content accordingly. I even got help from the OSS community to do so, but then I got back to the problem of sync with source code git history. What I ended up was a new git branch which I rebased in interactive mode from the root commit of source code repository. This required quite a lot effort, but I managed to retain my original goal.
Now that Suave 2.0 is close to its stable release, I'd like to start works on and publish new version of the tutorial. To help me deal with my authoring problems, I figured out a rather unusual idea, which I'm going to describe in this entry.
Note: The idea is still a work in progress, and I'm not even sure where it goes. It might happen that I decide at certain point that the solution isn't as awesome as I thought it could be and drop it completely. Anyways I thought it can be worth sharing with public. Feedback can really do a great job, so feel free to leave your comments.
The idea
The idea is based on following assumptions:
unit of change in sources, a git commit maps to a single section (or nested subsection) of tutorial,
maps to a single section (or nested subsection) of tutorial, every commit contains |
uffle. [svg] [png]
Note: The protocol works even if participants do not have exactly 1 BTC at their input addresses. It suffices that they have at least 1 BTC. In that case, they create a transaction that sends 1 BTC to each of the shuffled output addresses and the remaining coins to a change addresses that the users announce in the beginning. This can be done as for normal Bitcoin transactions. (This idea is also described in CoinJoin already.)
Performance
Using our proof-of-concept implementation, a protocol run with 50 participants takes roughly 3 minutes now in a setting with reasonable latency.
In more detail, we tested our implementation in Emulab, a testbed for distributed systems, in which network parameters such as topology or bandwidth of links can be easily configured. In this setting, we have run several experiments under controlled network conditions. We consider two scenarios: a local network and a global network. In the former, we connected all the participants to a LAN with 100 Mbit/s bandwidth without delays. In the latter, we split the participants in two LANs of 100 Mbit/s bandwidth each. Both LANs were connected through a router with a bandwidth of 20 Mbit/s and a delay of 50 ms. In the global network scenario we considered the worst case for the shuffling phase: participants with an odd index in the shuffling ordering were placed in one LAN while participants with an even index were placed in the second LAN. Thus every message in the shuffling phase had to traverse the whole network. Overall execution time Computation time per node
We have run the protocol with different numbers of participants, ranging from 5 to 50. The left figure shows the overall time needed to create a Bitcoin transaction in a run without misbehaving participants. In the local network setting, 50 participants need approximately 40 seconds to run CoinShuffle, while in the global network setting, slightly less than 3 minutes are necessary to complete the protocol. The right figure shows the overhead of the computation carried out by every participant on average.
Proof-of-concept Implementation
As a proof of concept, we have re-used Dissent code to implement a prototype of CoinShuffle.
WARNING: The implementation is not at all developed with security in mind. It has been written purely to evaluate the feasibility and performance of CoinShuffle and is INSECURE.
DO NOT USE THIS WITH YOUR COINS.
A careful, full implementation is required before CoinShuffle can be used in practice. Still, you can download our prototype if you are interested.Bodyweight training is a fantastic way to get into awesome shape. Not only is bodyweight training free and easy to use anywhere, but it’s also a form of training that builds muscle while at the same time improving your agility, your proprioception, your balance and more. It takes perfect concentration if you’re going to do it right and that means it can almost be meditative. Just ask any martial artist about that one.
The problem is that most people severely underestimate what’s possible with bodyweight training because they only really know the few popular ones like press ups, sit ups and pull ups. To that end I decided to take it upon myself to create the most comprehensive list of bodyweight moves possible. I’ve gone to the extreme length of gathering over 150 different bodyweight exercises for you here, which should provide you with endless possibilities for your workouts. It’s not quite comprehensive of course, but I’m working on it – more will be added over time!
I’ve split these exercises into a number of categories which you can jump to by following the below links:
First though I’m going to go into a little detail on how to make bodyweight training work for you…
How to Get Big Muscle With Bodyweight Training Alone
When my YouTube channel was at its most popular, one of the most common questions I would get is ‘can you get strong using just bodyweight training’. The answer to that question is ‘yes’, but only if you do it right.
As mentioned, most people only really use push ups and pull ups when they do their calisthenics, which is fine, but it’s not enough alone to get you strong. These exercises both involve short explosive bursts of energy and don’t provide much resistance or isolation for the muscles. On their own they simply aren’t challenging enough to build muscle in the way you would do with weights.
What you need to do differently then is to a) increase your time under tension and b) make the exercises more difficult. Weight is weight, so it really doesn’t matter if you’re using bodyweight training or dumbbells. The difference is the way most people approach each of these workouts and if you approach bodyweight training the way you approach the weights then you can get amazing results.
What this means is first of all, using exercises that target specific muscle groups and that involve long movements that increase your Time Under Tension. TuT is pretty much the most important factor when it comes to muscle growth, so gradually moving yourself around the pull up bar will be tons more effective than performing quick chin ups. Likewise you need to get the full range of motion, so just hanging on its own isn’t enough.
At the same time though you also need to make sure you are going past failure by using all the same techniques you would do in the gym such as drop sets, negatives, supersets, pyramid sets etc. Pull ups on their own are a little bland, but if you perform pull ups to failure, then drop down to reverse push ups, then finish with some pull up negatives, you’ll have completely exhausted the lats and biceps much more effectively. Likewise you could perform push up typewriters, following by rocking press ups, followed by press ups, followed by clapping press ups to really work the slow and fast twitch muscle fibres.
And finally, make sure you’re challenging yourself enough. Decline press ups too easy for you now? Then up the challenge by doing hand stand press ups! Don’t over do it or run before you can walk, but do make sure you’re pushing yourself if you want to build muscle.
And to provide you with all the exercises you need to create those sorts of challenging workouts, here’s a list of 150+ bodyweight moves to get you started…
Note: I will be adding more exercises, pictures and videos to this list over time, so check back! I want this to become the comprehensive guide to bodyweight training on the net. Tell your friends!
Almost Every Press Up Variation
Press Ups
You don’t need me to explain these: hands shoulder-width apart, feet on the floor, body raised and then ‘press’ your upper body.
Clapping Press Ups
Clap in the air between repetitions while doing press ups. You can clap two or three times to make life harder for yourself. This trains the fast twitch muscle fibres in your upper body which provide explosive power. You can also try clapping behind your back or your head.
Scorpion Push Up
A simple push up, but with one leg pointing upwards like a scorpion’s tale.
Uneven Push Up
A press up with one hand on a raised surface. Make sure to target both sides.
Crossover Push Up
This is performed with one hand on a skateboard/medicine ball/book, but in between each rep you will move your body over to the other side and switch which hand is on the raised surface.
Wall Press Ups
An easier one for those with dodgy wrists/poor upper body strength. Here you lean against a wall and do your presses rather than lying on the floor so you’re working with less weight.
Around the World Press Ups
Like clapping press ups, except you will spin 360 degrees (pivoting horizontally) between reps.
Perfect Push Ups
These are push ups using a product known as ‘perfect push ups’. They involve doing a press up while twisting the hands in and out to extend range of movement and to target the teres pronator and supinator muscles. Get them here: Perfect Pushup Elite
Rotational Press Ups
Here you swing up one arm and turn your body 90 degrees on each rep as though trying to touch the ceiling. Great for your obliques.
One Handed Press Ups
Like it sounds. Keep your legs wider apart for added stability.
One Handed/One Legged Press Ups
These are press ups where you have one hand on the floor and one foot. This should be the opposite hand and foot so you are forced to stabilise yourself with your abs and core.
Rocky Press Ups
This is so called because Rocky Balboa uses them in one of his training montages. The idea is to do a one handed press-up, and then swap hands at the top of the movement. Like a more plyometric version of a regular one handed press up.
Incline Press Ups
Press ups with your hands on something higher than your legs. This is great for beginners, for drop sets and for hitting the lower pecs.
Decline Press Ups
Press ups with your legs higher than your hands. This is the equivalent of an incline bench press and hits the shoulders and upper pecs.
Staggered Press Ups
One hand forward slightly to alter the angle on your pecs.
Spider-Man Press Ups
Press ups where you bring one knee up to the side like you were going to crawl.
Planche Press Ups
Bring your hands further down and closer together than a regular press up and then lift your legs off the floor so that your body is floating parallel to the ground. Now do push ups!
Pseudo Planche Press Up
Pseudo planche means getting your hands and feet in the position they would be for planche, but leaving your feet on the ground.
Maltese Push Ups
Here you will be performing essentially pseudo planche push ups but with your arms a little further apart and hands twisted slightly more outwards. It’s a more difficult pseudo planche that will train your pecs a little harder.
Rocking Press Ups
Rock down to one side during press ups. This is the equivalent of doing a one handed press up, except you’re keeping the other hand on the floor for balance and stability.
Diamond Press Up
Here your hands go together with your fingers and thumbs forming a diamond just below your sternum. Now you’ll bend your elbows out to the sides as you lower yourself to do press ups that focus much more on the triceps. You’ll also find that diamond press ups slightly work the biceps on the negative portion of the movement.
Wide Grip Press Ups
Simple this one: press ups with your arms a little wider. This targets the outer pecs a little more.
Extended Range of Motion Press Ups
These are press ups you can do on push up stands or on two chairs opposite each other. The point is you’re going to dip down lower than your hands in order to increase the range of motion.
Push Up Hold
A push up with an isometric hold at the middle of the movement.
Finger Tip Push Ups
Push ups on your fingers, great for increasing finger strength.
One Finger Push Up
This is the one handed push up taken to the limit. A favourite of Bruce Lee.
Knuckle Push Up
A push up on your knuckles with a relatively narrow grip. Useful if you have bad wrists (like me) and/or want to toughen up your knuckles.
Narrow Grip Press Ups
The opposite of a wide grip press up. Challenges the inner pecs more.
Tricep Push Ups
You start in regular press up position with your hands facing forward, and then you drop down onto your elbows and push back up by using your triceps.
Serratus Push Ups
The serratus muscles are the muscles over your rib cage at your side, and they’re also the ones you use when you extend your arm out further when it’s already straight (by rolling your shoulder). To train this area with press ups you start with your arms completely straight and then lower and raise your body without moving your arms at all. These are one of the only ways to train your serratus muscles with bodyweight.
Pike Press Ups
This is a press up you perform with your bum pointing in the air by having your feet closer to your hands. This in turn means you’ll be pushing downwards on your hands and thus engaging your shoulders more than your pecs.
Rocking Pike Press Up
This is the same as the pike press up, except you’re going to ‘rock’ forward and back rather than going straight up and down. It’s brilliant for targeting the upper chest.
Typewriter
Lower your body to one side as though you were doing a rocking press up, then ‘slide’ along to the other hand before pushing up.
Box Jump Press Ups
Another plyometric press up, this time jumping up onto a box in front of you with your hands and then down onto your hands on the floor.
Aztec
In between repetitions you launch your whole body in the air and then touch your toes with your hands. It’s a showing off move and highly likely to break your nose…
Slider Push Up
On a slippery floor, or using something with wheels under one hand, you’re going to slide one hand forward each time you lower your body while the other hand bends normally.
Superman
This is a press up performed with your arms outstretched in front of you like superman. This is fantastic for the abs and the rest of the core and works your back as well as shoulders.
Press Ups on Knees
These are press ups performed on your knees – great for beginners or for drop sets.
Jack LaLanne Fingertip
Jack LaLanne is a legend of bodybuilding and a great entrepreneur. This press up he invented is basically a superman press up, but on your finger tips.
Falling Press Up
Simply a press up that you drop into from falling position. Requires a lot of ‘negative strength’ to slow you down and avoid a face plant.
Superman X-Jumps
Superman X-Jumps are press ups where you launch your whole body off the floor again, but this time splay your arms and legs out like a starfish. This is the ‘jumping jacks’ of press ups.
Flying Squirrel
A press up in which you spin around 180 degrees to face the other way.
Inca Thigh Slap
Use when building up to the Aztec push up. This one involves jumping off the floor then touching your hands to your knees rather than your toes.
Side Curls
I’m not entirely sure this belongs in the press ups category, but it’s an oddity. This exercise is one of the only ways you can train your biceps without a pull up bar and is the closest to a ‘bicep press up’ we have.
To perform, lie on one side with your legs bent and one arm pinned under the legs. Now ‘curl’ that one arm in order to pull your upper body up and then return to the starting position.
Tons of Bodyweight Crawl Exercises
Bear Crawl
Crawls are fantastic at building your core and improving proprioception. For the bear crawl, you start on all fours, then move up onto your toes and crawl like a kid pretending to be a dog.
Crab Crawl
Start sitting on the floor, then lift yourself onto your hands and feet and scuttle forward, backwards and left and right.
Spider-Man Crawl
The Spider-Man crawl is performed low to the ground as though at the bottom of a press-up movement. From here you then bring one knee forward at the same time as the opposite hand. Normally you raise the body up while moving forward.
Lizard Crawl
The lizard crawl is like the Spider-Man crawl except performed lower with no bobbing up and down. It’s a great isometric exercise for the pecs.
Army Crawl
The army crawl is a crawl on the forearms and toes like a commando.
Alligator Push Up
This is a push up where you bring your arms forward during each repetition (similar to a Spider-Man crawl) and gradually drag your legs along the floor.
Push Up Walk
As you repeat press ups you’re going to launch yourself into the air slightly and step out sideways with your hand and leg thus moving sideways.
Inch Worm
The inch worm starts with your arms and legs straight, arms touching the floor (like a stretch). From here you then walk your hands forward until you’re stretched out forward, and then walk your feet forward until you’re back in the starting position.
Plank Walking
Get into the plank position, then move one arm and one leg out to the side, before closing the gap on the other side. Essentially you’ll be walking sideways while in a plank position.
Most Hand Balancing Moves
Hand Stand Push Up
Lift yourself into a hand stand, then do press ups. Amazing for the shoulders. You can build up to this by leaning your legs against a wall.
Frog Stand Push Up
The frog stand (also known as the crow pose in yoga) involves balancing on your hands with your knees squatting up by your elbows. From here you can then do shoulder presses a little more easily than in a full handstand.
Leaning Tower Hand Stand Push Up
Lift yourself into a slightly leaning hand stand, then do presses.
Planche
Holding planche is a great isometric move. Full planche involves holding your body nearly or completely horizontal using just your hands with arms straight, generally planted on the ground around the level of your waist for stability.
Pseudo Planche
Pseudo planche involves holding your hands further down your body (by your waist) and lifting your upper body. Your feet remain on the floor for balance as you build your way to full planche.
Plank
Plank is an isometric (static) hold with your arms resting on forearms and toes on the ground as though doing a press up. The shoulders should be directly above the wrists.
Forearm Plank
This is a plank move with the arms a little more forward – directly above the wrists.
Elbow Lever
The planche but with your stomach resting on your elbows/forearms. Feet off the floor. This makes it considerably easier (though not that much!).
L-Sits
Start sitting down, then lift your legs in front of you and your bottom off the ground. Your body should form an ‘L’ shape. This is great for your abs and your triceps. Add flutter kicks for added challenge.
V-Sits
V-Sits involve balancing on your hands in a seated position again, but this time holding your legs out straight at a steeper angle to form a ‘V’ with your body.
Tiger Stand
The tiger stand is a hand stand on your forearms. If you want a fantastic tricep exercise you can move from tiger stand to handstand and back.
One Handed Handstand
As you can imagine, this is a handstand on one hand. An insanely advanced shoulder exercise is to then perform presses from that position.
Walking on Your Hands
Walking on your hands builds your core and stabiliser muscles as well as using shoulder and pec strength.
Jumping Handstands
Hand stand push ups performed a little more explosively so that you are launching your whole body off of the floor.
Tuck Planche
Tuck planche is similar to a frog stand but your legs are tucked up into your chest. You can also do tuck planche press ups.
Clapping Handstand Press Ups
Yup, this takes it to the next level. Launch yourself in the air, clap, then land back on your hands.
Headstand
There are two types of headstand – those where you use your hands to balance and those where you balance purely on your head. The latter is tough as nails.
Side Plank
With one forearm on the ground, lean sideways against the ground with your feet resting against the floor and hold. This is an isometric hold that’s great for the obliques if you add some movement.
Human Flag
The human flag is an isometric hold in which you’ll be holding your body out sideways while gripping onto the bar. The secret to success here is to keep your arms wide apart, so that you can pull with the top arm and prop yourself up with the bottom arm. You can also build up to this move by tucking your elbows in to begin with.
Bodyweight Exercises for Lower Back
Supermans
Lie on the floor with your arms and legs outstretched like the DC comic hero. Now raise your arms and legs straight up, curving your back as you do so, release and repeat.
Salute to the Sun
Lie flat on the ground, then raise just the upper body similarly to the Supermans but without the involvement of the legs.
Reverse Sit Ups
For this you’ll need two parallel bars. Now lie across those bars on your stomach, with your legs hooked underneath, let your upper body hang over the edge, and then raise it up in front of you again.
Power Bridge
Lie flat on the ground with your arms by your sides and knees bent, then just raise your waist upwards into a bridge and repeat.
Hip Extensions
Lie your upper body on a flat surface such as a bench with your legs hanging off the edge. Then raise your legs straight up behind you, lower and repeat.
Inverted Hang Leg Raises
An advanced move. For this one you hang from the pull up bar with your arms behind you and your body pointing forward. Let your legs hang down, then lift them up behind you as with the hip extensions.
Nearly All the Sit Up Variations
Sit Up
Lie on the floor, keep your knees up and feet flat on the ground, then sit up with your upper body to bring your chest to your knees.
Reverse Crunch
Lie flat on your back with your arms on the floor and head just slightly raised. Now lift your legs off the ground and ‘crunch’ them up to your chest by bringing your knees round to try and touch your face. This is an alternative version of leg raises.
Crunches
Crunches are like sit ups but performed with more of a slight curl and squeeze rather than a complete movement up and down. Make sure to squeeze your abs at the top of each movement.
Oblique Crunches
Lean sideways over the arm of a sofa or a bench, and then raise your body that way rather than forward and back.
Leg Raises
Leg raises involve simply lying on the floor and then simply raising your legs up in front of you. This trains the lower abs.
Twisting Sit Up
A sit up with a twist at the top of the movement to engage the abs.
Bicycle Crunch
The bicycle crunch requires you to balance on your buttocks with legs and back off the floor and then to mimic cycling with your legs. As you do, you’re going to twist to bring your elbows to touch your opposite knee on each rep. This is great for training the obliques as well as the abs.
Decline Sit Ups
Sit-ups performed on a decline bench so that you can take advantage of a bigger range of motion.
Vertical Leg Crunch
Keep your legs pointing directly up, and then sit up in order to touch your toes.
V Sit-Ups
For V sit-ups you’re going to keep your arms up straight over your head and legs flat, and then you’re going to bring your legs and your arms up at the exact same time so you’re folding your body in half and touching your toes with your fingers. This is the vertical leg crunch, except you’ll also be bringing your legs up from flat with each repetition.
Flutter Kicks
These are like leg raises, except you keep your feet raised just slightly off the ground in an isometric hold then just lightly kick your legs up and down alternatively as though you were swimming.
Broom Sit Ups
A regular sit up, except with a broom between your hands behind your head. This prevents you from moving your arms and thus isolates the abs more. You can also perform twisting/decline/twisting-decline broom sit ups.
Dragonflys/Dragon Flags
This is the exercise Stallone does in Rocky 4 but were actually invented by none other than Bruce Lee (Lee was a bit of a prodigy when it came to bodyweight training). For this you’ll need a bench so that you can grab the edge of it with your arms above your head. Now while holding on, you want to do leg raises except using your whole body from your shoulders down. You’ll need intense strength in your abs to keep your entire body straight.
Upside-Down/Hanging Sit Ups
Want to make your sit ups much harder? Then just hang from your feet and bring your body up as you go. You can also do crunches from this position.
Hanging Leg Raises
Hang from the bar and then simply raise your legs directly up in front of you. This is great for the lower abs.
Around the World Hanging Leg Raises
Hang from the bar and then draw a circle with your legs.
Frog Kicks
Frog kicks involve raising your knees up to your chest instead of raising your legs straight forward, again to train the abs. This is a great way to do a drop set from leg raises.
Ab Rollers
Take a roller in your hands and rest on your knees. Now roll it out forward in front of you, stretching your body out and really creating those muscle tears.
Myotatic Crunch
Here you will do sit ups on a bosu ball/across the arm of a chair, and you will use this to go back further than you normally could. This stretches the rectus abdominals which is the front plate of muscle on your stomach. In other words, it’s a quick way to get an awesome six pack. Get your BOSU Balance Trainer, Blue here from Amazon.
Exercise Ball Crunch
A crunch performed while balancing on an exercise ball or bosu ball which means you have to also balance by using your stabilising muscles.
Dips and Almost All Variations
Dips
Dips are performed by suspending yourself between two bars then lowering and raising yourself between them. If you don’t have two bars you can use two chairs opposite one another.
Clapping Dips
Yup, you can of course make dips more explosive by jumping and clapping in between each repetition to get those fast twitch muscle fibres working.
180 Jump Dips
Dips performed with a 180 degree spin in between, so you’re facing the opposite way on each rep.
Vertical L-Sit
Also called the extended Russian leg raise, you will start in dip position and then roll back to raise your legs to point directly upwards while your arms lean backwards against the bars.
Tricep Dips
Tricep dips are dips performed with your hands behind you and your heels resting on the floor with your legs straight in front of you. As the name suggests, these train the triceps primarily.
Extended Range Tricep Dips
Raise your legs by placing them on a raised platform opposite your hands, and you can then dip lower than ground level.
Swing Dips
Here you swing your legs out behind you like a pendulum, and when they swing forward you dip down and repeat. Like kettlebell training, the constant momentum here trains all your supportive muscles.
Clapping Tricep Dips
Tricep dips with a little clap behind your back on each jump.
One Armed Tricep Dips
Tricep dips performed with one hand. Use wide legs to spread the weight and make it easier to balance.
Rocking Tricep Dips
Just dip further down on one arm each rep.
Typewriter Tricep Dips
With your arms starting wide apart, you’re going to slide slowly from left to right in a tricep dip position.
Single Bar Dips
Holding on to a single bar with your legs hanging beneath you will dip your body up and down. This is effective just the top portion of a muscle up.
V-Dips
V-Dips are like regular dips (dipping straight down the middle), except you are going to raise yourself on just one side, alternating with each repetition.
Ring Dips
Dips while holding onto gymnastic rings. Requires a large amount of stabilisation and balance.
Every Major Type of Pull Up
Pull Ups
Grab a bar with an overhand grip and arms about shoulder-width apart, then pull yourself up to the bar. Great for lats.
Chin Ups
Chin ups are the version with the supinated (underhand grip) they target the biceps slightly more.
Around the Worlds
Hold yourself slightly away from the bar, and then slowly draw a circle with your upper body remembering to move in both a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction. This is a great exercise for the lats which gives you a lot of ‘time under tension’ for maximum muscle growth.
Pull Up Front Lever
Here you don’t pull yourself up, but rather pivot at your arms to bring your legs and body directly up and parallel with the ground so you are horizontal. Here the whole body stays rigid, making is a highly demanding move for the core and the lats.
Lever Pull Ups
Get yourself into the lever position and then pull yourself up and down for more of a row movement.
Dead Hang Pull Ups/Chin Ups
A pull up or chin up with a complete dead hang at the bottom. Removes all momentum and ensures the full range of motion gets trained.
Reverse Push Ups
Here you perform a chin up or pull up with your feet on the ground out in front of you (resting on the heels). This requires the bar to be slightly lower, or you can lie underneath a table and grab onto that. This makes pull ups easier and thus allows you to perform more reps.
Bodyweight Tricep Extensions
With a low bar in front of you, hang forward with your body straight and head between your arms. Now you’re going to ‘push down’ with your triceps by hinging at your elbows to
One Handed Pull Ups/Chin Ups
One handed pull ups are simply pull ups you perform with a single arm. This is a fantastic demonstration of bodyweight mastery, and is also a great way to target the biceps more.
Kipping Pull Ups
Kipping pull ups are a form of pull up that involves swinging the legs to get momentum and then exploding up over the bar. This makes it easier to perform high volumes and is popular with Cross Fitters. Not all that useful for muscle growth, but potentially interesting for cardio/concurrent training.
Behind the Neck Pull Ups
Not one for those with shoulder, neck or back complaints, but if you’re healthy and want to mix things up this is a somewhat tough variation on regular pull ups.
Wrist Curl Pull Ups/Chin Ups
Here you are going to simply hang from your arms on a pull up bar with either an over hand or underhand grip, and then you’re going to lift yourself ever so slightly by curling at your wrists. An overhand supinated grip (pull up) will train your forearm extensors, while an underhand (pronated) grip will train your forearm flexors.
Rocking Pull Ups/Chin Ups
Rocking pull ups or chin ups involve pulling up on one side more than the other and then repeating on the other side. It’s a good way to build up to the one handed pull up and a great way to isolate the biceps.
Archer Pull Ups
Here you pull up on one side, then move one hand on top of the bar at the top of the movement.
Pull Up Type Writer
Here you hang from a pull up bar, then gradually move yourself left to right so that you move your weight onto that one side and return. This is a great pull up movement for increasing time under tension. You’ll see some ‘Bartendaz’ types using this movement above the bar in a muscle-up position.
Bicycles
Bartendaz and other guys often like to add a ‘bicycle’ movement with their feet while performing a range of pull up moves. The idea here is to train the abs, while at the same time looking a bit like a mime. I guess…
L-Tuck Pull Ups
These are pull ups performed with your legs in a position as though you were sitting in a chair with a 90 degree angle in your knees.
L-Sit Pull Ups/V-Sit Pull Ups
Pull ups or chin ups performed with your legs in the L or V-sit positions.
Inverted L-Pull Up
A pull up performed with your feet pointing at the sky.
Pull Up/Chin Up Negatives
These are pull ups or chin ups performed by holding onto the bar, jumping, and then letting yourself down as slowly as possible. This is a great way to build negative strength in your biceps, and also a great way to finish a set of pull ups when you can’t do any more.
Pseudo One Handed Pull Ups
A pseudo one handed pull up is a one handed pull up where you grab onto your forearm with the other free hand.
Muscle Ups
Muscle ups are pull ups where you go past the bar and then do a one-bar dip at the top of the movement, before dropping back down. This is a fantastic, explosive movement that trains nearly all the muscles in your upper body. It’s also a great move for traceurs hoping to learn to ‘mount’ onto walls.
Narrow Grip/Wide Grip
Narrowing or widening your grip on the pull up bar will target your biceps and lats more respectively.
Monkey Bars
It’s an old childhood favourite, but don’t knock it! The monkey bars can provide a great workout for your biceps and lats, as well as being a great way to build up to a one-armed pull up.
Rope Climbing
Climbing straight up a rope is a classic gym-class workout that’s fantastic for the lats, the forearms and the grip. Perform without using your legs for added awesome.
Tandem Grip Pull Ups/Comando Pull Ups
This time you face down the length of the bar, and clasp it above your head with both hands in the middle. Now you’re going to perform pull ups, pulling your head up on either side of the bar for each repetition.
Clapping Pull Ups
Do a pull up, launch yourself off of the bar, clap, catch, and repeat. Try not to bash out all of your teeth.
Grip Switch Pull Ups
Again throw yourself in the air at the end of the pull up, and this time catch the bar from the other side to reverse your grip. So you’re switching between pull ups and chin ups in each move. If you want to superset pull ups with chin ups, then you can perform a bunch of pull ups, grip switch, then perform a bunch of chin ups.
In and Out Pull Ups
This time you’ll be switching between wide and narrow grip pull ups by sliding your hands in and out.
Neutral Grip Pull-Ups
Neutral grip is ‘hammer grip’ for the bodybuilders out there. Essentially you’ll be holding two parallel bars with your hands facing inwards and then performing pull ups. For this you can use the Iron Gym.
Finger Board Pull Ups
Here you perform pull ups with your hands on a finger board or on a door frame in order to train your grip and forearm strength. Popular among climbers.
Finger Pull Ups
Pull ups hanging from your fingers. Some people can do one finger pull ups. Woah.
Human Flag Pull Ups
Even more awesome… do a human flag with arms extended then pull yourself in and out towards the horizontal bar. This is as advanced as they come…
Forward and Backwards Pull Ups
Hold onto the bar, keep yourself at bar height, and then move yourself towards and away from the bar.
Towel Pull Ups
Pull ups performed in a commando pull up position while holding onto a towel.
Mixed Grip Pull Ups
Here you have one overhand and one underhand grip while performing pull ups.
Hangs
This is an isometric hold where you simply just hang from a pull up bar. Harder than it sounds. Interestingly, some studies on chickens suggest this could convert slow twitch muscle fibre into fast twitch muscle fibre.
Corn Cob Pull Ups
This time you go left and right like the typewriter pull up, then go in and out for a single rep. It’s essentially a complex, and when complete with a slow cadence it’s fantastic for time under tension.
Ring Pull Ups
Pull ups performed using gymnastic rings which adds challenge by requiring you to stabilise yourself.
Dyno Pull Up
This is a rock climbing move that involves launching yourself from a lower bar up to a higher one. It requires a lot of upper body strength and explosive power.
Every Popular Bodyweight Leg Exercise
Bodyweight Squat
This is basically just a squat, except you aren’t carrying any weight. You can generally safely squat lower than you normally would with a weighted squat.
One-Legged Squat/Pistol Squat
A one legged bodyweight squat that effectively doubles the resistance. Use one hand to stabilise yourself to begin with, then build up to doing it without that hand for balance in order to train your fast twitch muscle fibres, balance and kinaesthetic awareness.
Sissy Squat
A sissy squat is a squatting movement made harder by altering your angle. Here you push your knees slightly forward and lean backwards at the same time so that your upper body is diagonal, then squat normally by bending the knees while balancing on the tips of your toes. This makes the squat considerably more challenging but is a little tough on the knees so go easy!
Squat Jumps
This is a squat with a jump at the top of the movement, if you perform the first portion of the squat slowly then add an explosive jump at the end you’ll be hitting both your fast and slow twitch muscle fibres.
Bodyweight Calf Raises
Toes on a step, heels on the floor, then raise so that you’re on tip-toes and repeat.
One Legged Bodyweight Calf Raises
The same as above, except you’ll be on just one leg. You can again make this harder by balancing yourself too.
Reverse Calf Raises
This time your heels go on the step and lower and raise the toes to the ground and up. This will work the tiabialis.
Seated Bodyweight Calf Raises
Sit on a chair or bench, then push down onto your knee hard with your hands to provide the resistance, now raise your toe to perform reps.
Hamstring Bridge
Lie flat on the floor with your arms by your side and knees bent, feet on your heels. Now push your body up to form a bridge, but using your legs rather than your back in order to control the movement. Push through your heels and you should feel this one in your hamstrings. This is the closest to a hamstring curl with bodyweight that you’re going to get.
Raised Hamstring Bridge
A raised hamstring bridge is the same as a hamstring bridge, except your heels will be balanced on the edge of a raised platform such as a bench, increasing your range of motion.
Hanging Hamstring Curl
Hang from a low bar (such as one you might use for a reverse push up) with your heels on the floor, and then use your hamstrings to go from hanging to a bridge-type shape.
One Legged Hamstring Bridge
Of course you also have the option to do one legged raised hamstring bridges.
High Steps
Put one foot on a raised platform and keep the other one on the floor. Now ‘step up’ by pushing with the raised foot to raise your whole body |
" VR solution. And there's no debating the thing's power. StarVR's website is filled with comparison to "other" VR devices, and I'd be lying if I said that the headset's specs weren't impressive: 210 Vertical FOV, 130 Horizontal FOV, dual 5.5 inch LCD panels, 360 degree headtracking, and a massive 5120x1440 resolution. Now, I'm not sure that I'm in the right income bracket to be able to afford a computer that can actually run VR games at that resolution, but I know that there is a large demographic of PC users that pride themselves on having the most powerful hardware available, so I'm sure the StarVR is looking really attractive to them.
The second way that Starbreeze seeks to separate StarVR from its competitors is in terms of software:
Through the acquisition, Starbreeze becomes one of the first technology companies to publish and develop both the software and hardware components of VR, allowing for a holistic approach covering all the dimensions involved.
This isn't a bad point at all. It has been a common refrain that for VR to really catch on it's going to need games that convince consumers to drop money on expensive hardware. And, I admit, a VR sequel to Starbreeze's Syndicate could be incredible.
But Starbreeze turned to Payday developer Overkill to show off the capabilities of the new headset, demonstrating a new first person Walking Dead game. The game is an on-rail shooter (think House of the Dead), and yes, believe it or not, it does include a light gun. Over on Polygon, Phil Kollar shares his hands on impressions:
About halfway through the demo, I was handed a shotgun. Both in the game and in real life. In a moment that reminded me of the weird dual realities I was currently existing in, a Starbreeze rep places a plastic toy shotgun into my hands, just as a character handed me a virtual shotgun in the game. The "real" fake shotgun had special sensors attached to it so that the game could track it. As I aimed in the real world, I aimed in the game.
"It's time for me to do some eWork," said CyberBoss, ready to face the NeruoZombie horde. "Now hand me my DataShotgun."
Which... Huh. The image of someone wearing a VR headset and holding a plastic shotgun sounds like something ripped out of a bad X-Files episode, but hey, maybe that works in our weird, dystopic present. It also makes a strange pairing with the high-power rhetoric of the rest of StarVR's announcement. I understand it: Making a good demo is hard enough, and making a VR demo must be even harder. But there feels like there's a disconnect here. All the power in the world, but I can't leave the rails.
Starbreeze's entry into the VR race was a bit of a surprise, but now that I've given it some thought, I suspect we'll see headsets from a lot of different companies in the coming years. If I'm being pessimistic, then it's easy to imagine VR as the new MMO or new motion controls: A pipe dream that floods the market with tons of mediocre products. But it is possible that the introduction of VR will be more like the debut of dedicated 3D graphics cards in the 90s: A real shift in the way people make and play games.The Georgia Guidestones may be the most enigmatic monument in the US: huge slabs of granite, inscribed with directions for rebuilding civilization after the apocalypse. Only one man knows who created them—and he's not talking. Photo: Dan Winters The strangest monument in America looms over a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia. Five massive slabs of polished granite rise out of the earth in a star pattern. The rocks are each 16 feet tall, with four of them weighing more than 20 tons apiece. Together they support a 25,000-pound capstone. Approaching the edifice, it's hard not to think immediately of England's Stonehenge or possibly the ominous monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Built in 1980, these pale gray rocks are quietly awaiting the end of the world as we know it.
Called the Georgia Guidestones, the monument is a mystery—nobody knows exactly who commissioned it or why. The only clues to its origin are on a nearby plaque on the ground—which gives the dimensions and explains a series of intricate notches and holes that correspond to the movements of the sun and stars—and the "guides" themselves, directives carved into the rocks. These instructions appear in eight languages ranging from English to Swahili and reflect a peculiar New Age ideology. Some are vaguely eugenic (guide reproduction wisely—improving fitness and diversity); others prescribe standard-issue hippie mysticism (prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite).
What's most widely agreed upon—based on the evidence available—is that the Guidestones are meant to instruct the dazed survivors of some impending apocalypse as they attempt to reconstitute civilization. Not everyone is comfortable with this notion. A few days before I visited, the stones had been splattered with polyurethane and spray-painted with graffiti, including slogans like "Death to the new world order." This defacement was the first serious act of vandalism in the Guidestones' history, but it was hardly the first objection to their existence. In fact, for more than three decades this uncanny structure in the heart of the Bible Belt has been generating responses that range from enchantment to horror. Supporters (notable among them Yoko Ono) have praised the messages as a stirring call to rational thinking, akin to Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. Opponents have attacked them as the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist.
Whoever the anonymous architects of the Guidestones were, they knew what they were doing: The monument is a highly engineered structure that flawlessly tracks the sun. It also manages to engender endless fascination, thanks to a carefully orchestrated aura of mystery. And the stones have attracted plenty of devotees to defend against folks who would like them destroyed. Clearly, whoever had the monument placed here understood one thing very well: People prize what they don't understand at least as much as what they do.
The story of the Georgia Guidestones began on a Friday afternoon in June 1979, when an elegant gray-haired gentleman showed up in Elbert County, made his way to the offices of Elberton Granite Finishing, and introduced himself as Robert C. Christian. He claimed to represent "a small group of loyal Americans" who had been planning the installation of an unusually large and complex stone monument. Christian had come to Elberton—the county seat and the granite capital of the world—because he believed its quarries produced the finest stone on the planet.
Joe Fendley, Elberton Granite's president, nodded absently, distracted by the rush to complete his weekly payroll. But when Christian began to describe the monument he had in mind, Fendley stopped what he was doing. Not only was the man asking for stones larger than any that had been quarried in the county, he also wanted them cut, finished, and assembled into some kind of enormous astronomical instrument.
What in the world would it be for? Fendley asked. Christian explained that the structure he had in mind would serve as a compass, calendar, and clock. It would also need to be engraved with a set of guides written in eight of the world's major languages. And it had to be capable of withstanding the most catastrophic events, so that the shattered remnants of humanity would be able to use those guides to reestablish a better civilization than the one that was about to destroy itself.
Monumental Precision ——————–
Built to survive the apocalypse, the Georgia Guidestones are not merely instructions for the future—the massive granite slabs also function as a clock, calendar, and compass.
The monument sits at the highest point in Elbert County and is oriented to track the sun's east-west migration year-round. On an equinox or solstice, visitors who stand at the west side of the "mail slot" are positioned to see the sun rise on the horizon. An eye-level hole drilled into the center support stone allows stargazers on the south side to locate Polaris, the North Star. A 7/8-inch hole drilled through the capstone focuses a sunbeam on the center column and at noon pinpoints the day of the year.Text: Erik Malinowski; illustration: Steve Sanford
Fendley is now deceased, but shortly after the Guidestones went up, an Atlanta television reporter asked what he was thinking when he first heard Christian's plan. "I was thinking, 'I got a nut in here now. How am I going get him out?'" Fendley said. He attempted to discourage the man by quoting him a price several times higher than for any project commissioned there before. The job would require special tools, heavy equipment, and paid consultants, Fendley explained. But Christian merely nodded and asked how long it would take. Fendley didn't rightly know—six months, at least. He wouldn't be able to even consider such an undertaking, he added, until he knew it could be paid for. When Christian asked whether there was a banker in town he considered trustworthy, Fendley saw his chance to unload the strange man and sent him to look for Wyatt Martin, president of the Granite City Bank.
The tall and courtly Martin—the only man in Elberton besides Fendley known to have met R. C. Christian face-to-face—is now 78. "Fendley called me and said, 'A kook over here wants some kind of crazy monument,'" Martin says. "But when this fella showed up he was wearing a very nice, expensive suit, which made me take him a little more seriously. And he was well-spoken, obviously an educated person." Martin was naturally taken aback when the man told him straight out that R. C. Christian was a pseudonym. He added that his group had been planning this secretly for 20 years and wanted to remain anonymous forever. "And when he told me what it was he and this group wanted to do, I just about fell over," Martin says. "I told him, 'I believe you'd be just as well off to take the money and throw it out in the street into the gutters.' He just sort of looked at me and shook his head, like he felt kinda sorry for me, and said, 'You don't understand.'"
Martin led Christian down the street to the town square, where the city had commissioned a towering Bicentennial Memorial Fountain, which included a ring of 13 granite panels, each roughly 2 by 3 feet, signifying the original colonies. "I told him that was about the biggest project ever undertaken around here, and it was nothing compared to what he was talking about," Martin says. "That didn't seem to bother him at all." Promising to return on Monday, the man went off to charter a plane and spend the weekend scouting locations from the air. "By then I half believed him," Martin says.
When Christian came back to the bank Monday, Martin explained that he could not proceed unless he could verify the man's true identity and "get some assurance you can pay for this thing." Eventually, the two negotiated an agreement: Christian would reveal his real name on the condition that Martin promise to serve as his sole intermediary, sign a confidentiality agreement pledging never to disclose the information to another living soul, and agree to destroy all documents and records related to the project when it was finished. "He said he was going to send the money from different banks across the country," Martin says, "because he wanted to make sure it couldn't be traced. He made it clear that he was very serious about secrecy."
Before leaving town, Christian met again with Fendley and presented the contractor with a shoe box containing a wooden model of the monument he wanted, plus 10 or so pages of detailed specifications. Fendley accepted the model and instructions but remained skeptical until Martin phoned the following Friday to say he had just received a $10,000 deposit. After that, Fendley stopped questioning and started working. "My daddy loved a challenge," says Fendley's daughter, Melissa Fendley Caruso, "and he said this was the most challenging project in the history of Elbert County."
Construction of the Guidestones got under way later that summer. Fendley's company lovingly documented the progress of the work in hundreds of photographs. Jackhammers were used to gouge 114 feet into the rock at Pyramid Quarry, searching for hunks of granite big enough to yield the final stones. Fendley and his crew held their breath when the first 28-ton slab was lifted to the surface, wondering if their derricks would buckle under the weight. A special burner (essentially a narrowly focused rocket motor used to cut and finish large blocks of granite) was trucked to Elberton to clean and size the stones, and a pair of master stonecutters was hired to smooth them.
Fendley and Martin helped Christian find a suitable site for the Guidestones in Elbert County: a flat-topped hill rising above the pastures of the Double 7 Farms, with vistas in all directions. For $5,000, owner Wayne Mullinex signed over a 5-acre plot. In addition to the payment, Christian granted lifetime cattle-grazing rights to Mullinex and his children, and Mullinex's construction company got to lay the foundation for the Guidestones.
With the purchase of the land, the Guidestones' future was set. Christian said good-bye to Fendley at the granite company office, adding, "You'll never see me again." Christian then turned and walked out the door—without so much as a handshake.
From then on, Christian communicated solely through Martin, writing a few weeks later to ask that ownership of the land and monument be transferred to Elbert County, which still holds it. Christian reasoned that civic pride would protect it over time. "All of Mr. Christian's correspondence came from different cities around the country," Martin says. "He never sent anything from the same place twice."
Daybreak: A carefully cut slot in the Guidestones' center column frames the sunrise on solstices and equinoxes.
Photo: Dan WintersThe astrological specifications for the Guidestones were so complex that Fendley had to retain the services of an astronomer from the University of Georgia to help implement the design. The four outer stones were to be oriented based on the limits of the sun's yearly migration. The center column needed two precisely calibrated features: a hole through which the North Star would be visible at all times, and a slot that was to align with the position of the rising sun during the solstices and equinoxes. The principal component of the capstone was a 7\8-inch aperture through which a beam of sunlight would pass at noon each day, shining on the center stone to indicate the day of the year.
The main feature of the monument, though, would be the 10 dictates carved into both faces of the outer stones, in eight languages: English, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, and Swahili. A mission statement of sorts (let these be guidestones to an age of reason) was also to be engraved on the sides of the capstone in Egyptian hieroglyphics, classical Greek, Sanskrit, and Babylonian cuneiform. The United Nations provided some of the translations (including those for the dead languages), which were stenciled onto the stones and etched with a sandblaster.
By early 1980, a bulldozer was scraping the Double 7 hilltop to bedrock, where five granite slabs serving as a foundation were laid out in a paddle-wheel design. A 100-foot-tall crane was used to lift the stones into place. Each of the outer rocks was 16 feet 4 inches high, 6 feet 6 inches wide, and 1 foot 7 inches thick. The center column was the same (except only half the width), and the capstone measured 9 feet 8 inches long, 6 feet 6 inches wide, and 1 foot 7 inches thick. Including the foundation stones, the monument's total weight was almost 240,000 pounds. Covered with sheets of black plastic in preparation for an unveiling on the vernal equinox, the Guidestones towered over the cattle that continued to graze beneath it at the approach of winter's end.
The monument ignited controversy before it was even finished. The first rumor began among members of the Elberton Granite Association, jealous of the attention being showered on one of their own: Fendley was behind the whole thing, they said, aided by his friend Martin, the banker. The gossip became so poisonous that the two men agreed to take a lie detector test at the Elberton Civic Center. The scandal withered when The Elberton Star reported that they had both passed convincingly, but the publicity brought a new wave of complaints. As word of what was being inscribed spread, Martin recalls, even people he considered friends asked him why he was doing the devil's work. A local minister, James Travenstead, predicted that "occult groups" would flock to the Guidestones, warning that "someday a sacrifice will take place here." Those inclined to agree were hardly discouraged by Charlie Clamp, the sandblaster charged with carving each of the 4,000-plus characters on the stones: During the hundreds of hours he spent etching the guides, Clamp said, he had been constantly distracted by "strange music and disjointed voices."
The team that built the Guidestones didn't know who was financing the project—just that it was the biggest monument in county history. Local banker Wyatt Martin inspects the English lettering with sandblaster Charlie Clamp before the 1980 unveiling.
Photo: Courtesy of Fendley Enterprises Inc. The unveiling on March 22, 1980, was a community celebration. Congressmember Doug Barnard, whose district contained Elberton, addressed a crowd of 400 that flowed down the hillside and included television news crews from Atlanta. Soon Joe Fendley was the most famous Elbertonian since Daniel Tucker, the 18th-century minister memorialized in the folk song "Old Dan Tucker." Bounded by the Savannah and Broad rivers but miles from the nearest interstate—"as rural as rural can be," in the words of current Star publisher Gary Jones—Elberton was suddenly a tourist destination, with visitors from all over the world showing up to see the Guidestones. "We'd have people from Japan and China and India and everywhere wanting to go up and see the monument," Martin says. And Fendley's boast that he had "put Elberton on the map" was affirmed literally in spring 2005, when National Geographic Traveler listed the Guidestones as a feature in its Geotourism MapGuide to Appalachia.
But many who read what was written on the stones were unsettled. Guide number one was, of course, the real stopper: maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature. There were already 4.5 billion people on the planet, meaning eight out of nine had to go (today it would be closer to 12 out of 13). This instruction was echoed and expanded by tenet number two: guide reproduction wisely—improving fitness and diversity. It didn't take a great deal of imagination to draw an analogy to the practices of, among others, the Nazis. Guide number three instructed readers to unite humanity with a living new language. This sent a shiver up the spine of local ministers who knew that the Book of Revelations warned of a common tongue and a one-world government as the accomplishments of the Antichrist. Guide number four—rule passion—faith—tradition—and all things with tempered reason—was similarly threatening to Christians committed to the primacy of faith over all. The last six guides were homiletic by comparison. protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts. let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court. avoid petty laws and useless officials. balance personal rights with social duties. prize truth—beauty—love—seeking harmony with the infinite. be not a cancer on the earth—leave room for nature—leave room for nature.
Even as locals debated the relative merits of these commandments, the dire predictions of Travenstead seemed to be coming true. Within a few months, a coven of witches from Atlanta adopted the Guidestones as their home away from home, making weekend pilgrimages to Elberton to stage various pagan rites ("dancing and chanting and all that kind of thing," Martin says) and at least one warlock-witch marriage ceremony. No humans were sacrificed on the altar of the stones, but there are rumors that several chickens were beheaded. A 1981 article in the monthly magazine UFO Report cited Naunie Batchelder (identified in the story as "a noted Atlanta psychic") as predicting that the true purpose of the guides would be revealed "within the next 30 years." Viewed from directly overhead, the Guidestones formed an X, the piece in UFO Report observed, making for a perfect landing site.
Visitors kept coming, but after several failed investigations into the identity of R. C. Christian, the media lost interest. Curiosity flared again briefly in 1993, when Yoko Ono contributed a track called "Georgia Stone" to a tribute album for avant-garde composer John Cage, with Ono chanting the 10th and final guide nearly verbatim: "Be not a cancer on Earth—leave room for nature—leave room for nature." A decade later, however, when comedienne Roseanne Barr tried to work a bit on the Guidestones into her comeback tour, nobody seemed to care.
Christian kept in touch with Martin, writing the banker so regularly that they became pen pals. Occasionally, Christian would call from a pay phone at the Atlanta airport to say he was in the area, and the two would rendezvous for dinner in the college town of Athens, a 40-mile drive west of Elberton. By this time, Martin no longer questioned Christian's secrecy. The older man had successfully deflected Martin's curiosity when the two first met, by quoting Henry James' observations of Stonehenge: "You may put a hundred questions to these rough-hewn giants as they bend in grim contemplation of their fallen companions, but your curiosity falls dead in the vast sunny stillness that enshrouds them." Christian "never would tell me a thing about this group he belonged to," Martin says. The banker received his last letter from Christian right around the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and assumes the man—who would have been in his mid-eighties—has since passed away.
Joe Fendley of Elberton Granite Finishing posing with his masterpiece. Photo: Courtesy of Fendley Enterprises Inc. The mysterious story of R. C. Christian and the absence of information about the true meaning of the Guidestones was bound to become an irresistible draw for conspiracy theorists and "investigators" of all kinds. Not surprisingly, three decades later there is no shortage of observers rushing to fill the void with all sorts of explanations.
Among them is an activist named Mark Dice, author of a book called The Resistance Manifesto. In 2005, Dice (who was using a pseudonym of his own—"John Conner"—appropriated from the Terminator franchise's main character) began to demand that the Guidestones be "smashed into a million pieces." He claims that the monument has "a deep Satanic origin," a stance that has earned him plenty of coverage, both in print and on the Web. According to Dice, Christian was a high-ranking member of "a Luciferian secret society" at the forefront of the New World Order. "The elite are planning to develop successful life-extension technology in the next few decades that will nearly stop the aging process," Dice says, "and they fear that with the current population of Earth so high, the masses will be using resources that the elite want for themselves. The Guidestones are the New World Order's Ten Commandments. They're also a way for the elite to get a laugh at the expense of the uninformed masses, as their agenda stands as clear as day and the zombies don't even notice it."
Ironically, Dice's message has mainly produced greater publicity for the Guidestones. This, in turn, has brought fresh visitors to the monument and made Elbert County officials even less inclined to remove the area's only major tourist attraction.
Phyllis Brooks, who runs the Elbert County Chamber of Commerce, pronounced herself aghast last November when the Guidestones were attacked by vandals for the first time ever. While Dice denies any involvement in the assault, he seems to have inspired it: Spray-painted on the stones were messages like "Jesus will beat u satanist" and "No one world government." Other defacements asserted that the Council on Foreign Relations is "ran by the devil," that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, and that President Obama is a Muslim. The vandals also splashed the Guidestones with polyurethane, which is much more difficult to remove than paint. Despite the graffiti's alignment with his views, Dice says he disapproves of the acts. "A lot of people were glad such a thing happened and saw it as standing up against the New World Order," Dice says, "while others who are unhappy with the stones saw the actions as counterproductive and inappropriate."
Martin winces every time he hears Dice's "Luciferian secret society" take on the Guidestones. But while he disagrees, he also admits that he doesn't know for sure. "All I can tell you is that Mr. Christian always seemed a very decent and sincere fella to me."
A worker uses a special burner to finish a slab of Pyramid Blue granite.
Photo: Courtesy of Fendley Enterprises Inc. Dice, of course, is far from the only person with a theory about the Guidestones. Jay Weidner, a former Seattle radio commentator turned erudite conspiracy hunter, has heavily invested time and energy into one of the most popular hypotheses. He argues that Christian and his associates were Rosicrucians, followers of the Order of the Rosy Cross, a secret society of mystics that originated in late medieval Germany and claim understanding of esoteric truths about nature, the universe, and the spiritual realm that have been concealed from ordinary people. Weidner considers the name R. C. Christian an homage to the legendary 14th-century founder of the Rosicrucians, a man first identified as Frater C.R.C. and later as Christian Rosenkreuz. Secrecy, Weidner notes, has been a hallmark of the Rosicrucians, a group that announced itself to the world in the early 17th century with a pair of anonymous manifestos that created a huge stir across Europe, despite the fact that no one was ever able to identify a single member. While the guides on the Georgia stones fly in the face of orthodox Christian eschatology, they conform quite well to the tenets of Rosicrucianism, which stress reason and endorse a harmonic relationship with nature.
Weidner also has a theory about the purpose of the Guidestones. An authority on the hermetic and alchemical traditions that spawned the Rosicrucians, he believes that for generations the group has been passing down knowledge of a solar cycle that climaxes every 13,000 years. During this culmination, outsize coronal mass ejections are supposed to devastate Earth. Meanwhile, the shadowy organization behind the Guidestones is now orchestrating a "planetary chaos," Weidner believes, that began with the recent collapse of the US financial system and will result eventually in major disruptions of oil and food supplies, mass riots, and ethnic wars worldwide, all leading up to the Big Event on December 21, 2012. "They want to get the population down," Weidner says, "and this is what they think will do it. The Guidestones are there to instruct the survivors."
On hearing Weidner's ideas, Martin shakes his head and says it's "the sort of thing that makes me want to tell people everything I know." Martin has long since retired from banking and no longer lives in Elberton, yet he's still the Guidestones' official—and only—secret-keeper. "But I can't tell," the old man quickly adds. "I made a promise." Martin also made a promise to destroy all the records of his dealings with Christian, though he hasn't kept that one—at least not yet. In the back of his garage is a large plastic bin (actually, the hard-sided case of an IBM computer he bought back in 1983) stuffed with every document connected to the Guidestones that ever came into his possession, including the letters from Christian.
For years Martin thought he might write a book, but now he knows he probably won't. What he also won't do is allow me to look through the papers. When I ask whether he's prepared to take what he knows to his grave, Martin replies that Christian would want him to do just that: "All along, he said that who he was and where he came from had to be kept a secret. He said mysteries work that way. If you want to keep people interested, you can let them know only so much." The rest is enshrouded in the vast sunny stillness.
Randall Sullivan (randysul@aol.com) wrote about the electric-vehicle company ZAP in issue 16.04.
The Georgia Guidestones Guidebook Published by Elberton Granite in 1981: Download Complete Book [70MB PDF] Monumental Upkeep Gives History a Helping Hand
Mystery Spots: Places Where Bizarre Forces Obscure Reality
AI Cracks 4,000-Year-Old Mystery
J.J. Abrams on the Magic of MysteryUnder the coaching regime of John Haraugh and with QB Joe Flacco under center for the past three years, the team has finished with records, 11-5 (2008), 9-7 (2009), 12-4 (2010), making the playoffs and winning at least one postseason road game each of those years. However, they have just not been able to crack through to the Super Bowl, despite seeming to have what it takes on both sides of the ball to get there, only to disappoint themselves as well as their passionately loyal fans.
Has the team progressed each of the three years and if so, does that set up the Ravens to be once again on the verge of finally getting to the Big Game, as the window of opportunity grows smaller for some of the key veterans (Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Matt Birk, Derrick Mason, Todd Heap)? Since the QB position seems to get most of the credit as well as most of the blame, let's look at Joe Flacco's progress over his three years in the league. Flacco has started every game in the team's past three years, tying for the most wins by a QB in their first three years in the NFL. He also is tied with the New York Jets' Mark Sanchez with four road victories in the post season, although Sanchez has the chance to break that record with a victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in this weekend's AFC Championship Game.
Take a look at Flacco's career stats from NFL.com:
YEAR ATT. COMP. YARDS PCT. ATT/GM AVG. YDS/GM TD INT RATE
22008 Year Team G Att Comp Pct Att/G Yds Avg Yds/G TD TD% Int Int% Lng 20+ 40+ Sck SckY Rate 2010 Baltimore Ravens 16 489 306 62.6 30.6 3,622 7.4 226.4 25 5.1 10 2.0 67 40 7 40 294 93.6 2009 Baltimore Ravens 16 499 315 63.1 31.2 3,613 7.2 225.8 21 4.2 12 2.4 72T 44 8 36 218 88.9 2008 Baltimore Ravens 16 428 257 60.0 26.8 2,971 6.9 185.7 14 3.3 12 2.8 70T 37 10 32 276 80.3 TOTAL 48 1,416 878 62.0 29.5 10,206 7.2 212.6 60 4.2 34 2.4 72 121 25 108 788 87.9
2010 489 306 3,622 62.6 30.6 7.4 226.4 25 10 93.6
2009 499 315 3,613 63.1 31.2 7.2 225.8 21 12 88.9
2008 428 257 2,971 60.0 26.8 6.9 185.7 14 12 80.3
One can clearly see a significant jump in performance from Joe's rookie season to his second year, but only a minimal improvement from this past season. In addition, based on what was supposed to be an infusion of offensive weapons for the 2010 season, one could actually point at a bunch of numbers that might even be considered a drop-off in production. This could be due to a number of factors unrelated to Flacco and out of his control. For instance, despite what seemed to be more of a focus on the passing game, the team actually threw the ball ten times less in 2010 than it did in 2009. Yardage, percentage and attempts were virtually unchanged over the past year and while TDs, interceptions and QB ratings increased, they did so only marginally.
For the Ravens to make the next step and be able to compete and reach the Super Bowl, regardless of the improvements needed in the offensive line, defensive secondary and other areas, the quarterback needs to improve his consistency, especially in the critical bg games against the better teams. There are no excuses in Pittsburgh, where Ben Roethlisberger has perhaps the worst offensive line in the league, certainly the worst among the teams in the playoffs. Yet, he still manages to find a way to stay upright and hit his receivers, especially in crunch time, as proven to disappointed Ravens fans last weekend.
While I am not trying to specifically and unfairly compare Joe Flacco to Ben Roethlisberger, I am pointing out the level of performance that Flacco needs to reach in order to be considered among the league's elite quarterbacks. That level of performance is not far from his reach. As marginal as his improvement from year two to tyear three was, if he were to match the improvement from year one to year two, and do that next season, that could very well be more than enough to lead this team t the Super Bowl.
We're talking just a few more attempts and completions per game, a few more percentage points in both completion percentage and QB rating, and the results will have a domino effect on not only his stats, but the team in terms of wins, improving all aspects of the offense including the running game as well.
The big question that remains is will Joe be up to the task? Improvements on the offensive line around him that can offer him the protection and open holes for the running game is as good of a place as any to start. The team is sure to address those concerns in the 2011 NFL Draft, if not through free agency. However, the ultimate responsibility will be on Joe's broad shoulders, and only time will tell if they truly are strong enough to carry that load.South Africa have called-up offspinner Dane Piedt to boost their spin bowling resources for the third and final Test against New Zealand (0:51)
Offspinner Dane Piedt has been called up to South Africa's Test squad as an additional spin option. Piedt is awaiting approval of his visa and is expected to join the group this weekend, with a view to be considered for the third Test in Hamilton starting March 25.
Piedt has been preferred to Tabraiz Shamsi, who was taken on South Africa's Test tour to Australia and played in the day-night Test in Adelaide, and Imran Tahir, who has not played a Test since 2015.
Piedt's last Test was also against New Zealand in August 2016, after which he was dropped for Keshav Maharaj, the lone specialist spinner in the squad currently. Maharaj was preferred for his ability to control the run-rate and took his maiden five-for in Dunedin, but is expected to need assistance on slower, turning surfaces.
Piedt's inclusion will take the number in South Africa's touring party to 17, after they included six pace options in anticipation of seamer-friendly conditions. Faf du Plessis admitted they have been surprised to find that is not the case, but have quickly adjusted to assuming New Zealand will look to play two specialist spinners as much as possible. As a result, South Africa are considering doing the same at Seddon Park in Hamilton, the venue that offered considerable turn during the ODIs.
For Piedt, the chance to play again comes at the end of a challenging season, during which he considered seeking out a Kolpak deal in the midst of drama at his domestic franchise, the Cobras. The franchise changed coaches mid-season following a long-running battle between the players and Paul Adams, who had been in charge for five seasons.
Adams was offered contract renewal despite facing a mutiny after a majority of contracted players launched a formal grievance against him. The players took their case to the country's highest dispute resolution body, the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and won the right to strike but never followed through on the threats. Instead, several senior players were sent on loan to other teams. Piedt was among them, and went to the Titans for the domestic twenty-over campaign, but only played two matches.
However, when Ashwell Prince was appointed coach after Adams stood down at the end of 2016, Piedt was asked to captain the side, a role he accepted. He shelved his ambitions to seek opportunities elsewhere and committed himself to turning the franchise's fortunes around.
Remarkably, they rose from the bottom of the first-class points' table to be in contention for the title on the final weekend. Although they did not lift the trophy, they had redeemed themselves. Piedt took 28 wickets in the campaign to finish eighth overall and of those, 17 came in the second half of the season.Many who purchase a shovel like this are survivalists or preppers. I'm only a survivalist as much as it overlaps with being a backpacker and ourdoors |
victims.
Pushing To Not Use The 'R-Word'
Florida State University’s Pi Kappa Phi fraternity organized a philanthropic event in April where participants took turns pedaling stationary bicycles for 24 hours, all to raise money for a national charity serving people with disabilities called Push America. Brothers also asked people to sign a pledge to never use the word "retarded."
Offering Heel Support
At least 50 Western Kentucky University fraternity men participated in an effort organized by the Interfraternity Council to raise money for Hope Harbor, a nonprofit that offers counseling to victims of sexual assault. The brothers trekked around campus in five-inch red heels so show physical, not just rhetorical, support.
Starting Scholarships In Honor Of Trayvon
The Delta Xi Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, a black fraternity based in Orlando, Fla., joined with local businesses in August to fund $50,000 in college scholarships for students from slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin's high school. The money went to the Trayvon Martin Foundation, which will award it to four graduating seniors in 2014 from Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High School in Miami, where Martin was enrolled at the time of his death.
Driving 2,330 Miles To Donate Supplies
Members of the Acacia fraternity at Oregon State University personally drove U-Haul trucks filled with donated items 2,330 miles to Henryville, Ind., in March 2012 after the Midwestern town was hit by tornadoes. Acacia chapters at five other college campuses helped out the OSU brothers by providing places for them to stay during their road trip.
Raising Money #ParaJonel
Pace University's Lambda Upsilon Lambda raised more than $125,000 in just a few days to cover funeral expenses for one of their brothers, after his mother, aunt, grandparents and sisters were killed in a car accident on the Bronx River Parkway. The brother, Jonel Gonzales, lost seven family members in the April 2012 tragedy.Online advertising has exploded into a $40bn industry, and unfortunately for many Internet users, this increase has come with the cost of often-annoying user experiences.
To be fair, online advertising has been a boon for the Internet and for content creators. The idea of a digital canvas for advertisers to reach consumers on was enticing in the 1990s at the dawn of the web, and it has enabled many media outlets to weather the transition from print to digital.
Given the size of the industry and many consumers’ distaste for invasive display ads, a number of entrepreneurs have started to look for ways to supplement or maybe even supersede revenues from traditional online advertising models using the power of bitcoin.
Still, they face a steep challenge. There is a compelling reason why most online media and content generators use display ads – they are arguably the best vehicle for monetization out there today.
This might not always be the only option going forward, though. Digital currencies have the potential to become a transaction method for the Internet due to their low fees and quick transaction times, and established bitcoin companies like Coinbase and Xapo are seeking to usher in this new future.
Exploring a new frontier
One of the earliest proponents of replacing traditional online advertising with bitcoin is William Waldon, the owner of astronomy-focused website Space Industry News.
Waldon removed all the display ads from his site in March, leaving his visitors with just one option for supporting the website: bitcoin donations.
The site has had a remarkably clean look as a result – and Waldon thinks his audience is the perfect group to experiment with for trying new things like bitcoin tipping to generate revenue.“My audience is smart and tech-savvy,” he said.
He hopes replacing his ads with bitcoin tipping could be viable in the long-term, by providing the right message to the consumers of his content. “I believe that in the short term I’ll be taking a hit, until the message is made clear.”
Waldon is fine with that, as long as he can influence others by setting a good example:
“I mean, who wants to watch a 30-second video ad while they’re trying to read an article? The first time I saw one of those on another website I promised myself that I would never be that kind of content provider.”
Waldon said he has generated around $100-worth of bitcoin each month since he started his effort back in March – enough to pay for site hosting.
It’s an experiment for Waldon, a way to set an example for a future where tipping could become normal practice. “If you really want to change the world, I mean really make people think, you have to get rid of the distractions and focus on the most important part, the content,” he said.
The rise of a tipping economy
The practice of sending bitcoin tips to show support for content providers like Space Industry News has been gaining momentum in the cryptocurrency community, especially in the past few weeks.
One company, ChangeTip, works specifically with bitcoin in its strategy to bring online tipping to the mainstream as an alternative to traditional advertising models and revenue streams.
ChangeTip currently enables bitcoin tipping directly on social media sites like Twitter, Reddit, GitHub, Google+, Tumblr and StockTwits.
One interesting feature with ChangeTip is that the company has built ‘monikers’ into its platform. This means users can edit their settings and fix a keyword to specified amount of money.
For example, a ‘coffee’ could be set as $1.50 in bitcoin, and a ‘beer’ as $3.50. People can send any of these monikers to others in the form of a tip.
Nick Sullivan, CEO of ChangeTip, told CoinDesk this could open up a totally new field of online marketing with bitcoin tipping:
“We think that has some potential brand or advertising applications. For example, Starbucks buys the ‘Starbucks’ moniker from us, and then we create an advertising package around that to help them come together with a viral marketing campaign.”
ChangeTip launched earlier this year, and Sullivan said the company is already seeing growth.
A key draw for companies like ChangeTip and its dogecoin-focused counterpart Dogetipbot is that they have the potential to appeal to users outside of the cryptocurrency community.
Sullivan said that he and Dogetipbot founder Josh Mohland recognize this, and that they’re working together to tackle one of the major issues plaguing digital currencies – mainstream acceptance.
Sullivan said:
“The ocean is so huge with what needs to be done –the common enemy we’re both fighting is the mass adoption of digital currencies.”
More trials needed
Though promising, this part of the bitcoin ecosystem is still growing, and questions remain that need to be addressed.
For example, businesses that embrace tipping may have an advantage over higher-volume sectors in the bitcoin industry because they’re not as adversely affected by bitcoin’s price volatility, Sullivan said.
“Price affects our business less than most, because people aren’t speculating and holding lots of money in their ChangeTip wallet. [Users are] using it to tip,” said Sullivan.
Despite this, perception about bitcoin’s price volatility is still widespread and may ultimately prevent some from embracing bitcoin tipping.
Waldon, the Space Industry News proprietor, has a sense that digital currencies are something that other websites will end up embracing as a replacement for display ads, but he suggested that this habit needs to take hold on more social media outlets.
On this end, ChangeTip recently added a new feature to its Google Chrome extension embeds a tipping button directly into Twitter’s web browser so that sending a tip is as easy as retweeting or favoriting someone’s tweet.
For now, however, Space Industry News still serves as an early example of a publisher adopting a hybrid revenue model that may become more prevalent in the future, and Waldon is pleased with the position.
“I’m feeling a paradigm shift coming and I want to be at the forefront of that,” he added.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, CoinDesk.
Note: Space Industry News had temporarily implemented display advertising on 22nd November, citing issues with its code. The ads have since been removed and replaced with bitcoin tipping buttons.
Image via CoinDeskWhat was mispronounced? Optional: help us by adding the time
Citi is preparing for a “hard” Brexit that could force it to relocate jobs from the UK and create a new broker dealer entity in the EU, the bank’s EMEA boss Jim Cowles has told staff.
Mr Cowles wrote to his staff on Thursday morning to update them on the bank’s Brexit planning after the UK formally began the process of leaving the EU on Wednesday.
“For planning purposes, we must assume a “hard” Brexit in which the UK loses its ability to passport into the EU,” Mr Cowles wrote.
“A hard Brexit would require certain changes, including relocating certain client-facing roles to the EU from the UK, and the possible creation of a new broker-dealer entity within the EU.”
He added that the bank, which employs around 9,000 staff in the UK, had been discussing options with both clients and staff.
As we make various decisions, we will share details with you as soon as possible. I can tell you that London will remain both our EMEA headquarters and an important global hub for Citi, and that the changes we are considering are being designed to limit the impact to both our clients and our employees.
Citi already has an on the ground presence in 20 of the 27 EU states, and 58 per cent of its EU workforce is already outside of London. Dublin, Frankfurt and Amsterdam are understood to be on the short list of cities where the bank may expand its presence after Brexit.Today moviegoers complain about films being too formulaic. But in 1931, one Hollywood writer of now largely forgotten movies thought that turning screenwriting into a formula was a pretty good idea. So he invented the Plot Robot.
From the March 1931 issue of Modern Mechanix magazine:
Formerly robots were merely mechanical devices that could perform a variety of stunts under the guidance of a human being, but now a robot has made its appearance that thinks, has a soul of a kind, creative imagination, and other qualities necessary for writing a modern stereotyped short story. This robot, the invention of Wycliffe Hill, a Los Angeles scenario writer, is declared to be able to build up millions of plots, no two alike, for magazine stories or movie plays. Mr. Hill has equipped his robot with an index chart, divided into eight sections, one devoted to each of the eight elements of a story — background, character, obstacle, problem, predicament, complication, crisis and climax—and with an assortment of variations. The robot selects the material as required from this inexhaustible source and builds plots that could never be imagined by the author without the aid of the mechanical brain. Now if you want to become a successful author simply obtain a robot and put it to work.
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Hill and his Plot Robot got a fair amount of press in 1931, right around the same time that robots were becoming a symbol for the degradation of the movie-going experience.
In 1930, the Music Defense League — a union of theater musicians — even launched a campaign to convince movie-goers that pre-recorded music was part of the robot takeover. Or, at least, that recorded music could never have the soul that the art of cinema demanded. They spent over $500,000 (in 1930 dollars) in an effort to keep the talkies at bay. Recorded sound eventually won out, but given Hollywood's output sometimes, one has to wonder if some great-grandson of the Plot Robot isn't still hanging around the movie studio lots.
Musicians Wage War Against Evil Robots After the release of The Jazz Singer in 1927, all bets were off for live musicians who played in… Read more Read
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In completely unrelated news, Transformers 4: Age of Extinction hits theaters June 27th.
Image: scanned from the book Wasn't the Future Wonderful by Tim OnoskoFree Tibet group says condition of victim is unknown after protest in Sichuan province
Chinese police today shot a burning Tibetan monk before they put him out, the Free Tibet campaign said.
The monk had set himself on fire in a protest over Tibetan new year rituals in Aba county, Sichuan province, the group said. The area saw some of the worst unrest during Tibetan protests last March.
Free Tibet said witnesses saw Tabe, a monk aged in his 20s, walking from Kirti monastery into town this afternoon. He was carrying a hand-drawn Tibetan flag with a picture of the Dalai Lama at its centre.
"He doused himself in petrol. The armed police could not get near him because he was burning," said Matt Whitticase, a campaign spokesman. "Witnesses heard three gunshots fired. The monk fell to the ground and the police managed to put the flames out. He was immediately put into a van and taken to an undisclosed location. His present condition is unknown."
The claims could not be confirmed independently, but Whitticase said the group had indirect accounts from three witnesses. Tibetans have been heavily punished for passing details of incidents to outsiders.
Free Tibet said up to 800 monks had reportedly gone to Tabe's home village of Trinkin to say prayers, believing him to be dead.
The group said Tabe's protest followed an attempt by almost 1,000 monks at Kirte to use a prayer hall to observe the Monlam festival – part of Tibetan new year – despite being told not to do so. They were told to return to their rooms.
The authorities have been angered by some Tibetans deciding to boycott new year celebrations other than religious rituals as a mark of protest against Chinese rule.
Last year, Tibetan exile groups said police shot dead several protestors in Aba county. The campaigners released graphic photographs of bodies and the names of five alleged victims.
Chinese state media subsequently said that officers shot and wounded "rioters" in self-defence.
More than 100 monks from the Lutsang monastery in Qinghai province held a candlelit vigil and protest march on Wednesday, the US government-funded Radio Free Asia reported today.Fair and Square is a problem from the qualification round of Google Code Jam 2013. The gist of the problem is to find out how many integers in a given range are both a palindrome, and the square of a palindrome. Such numbers are called "fair and square." A number is a palindrome iff its value is the same when written forwards or backwards, in base 10.
The small input has very modest bounds on size: the interval \([A, B]\) is bounded by \(1 \le A \le B \le 1000\). It's perfectly reasonable to check for each integer in that range whether it is a palindrome, and whether it is a perfect square of a palindrome. This has complexity \(10^3 \approx 2^{10}\). But we know that harder inputs are coming, so lets be a little smart.
Rather than check whether each number is a perfect square, we can enumerate all the perfect squares in \([A, B]\) by squaring each integer in \(\left[\lceil \sqrt{A} \rceil, \lfloor \sqrt{B} \rfloor\right]\). This essentially reduces the size of our search space to its square root, or \(\sqrt{10^3} \approx 2^5\). Here is an implementation of this algorithm in Python:
#!/usr/bin/env python3 def isqrt ( n ) : """Returns floor(sqrt(n)).""" if n == 0 : return 0 lg = ( n. bit_length ( ) + 1 ) // 2 x = 1 << lg while True : r = ( x + n//x ) // 2 if y >= x: break x = y return x def is_palindrome ( n ) : """Return whether n is a base-10 palindrome.""" sn = str ( n ) # sn[::-1] is tricky slice syntax that reverses sn return sn == sn [ ::- 1 ] def palindromes ( m, n ) : """Generates all the palindromic integers in range(m, n).""" for i in range ( m, n ) : if is_palindrome ( i ) : yield i # T is the number of test cases T = int ( input ( ) ) for i in range ( T ) : line = input ( ). split ('' ) # A and B are the bounds A = int ( line [ 0 ] ) B = int ( line [ 1 ] ) # m and n are the square roots of the bounds m = isqrt ( A - 1 ) + 1 # ceil(sqrt(A)) n = isqrt ( B ) # floot(sqrt(B)) count = 0 for j in palindromes ( m, n + 1 ) : if is_palindrome ( j*j ) : count + = 1 print ( 'Case #%d: %d' % ( i + 1, count ) ) #!/usr/bin/env python3 def isqrt(n): """Returns floor(sqrt(n)).""" if n == 0: return 0 lg = (n.bit_length() + 1)//2 x = 1 << lg while True: r = (x + n//x)//2 if y >= x: break x = y return x def is_palindrome(n): """Return whether n is a base-10 palindrome.""" sn = str(n) # sn[::-1] is tricky slice syntax that reverses sn return sn == sn[::-1] def palindromes(m, n): """Generates all the palindromic integers in range(m, n).""" for i in range(m, n): if is_palindrome(i): yield i # T is the number of test cases T = int(input()) for i in range(T): line = input().split(' ') # A and B are the bounds A = int(line[0]) B = int(line[1]) # m and n are the square roots of the bounds m = isqrt(A - 1) + 1 # ceil(sqrt(A)) n = isqrt(B) # floot(sqrt(B)) count = 0 for j in palindromes(m, n + 1): if is_palindrome(j*j): count += 1 print('Case #%d: %d' % (i + 1, count))
The definition of isqrt() is based on this excellent stackoverflow answer. I encourage you to work out for yourself why it necessarily converges to \(\lfloor \sqrt{n} \rfloor\).
But can we go faster?
Of course we can! The first "large" input for this problem has the much weaker bound \(1 \le A \le B \le 10^{14}\) on the size of the interval. Our current algorithm has complexity \(\sqrt{10^{14}} = 10^7 \approx 2^{23}\) on this input. But we're still wasting a lot of time iterating over integers that are not palindromes. It's easy to generate only the palindromes in an interval by incrementing only the left "half" of a number, and "mirroring" it to get the full palindrome. For example, from 10, 11, 12,..., we can generate the palindromes 101, 111, 121,..., as well as 1001, 1111, 1221, etc. Since we're now enumerating numbers with half the length, our search space is reduced to its square root again: \(\sqrt{10^7} \approx 2^{12}\).
Here's a new implementation of palindromes(m, n) that uses this algorithm:
def palindromes ( m, n ) : sm = str ( m ) q, r = divmod ( len ( sm ), 2 ) # Note here that r = len(sm)%2. If r is 0, we duplicate the middle digit and # generate palindromes like 1221. If r is 1, we don't duplicate the middle # digit, instead generating palindromes like 12321. # lh is the "left half" of the palindrome we are generating lh = int ( sm [ : ( q + r ) ] ) while True : slh = str ( lh ) # Check for rollover (99 becoming 100, for example) if len ( slh )!= q + r: if r == 0 : # We go from generating numbers like 9999 to 10001, i.e. with an odd # length r = 1 else : # We go from generating numbers like 99999 to 100001, i.e. with an even # length q, r = q + 1, 0 # We don't want lh to increase in length yet lh = lh// 10 slh = slh [ :- 1 ] # wh is the "whole" palindrome, made by mirroring lh if r == 0 : # slh[::-1] is the same tricky slice syntax for reversing a string wh = int ( slh + slh [ ::- 1 ] ) else : # More tricky slice syntax: slh[-2::-1] reverses slh, except for the last # character wh = int ( slh + slh [ - 2 ::- 1 ] ) if wh >= n: # We hit the upper bound return elif wh >= m: yield w # Increment the left half and go again lh + = 1 def palindromes(m, n): sm = str(m) q, r = divmod(len(sm), 2) # Note here that r = len(sm)%2. If r is 0, we duplicate the middle digit and # generate palindromes like 1221. If r is 1, we don't duplicate the middle # digit, instead generating palindromes like 12321. # lh is the "left half" of the palindrome we are generating lh = int(sm[:(q + r)]) while True: slh = str(lh) # Check for rollover (99 becoming 100, for example) if len(slh)!= q + r: if r == 0: # We go from generating numbers like 9999 to 10001, i.e. with an odd # length r = 1 else: # We go from generating numbers like 99999 to 100001, i.e. with an even # length q, r = q + 1, 0 # We don't want lh to increase in length yet lh = lh//10 slh = slh[:-1] # wh is the "whole" palindrome, made by mirroring lh if r == 0: # slh[::-1] is the same tricky slice syntax for reversing a string wh = int(slh + slh[::-1]) else: # More tricky slice syntax: slh[-2::-1] reverses slh, except for the last # character wh = int(slh + slh[-2::-1]) if wh >= n: # We hit the upper bound return elif wh >= m: yield w # Increment the left half and go again lh += 1
How about even faster?
The next large input has a gargantuan input size restriction of \(1 \le A \le B \le 10^{100}\). That's right, the size of the interval is bounded by a googol.
Our tricks so far have only decreased the size of the search space to its 4th root. But \(\root 4 \of {10^{100}} = 10^{25} \approx 2^{83}\) is clearly still infeasible. We need to shrink our search space even more, so lets look at the result space. The square roots of the "fair and square" numbers look like this: 1, 2, 3, 11, 22, 101, 111, 121, 202, 212, 1001, 1111, 2002, etc. Notice how all the numbers are composed of only the digits 0, 1, and 2 (except for the number 3 itself). If this result always holds, then we've reduced our search space to \(3^{25} \approx 2^{40}\), which is just barely feasible.
Can we prove it?
Consider the square of a palindrome \(n\) whose digits are \(abc \cdots cba\):
$$\begin{array}{cccccccccccccc} {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & a & b & c & \cdots & c & b & a \\ \times & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & a & b & c & \cdots & c & b & a \\ \hline \\[-2.0ex] {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & \boldsymbol{a^2} & a\,b & a\,c & \cdots & a\,c & a\,b & a^2 \\ {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & b\,a & \boldsymbol{b^2} & b\,c & \cdots & b\,c & b^2 & b\,a & {} \\ {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & c\,a & c\,b & \boldsymbol{c^2} & \cdots & c^2 & c\,b & c\,a & {} & {} \\ {} & {} & {} & {} & \iddots & \iddots & \iddots & \vdots & \iddots & \iddots & \iddots & {} & {} & {} \\ {} & {} & {} & c\,a & c\,b & c^2 & \cdots & \boldsymbol{c^2} & c\,b & c\,a & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ {} & {} & b\,a & b^2 & b\,c & \cdots & b\,c & \boldsymbol{b^2} & b\,a & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ + & a^2 & a\,b & a\,c & \cdots & a\,c & a\,b & \boldsymbol{a^2} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ \hline \end{array}$$
Imagine if a carry \(\alpha\) occurred while calculating the bolded middle column. In order for the result to be a palindrome, an equivalent (mod 10) carry \(\beta\) must have occurred in the opposite column. Since that column has an identical copy on the left, that column must also produce a carry \(\beta\). If we continue to carry out this logic, we are eventually forced to have a carry \(\omega\) over the rightmost column, which is impossible, or into a new column on the left, which would make the result a non-palindrome.
$$\begin{array}{cccccccccccccc} {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & a & b & c & \cdots & c & b & a \\ \times & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & a & b & c & \cdots & c & b & a \\ \hline \\[-2.0ex] \boldsymbol{\omega?} & {} & \cdots & {} & \boldsymbol\beta & {} & \boldsymbol\alpha & {} & \boldsymbol\beta & {} & \cdots & {} & {} & \boldsymbol{\omega?} \\ {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & a^2 & a\,b & a\,c & \cdots & a\,c & a\,b & a^2 \\ {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & b\,a & b^2 & b\,c & \cdots & b\,c & b^2 & b\,a & {} \\ {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & c\,a & c\,b & c^2 & \cdots & c^2 & c\,b & c\,a & {} & {} \\ {} & {} & {} & {} & \iddots & \iddots & \iddots & \vdots & \iddots & \iddots & \iddots & {} & {} & {} \\ {} & {} & {} & c\,a & c\,b & c^2 & \cdots & c^2 & c\,b & c\,a & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ {} & {} & b\,a & b^2 & b\,c & \cdots & b\,c & b^2 & b\,a & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ + & a^2 & a\,b & a\,c & \cdots & a\,c & a\,b & a^2 & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} & {} \\ \hline \end{array}$$
Thus, we know that the sum \(a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + \cdots + c^2 + b^2 + a^2\) must not produce a carry, so it must be less than 10. Since \(1^2 + 3^2 = 10\), it is impossible for \(n\) to contain any digits greater than 2, except in the case that \(n = 3\).
We could stop now, implement the \(3^{25} \approx 2^{40}\) complexity search, maybe multi-thread it, and be done. But we can do better!
A stronger result
Now that we know \(a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + \cdots + c^2 + b^2 + a^2 < 10\) is a necessary condition for \(n^2\) to be fair and square, is it also sufficient? Yes! Since that sum has more terms in it than any other column, and the pairwise products \(a\,b\), \(a\,c\), \(b\,c\), etc. are bounded by at least one of \(a^2\), \(b^2\), \(c^2\), etc., that column must have the largest value. Feel free to prove this rigorously if my hand-waving doesn't convince you :)
Enumerating all palindromes which avoid a carry in that column will thus give us exactly the set of fair and square numbers. These numbers must obey one of the following rules. Let \(n\) be the square root of a fair and square number, and \(l\) be its size in digits.
If \(l\) is even, \(n\) starts with a 1, contains at most eight 1s, and all other digits are 0 OR, \(n\) starts and ends with a 2, and contains no other digits except 0s
If \(l\) is odd, \(n\) starts with a 1, contains at most nine 1s, and all other digits are 0 OR, \(n\) starts with a 1, has a 2 as its middle digit, contains at most four 1s, and all other digits are 0 OR, \(n\) starts and ends with a 2, and has either a 0 or a 1 as its middle digit, with all other digits being 0s
As we see in the next section, there are \(O(l^3)\) fair and square numbers of length \(l\), so it is possible to compute and store all fair and square numbers \(\le 10^{100}\). It's then straightforward to count the number of them which lie in a given interval.
#!/usr/bin/env python3 import itertools def fair_square_roots ( n ) : """Generates all candidate square roots of length <= 2*n + 1.""" yield 1 yield 2 yield 3 for h in range ( n ) : # There are between one and five 1s on the left half of the palindrome for n_ones in range ( 1, 5 ) : # Get all possible locations for the 1s for ones in itertools. combinations ( range ( h ), n_ones - 1 ) : # Put a 1 at each chosen location, and a 0 everywhere else a = [ '0' ] * h for i in ones: a [ i ] = '1' s = '1' + ''. join ( a ) rs = s [ ::- 1 ] # Generate some candidates yield int ( s + rs ) yield int ( s + '0' + rs ) yield int ( s + '1' + rs ) # If we have two or fewer 1s, we can afford a 2 as the middle digit if n_ones <= 2 : yield int ( s + '2' + rs ) # The cases starting with 2 are simpler s = '2' + '0' *h rs = s [ ::- 1 ] yield int ( s + rs ) yield int ( s + '0' + rs ) yield int ( s + '1' + rs ) square = lambda x: x*x # We want all fair and square numbers with length <= 101, so we get the square # roots bounded by length <= 2*25 + 1 = 51 fair_squares = list ( map ( square, fair_square_roots ( 25 ) ) ) T = int ( input ( ) ) for i in range ( 1, T + 1 ) : line = input ( ). split ('' ) A = int ( line [ 0 ] ) B = int ( line [ 1 ] ) count = 0 for fs in fair_squares: if A <= fs <= B: count + = 1 print ( 'Case #%d: %d' % ( i, count ) ) #!/usr/bin/env python3 import itertools def fair_square_roots(n): """Generates all candidate square roots of length <= 2*n + 1.""" yield 1 yield 2 yield 3 for h in range(n): # There are between one and five 1s on the left half of the palindrome for n_ones in range(1, 5): # Get all possible locations for the 1s for ones in itertools.combinations(range(h), n_ones - 1): # Put a 1 at each chosen location, and a 0 everywhere else a = ['0'] * h for i in ones: a[i] = '1' s = '1' + ''.join(a) rs = s[::-1] # Generate some candidates yield int(s + rs) yield int(s + '0' + rs) yield int(s + '1' + rs) # If we have two or fewer 1s, we can afford a 2 as the middle digit if n_ones <= 2: yield int(s + '2' + rs) # The cases starting with 2 are simpler s = '2' + '0'*h rs = s[::-1] yield int(s + rs) yield int(s + '0' + rs) yield int(s + '1' + rs) square = lambda x: x*x # We want all fair and square numbers with length <= 101, so we get the square # roots bounded by length <= 2*25 + 1 = 51 fair_squares = list(map(square, fair_square_roots(25))) T = int(input()) for i in range(1, T + 1): line = input().split(' ') A = int(line[0]) B = int(line[1]) count = 0 for fs in fair_squares: if A <= fs <= B: count += 1 print('Case #%d: %d' % (i, count))
A non-enumerative approach
Here is an algorithm that computes the number of candidates directly, without enumerating them:
def n_fair_and_square ( l ) : """ Returns the number of fair and square numbers with a square root of length l. """ if l == 1 : # 1, 4, and 9 return 3 # h is the number of "free" digits we have -- half the number of digits, not # counting the first digit h = l// 2 - 1 # First consider the number of values starting with 1 # There are 1 + h + (h choose 2) + (h choose 3) ways to place at most 3 1s in # positions 1..h n = 1 + ( 5 *h + h** 3 ) // 6 if l% 2 == 1 : # We can set the middle digit to 0 or 1 as well n * = 2 # We can set the middle digit to 2 also, but then we're limited to at most # one 1 in positions 1..h n + = 1 + h # There are two solutions starting with 2: 200...000...002, and # 200...010...002 n + = 2 else : # There is one solution starting with 2: 2000...0002 n + = 1 return n def n_fair_and_square(l): """ Returns the number of fair and square numbers with a square root of length l. """ if l == 1: # 1, 4, and 9 return 3 # h is the number of "free" digits we have -- half the number of digits, not # counting the first digit h = l//2 - 1 # First consider the number of values starting with 1 # There are 1 + h + (h choose 2) + (h choose 3) ways to place at most 3 1s in # positions 1..h n = 1 + (5*h + h**3)//6 if l%2 == 1: # We can set the middle digit to 0 or 1 as well n *= 2 # We can set the middle digit to 2 also, but then we're limited to at most # one 1 in positions 1..h n += 1 + h # There are two solutions starting with 2: 200...000...002, and # 200...010...002 n += 2 else: # There is one solution starting with 2: 2000...0002 n += 1 return n
Unfortunately, that's doesn't directly help us solve the challenge, because we don't just care about the number of fair and square numbers of a certain length -- they also have to be within some exact numerical bounds. However, I feel like this function could be modified in some way to account for |
R & D at the expense of short-term profit and stock valuation. Germany, Switzerland, and other continental countries have apprenticeship and vocational training programs paid for by the employer—another long-term investment at the expense of the immediate bottom line.
In the American market economy model, there is no such thing as job security, which is considered an impediment to the efficient functioning of the marketplace. During downturns in the business cycle, or after mergers and consolidations, firings, and layoffs are an acceptable part of the system regardless of human cost. Correspondingly, the social security safety-net and employer-paid health coverage, not to mention paid vacations and pregnancy or child-care leaves-of-absence, are considered an intolerable burden and threat to profitability. Vocational training is the responsibility of the individual; the apprentice system has been blocked both by profit concerns and minimum wage standards.
In the Japan-Western Europe mixed economy model, societal pressures require companies to keep layoffs to the absolute minimum. European industrial custom not only provides a great deal of job security for the skilled work force, but in addition to other benefits gives its members four to six weeks of paid vacation a year. In contrast to the United States, the social welfare-safety net—among other things paying the unemployed up to 80 percent of their last wage—is considered a positive benefit to the economy by keeping up purchasing power and preserving social stability. The costs of these programs do, however, affect competitiveness at the international level, making some form of government support inevitable.
II
The ethos of the market economy model is materialism pure and simple. Executive motivation is presumed to be driven exclusively by personal monetary reward, in other words greed: concern for the long-term health of the enterprise, let alone the work force, does not enter into it. Executive compensation in the United States—astronomical from the standpoint of any one individual’s contribution to company earnings—is fixed by top management and subservient boards of directors. Salaries, stock options, bonuses, and other “perks” are supposed to be keyed to performance, but this is pure fiction. Staggering losses and scandalous mismanagement are always excused by the business cycle, blaming foreign competition, labor problems, or government regulation; self-serving management contracts reward dismissal with a golden handshake. In the financial markets the obscene profits of speculators and buyout middlemen are viewed as an acceptable trade-off for market liquidity.
One of the most striking differences between the market and mixed economy models is in the attitude toward the role of government. Only a small part of the hostility to government controls by American business can be attributed to the size and diversity of the country and the difficulty of imposing uniformity from Washington. A much greater cause of hostility is the presumed threat of government regulation and increased taxes to profits. In the past even the most elementary safety regulations aimed at protecting the work force and public from hazardous working conditions and harmful drugs have drawn down the wrath of conservative business interests. During the Reagan-Bush administrations, deregulation and tax reduction were given priority over the poor and the inner city; the financial excesses of the eighties, including unprecedented budget deficits, were deemed an acceptable price for economic expansion. This was the boom-and-bust philosophy of the 1890’s and 1920’s all over again. Enrichis-sez-vous was the watchword and big government the enemy.
Nevertheless, even die-hard apostles of the free market have recognized its limitations. Thanks in large part to the New Deal some forms of government intervention are now too deeply embedded to dismantle. The open-market operations of the Federal Reserve, anti-trust legislation, regulation of the securities industry, requirements for financial disclosure, and pure food and drug legislation, are now unshake-able components of the capitalist system and indeed prevent it from breaking down.
There is, however, one feature of government intervention that differentiates the two models and that is how it is managed. Separation of powers and the maxim—drawn from the early constitution of Massachusetts—that “this shall be a government of laws and not men” has in the American market economy model led to reliance on tightly drawn legislation and detailed implementing regulations. Their application to individual situations, and the resolution of disputes over their interpretation, are left to the courts and a vast army of private and government lawyers. Additional employment for judges and lawyers is provided by the national habit of criminalizing infractions of economic laws, thereby covering them with the protective mantle of the Bill of Rights and the tangled web of American criminal law procedure.
By contrast, the Japanese-European mixed economy model treats government controls and economic regulation primarily as an administrative matter to be handled and even adjudicated by civil servants. Laws are couched in broad language emphasizing purpose; all but basic changes are made by decree—not a significant difference since under the parliamentary system the government in power can enact any legislation it wants. The right of citizens and business firms to challenge administrative rulings is protected on the continent by a separate channel of judicial appeal, in France the Conseil d’Etat. In most European countries (Great Britain excepted) the criminal law statutes are still mainly confined to traditional offenses like fraud and embezzlement. Infractions of economic laws, including most violations of the revenue code, carry civil penalties which in addition to monetary judgments may involve various forms of business disqualification. Only the most flagrant violations of law carry prison terms.
One result is that the financial burden of government regulation falls much more heavily on private business in relatively free-market United States than in supposedly state-controlled Europe. Once entangled in the regulatory net, an American firm faces staggering legal costs in addition to expensive delays in marketing its products while disputes work their way through successive layers of administrative hearings and appeals. The whole process is bedeviled by a minefield of fine print designed to ensure equality of treatment but in fact tying the hands of the regulator. The United States is the only country except for tiny Liechtenstein—a tax haven—that has more lawyers than farmers.
In Japan and Europe the discretion allowed to bureaucrats to interpret and administer economic and revenue laws may at first seem outrageously arbitrary. But the latitude foreign officials enjoy to negotiate practical arrangements that satisfy the intent of the rules more than compensates for timeconsuming recourse to legalistic haggling. In nearly all countries but the United States lawyers play a secondary role in commercial transactions, serving as advisers, not principals or negotiators.
The American free market model (and to a lesser extent the British) presents a curious paradox. On the surface it seems more resilient and propitious for long-term growth than the mixed economy models of Japan and Europe. As of the summer of 1994 the unemployment rate of the United States was only 6 percent as compared to 11 percent in France, 10 percent in Britain and 7 percent in Germany. In advanced technology innovation, though not necessarily application, the United States leads the world. In the latest annual “World Competitiveness Report” the United States also now leads other countries. The American capacity to shift its economic base from heavy industry and resource exploitation to hightech light industry and services has been extraordinary.
For free-market enthusiasts the Reagan-Bush policy of deregulation, drastic tax reduction, spending cuts in the public sector, and unrestrained speculation, mergers, and business expansion in the private sector, is an unimpeachable prescription for growth and job creation. Indeed, market economy zealots contend that the only reason the mixed economy models of other countries fare as well as they do is because they are following the U.S. lead in privatizing, deregulating, and cutting taxes.
But the seductive free market prescription has another and less appealing side. Much of its past efficacy can be attributed to the immense size of the American market; this advantage will diminish as other parts of the world unify. The standard of living in much of Western Europe is now higher, not lower, than the United States. To a large extent, the success of the American market economy model has been pure trickle-down, with the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle brackets barely staying even. The favorable “competitiveness” valuation turns out to be heavily based on a cheap dollar and earlier emergence from the recession cycle. The low unemployment figures conceal the fact of massive layoffs in the defense industry and less competitive companies; when laid-off workers reenter the work force, they do so in lower-paying service jobs or temporary employment. This is also the job route for inner city and other marginally educated youth and for immigrants from the third world.
The service sector is a deceptive yardstick for measuring job creation and economic growth. Only at the upper end of the service scale are jobs well-paid and comparatively secure. The middle and lower levels include large numbers of casual and intermittent labor whose wages are static and who are not on any kind of career track. With no safety net or union protection, this is a fundamentally volatile sector of the economy whose components are dependent on the spending power of the layers above. Any recession or business disruption will throw large numbers back on the street and shrink job prospects for new entrants.
It goes without saying that the recent expansion of the private sector has been at the expense of the public sector. The infrastructure of the country—roads, bridges, railbeds and transit systems, low-rent housing—is deteriorating. The airways are becoming choked with a transportation load that should be carried by rail. The automobile is clogging cities and freeways. An undereducated and potentially lawless underclass is making large urban areas unsafe and sometimes uninhabitable. Economic statistics alone fail to reflect the plight of the public sector and the degradation of the cities; the population in the lowest economic brackets, which is not politically organized and often does not vote, has no political weight in comparison to the vocal middle and upper brackets. Sooner or later, as the gap between rich and poor widens, and the public sector continues to deteriorate, the underlying social rot will undermine the whole economic structure.
It should be noted that while much of the deterioration has been caused by doctrinaire neglect, some of it was deliberate.
Policy decisions in Washington led to the abandonment and dismantling of the finest and most comprehensive railway system on earth, even while passenger traffic on major routes was still rising. Street railway systems, the pride of major cities in Europe, were allowed to fall into the rapacious hands of General Motors and other automobile companies, which promptly tore up the rails. Unrestrained real estate development was allowed to run riot and chew up the surrounding countryside, allowing urban residential areas to crumble.
After the 1929 crash, the American economy, then in the last phase of the 19th-century industrial age, came within an ace of collapsing into social revolution. It was rescued by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, and given a new lease on life by the titanic industrial mobilization of the Second World War. The resultant prosperity lasted until undermined by the inflationary policies of the Vietnam war. Throughout this period unrestrained capitalism was held in check by the lessons of the Great Depression.
During the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations most of the New Deal programs remained in place. Lyndon Johnson’s New Society legislation added yet another dimension to the role of the federal government with Medicare, Medicaid, and Head Start. Thanks to a realistic level of taxation—income tax at more than 70 percent in the highest brackets—not only were these programs funded but food and energy costs remained low, public education improved and was racially integrated, cities continued to modernize, and there were large increases in public funding for space programs and scientific research. Not until the advent of the Reagan administration in 1981 was there a conscious and deliberate effort to cut taxes for the wealthy and sabotage the public sector. This was the era when free market fanatics emerged from the academic closet and joined up with right-wing libertarian pundits to clothe old-fashioned greed in a mantle of traditional American values.
III
In Japan and Europe the mixed economy model evolved under totally different conditions. Devastated both physically and economically by the Second World War and its after-effects, there was no way that the governments of Europe could indulge in the luxury of free market economics—in other words, the black market enlarged—while leaving their half-starved populations to sink or swim. For two decades it took rationing, import restrictions, currency controls, and massive, targeted Marshall Plan aid to set European industry on its feet and restore the dilapidated and wrecked infrastructure. The Coal and Steel Community and the gradual process of economic integration that led to the Treaty of Rome and the European Union, as well as the integration of East Germany into the Federal Republic, represent large-scale government intervention at its best on both a national and multi-national scale. Today, the European Commission in Brussels administers a wide range of trans-national regulatory measures aimed at gradually eliminating intra-European trade and financial barriers. Private enterprise has flourished and the fact that today Western Europe has a higher standard of living than the United States—ask any traveler—can be directly attributed to the supportive role of government.
In Europe the role of the state in the economy dates back to the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages. In more recent history, Socialist governments have come and gone, but the economic and social welfare programs that they and their conservative counterparts instituted have with minor fluctuations remained in place. Germany has had labor laws and universal health coverage since the last century, and Britain and the rest of Europe since the Second World War. Unemployment benefits are of long standing. European governments have continually extended and modernized their rail systems and urban transit networks. University education on the continent is free and a responsibility of the state; in
France even private schools get state subsidies. Major cities have trash collection daily—in Paris on Sundays as well.
In the mixed economy model, the national interest and the needs of society determine the balance between monopoly and competition, between free trade and managed trade. No mixed economy government in its senses would have allowed the most extensive railway network on earth to wither away because air transportation had become more competitive, or allowed black-robed legal mandarins to dismantle a national telephone system as efficient and innovative as AT&T. Given the unassailable reality that everywhere in the world, not least in the United States, critical sectors of the economy get some degree of support through government contracts, tax breaks, import quotas, and direct or indirect subsidies, and that the GATT rounds have been gradually reducing trade barriers, the mixed economy model necessarily views flexibility and compromise as the best route to a smoothly functioning global trading system.
On a global scale the problems of the American market economy model lie not so much in its internal deficiencies as in its doctrinaire character and propensity for confrontation. For better or worse, this is a mixed economy world. The market economy model seems unable to accept the fact that other cultures do not view the market-place as a sounding board for strident rhetoric and a testing ground of moral principles. They find the metaphor of level playing fields ridiculous and see little connection between political freedom and market economics.
IV
The gulf between the American market economy model and the mixed economy models of the rest of the world cannot be understood, let alone bridged, at the purely economic level. At the heart of the problem are value systems, and these are rooted in the origins and cultures of the societies concerned.
The historical origins of the values underlying the American market economy model are too obvious to dwell on—the vast, empty territory and sparse native population; the successive waves of immigration with their ethnic diversity; the severance of ties with the homeland; the work ethic and necessity to start from scratch; the revolt against colonial status. But certain special features stand out as directly shaping market force ideology.
The empty land, waves of immigration, and necessity to start from scratch incorporated a vision of endless opportunity. But for most people this meant individual opportunity, not collective. Except for the original Pilgrim and Puritan settlements in New England, later religious communities like the Quakers, Mormons, and Mennonites, and the ethnic enclaves in the big cities, there was little support structure to sustain the individual and his family, especially in hard times. There was a strong fabric of property rights but almost no tradition of putting the community before the individual. From the beginning the cult of individual effort was built into the market economy model, and given theoretical justification by the textbook division of the economy into autonomous entities of land, labor, and capital.
Equally important was the nature of the mass immigration. Except for a handful of beneficiaries of land grants and the early religious separatists, nearly all the European immigrants were, in modern parlance, economic refugees in search of a better life. By and large they had no connection with the governing classes of their native countries, and no family tradition of service to the state. When the later waves arrived, they found on the Eastern seaboard an educated upper class and plantation aristocracy—the nucleus of the Founding Fathers and native governing class—but no careers in government, no military officer class, and only a small professional class of doctors and lawyers for those with educational qualifications. For most of the new arrivals, the only outlets of upward mobility, and even survival, were in farming, handicrafts, and commerce. Not until the 1929 depression was the national government an economic factor in most people’s lives. They were on their own and at all times at the mercy of market forces.
The supposed hostility of Americans to centralized government as originating in colonialism and the American War of Independence has only minor contemporary relevance and an even smaller basis in historical fact. By 20th-century standards, the degree of oppression suffered by the British colonists in North America was laughable. As Samuel Eliot Morison and other respected historians have never tired of pointing out, the stamp and tea taxes were negligible and soon revoked; the colonies had their own legislatures and local government; censorship and restrictions on assembly were minimal; and not until parliament made the mistake of trying to force the colonies to pay for their own defense and stationing small British garrisons in the cities did violence break out. The mercantilist trade policies of the mother country, which had helped American traders and shipowners grow rich, did finally become a straitjacket, but the grievances were primarily symbolic and political. It was Parliament’s clumsy efforts to establish control over its own self-governing offspring, from 3000 miles and two months sailing distance away, that led to separation.
For the market economy model in the United States, the significant legacies of the British colonial past and the American Revolution were a written constitution in a government of limited powers; separate legislative, executive and judicial arms; and, of equal importance, confirmation of English common law and the adversarial system of justice. Separation of the legislative branch from the executive branch, and designation of the President as executant of the laws passed by Congress, set the tone for a government of laws and not men. Limited government at the federal and state level speaks for itself. Adoption of English jurisprudence, less noticed by historians, requires elaboration.
The American legal system is different from that of other countries, even including the British, in its divorcement from the apparatus of executive government. The judiciary is not an integral part of the law enforcement structure but an autonomous and independent body for adjudicating the disputes of private parties and presiding over the prosecution of criminal defendants. It is also the final authority for interpreting legislation and applying the law to disputes brought before the courts. The American trial is not an instrument for discovering the truth—though this may emerge in one way or another—but for establishing a criminal defendant’s guilt or the validity of a claim for damages against a civil defendant. American legislation and regulations tend to be of unusual detail and complexity, requiring endless interpretation through judicial rulings based on precedent. The system is adversarial and based on aggressive pursuit of individual interests. Lawyers owe their allegiance not as elsewhere to the court or state, but to the client. Inherently contentious and disputatious, it is made to order for a competitive society obsessed with rights rather than duties.
Today the United States has evolved into a consumer-driven society of 260 million with a relatively high standard of living at the middle and upper levels but in which erosion of standards has debased the national culture and weakened family ties and obligations to the community. With a weakened support structure and vanishing tribal guideposts, the individual has felt so helpless that at every level, there is constant clamor for “leadership.” In no other Western society is there such adulation of the strong-jawed decisive CEO. Only in the United States are co-equal members of high-level government commissions like the Federal Reserve Board mere ciphers compared to the chairman, and boards of directors of publicly held companies nothing but rubber stamps for management. Unique to the land of the free is personal ownership of municipal ball clubs and domination of high school and university athletics by arrogant and foul-mouthed coaches who jerk players in and out of the game at will. It is the “fuhrer prinzip” of Nazi Germany all over again, ready to take over when market forces finally spin the economy out of control.
The mixed economy model, which includes most of the rest of the world, rests on quite different foundations. The traumatic events that have shaken Japan and Western Europe in this century—war, revolution, enemy occupation, economic and social chaos, the rise and fall of colonial empires—have for the time being cured their societies of any faith in panaceas and secular ideologies. The last theorist to invent a politico-economic doctrine with mass appeal was Karl Marx, and his blueprint for action—though not his analytical genius—has been largely discredited. In Japan and Europe, politicians and civil servants make policy—without the benefit of irresponsible advice from analysts and academics in universities and think-tanks.
The Japanese and European perception of the role of the state is utterly different from the American. The interconnections between the Japanese government and Japanese business are well-known and have been the subject of innumerable books and articles. Especially in relation to the outside world, Japanese society is an integrated whole with the lines between business and government often hard to separate. But the European perception is also different. Political upheaval, revolutions, and changes in the form of government have not altered the fact that since the Roman Empire the state has been the principal fount of rank, wealth, and privelege. Under the feudal system all landed property belonged to the monarch, with tenancies parcelled out in descending layers to the nobility and commons. Since the 19th century, capitalism has captured the private sector of the economy and land reform and taxes have broken up the big estates, but the social welfare net and extensive public services have kept the state’s paternalistic role alive.
Moreover, in Western Europe the state has always been a traditional field of employment for the upper classes and a prime source of upward mobility for the ambitious. The countries of Western Europe are political democracies, but elites run the government, the big banks, and the major corporations: the difference today is that the elites are a meritocracy and not hereditary. In Europe, democracy stops at the universal franchise—it does not imply leveling of cultural recruitment or educational standards.
Nor does European democracy include the concept of a powerful chief executive—they have been burnt too often by dictators and demagogues. Nearly all countries have a ceremonial chief of state, a king, or president, and collective cabinet leadership responsible to parliament—France alone has a stronger presidency. The prime minister is first among equals and can be displaced overnight by cabinet colleagues on an adverse vote of confidence by parliament or his own party—witness the fate of the redoubtable Margaret Thatcher.
On the continent of Europe, Latin America, and much of the Third World, the legal system derives from Roman Law and is incorporated in civil and criminal codes written in such terse and clear language that in Switzerland at least a one-volume edition is provided to every household. Criminal justice is non-adversarial and based on thorough judicial investigation in which the public trial is merely the final phase; guilt or innocence emerges in the course of the process itself.
What this adds up to is a collection of values that accords primacy to society rather than to the individual and which within a democratic framework entrusts the welfare of the nation to the state. Pursuit of wealth, private enterprise, competition, and—within limits—the free market are encouraged; but not at the expense of the social security network, public services, the infrastructure, critical sectors of the economy, the education system, and the national culture. In all these areas the state has a primary role. This gives the mixed economy model a set of priorities far different from the one-dimensional market economy model.
In a fragmented world, the Clinton administration has come to terms with the fact that military power no longer translates automatically into political power. But at the economic level the doctrinaire orthodoxies of the free market still have a strong grip. American politicians and trade negotiators seem unable to grasp that for the rest of the world these orthodoxies have a hollow ideological ring—that the national culture and vital economic interests weigh more heavily on the political scale than artificial free market dogma.
The outside world also knows that free market economics has only a marginal relationship to democracy and political freedom. Czarist Russia, the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship of Mexico, and Pinochet’s Chile each gave free rein to unbridled capitalism; the socialist governments of postwar Western Europe and present-day Spain and Scandinavia have been political democracies by any definition. For the United States to link market force economics to democracy and peddle the combination as a secular religion is to court derision and continuing rebuffs. Pax Americana reached its peak some time ago; we should beware the swing of the pendulum.This Aug. 25, 2014, photo shows bottles of "Queen Bee," a traditional style of mead aged in oak barrels, at Arktos Meadery in Grand Rapids. (Photo: The Grand Rapids Press/AP )
In Greek, the word "Arktos" means "bear." Based on the alcohol-by-volume content of mead out now from the new Arktos Meadery of Grand Rapids, you might need the tolerance of one to drink it.
Maciej Halaczkiewicz, a former nuclear submarine technician from Oak Park, began distributing initial bottle shipments last week from his new venture Arktos, currently Grand Rapids' only mead-making operation, according to The Grand Rapids Press.
At the moment, 500-ml bottles of "Queen Bee," a traditional style of mead aged in oak barrels, can be found at Siciliano's Market, Martha's Vineyard and The Crushed Grape specialty beverage stores in Grand Rapids.
Queen Bee is Arktos' flagship brand, something Halaczkiewicz described as his take on an ancient style of alcohol that's enjoyed a resurgence of interest in recent years as craft beer and ciders gain nationwide market share.
"I wanted to go back to a traditional drink, something reminiscent of the beverage they would have drank thousands of years ago," said Halaczkiewicz, who ages his meads at Arktos' facility.
The alcohol-by-volume percentage of Arktos meads is high compared to typical meads available on Michigan taps and store shelves, which generally clock in around 5% to 10%. Queen Bee hits 15% and that's not even the strongest variety Halaczkiewicz is making.
Arktos has label approval for two "melomels," or fruit-based meads that Halaczkiewicz plans to begin distributing in the coming months. One, "Black Stripe," is made with strawberries and another, "Three Bears," with blueberries. Both reach into the 20% range, giving them a drinkability similar to port.
Other planned Arktos mead varieties include pumpkin pie and apple cider.
Halaczkiewicz's current production capacity is about 2,000 gallons, or about 12,000 bottles per year. Each batch takes 9 months to a year to ferment and age, with optimal taste at 18 months to three years of aging, he said.
Mead is essentially wine made from honey instead of grapes. The basic mixture calls for water, yeast and honey, with fruit and spices added to certain recipes.
Halaczkiewicz, who began experimenting with meads a couple years ago after discharge from the U.S. Navy, earned a home brewing medal for his mead last year, prompting him to explore the craft as a viable business. He served in the Navy between 2007 and 2011, mostly aboard the USS Oklahoma, a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine. Having grown up in Macomb Township, Halaczkiewicz graduated from Grand Valley State University with a degree in geography last year.
He got a silver medal for his honey apple crisp cyser at the Mazer Cup this year, a Boulder, Colorado, competition that functions as mead's biggest award show.
Mead-making was initially a side-job, but "I'm fully committed now," he said.
Although mead is technically a wine, it's generally been more popular with beer drinkers. Grand Rapids' heady microbrew scene helped Halaczkiewicz choose the city as home base, he said. If the business grows, a mead-hall somewhere is an eventual goal.
As far as the name, Halaczkiewicz said he's been fascinated with bears ever since he was a kid. "I thought it would be a fitting name," he said. "Bears love honey."
Editors Notes: This is an AP Member Exchange shared by The Grand Rapids Press.
Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/YN4xJhHOLLYWOOD, Fla. - A Hollywood woman was arrested Wednesday after offering an undercover police officer oral sex during a massage, authorities said.
Hollywood police said officers received a complaint about prostitution at Best Asian Massage at 6700 Taft St., so an undercover detective went in to investigate.
According to an arrest report, the officer asked for a 60-minute massage and was told by Rong Zhang, 38, that it would cost $65.
Zhang wrapped her arm around the officer's arm, kissed his cheek and told him that her name was Coco, police said.
Police said Zhang massaged the detective's shoulders and upper back area in a room and then began kissing his neck.
She asked the detective if he would like oral sex for an extra $100, to which he agreed, the report said.
The detective then gave the "takedown signal" for other officers to come in and arrest Zhang, the report said.
She was arrested on charges of prostitution, practicing massage therapy without a license and impersonating/misrepresenting herself as a licensed masseuse.
Copyright 2016 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.August Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Laurents, Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein were among the winners in the UK’s 40th anniversary Olivier Awards, named after Sir Laurence Olivier. Complete list of winners below.
First-time Olivier winner Cyndi Lauper with Dame Judi Dench, who won her eighth Olivier — more than any other performer Imelda Staunton singing from Gypsy. She won Olivier for Best Actress in a Musical Mark Rylance on red carpet A number from In The Heights, which won three Olivier Awards A number from Kinky Boots, which won three Olivier Awards, including best musical Dame Judi Dench accepting her Olivier for The Winter’s Tale
It’s possible that Americans are always big winners, but this is the first time it’s been broadcast in the United States (Watch it on YouTube. Click here to see it on my page)
Best Revival
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at National Theatre, Lyttelton
Best Entertainment and Family
Showstopper! The Improvised Musical at Apollo Theatre
Best Costume Design
Gregg Barnes for Kinky Boots at Adelphi Theatre
Blue-i Theatre Technology Award for Best Set Design
Anna Fleischle for Hangmen at Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre and Wyndham’s Theatre
White Light Award For Best Lighting Design
Mark Henderson for Gypsy at Savoy Theatre
Best Sound Design
Tom Gibbons for People, Places And Things at National Theatre, Dorfman
Best New Opera Production
Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci at Royal Opera House
Outstanding Achievement in Opera
English National Opera Chorus and Orchestra for The Force Of Destiny, Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk and The Queen Of Spades at London Coliseum
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Mark Gatiss for Three Days In The Country at National Theatre, Lyttelton
Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Dame Judi Dench for The Winter’s Tale at Garrick Theatre
Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre
Pat Kinevane and Fishamble for Silent at Soho Theatre
Virgin Atlantic Best New Play
Hangmen at Jerwood Theatre Downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre and Wyndham’s Theatre
Best Actor
Kenneth Cranham for The Father at Wyndham’s Theatre
Best Actress
Denise Gough for People, Places And Things at National Theatre, Dorfman
Magic Radio Audience Award
The Phantom Of The Opera
Best New Comedy
Nell Gwynn at Apollo Theatre
Best New Dance Production
Woolf Works by Wayne McGregor at Royal Opera House
Outstanding Achievement in Dance
Alessandra Ferri for her performances in Chéri and Woolf Works at Royal Opera House
Autograph Sound Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music
In The Heights – Music and Lyrics by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Orchestrated and Arranged by Alex Lacamoire and Bill Sherman at King’s Cross Theatre
Best Theatre Choreographer
Drew McOnie for In The Heights at King’s Cross Theatre
Best Director
Robert Icke for Oresteia at Almeida Theatre
Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical
David Bedella for In The Heights at King’s Cross Theatre
Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical
Lara Pulver for Gypsy at Savoy Theatre
Best Musical Revival
Gypsy at Savoy Theatre
Best Actor in a Musical
Matt Henry for Kinky Boots at Adelphi Theatre
Best Actress in a Musical
Imelda Staunton for Gypsy at Savoy Theatre
MasterCard Best New Musical
Kinky Boots at Adelphi Theatre
Ten Lessons The Tony Awards Could Learn From The Olivier Awards
The Oliviers described nominated straight plays and also presented scenes from each one of them. (The Tonys just describe nominated plays.) The Oliviers have TWO awards for best sound. (The Tonys have eliminated the sound category entirely.) The Olivier Awards are not limited to productions of plays and musicals on the West End. (The Tonys are limited to Broadway plays and musicals, with just one exception.) The Oliviers offered a tasteful In Memoriam where pictures of those who died filled the screen, and Michael Feinstein’s musical accompaniment (he sang George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin’s “They Can’t Take That Away From Me) did not dominate. The (fine) orchestra was not used to cut off winners’ speeches. Best Actor winner Kenneth Cranham for The Father gave a lengthy, somewhat rambling acceptance speech that was all the more affecting for being un-canned. There was no (or at least very little) cutesy patter between the presenters. They created a musical medley out of Shakespeare’s sonnets, in honor of the 400th anniversary of his death. The Olivier Awards included an intermission. There were no commercials (except embedded in the names of the individual awards — an idea one hopes that Tonys will NOT borrow.) The Olivier Awards is not solely a creature of television (at least not yet.) It began before “prime time” and ended at a civilized hour — 9 p.m. in London.
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Like this: Like Loading...OTTAWA — Should Alberta’s Wildrose party ever choose to launch a federal wing, Tuesday’s tragi-comedy on Parliament Hill will serve as a helpful point of germination. And should the Conservative party over the next two years devolve into a mess of internecine warfare and wrangling over succession, followed by a crushing defeat at the polls, this may be seen as a turning point.
This was the day Prime Minister Stephen Harper broke faith with his base, with finality abandoning the bootstrap morality – some would say sanctimony – of his political youth. It’s the day he chose to avoid and then run from difficult but fair questions on a matter of moral import, escaping to another continent in fact, rather than meet them head-on, as a leader should.
For months, leadership speculation has simmered just beneath the surface of the Conservative party. That can’t help but grow now, as popular fury over the Senate expense scandal, and Harper’s handling of it, bubbles up from the grass roots. And bubble up it will. That is a certainty.
For consider: Conservative loyalists contributed $4.5-million to the party in the first quarter of 2013. These are the same people who’ve now been left knowing nothing more than they did a week ago about the catastrophic $90,172 “gift” from former chief of staff Nigel Wright, to former Conservative Senator Mike Duffy, that got the latter off the hook for his improper housing expense claims.
This scandal concerns the second most powerful man in Canada, after Harper himself, cutting a personal cheque for nearly six figures to a sitting Parliamentarian, in clear breach of Senate conflict of interest rules and possibly more than one law. Yet following the putative day of reckoning, carefully staged for a clearing of the air, the entire business remains shrouded in fog. How does that happen?
Has anyone seen a copy of the cheque? No. Does anyone, other than perhaps Wright and Duffy know what the latter was expected to offer or do in exchange for his extraordinary windfall? Did Harper himself approve of the transaction, if not in its specifics, then generally?
In the House of Commons yesterday, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, temporarily reverting to his former role as partisan fire extinguisher, said no, Harper knew nothing about the deal until, like other appalled Conservatives, he saw it on the evening news.
Strangely, Harper himself did not say that in his speech to his caucus, at least the portion of it that was public. Nor did Nigel Wright on Sunday, in his resignation letter. Nor did the PMO last week. In his remarks Harper ignored the payment entirely. In the other two cases the language was ever so carefully crafted to allow for some knowledge on his part, though not of “the means” or “the details.”
Why the discrepancy? Those cursed with skeptical minds might wonder if the deviation was deliberate, designed to give Harper a wee bit of wiggle room, in the event evidence eventually emerges he did know and approve, if only in general terms. Otherwise, why would he not rule that out himself?
“Nigel Wright is a man of honour,” Conservatives Tweeted through the weekend, upper lips suitably stiffened, as though saluting Harper’s departed chief of staff somehow adds a veneer of uprightness to an otherwise tawdry situation. But no one has questioned Wright’s honour. The unknown now, and it is waxing not waning, is whether the PM himself understands the meaning of the term. For if he did, would he not have apologized, or at least shouldered some responsibility, for the mistakes made on his watch, and for which every Conservative MP in the House of Commons is now paying a price?
It was Harper who elevated Senators Patrick Braze |
has proven himself to be a 30 stolen base threat and could steal 15+ in his time between August and September in the majors. Once promoted, Margot is an elite enough talent that he warrants owning in all leagues.
6. Andrew Benintendi (OF, BOS, AA)
Stats: 364 PA,.303/.371/.511, 7 HR, 14 SB, 9.9% K rate, 9.3% BB rate
ETA: Late July
One of the few guys on this list who could potentially be called up without a trade taking place, Andrew Benintendi stands as a very plausible answer to the on-going question of the Red Sox left field hole. With Chris Young on the DL and Brock Holt hardly starter material, Benintendi could come in and provide near elite production for the Red Sox should they decide to promote him. Red Sox GM Dave Dombrowski has already stated that he has no problem with promoting prospects straight from Double-A and in this instance it is a move that makes a tremendous amount of sense for Boston. As of right now, Benintendi is slashing a very promising.283/.346/.484 with six home runs, six stolen bases, a 9.3% walk rate and a 13.2% strikeout rate in 205 plate appearances (49 games). His numbers since June 10, even more impressive. In 121 PA and 29 games,.340/.413/.632 slash with six bombs, three steals an 11.6% walk and identical strikeout rate. Scouts view him as one of the more promising bats in the minors and he stands a very good chance of getting to bring his talents to the big stage in a matter of weeks if not days. Once promoted, he will be worth owning in all leagues and should probably be stashed in most leagues at this point.
7. Josh Bell (1B/OF, PIT, AAA)
Stats: 359 PA,.324/.407/.535, 13 HR, 1 SB, 15.3% K rate, 11.4% BB rate
ETA: August 1
Poor Josh Bell. He was optioned back to the minors after just three plate appearances in the majors. And all he did was get on-base. Literally, he played no defense. He just came up to the majors, walked twice, singled and hit a pinch-hit grand slam. He will be back up though. The Pirates’ only reason for demoting him is that they don’t like his glove at first base, which is a funny reason considering the fact that a) John Jaso is considered to be an average if not slightly below-average defender and b) it is first base. This is not shortstop where defense is a must, this is the corner where people go to play if they literally can’t play any position. There have been rumors about John Jaso possibly being traded, which would make a lot of sense considering that he is not the first baseman of the future for the Pirates and Bell has been widely regarded as the best first base prospect in baseball. He is in the minors for now, but don’t be surprised if Jaso is traded and Bell is promoted by Aug. 1.
8. Jose De Leon (SP, LAD, AAA)
Stats: 35.1 IP, 3.06 ERA, 3.39 FIP, 13.75 K/9, 3.57 BB/9, 1.02 HR/9, 1.13 WHIP
ETA: Late July/Early August
The Dodgers are currently running out a rotation of Brandon McCarthy, Bud Norris, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Scott Kazmir and Kenta Maeda. That is not a winning rotation. Granted, soon Clayton Kershaw will return off the DL and go back to dominating the majors, but that is about the extent of the help the Dodgers will receive unless they promote Jose De Leon. The young starter has been nothing short of extraordinary this season at Triple-A, demonstrating above-average command while racking up gaudy strikeout totals. In his most recent start, the 23-year-old right-hander did what he typically does, he went 5.2 innings, surrendered two runs off five hits and three walks while striking out ten. Opponents rarely hit him hard and owners should expect that trend to continue into the big leagues. It should only be a matter of time until the Dodgers elect to upgrade their rotation from within and turn to De Leon. Once promoted, he will be worth owning in all leagues.
9. Robert Stephenson (SP, CIN, AAA)
Stats: 88.0 IP, 3.89 ERA, 4.72 FIP, 7.67 K/9, 4.70 BB/9, 1.13 HR/9, 1.32 WHIP
ETA: Next week
The Reds have a lot of shifting in their rotation that will likely take place before the trade deadline. Homer Bailey is nearing his return, Brandon Finnegan is nearing his career-high in innings, Dan Straily could have some trade value and Cody Reed could probably use some more time in Triple-A. Not to mention the fact that John Lamb was recently optioned to Triple-A (which could mean a promotion for Stephenson on Lamb’s next scheduled start). Meanwhile it should only be a few more trips around the rotation before flame-throwing right-hander Robert Stephenson is promoted to join the rotation. He has started to show the ability to strike out batters again while still keeping the walk rates moderately low. He has also gone at least six innings in 12 of his 15 Triple-A starts this season, showing himself to be capable of providing quality starts to his team. If promoted, he immediately would be worth owning in 12+ team leagues and could make himself worth owning in shallower leagues if he translates his recent surge in strikeouts into Major League results.
10. Orlando Arcia (SS, MIL, AAA)
Stats: 382 PA,.269/.325/.407, 7 HR, 13 SB, 17.3% K rate, 7.1% BB rate
ETA: Late July/Early August
A couple of reasons why you should expect to see Arcia promoted to the majors. First, he is swinging a hot bat again with a.325/.413/.600 slash over his past 10 games. Second, the right-handed platoon at second base, Aaron Hill has already been traded, leaving Scooter Gennett and Jake Elmore to man second over there. And third, though Jonathan Villar is having a breakout season, he could easily play third base where the Brewers have been stuck with an ineffective duo of Will Middlebrooks and Hernan Perez. An Arcia promotion would encourage fans to show up at the ballpark at a time when the team is in the middle of a dismal season and getting ready to deal away franchise catcher Jonathan Lucroy and possibly Ryan Braun. If promoted, Arcia brings a very solid batting average and above-average speed to fantasy owners. He is not electric as other shortstop prospects from an offensive standpoint, but he will provide enough value to warrant owning in 12+ team leagues.
11. Jake Thompson (SP, PHI, AAA)
Stats: 111.2 IP, 2.42 ERA, 3.79 FIP, 6.21 K/9, 2.58 BB/9, 0.73 HR/9, 1.10 WHIP
ETA: Late July
Thompson’s numbers? Yeah they just keep getting better. He made a start on July 15 and delivered his second consecutive outing of seven shutout innings. Except in this start, he only walked one batter (as opposed to two his previous time out) and struck out five (as opposed to three). That means that since June 5, he has thrown 56.1 innings in eight starts (averaging seven innings a start) with a 0.64 ERA, 3.02 FIP,.196 opponent’s batting average, 0.91 WHIP, improved 5.11 K/9 rate, 2.08 BB/9 and very solid 0.16 HR/9. Look for him to be promoted some time before August to eat up some necessary innings for this young rotation as most of those young arms surpass 100 innings. With his lack of strikeouts, his upside is limited, but he would still be worth owning in 12+ team leagues for his quality innings and all-around reliability.
12. Jose Berrios (SP, MIN, AAA)
Stats: 83.1 IP, 2.59 ERA, 3.21 FIP, 9.18 K/9, 3.24 BB/9, 0.65 HR/9, 1.04 WHIP
ETA: Early August
I wrote this article before I could see the results of Jose Berrios’ start on Sunday, but I would imagine that it will be spectacular. I mean, why wouldn’t it be? He has been ridiculously good over his last five starts, producing 35.2 innings with a 1.26 ERA and 2.88 FIP while most impressively reducing his walk rate to 2.52 BB/9. I would not be too terribly concerned about his command problems any more as he has seemed to iron them out since he returned to Triple-A after his brief stint in the majors. He will undoubtedly get another shot at the majors this season, but it is tough to tell when that will come. He will immediately be worth owning in 12+ team leagues and if his control seems to hold up in the bigs, he will be worth an add in all leagues.
13. Gary Sanchez (C, NYY, AAA)
Stats: 261 PA,.281/.322/.479, 9 HR, 5 SB, 14.6% K rate, 5.0% BB rate
ETA: August 1
Another guy on this list who only has value if a trade is made, he could potentially reach the majors if either Brian McCann or Carlos Beltran were to be traded. Obviously he will see far more time if McCann is traded because then he moves in to become the starting catcher, but he could also see some time at DH if Beltran were dealt. And with his explosive bat, one of the most potent from any catching prospect in the minors, he would immediately be worth owning in all leagues. However, this is all a moot point if the Yankees decide to stand pat at the deadline. Owners desperate for help could consider stashing him in deeper, two-catcher leagues, but only by knowing that it may be a stash in vain if the Bronx Bombers don’t sell off any players.
14. Josh Hader (SP, MIL, AAA)
Stats: 81.0 IP, 2.56 ERA, 2.75 FIP, 11.56 K/9, 3.67 BB/9, 0.33 HR/9, 1.21 WHIP
ETA: August 1
Hader will make his first start since July 3 later tonight (Monday, July 18) so I do not have his stats from that game to work with (obviously). But the stats that I do have to work with tell me that Hader needs to show some signs of improvement in order to stay as high as he is on this list. His biggest issue has been his command which has seen his walk rate increase from 3.00 BB/9 at Double-A to 5.25 BB/9 at Triple-A. He has also been getting rocked a bit as evidenced by the opponents’ average of.294 to start his AAA career. Now right now that has been boosted by a ridiculous.424 BABIP, but that is not too much of an excuse for the way he has pitched. If he doesn’t show some improvements in his next outing, he could take a tumble on this list.
15. Dan Vogelbach (1B, CHC, AAA)
Stats: 357 PA,.310/.420/.535, 15 HR, 0 SB, 18.8% K rate, 15.4% BB rate
ETA: August 1
If the Cubs trade to acquire a reliever, Vogelbach will certainly be one of the first prospects added into the return for said reliever. The poor guy is stuck behind All-Star first baseman Anthony Rizzo and absolutely needs to be traded to have any value. He has done nothing but hit at every level of the Minor Leagues and would be an upgrade at first over a lot of other guys in the majors (and could also be plugged into the DH role of a lot of American League teams). Since he requires a trade to a team with a hole either at first or DH, he is likely not worth stashing. But if a trade like that happens, he should become a hot commodity and should definitely receive a look in most fantasy leagues.
16. Alex Reyes (SP, STL, AAA)
Stats: 46.1 IP, 4.86 ERA, 3.70 FIP, 13.01 K/9, 4.27 BB/9, 0.78 HR/9, 1.40 WHIP
ETA: Late July
Reyes has been higher on this list in the past, but it appears that a promotion for him means a promotion to the bullpen. And not to the closer’s role, but just as a middle or long reliever. He is a talented prospect, but a promotion like that is not very useful to fantasy owners. Should any Cardinal starting pitcher go down with an injury, Reyes is likely the first name called up to join the five. But with the combination of his control issues at Triple-A and the likelihood of him being promoted solely for a bullpen role limit his fantasy upside. A promotion might make him worth a skeptical look for owners in deeper leagues, but he needs to be in the rotation to be worth owning in any league with fewer than 14 teams.
17. Hunter Renfroe (OF, SD, AAA)
Stats: 382 PA,.332/.359/.602, 21 HR, 3 SB, 19.1% K rate, 3.9% BB rate
ETA: August 1
The second Padres outfielder to make it on this list, Renfroe is hoping that when the Padres start selling, they deal Matt Kemp as well as Melvin Upton. It appears that if only one outfielder is dealt away, it will probably only be Margot who is promoted despite Renfroe having more experience at Triple-A. Should Renfroe see time in the majors, he has enough power to do well even at Petco and would be a valuable outfielder in 12+ team leagues. Don’t expect him to bat over.330, but he could potentially bat over.280 if he makes improvements in his plate discipline.
18. Joey Gallo (3B/OF, TEX, AAA)
Stats: 261 PA,.249/.383/.554, 16 HR, 1 SB, 29.9% K rate, 17.6% BB rate
ETA: August 1
With the Texas Rangers in the market for some pitching help, they could look to deal slugging third baseman Joey Gallo. As of right now, Gallo has no clear path to playing time on the team and it looks like he could be stuck in that position for a while. If the Rangers were to make him available in a trade, he could probably become one of the biggest trade assets on the market in spite having played on 37 games at the big league level. The Rangers were linked recently to Matt Moore and though giving up Gallo would probably be overpaying the Rays, he could be used as a way of getting more than Moore (possibly another starter or reliever). For redraft leagues, Gallo needs to be traded or else it is unlikely he sees any significant playing time this season.
19. Jesse Winker/Scott Schebler (OF, CIN, AAA)
JW Stats: 262 PA,.293/.385/.396, 4 HR, 0 SB, 13.7% K rate, 13.7% BB rate
SS Stats: 262 PA,.295/.355/.523, 10 HR, 1 SB, 19.1% K rate, 5.7% BB rate
ETA: August 1
Whoa! This is weird, two prospects on the same line. Why is that? Well it is because at this point, it is impossible to tell which way the Reds will go with regards to which prospect is promoted when (not if) Jay Bruce is traded. Winker obviously has the higher upside and has shown himself to be far more disciplined than not only Schebler, but most prospects out there. But he is coming back from an injury and has not hit for as much power as the Reds would like. Meanwhile Schebler has already struggled at the big league level, but he has done much better at Triple-A, demonstrating some pop and an ability to hit for a respectable average. Plus by promoting Schebler instead of Winker, they will be saving some extra service days of Winker for the future. The verdict remains the same for both players: no need to stash either one of them, but both would be worth adding in 12+ team leagues just to see how they do in full big league playing time in hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark.
20. J.P. Crawford (SS, PHI, AAA)
Stats: 390 PA,.272/.371/.383, 6 HR, 10 SB, 13.6% K rate, 13.3% BB rate
ETA: September
It awaits to be seen whether the Phillies will promote their talented shortstop prospect, but Crawford has been doing everything in his power to warrant a promotion. Since June 15, he is slashing.351/.405/.505 with three bombs and steals apiece, a 7.3% walk rate and a 13.0% strikeout rate. He has certainly been proving over the past month that though he got off to a slow start, he is certainly not intimidated by the higher level of pitching. And while the Phillies are not in the postseason picture for 2016, teams often promote their young prospects to energize the fanbase and to give their young talent some time to adjust to big league pitching a year before they are going to be thrust into a full time role. And there is no doubt that Crawford will enter 2017 as the Phillies’ starting shortstop. He does not overwhelm anyone with his offensive skillset, but he should be viewed as a low-risk guy to produce in the batting average category while also running into the occasional home run and swiping the occasional bag. If promoted, he would be worth owning in 12+ team leagues.
21. Gavin Cecchini (SS, NYM, AAA)
Stats: 296 PA,.322/.401/.446, 4 HR, 3 SB, 11.8% K rate, 11.8% BB rate
ETA: August 1
22. Willy Adames (SS, TB, AA)
Stats: 370 PA,.269/.369/.440, 8 HR, 10 SB, 20.3% K rate, 13.2% BB rate
ETA: Mid-August
23. Aaron Judge (OF, NYY, AAA)
Stats: 370 PA,.261/.357/.469, 16 HR, 5 SB, 23.2% K rate, 11.4% BB rate
ETA: September
24. Jordan Patterson (OF, COL, AAA)
Stats: 301 PA,.317/.411/.484, 5 HR, 7 SB, 20.9% K rate, 12.0% BB rate
ETA: August 1
25. Dansby Swanson (SS, ATL, AA)
Stats: 371 PA,.284/.372/.444, 7 HR, 10 SB, 17.3% K rate, 11.1% BB rate
ETA: September
26. Anthony Banda (SP, ARI, AAA)
Stats: 91.1 IP, 2.86 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 9.76 K/9, 3.25 BB/9, 0.69 HR/9, 1.40 WHIP
ETA: Early August
27. Carlos Asuaje (SS, SD, AAA)
Stats: 385 PA,.328/.388/.469, 5 HR, 7 SB, 12.2% K rate, 8.6% BB rate
ETA: Early August
28. Yandy Diaz (3B, CLE, AAA)
Stats: 350 PA,.308/.410/.435, 6 HR, 10 SB, 15.4% K rate, 14.6% BB rate
ETA: Mid-August
29. Aaron Wilkerson (SP, MIL, AAA)
Stats: 99.2 IP, 2.53 ERA, 3.07 FIP, 9.93 K/9, 2.53 BB/9, 0.72 HR/9, 1.08 WHIP
ETA: Early August
30. David Dahl (OF, COL, AAA)
Stats: 375 PA,.307/.391/.564, 18 HR, 16 SB, 23.7% K rate, 11.7% BB rate
ETA: September
MLB Rookie Rankings
1. Corey Seager (SS, LAD)
2. Nomar Mazara (OF, TEX)
3. Trevor Story (SS, COL)
4. Aledmys Diaz (SS, STL)
5. Willson Contreras (C, CHC)
6. Michael Fulmer (SP, DET)
7. Kenta Maeda (SP, LAD)
8. Steven Matz (SP, NYM)
9. Blake Snell (SP, TB)
10. Tyler Naquin (OF, CLE)
11. Jon Gray (SP, COL)
12. Dae-Ho Lee (1B, SEA)
13. Trea Turner (2B, WAS)
14. Tyler Glasnow (SP, PIT)
15. Alex Bregman (SS, HOU)
16. Yulieski Gurriel (3B, HOU)
17. Lucas Giolito (SP, WAS)
18. Jose De Leon (SP, LAD)
19. Manuel Margot (OF, SD)
20. Jameson Taillon (SP, PIT)
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Fantasy Baseball Chat RoomSalad Challenge: Sweet + Creamy Broccoli Salad
January 3, 2012 by Leanne Vogel July 7, 2015
Print Sweet + Creamy Broccoli Salad Author: Leanne Vogel Recipe type: Vegan [option], Gluten free, Dairy free, Sugar-free, Yeast free, Corn free, Grain free Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 3 mins Total time: 18 mins Serves: 8 This salad is a breeze to assemble during the evening for a weeks’ worth of lunches and lasts for days in the fridge without wilting or spoiling. One of my favorite characteristics of broccoli is it’s ability soak up dressing at the bottom of your bowl… which is why it’s just so perfect for this sweet and creamy salad! Ingredients Salad 6 cups fresh broccoli florets, steamed for 3 minutes
7 strips uncured beef bacon, cooked fully and then chopped
½ cup sun dried tomatoes, sliced thin
¼ cup dried currants
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup of red onion, chopped Dressing ½ cup canola, olive oil or egg-free mayonnaise
2 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon gluten-free mustard
1 tablespoon unpasteurized honey
handful of fresh parsley (optional) Instructions Lightly steam the broccoli for 2-3 minutes, just until the florets are crisp tender. This is optional, I just find broccoli easier on my digestion when it’s lightly steamed. Place in a large bowl and set aside. Fry bacon as per package instructions. Be sure to cook until crisp. We like beef bacon because it’s higher in protein, easier on digestion, a has less fat. Plus it tastes so good! Once cooked, set on a paper towel lined plate. Pat dry and break up into small pieces. Add bacon, sun dried tomatoes, currants, sunflower seeds and red onion to the broccoli bowl. In a separate small bowl, combine dressing ingredients and stir until incorporated. Pour over the broccoli mix and stir to coat. Serve with a sprinkle of fresh parsley and enjoy! Notes To make vegan, serve with veggie bacon bits and stick with egg-free mayonnaise 3.3.2998
For an introduction to this weeks’ salad challenge, check out this post. Day two of our challenge and I just had to begin by posting my favorite of all the recipes I’ll be sharing this week. I know, I should have probably worked up to my favorite, but I couldn’t help myself. Maybe I’ll change my mind come Friday?I’ve probably made this salad half a dozen times already, going back to it again and again because it’s just so darn easy. It’ll take you 20 minutes from start to sweet + creamy finish – a definite win in my books!We decided to head to the mountains yesterday as a spur-of-the-moment thing. I knew that both of us would be hungry the minute we hit the road – isn’t that always the way it works? So I whipped up a quick batch of this salad for me, and a big bowl of tuna and veggies for Kevin. We enjoyed our salads on the road to Kananaskis before we endured a chilling hike near Wasootch creek. It actually wasn’t that bad, I just exaggerate.The sun was shining but there was a terrible wind. But once we got further into the valley it lightened up a bit and was quite lovely!This is the face of a man who claims I didn’t feed him enough before we headed out. If only he would have had the broccoli salad! Darn his aversion to dried fruit! Little did he know, I had some spiced flax balls and coconut vanilla cookies in my pockets for snacking! Because really, I don’t go anywhere without a snack in my pocket, common’ now!Going out to the mountains was a perfect way to end our Christmas break. But (unfortunately) we’re back to the grind today! I guess I’m excited to get back to a routine, but am sad to say goodbye to lounging around in my pajamas until noon.
This entry was tagged: broccoli, salad challengeImage: chefjancris/Flickr
After an international meeting of researchers, the World Health Organization is calling for renewed efforts in fighting a disease that kills one person every 10 minutes worldwide. The disease, which condemns tens of thousands of victims every year to a slow, painful death, is actually completely vaccine-preventable: rabies.
"About 59,000 people die per year of probably the most preventable disease on the planet, which is rabies," said Douglas Call, an epidemiologist at Washington State University. "If we can't stop rabies, weren't not going to be able to stop much of anything."
During a conference this week, the WHO rallied researchers and NGOs to renew efforts in battling the disease, which is almost always fatal and causes victims to suffer cerebral dysfunction and delirium as they die.
More than 95 percent of rabies deaths occur in Africa and Asia, with 99 percent caused by dog bites, which is why the WHO and other groups want to focus efforts on vaccinating dogs. If 70 percent of a dog population in a community is vaccinated, that provides a high enough herd immunity to prevent human infection, according to multiple studies.
A dog rabies vaccine costs about $1 US on average, so it seems like a simple task to start mass-vaccinating dog populations around the globe. But there are a number of challenges to achieving this goal.
"The biggest thing is cost," Call explained. "If a Maasai farmer has a choice between treating a cow or vaccinating a dog, they're going to put their money on their cattle because that's their whole equity. There are incredibly impoverished communities [affected by rabies] and so it's just not going to happen unless you provide incentives and free access."
Another challenge is the way some cultures treat dogs. Dogs aren't furbabies sleeping at the foot of the bed, they're working animals that are often free-range, leaving them susceptible to not only picking up disease but also to spreading it around. Dogs also have a shorter life expectancy on average in many parts of the world and spaying and neutering is less common, leading to a high turnover rate.
But there are strategies that researchers are investigating to overcome these obstacles. Providing communities with information about the importance of having dogs vaccinated as well as giving them free access to treatment and a small incentive—like a free dog collar—has proven effective at boosting vaccination rates, according to a study publishedearlier this month in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
The WHO is also calling for improved access to anti-rabies prophylaxis, the rabies shot you get after you've been bit to prevent rabies, which is often unavailable in rural parts of Africa and Asia. It's not an easy task—someone has to foot the bill for all these free rabies shots, for one—but there have been successful programs like this in the past. One WHO-backed project in the Philippines decreased the number of human rabies deaths by 34 percent in one year through mass dog vaccination.
"Who pays for it? Who pays for a lot of things? My guess is it would need to be a combination of NGOs, cooperatives, and local governments," Call told me, but stressed that there's no good reason why the disease persists at such a high level around the globe.
"Over 1,000 people a year die in Tanzania alone from this dreadful disease," Call said. "It's the worst way to go."Online retail giant Amazon has updated its store page for Naughty Dog's Uncharted 4: Thief's End with the game's official box art.
The cover art, which you can see below, is fairly standard fare for modern third-person shooters. It features Nathan Drake, with ruffled hair, presumably because he has been shot at a lot and has been diving around quite a bit, leading the unkempt look. Or perhaps he used a bit of Garnier Fructis texturising wax to achieve that I'm-not-even-trying surf hair style.
Drake's face is partly obscured by shadow, with his forehead prominently showing an injury, likely from all the aforementioned diving around. The use of shadows is particularly interesting because Uncharted 4 has been pitched as a much darker entry in the successful series, and will delve into the protagonist's chequered past.
With the Uncharted 4 cover, Drake seems to be in a jungle, which would explain why he has unbuttoned his shirt--it's hot. But he's also the kind of guy that would work really hard on his pecs but not overtly brag about his gains. Instead he'd simply give the world a peek and wait for the compliments to roll in.
Naturally he's holding a gun, because no self-respecting Indiana Jones facsimile would leave home without one. Drake is also looking down with an expression of anguish. Although this is speculation, this may be because he's dealing with the reality of killing yet another person.
Either that, or he's lamenting the fact that he left home wearing sandals and now his feet are just full of potentially poisonous thorns. On top of that, opportunistic indigenous wildlife may have clamped down on his exposed toes and are suckling the blood from his tired, malnourished body.
In summary, box art is man with gun looking sad/angry.
The Last of Us leads Neil Druckmann and Bruce Straley are heading up Uncharted 4's development.
"[With] The Last of Us, we went to great lengths to try to create this reality, but we were still limited by the amount of overdraw the PS3 could handle, etc.," Straley said when the game was first revealed.
"Now, the PS4 is allowing us to push so much more density, so it's fun to go back and go like, 'Oh, look at the things we wish we could have done in Uncharted 1, it's just like, this is easy, let's just make this.' It's nice to be able to explore something and look back and go, 'Wow, remember when we couldn't do any of this?' It's kind of neat."
In March, Sony delayed the Uncharted 4 release date until Spring 2016.UK unions have voted to boycott Israeli settlement goods UK food labels are set to distinguish between goods from Palestinians in the occupied territories and produce from Israeli settlements. Food packaging guidelines advise a change from labels usually naming only Israel or West Bank as the source. The government said it was opposed to a boycott of Israeli goods, but that the settlements posed an obstacle to peace. The Palestinian general delegation to the UK welcomed the move, but Israel said it was "extremely disappointed". All Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. The new guidelines recommend that food labels in supermarkets should bear the phrases "Israeli settlement produce" or "Palestinian produce". HAVE YOUR SAY Whatever the politics, foods are produced by hard-working ordinary farmers who just want to make a living and get on with their lives penwithstar Manuel Hassassian, Palestinian general Delegate to the UK, said: "We welcome this. We have been calling for this for two years, since we began lobbying major British supermarkets when we discovered that they were routinely selling products marked 'produce of the West Bank' which were in fact the produce of illegal settlements. "This is a very positive response by the British government." But the Israeli embassy said it was "extremely disappointed". "We think this is singling out Israel and it plays into the hands of those who are calling for a boycott of Israeli goods," it said.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionSo this is pretty much the best thing I’ve seen all day (and I’ve already seen the synopsis for Pacific Rim and two commercial spots for The Dark Knight Rises including one where Catwoman poses as Mrs. Bruce Wayne to steal his car). Limor Fried is an Open Source pioneer, engineer and business owner, and being there for the first Open Source Hardware summit and drafting the Open Source Hardware definition and being the first female tech professional to grace the cover of Wired in fifteen years would be enough to make her a role model for any young science inclined girl. Probably my favorite thing that Fried has done was going up against the mighty corporate power of Microsoft, and winning, when she offered a cash prize for the first person to make open source drivers for the Kinect peripheral for the Xbox 360. Microsoft was by historical default very protective of who could use its hardware and for what, and initially threatened legal action against anyone who would interfere with their desire to keep the Kinect tamper-proof. Fried’s response was to increase the value of the prize by 50%.
So in 2011 when we all (including, by official statement, Microsoft) enjoyed dozens upon dozens of YouTube videos of programmers and animators showing off the Kinect hacks they’d made to create virtual puppets controlled by putting your hand in the air, turn things invisible to the computer screen, and create 3D models of objects simply by rotating them in front of a piece of hardware that cost less than $200, we had Fried to thank.
And so we might have her to thank for the above Lego set, if she gets enough votes.
Fried was inspired, as you might have guessed, by the Lego Friends Line. She told CNET:
After I saw the controversies around ‘Lego for girls,’ I thought about what type of Lego set I would have enjoyed as a kid, and thought about one I would have liked to imagine myself in as young maker,” Fried told CNET. “So instead of complaining about the current state of play sets which aren’t quite inspiring for young girls who may want to be engineers, we worked with [Lego artist Bruce Lowell] to make a workshop like the one I have here at Adafruit. I do this for a living each day and I think it’s important that kids can actually see someone in real-life that is doing engineering so they can imagine themselves doing this too.
The workshop includes a pick-and-place machine, a laser cutter, a sewing machine, a soldering station, a computer, a microscope, shelves of parts and packages, and, of course, Limor herself and her cat Mosfet.
But Fried hasn’t worked out any specific deals with Lego yet… which is where Lego Cuusoo comes in. Cuusoo is Lego’s official crowd sourcing design platform, where any design that meets Legos standards and gets 10,000 votes from the community will get made into an official set. Minecraft Legos are among the sets that have already been put into production by the site, and a Sean of the Dead set was also nearly greenlit until Lego decided (probably correctly) that the movie wasn’t really appropriate for the age range they were targeting and regretfully canceled it. Fried’s set is approved and off to a good start with about 400 votes at the moment, but needs a lot more to reach 10k.
You can vote for it here.
(via CNET.)
Previously in Lego FriendsThe Iceman Cometh Sooneth
Serial killers and madmen can be the ultimate celluloid villain, especially if it’s based off a real person as opposed to a fictitious character. The thought of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre being influenced by Ed Gein left me disturbed. Charles Manson and Jeffery Dahmer each had numerous films inspired by their lives. The Son of Sam appears in a tale about life in the late 70s during his rampage in New York. Jack the Ripper, one of humanities earliest psychotics, has appeared in films like Time After Time and From Hell. Even the never caught Zodiac Killer has a movie. These films prey on our morbid curiosities and our unspoken love of thrills and horror. A new menace is soon to join the ranks of the most notorious people to be captured on film.
This year could bring not one, but two films based on the life of “The Iceman” Richard Kuklinski. For those of you who aren’t in the know, Kuklinski was the infamous hit man who had worked for numerous mafia families. He admits to have killed over 200 people and claimed his first victim at the tender age of 13. His parents were abusive and disturbed and his brother was a known rapist and murderer. The apple apparently didn’t fall far from the tree.
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help keep track of all the comings and goings, The Hollywood Reporter breaks down who's out and who's staying, as well as all the new faces coming aboard for season seven.
"I hesitate to use the word'reboot.' We're more thinking about it as a hybrid of a lot of things," Horowitz told THR in May after the season-six finale. "We're paying homage to the original premise, but there are certain characters who are returning and some who are not. It's a combination of a lot of things, but what we're trying to do is go in a new direction but stay true to the spirit of what the show has always been."
OUT
In addition to original series regulars Goodwin and Morrison, Josh Dallas (Prince Charming), Jared Gilmore (Henry), Emilie de Ravin (Belle) and Rebecca Mader (the Wicked Witch) are all walking away from the franchise. (Expect Morrison to come back for an episode or two in season seven to close out Emma's storyline.)
RETURNING
Season seven (and presumably the series' future) will be built around Lana Parrilla (Regina), Robert Carlyle (Mr. Gold) and Colin O'Donoghue (Captain Hook).
"Everybody has said they'd be willing to come back. As our show is and has been for six years, we see people come back all the time," Kitsis said about seeing any of the exiting stars returning.
Giles Matthey will also return in season seven, appearing in episode four and reprising his role as Gideon, the son of Belle and Rumple.
NEW FACES
There are a number of new series regulars joining Once for season seven. They are:
• Andrew J. West (The Walking Dead), who plays a grown-up version of Gilmore's Henry. (Series regular)
• Alison Fernandez, who plays Lucy, Henry's long-lost daughter, who, in a nod to the pilot, shows up on his doorstep to prompt him into saving his family. (Series regular)
• Dania Ramirez (Devious Maids) is playing a new version of Cinderella, who is adult Henry's wife. (Ramirez's Cinderella is a different than the one previously portrayed on the drama by Jessy Schram.)
The shoe fit! Introducing the #OnceUponATime woman of the hour: Cinderella! pic.twitter.com/WvtDHxEPPM — Once Upon A Time (@OnceABC) July 15, 2017
• Gabrielle Anwar (Burn Notice), who is playing Lady Tremaine, the Wicked Stepmother from Cinderella. (Series regular)
• Mekia Cox (Chicago Med), who is Tiana, the princess from The Princess and the Frog. (Recurring)
• Adelaide Kane (Reign), who is playing Drizella, one of the evil stepsisters from Cinderella. (Recurring)
• Rose Reynolds (Poldark), who is playing a new version of Alice from Alice in Wonderland. (Recurring)
• Emma Booth (Underbelly), who will recur as a witch.
Producers have noted that they play to "open up the universe more" in season seven, which includes just how they get to see Henry as an adult and what that means for Regina. Season seven, Kitsis said, will explore the "epic love story" between Lucy's mother and Henry, who is the grandchild of Prince Charming.
Bookmark this page for the latest Once Upon a Time season-seven news, as we'll update it as more information becomes available.At a panel late last year titled “Is London Too Rich to be Interesting?”, Saatchi-approved sculpture pioneer Gavin Turk, now 48-years old, was asked a simple question by an audience member: “If you had your time again, from now, in this London - with no grant, and no time to spend swimming around for patrons - how would you do it? Would you still be here? Would you stay?” Prior to that, he’d indulged the audience with stories about how a glorious and multi-faceted London of times past had given him the opportunities, freedom and inspiration he needed to explore his art and self, and become who he is, but he can’t help stutter on this question for some time, before coming to a long winded conclusion which I’ll simplify here: no, probably not actually.
Things have never been easy for creative types in the city, that's kind of the point. But they've also never been this bad until very recently. Only in the late 90s into early 2000s, the city was fostering multiple vibrant music scenes, each one representative of the young people that fuelled it: from grime in Bow, to indie in Camden, to dubstep in Croydon, to artrock in New Cross. To have that many young people all maintaining so many separate, vibrant and concurrent scenes in London now seems impossible.
London used to offer artists a means to flourish, which was why it would always be uttered on the same subcultural whispers as New York and Berlin. By hook or by crook, musicians could not only eat, live and work, but also make enough to record, buy equipment, tour van petrol, expenses, managers, CDs, drugs, pot noodles. There was cheap housing if you had the balls to rough it out (it often came with rats, shit landlords and toilets that coughed sewage, free of charge). Recording studios could be found in the middle of town that hadn’t yet been forced to close, or pander their diaries and costings to big money block bookings - so a young band or artist could get a few hours in front of a half decent mixing desk for not an unrealistic price, without going on mythological quests to Zone 8. The city even had a visible ladder of progression, its venues would guide a rise, all the way from shithole basement to 200 cap club to decent sized concert hall. But the most important thing the city had was time. Obviously there was no eternal well of opportunity for workshy shitbags, but it wasn’t so unrealistic for an aspiring musician to work three or four days a week in a dive bar, and spend the rest on building their dream. An artistic balance could be achieved, where your work was just work and your talent was your focus, without simply consigning yourself to waste.
Photo via LondonIsChanging.org
Is Tropical were one of many bands who took advantage of the city’s charms and loopholes, throwing their dice at London’s heaving squat scene around 2007. “When we discovered living in squats was doable, it was perfect,” explains lead singer Simon Milner. “Suddenly, everyone had the time to get on with what they loved. If you just have to work for rent then you have to work five days a week, but as an artist, you have to buy your equipment too, whether it is paints, instruments or jewelry. It’s expensive, so an opportunity to live for free, yeah, in horrible conditions, was vital.”
Photo provided by Is Tropical
Their now famous South London squat was called The Toilet Factory, and homed themselves, Shitdisco (together, then known as Ratty Rat Rat) and The Metros (some of whom went on to become Fat White Family). It was one of many in the city; including others like the notorious Squally Oaks, which housed early formations of Metronomy,!WowoW! squat in Peckham, and also 78 Lyndhurst Way.
“Down in South London there was a load of us. A lot of artists like Matthew Stone, the writer Karley Sciortino. So it was a really big scene. From the outside it probably looked like everyone was just wasters, but that’s where you socialised, collaborated, and made your connections.”
South London band Breton utilised a guardianship scheme for the first part of their career, where tenants are welcomed into otherwise abandoned buildings for next to nothing, to basically keep the building’s blood pumping. They landed themselves in an old bank in Elephant & Castle, which they dubbed BretonLABs. "It was like Stalingrad most of the time", they tell me, and they all slept in a wedding marquee with electric heaters in the centre of the space - “when we got signed, we bought massive coats” says lead singer Roman.
Members of London band Breton, on the roof of their South London squat
Still, it was a place they could live, film and record for next to nothing. Another girl in their building ran her theatre company from home, stacking her space with props. A different tenant was the filmmaker Ian Pons Jewell, who’s now an esteemed director, he made the video for Naughty Boy's "La La La" and scooped the 2013 MOBOs and Best Director at the UK Music Video Awards as a result.
But in 2012, the Conservative government made squatting in a residential building in England and Wales a criminal offence. What was previously a civic matter, became a police matter, meaning people could be rapidly booted. An old bank in the middle of Elephant & Castle might not sound like a residential building, but because one small room was once deemed the bank manager’s sleeping quarters (in the 80s), it was enough to get the whole building classed as ‘residential’, and Breton, plus fifteen other residents, were evicted so it could be demolished. There’s something poetically cyclical about how such a capitalist construct, as an in-office living space made for bankers to ensure they work excessive hours into the night, was still managing to do its bit for inequality, even in its dilapidated state.
Men holding stacks of cash at Breton's bank, back when it was actually a bank in the 80s
The decimation of London’s art squats is a metaphor for the city’s recalibrated attitude towards art, and 2015 London has all the spluttering symptoms of a city hurtling towards cultural void. Investors pick up housing estates as if they’re glass ketchup bottles, turning them upside down and smacking the bottom until all the inhabitants fall out. Wages have stagnated, living costs have soared, rents have rocketed, venues are being methodically decimated, 150,000 of us are working two jobs, and everyone with a creative one is considering a move to Woodford.
Over in the fallows of central London, bankers body pump to “Everybody’s Free” at morning raves, each new bead of sweat more resinous than the previous, as last night’s cocaine residue is taxied out of their bloodstream. The same month London Mayor Boris Johnson launches his #BackBusking campaign, his police force are heavy handedly arresting musicians in broad daylight for doing just that in Leicester Square.
We’re told to tolerate this, and that it is a means to an end because - grin emoji, thumbs up emoji - London’s output growth is BETTER THAN EVER! The problem is, the burgeoning riches of a city don’t necessarily correlate with its art and creativity. Cities like Lisbon, where new strands of Afro-Portuguese electronic music seem to sprout every 6 months, or Atlanta, where trap has supernova’d in every direction, aren’t teeming with invention because of a influx of billionares, high density penthouse monoculture or chains of cold brewed coffee shops. Berlin's progressive arts scene is in part thanks to the progressive politics that frame it, and they've addressed their soaring costs by becoming the first German city to introduce rent capping. So, it’s no surprise that in London, the unhindered boom in the city’s wealth hasn’t exactly chimed with an explosion of subculture and youth movements. You only need to look at the cities London is now mentioned alongside: digested baked bean shells like Singapore, or sanitised 1-percenter city-state toy towns like Monaco, to get a feel for its aspirational trajectory. Tell me, who was the last shit hot beatmaker from Monaco you faved on Soundcloud? These days, for most normal musicians to survive London’s demands, their employment must become their everything, their music: a mere hobby.
“In the last few years,” explains Roman of Breton, who coped with the demolition of their bank by moving to, you guessed it, Berlin, “they have done their best to paint these pictures of crusty squatters, who go and smash up these buildings, but it’s not like that. Yeah, we were basically living like heroin addicts without the perks of heroin. But that made the band possible! All the things that a Londoner had to pay for, that could really attack our time and freedom, we felt liberated from.”
Breton's bank at it's peak
The process of ‘artwashing’ has become a tried and tested tactic of London developers, and you can see it happening now at the Balfron Tower in Poplar. It’s an eerie coincidence that a building which looks so much like JG Ballard’s description in High Rise, is now becoming a similar social experiment. The premise of artwashing is simple: developers snap up supposedly neglected former social housing areas (original tenants of which are usually forced out) and encourage artists, musicians and creatives in as property guardians, just like Breton’s situation, on short term deals which usually involve 24 hours eviction notices. The presence of creative types gives the formerly neglected area a lovely glistening gloss, a quick fix appearance of transformation. Then, before an artistic community is given an opportunity to actually root, it is kicked out, so the properties can be remarketed to wealthier buyers who wouldn’t have been interested in the first place. “By highlighting the new creative uses for inner-city areas,” wrote Feargus O’Sullivan for CityLab, “it presents regeneration not through its long-term effects—the transfer of residency from poor to rich—but as a much shorter journey from neglect to creativity.” This is why Grayson Perry calls artists “the shock troops of gentrification.”
Photo by Chris Bethell
The tricks and charms, that made London such a colourful city, have been chemically bleached, and who knows where to get a leg up anymore. I talked with the four girls that make up grunge-tinted indie band The Big Moon, specifically their lead singer Juliette, who I’d been told was scraping by on a part time shop assistant job around their gigs and rehearsals. They packed Corsica Studios for a single launch party recently, and were championed by Annie Mac on Radio 1 two weeks ago.
“I am at my absolute limits right now,” explains Juliette. “It’s not that I feel forced out by London - more like I'm always racing to catch up with the city, but it's lapping me. You pay your rent, you eat less. You have two rehearsals, you don't go out. But I haven't been out since New Year’s Eve. I’ve always felt like I needed to be in London, as a musician, but as smaller venues seem to be closing down all the time, and so many clubs are using these dirty promoters that keep all the door money and pay you £1 per 5 people who come... you just start to feel exploited.”
The Big Moon
That feeling, like there’s no time to pursue anything but wage-paying, rent-solving employment in London, is another factor working against musicians, one that political writer Ewa Jasiewicz dubbed ‘time poverty’ in her post-election piece. She identified it as a byproduct of the intensification of labour and rise in cost of living, two things London has by the butt load. “If we can’t have our own time to organise, we can’t organise, we can’t meet each other, we cannot find each other” she wrote, highlighting how we’re kept too distracted and busy to unify and discover our collective politics. But the other thing that cannot flourish under these constricts is art, and with regards to this article: music. Real music by normal people, not Bedales alumni, or kids with grants, parents in finance, or major label development deals. “Middle-class bands are the most content, tasteless cunts around," Young Fathers’ G Hastings told the NME back in March, and although that’s a bit more direct and caustic than I’d ever phrase it, he followed that up with one undeniable truism: “Working-class bands have been eradicated."
The growing impossibility of starting from the bottom and actually making it in today’s music industry is mirrored by the ugly portrait of successful British music. As Gavin Haynes wrote for Noisey in January: “We are living in an age where a certain kind of lozenge-folk have come to dominate. It’s no longer just the children of lawyers and architects. It’s the kids of the balls-out elite. Sam Smith’s £500k-a-year banker mother. The Mumfords - Winston Marshall’s dad being the chairman of one of the country’s largest hedge-funds.”
The pursuit of funding for artists trapped at this level is the much publicised but largely artificial carrot dangled up front. The British government made a song and dance out of their £2.5million slush fund for musicians last summer. In Kafkaesque fashion, bands were encouraged to fill out endless reams of forms, usually to discover that they were eliminated in round 3,843, and the money would be going to The Wombats.
Harking back to that question posed to sculpture artist Gavin Turk at the very beginning of this piece: if these artists had to start again, right now, would they do it in London? Would they stay? Is Tropical are currently trying to move to the French countryside because even with occasional flights for London gigs and meetings, it’s working out cheaper. Juliette from The Big Moon is considering a move to Rotterdam because: “I dream of moving there and paying literally half of what I pay here and think of all the time and space I could indulge in there... London gives me less and less.”
But should musicians be encouraged to stay and fight for the culture of the city? I asked London rapper Akala this question. Not only is he a longstanding local who’s lived in his area for 6 years, and a UK rap artist on album number five, but he’s also fiercely outspoken on the politics and society of the city. “Yeah I do think they should stay, but I’m not judging anyone who can’t afford it anymore. It’s London’s loss. All this sanitisation and gentrification that is happening to all of the cultural spaces that were different, that were diverse, that produced the cultures of music that people loved. People want to love jungle, hip-hop, garage, and the various other cultures that have found spaces in London. But it seems like they want those spaces without the people that produced those forms of music.”
At the end of the day, choosing to be an artist is, to many extents, a luxury, and nobody’s saying things should be easy for those who choose it as their career - but it shouldn’t be impossible. The saying goes, a true artist will always find a way. But as London's playing field becomes more like booting a footy up Everest, it feels like that "way" is fast becoming the M1. The utopian dream is that London's accelerating drain becomes the benefit of the UK's other cities, like Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, as more London artists flock there for more flexible living, because why settle for Zone 8 rent prices when there are huge and beautiful cities elsewhere? And as the digital revolution continues, more homegrown artists will be deterred from the romantic notion of coming down to London to "make it", because unless you're established, or things change, you'd be a fool for doing so. As Roman from Breton says if he had to do it all again, "I'd find a cold abandoned metal factory in Sheffield, because all you need to be a musician these days is space, time, mates, broadband... and a big coat."
You can follow Joe on Twitter.I'm a hobbyist soapmaker, and in the process of developing a solid shaving soap recipe. Before I get into developing my own and incorporating a wide variety of possibly controversial oils and scents and whatnot, I decided it might be best to start with my take on a solid existing product to get a baseline soap.
Given that you all seem to enjoy soap at least as much if not more than I do, I thought you all might enjoy watching the process. (If not, please click back at this point, I don't want to waste anybody's time.)
Stearic Acid
Aqua
Coconut Acid
Potassium Hydroxide
Glycerin
Then you buy the ingredients. In this case, I'm swapping coconut oil for coconut acid, a) because I already have a pretty substantial supply, and b) I'm not a huge fan of overly refined oils.
View attachment 306537
(Since I am, in essence, reverse engineering an existing soap, it'd be a little tacky to claim any proprietary rights over this recipe, so the full instructions / recipe I came up with will follow.)
Then you buy the ingredients. In this case, I'm swapping coconut oil for coconut acid, a) because I already have a pretty substantial supply, and b) I'm not a huge fan of overly refined oils.(Since I am, in essence, reverse engineering an existing soap, it'd be a little tacky to claim any proprietary rights over this recipe, so the full instructions / recipe I came up with will follow.)
You pull up soapcalc.net and see what you need to do to make a recipe with the ingredients in that order.
With soapcalc.net's help, plus a few educated guesses, for this starter recipe I'll be using 52% stearic acid and 48% coconut oil, as that keeps the oils reasonably balanced, and 52% stearic acid is pretty high already. I'm using a 3% superfat as you don't need too much extra oil for a shaving bar, but I wanted a little superfatting as I haven't worked with potassium hydroxide lye before.
With that in mind, once you punch the numbers into Since this is a test batch, I'm only going to use about a pound of oil, and the general rule of thumb for adding glycerin is to use about a tablespoon per pound of oils (in terms of added glycerin, there is also glycerin created as part of the soapmaking process, and it is not generally processed out in small batch soapmaking, which is one of the reasons why handmade / artisanal soap tends to be so nice.)With that in mind, once you punch the numbers into soapcalc.net, you get the following recipe.
Stearic Acid - 8 1/3 oz.
Aqua - 8 oz.
Coconut Oil - 7 2/3 oz.
Potassium Hydroxide - 3 1/2 oz
Glycerin - 1 tbsp.(Image: Jeff Vanuga/Corbis)
Metabolic processes that underpin life on Earth have arisen spontaneously outside of cells. The serendipitous finding that metabolism – the cascade of reactions in all cells that provides them with the raw materials they need to survive – can happen in such simple conditions provides fresh insights into how the first life formed. It also suggests that the complex processes needed for life may have surprisingly humble origins.
“People have said that these pathways look so complex they couldn’t form by environmental chemistry alone,” says Markus Ralser at the University of Cambridge who supervised the research.
But his findings suggest that many of these reactions could have occurred spontaneously in Earth’s early oceans, catalysed by metal ions rather than the enzymes that drive them in cells today.
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The origin of metabolism is a major gap in our understanding of the emergence of life. “If you look at many different organisms from around the world, this network of reactions always looks very similar, suggesting that it must have come into place very early on in evolution, but no one knew precisely when or how,” says Ralser.
Happy accident
One theory is that RNA was the first building block of life because it helps to produce the enzymes that could catalyse complex sequences of reactions. Another possibility is that metabolism came first; perhaps even generating the molecules needed to make RNA, and that cells later incorporated these processes – but there was little evidence to support this.
“This is the first experiment showing that it is possible to create metabolic networks in the absence of RNA,” Ralser says.
Remarkably, the discovery was an accident, stumbled on during routine quality control testing of the medium used to culture cells at Ralser’s laboratory. As a shortcut, one of his students decided to run unused media through a mass spectrometer, which spotted a signal for pyruvate – an end product of a metabolic pathway called glycolysis.
To test whether the same processes could have helped spark life on Earth, they approached colleagues in the Earth sciences department who had been working on reconstructing the chemistry of the Archean Ocean, which covered the planet almost 4 billion years ago. This was an oxygen-free world, predating photosynthesis, when the waters were rich in iron, as well as other metals and phosphate. All these substances could potentially facilitate chemical reactions like the ones seen in modern cells.
Metabolic backbone
Ralser’s team took early ocean solutions and added substances known to be starting points for modern metabolic pathways, before heating the samples to between 50 ˚C and 70 ˚C – the sort of temperatures you might have found near a hydrothermal vent – for 5 hours. Ralser then analysed the solutions to see what molecules were present.
“In the beginning we had hoped to find one reaction or two maybe, but the results were amazing,” says Ralser. “We could reconstruct two metabolic pathways almost entirely.”
The pathways they detected were glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway, “reactions that form the core metabolic backbone of every living cell,” Ralser adds. Together these pathways produce some of the most important materials in modern cells, including ATP – the molecule cells use to drive their machinery, the sugars that form DNA and RNA, and the molecules needed to make fats and proteins.
If these metabolic pathways were occurring in the early oceans, then the first cells could have enveloped them as they developed membranes.
In all, 29 metabolism-like chemical reactions were spotted, seemingly catalysed by iron and other metals that would have been found in early ocean sediments. The metabolic pathways aren’t identical to modern ones; some of the chemicals made by intermediate steps weren’t detected. However, “if you compare them side by side it is the same structure and many of the same molecules are formed,” Ralser says. These pathways could have been refined and improved once enzymes evolved within cells.
Reversible reaction
Detecting the metabolite ribose 5-phosphate is particularly noteworthy, Ralser says. This is because it is a precursor to RNA, which encodes information, catalyses chemical reactions and most importantly of all, can replicate.
“I think this paper has really interesting connotations for the origins of life,” says Matthew Powner at University College London. It hints at how more complex enzymes could have evolved, he says, because substances that made these early processes more efficient would have been selected for.
There is one big problem, however. “For origins of life, it is important to understand where the source molecules come from,” Powner says. No one has yet shown that such substances could form spontaneously in the early oceans.
A related issue is that the reactions observed so far only go in one direction; from complex sugars to simpler molecules like pyruvate. “Given the data, one might well conclude that any organics in the ocean would have been totally degraded, rather than forming the basis of modern metabolism,” says Jack Szostak, who studies the origin of life at Harvard. “I would conclude that metabolism had to evolve, within cells, one reaction and one catalyst at a time.”
But Ralser disagrees. In his opinion, whether the reaction is catalysed by an enzyme or by a molecule in the Archean Ocean leads to the same result; “every chemical reaction is in principle reversible, whether an enzyme or a simple molecule is the catalyst,” he says.
Journal reference: Molecular Systems Biology, DOI: 10.1002/msb.20145228Mariners pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma has a 7-3 record and 2.26 ERA after 16 starts this season. “He has a great feel for the game, a great feel for situations,” manager Eric Wedge says. (Photo: Jesse Johnson, USA TODAY Sports) Story Highlights Iwakuma signed with the Seattle Mariners in 2012
Through 16 starts, he is 7-3 with a 2.26 ERA
Iwakuma averages eight strikeouts per nine innings, but he isn't overpowering
Hisashi Iwakuma had seen others take that great big leap across the Pacific Ocean.
He was 14 when Hideo Nomo broke through the perceived barrier and got it started in 1995, and since then there have been others who have leaped... and landed safely. Ichiro Suzuki became an American League MVP. Hideki Matsui became a World Series MVP.
A Japanese pitcher hasn't won the Cy Young Award, but if the first three months of the season are any indication, Iwakuma will be in the running, along with countryman Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers.
Iwakuma signed with the Seattle Mariners in 2012 and had a nice first season in the majors, but he has done even better this season. Through 16 starts, he was 7-3 with a 2.26 ERA and was giving up 0.89 walks plus hits per inning (WHIP), best in the American League.
Iwakuma averages eight strikeouts per nine innings, but he isn't overpowering, topping out at about 92-93 mph on his fastball.
He keeps hitters off-balance by mixing up his pitches — two-seam and four-seam fastball, curveball, slider and a splitter, with the splitter being his out pitch.
"I'm not surprised, but at the same time I wasn't expecting this, as well," Iwakuma said through an interpreter. "I can say I had a lot of confidence coming into this season from what I've gained with the experience in the second half of last year. I was able to go through a good offseason workout and work on things that I hadn't worked on before.
"I had a good spring training, as well, so knowing that, I thought I'd be somewhere around where I am right now."
Iwakuma began last season in the bullpen as Mariners manager Eric Wedge and his staff wanted to see exactly what they had in the 6-3, 210-pound right-hander. He joined the rotation in the second half of the season and finished 9-5 with a 3.16 ERA in 30 games, including 16starts.
"He was one of the better pitchers in the American League the second half of last year," Wedge said. "He just kept going with it. He worked hard over the wintertime and came into spring a little bit stronger than he was last year, and he just brought it into the season."
Masanori Murakami was the first Japanese-born player to play in the major leagues, playing for the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and '65. But after Nomo arrived and had immediate success, other professional baseball players in Japan seemed to gain a sense of confidence that they could make it, too. There have been 48 Japanese-born players in the majors, including eight who are active on major league rosters.
Iwakuma was a star in Japan, first breaking into Nippon Professional Baseball in 2001 at age 20. He was a three-time All-Star and, in 2008, won an MVP award as well as the Eiji Sawamura Award, equivalent to the Cy Young.
Iwakuma's motivation to come to the USA after 11 seasons in Japan was sparked by more than just the idea of playing against the best baseball players in the world. It was the chance to play in a different part of the world.
"Experiencing the World Baseball Classic in 2009, I was a part of Team Japan, and we got to go through a lot of experiences," he said. "Not just the ballparks, but what the atmosphere is like, the difference from baseball in Japan and just the opportunity for the challenge."
The Oakland Athletics won the bidding rights to Iwakuma in 2010, but the two sides were unable to agree on a contract, so Iwakuma stayed in Japan. He tried again in 2012, and this time the Mariners won the bidding rights to negotiate with him, signing him to a one-year deal for $1.5 million. He got a chance not only to pitch in the major leagues, but also play half a season with Suzuki before the Japanese legend was traded to the New York Yankees midway through the season.
"He's a national hero in Japan," Iwakuma, 32, said. "It's always an honor to be teammates with such a high-caliber player."
Iwakuma parlayed his 2012 season into a two-year, $14 million contract with the Mariners, and he hopes to remain in the big leagues for the rest of his career.
"Baseball in Japan is so different from here," he said. "The power that we go against here is totally different."
The Mariners are 10-6 in games started by Iwakuma, better than their record in games started by ace Felix Hernandez (8-8). And Iwakuma has held the opposing team to one run or fewer in eight of his 16 starts.
"This guy executes pitches more consistently than almost anybody," Wedge said. "He has a great feel for the game, a great feel for situations. You can tell all the experience he had in Japan has paid off for him because he has a good heartbeat; he's able to slow the game down when he has to."
There's a lot of baseball left to be played this season, but a Cy Young Award for a Japanese pitcher would continue to meld the world's two best professional baseball leagues.
"There's a lot of things that could result from that," Iwakuma said, "but first and foremost it'll prove that Japanese pitchers can be very successful in this elite league."
***
Other notable pitchers born, raised and trained in Japan who have played in the major leagues:
RHP Hideo Nomo
Major league career: 1995-2005, 2008
Stats: 323 games, 123-109, 4.24 ERA, 1995 NL rookie of the year, 1995 NL and 2001 AL strikeout leader
Highest finish in Cy Young voting: Fourth (NL 1995, 1996)
***
RHP Takashi Saito
Major league career: 2006-2012
Stats: 338 games, 21-15, 2.34 ERA, 84 saves
Highest finish in Cy Young voting: Eighth (NL 2006)
***
RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka
Major league career: 2007-2012
Stats: 117 games, 50-37, 4.52 ERA
Highest finish in Cy Young voting: Fourth (AL 2008)
***
RHP Hiroki Kuroda
Major league career: 2008-present
Stats: 164 games, 64-62, 3.36 ERA
Highest finish in Cy Young voting: N/A
***
RHP Yu Darvish
Major league career: 2012-present
Stats: 45 games, 23-12, 3.56 ERA
Highest finish in Cy Young voting: Ninth (AL 2012)
Haakenson reported from Anaheim, Calif.1st Forecast of 2014
What a difference a day — and a year — makes! As we kickoff the year 2014, we are going to be greeted with a return to winter. The clipper system we have been tracking appears to be on schedule to swing through the area and drop a few inches of snow before departing overnight. I’m expecting the snow to start falling after 3p this afternoon.
Due to the incoming snow, and the frigid air moving in behind this system, a Winter Weather Advisory is in place for the viewing area until 6am Thursday. It’s very possible that wind chill values Thursday morning will be around -5° to -15°. Be sure to dress in layers if you will be out in the morning hours Thursday.
As far as the snow goes for today and tonight, we are expecting many areas to pick up around an inch of snow. Metro Kansas City can expect around 2-4″ of snow with a few isolated areas collecting around 5″ of snow. This is very dependent on a few different factors: prime snow-growth temperature, snow banding, overall exact track of the system. On average, many locales should see around 1-3″ of snowfall by Thursday morning.
Let’s wrap up this first post of 2014 by looking back on the year 2013. Here is a weather “Year in Review” showcasing our hottest & coldest temperatures, as well as the precip we picked up this year.
Happy New Year to you and yours! Hope 2014 is a great year for everyone.
-JD
Share on FacebookSt. Louis Blues star Vladimir Tarasenko may be the cover athlete for EA Sports’ NHL 17 video game in the United States, but the Minnesota Wild have found their way onto the cover for the third straight season.
Wild forward Nino Niederreiter will appear on the game’s cover in his native Switzerland, part of EA’s efforts to market the game in Europe through alternative cover stars.
I feel honored and excited to be on the #NHL17 swiss cover. Thank you @EASPORTSNHL pic.twitter.com/iksJ5fRVuR — nino niederreiter (@thelnino22) July 28, 2016
The game is due out on Sept. 13 for the Xbox One and Playstation 4.
One of just a handful of active Swiss players in the NHL, Niederreiter ranks third among active Swiss-born skaters with 119 points, and fourth all-time.
Fans looking to get their hands on the Swiss version of the game will need to pay a premium in shipping fees to do so, but EA has provided a simpler solution in the past, offering downloadable versions of the Swiss cover that can be printed off and swapped with the U.S. version.In linguistics, morphological leveling or paradigm leveling is the generalization of an inflection across a paradigm or between words.[1] For example, the extension by analogy[2][3][4] of the (more frequent) third-person singular form is to other persons, such as I is and they is, observed in some dialects of English such as African American Vernacular English, is an example of leveling, as is the reanalysis of English strong verbs as weak verbs, such as bode becoming |
injuries didn’t necessarily occur on a single day in December, the day the baby was alone with his father. Many people were around this baby in his final weeks.
Doucet called her last witness, Yolanda Monroe, Baker’s sister-in-law. Monroe told jurors that the baby’s mother had confessed to her that Joniah had fallen off the bed and tumbled into the space heater about a week before his death, causing the burns on his palm. Her brother-in-law was good with children, she said, and had taken care of her own four kids, all honor students.
“Can you describe for the jury the relationship between Jonathan and Joniah?” Doucet asked.
“Jonathan was like a big kid with Joniah. He would get on the floor and play with him,” Monroe said.
“Were they close?” Doucet asked.
“Yes,” Monroe replied.
“Was Jonathan proud of his son?”
“Yes.”
“Did Joniah seem afraid of Jonathan?”
“No,” Monroe said, shaking her head.
“Is there anything else you would like to tell the jury?”
“I know that he loved his baby,” Monroe said. “He was a good father.”
On the fifth day of trial, Doucet approached the jury box to make her closing argument. The courtroom television screens showed a photograph of Joniah, 7 months old, wearing a white onesie, smiling at the camera.
“The thing that kind of struck me about this case from the very beginning is that this is like some nightmare version of musical chairs,” Doucet told the jury. “The last person standing when Joniah has his cardiac arrest gets charged.”
The courtroom was packed with relatives and attorneys. Sergeant Nichols sat in the second row, her cheeks flushed with anger, her hands tightly clasped. She stared at the public defender as Doucet walked over to Baker and placed her hand gently on his shoulder.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the state is trying to allege that my client, Jonathan Baker, whom I have the privilege of representing, is guilty of intentionally murdering his 11-month-old son. His only son. The son he is very proud of. The son he got down on the floor and played with. Jonathan has already lost his son. Please don’t take his life away.”
Then it was Tinajero’s turn. The prosecutor rose and laid out the dots for the jurors to connect, pacing back and forth, reminding them of all the doctors and their medical evidence that Joniah had been chronically abused. He pointed out that the baby’s weight and health had started to decline at around seven months, about the time his mother had returned to work, leaving father and son home alone together.
Tinajero turned to the defense’s star witness, Dr. Ophoven. He reminded the jury that the doctor had been paid $5,400 for her opinions, on the taxpayers’ dime. All of the prosecution’s experts, the medical examiner, and the doctors at Children’s were on salary and got paid whether the baby was abused or not, he said. But not Ophoven. “In other words, no trial, no fee. You want to talk neutrality?”
Tinajero gazed at the picture of a smiling Joniah on the screens. “That baby couldn’t take the stand and tell you what happened to him,” Tinajero said, his voice rising. “But through all the doctors, the police, and his mama, he did tell you what happened. Through that army of angels, he told you what happened to him.”
Tinajero walked over to Baker, faced him, stared into his eyes.
“Joniah Baker was killed by his dad,” Tinajero said, nearly shouting. “That man!” he said, pointing at Baker. “You find him guilty of capital murder. Because he is.”
•••
Thirty minutes later, Tinajero sat in his office on the 10th floor, his head in his hands, stressed, restless. He had 75 unread emails, but he couldn’t focus. He got lunch. He surfed CNN. He stood up. He sat down. One hour passed into another. The bailiffs promised to call with any news from the jury. Tinajero kept his phone on his desk, glancing at it every so often.
After four hours, he wandered back down to the courtroom on the sixth floor. Shortly after, a red light flickered. Jurors had pressed a button in their deliberation room, signaling that they wanted to talk to a bailiff. The bailiff returned with the news: they had a verdict.
“All rise,” the bailiff said.
Tinajero rose. So did Baker and his two public defenders.
Judge Rick Magnis looked out over the packed courtroom. Baker’s relatives and friends sat on the benches behind him, holding hands. Sanford sat on the other side of the courtroom, a tissue in her hand, a friend rubbing her shoulder. Four sheriff’s deputies sat in the back row, called in for extra security.
Judge Magnis looked down and read the verdict. “We, the jury, find the defendant guilty of capital murder, as charged in the indictment.”
The judge looked over to the defense table as Baker slowly sat down in his chair. “Stand, Mr. Baker,” the judge said. Baker’s attorneys placed their hands beneath his arms and helped him back to his feet. “Mr. Baker, the jury having found you guilty of capital murder, at this time I sentence you to life confinement.”
Behind Baker, his friends and family members murmured loudly and filed out of the courtroom. One flipped over a wooden bench in the lobby. The deputies ordered the family to leave the courthouse, then went back to check on the jurors, escorting them into a private elevator used by judges, making sure they got safely to their cars.
In the courtroom, Tinajero broke into a huge smile and went to Sanford. She grabbed his hand, her eyes full of tears.
Soon Tinajero slipped away from the crowd and rode down the elevator in silence. He stepped out into the sunlight and headed toward his car, looking toward the county jail. Baker would spend the night there, the first of a lifetime of long nights.
•••
Sergeant Nichols wasn’t in court for the verdict but quickly received word by text. She danced around her living room, happy and pumped with adrenaline. Then she sat down in a recliner for a while.
A couple hours later, she got a call from one of the child abuse detectives. They were preparing for another all-nighter, about to arrest a teacher accused of sexually abusing two students. Nichols wouldn’t be with them. They had a new sergeant now. The only thing on Nichols’ agenda was a steak dinner and a full night’s rest.
By this time, the police chief had transferred Nichols out of Child Abuse, back to the Missing Persons Squad. It was a lateral move, part of a supervisor shuffle in the department. But Nichols feared her outspokenness, fueled by stress, may have contributed to it. The transfer stung.
Nichols parked outside the old Victorian house on Swiss for the last time in November 2012. Carrying a cardboard box, she walked upstairs to finish packing her office. Teary-eyed detectives stopped by one after another to say goodbye. Nichols helped them through the day’s cases, such as a 16-year-old girl on life support after an older man plied her with liquor shots. Worried that she might die, detectives wanted doctors to perform a rape kit. Nichols worked the phone, figuring out legalities with doctors and prosecutors.
“Want to approve one last case for me, Sarge?” asked Detective Emilio Henry, popping his head into her office.
“Sure,” Nichols said. “Anything for you.”
While Nichols looked over his search warrant, Henry talked about his latest victim, a girl born to a crack addict then passed around to abusive guardians. The girl looked as if she had been hit by shrapnel, with scars and scratches all over her body. The girl’s new foster mother had told the detective a story about their first Halloween together. The woman asked the girl to pick a costume. The girl thought for a minute, then her eyes lit up. She wanted to be a CPS caseworker.
“Is that the saddest shit you’ve ever heard in your life?” Henry said. “She wanted to dress up as a CPS caseworker, because they were the only people who had been nice to her.”
At 4 pm, Nichols walked out with her last box. She felt numb with loss. She had spent more time in her office than she had at home during the past seven years. She worried about herself, her detectives, about all the children. Would the new sergeant care about them as much as she had?
As Nichols drove home in the fading light, she tried to think about what she might gain by leaving the unit. She thought about all the people who had left before her, how they began to look younger in a matter of weeks. She tried to imagine never again walking onto the 11th floor of Children’s Medical Center. Never again seeing a badly beaten child. No more days and nights filled with all those broken babies.
The calls kept coming. Others would answer them now.Nine-year New Orleans Saints starter and six-time Pro Bowl guard Jahri Evans might be looking for a new home in the near future.
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Katherine Terrell of The Times-Picayune reported Monday morning that the Saints were prepared to release Evans, according to league sources, but have reached out to the guard's camp to work out a restructure.
Evans made the Pro Bowl last season. However, he is coming off one of the worst seasons of his career -- thanks in large part to a torn ligament in his wrist. The 31-year-old is scheduled to make $7.5 million in salary in bonuses and a cap hit of $11 million. With the Saints sitting about $20 million over the projected salary cap, Evans' number is too high to swallow.
Both Evans and fellow guard Ben Grubbs -- set to count $9.6 million -- could be shown the door.
The Saints have had "several talks" with Evans and his reps, per Terrell, to try and come to an agreement about his future. The Saints informed Evans' camp that an outright release is possible if a deal can't be worked out.
Evans' situation is another reminder that we are in the midst of the time in the NFL calendar when teams are scrambling to get under the salary cap before free agency begins (March 10). For many veteran players that means receiving the ultimatum: take a pay cut or get cut.
The latest Around The NFL Podcast breaks down all the latest from the combine and gives updates on Peyton Manning and Adrian Peterson. Find more Around The NFL content on NFL NOW.More than half a billion dollars in surplus lottery funds, meant for Georgia’s college students, is sitting unused in the state’s coffers even as many drop out of school, unable to afford to continue.
Top lawmakers say the reserves guarantee the stability of the state’s hallmark aid program. But some question the need for holding such a large amount, arguing it could be better used to boost college completion rates and keep student debt down.
Altogether, the state has more than $1 billion in reserves for the HOPE Scholarship and pre-K programs. Nearly $500 million is restricted to use only in the event of a funding shortfall. Beyond that, officials have quietly grown a second pot of reserve money from $160 million in 2011 to $524 million in 2016 that has no restrictions. The government could use it to give larger scholarships or grants to students in state universities, colleges and technical schools.
As that fund grew, Georgia’s university system sustained significant budget cuts and pushed more of the cost of college onto families. That helped raise student debt to record levels, and thousands of students have dropped out because of their inability to pay.
“It’s unclear to me just if there’s any strategy around that unrestricted reserve,” said Jennifer Lee, a higher education policy analyst at the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. “In law, there’s no specific direction on what this money is supposed to be used for… It’s just sitting there.”
RELATED: College debt without the degree affects students and the economy
Gov. Nathan Deal said revenue projections are crafted at the start of the year, and income may vary, depending on the economy. During the Great Recession, the state was forced to draw from HOPE reserves to pay out the merit-based scholarships.
“Depleting these funds put the program’s long-term solvency at risk. In fact, when I took office in 2011, some projections showed HOPE going bankrupt by 2013. This was not an option, and with the help of the General Assembly, we made bipartisan reforms to save the program and to ensure HOPE would remain strong for years to come,” he said.
“In order to safeguard one of the most generous scholarship programs in the nation, a robust reserve fund is critical.”
In 2015-16, the HOPE program gave out more than $612 million in aid to students. That’s down from $747.6 million in 2010-11.
In 2011, fearing a budget shortfall, the Legislature cut HOPE from covering full tuition and fees. Today, the merit scholarship covers, on average, only 65 percent of tuition and mandatory fees per semester for students enrolled for a full 15-hour course load, leaving thousands to turn to loans to make up the difference.
Universities and colleges have limited money to hand out in scholarships, and Georgia does not have a statewide needs-based aid program. The cost of earning a degree has grown beyond the reach of moderate-income families – the average yearly price tag of attending a state four-year school including living expenses is now $14,791, up 77 percent between 2006 to 2015, the state auditor says. There was no tuition increase last school year.
Those who drop out have to pay back their loans, but without a degree, finding a job in which they can earn enough to make their payments can be very difficult. Some end up in default while others manage only to pay down the interest each month.
More than 56,000 students who took out federal loans to pay for Georgia’s four-year regional, state and research universities left before earning their degree between 2013 and 2015, according to the most recent available federal data. That’s in addition to 44,000 people who ended up in the same perilous position at the mostly two-year state colleges and technical colleges. They have debt, but no degree.
Raven Searcy, a HOPE scholar with $15,000 in student loans, is trying to make her way out of this financial web. After graduating from Northside High School in Columbus, she dreamed of attending Savannah College of Art and Design, but it was too expensive. So she made what she believed was a more realistic financial choice — in 2012 she enrolled at Columbus State University. She thought she would be OK, paying her way with a HOPE scholarship, a Pell grant, loans and a part-time job at the Peachtree Mall.
“It was hard to juggle work and classes,” said Searcy, 23. “I didn’t realize how expensive it was going to be.”
Still, she did everything she was supposed to – she organized her work hours to fit her class schedule, working weekends when necessary, and kept her grades high enough to hang onto her HOPE scholarship. Students lose it if they don’t maintain a B average. Less than one-third of students who began with HOPE in 2010 still had it when they graduated.
Because of the cuts made in 2011, HOPE still left Searcy about $2,400 short per year of what she needed for tuition and fees. She dropped out after her second year to work a fulltime job at the mall and save up some money.
“I think if I could have had tuition and fees covered, I would have probably kept going,” she said. “With all those loans, it was just a lot to handle.”
Seven other states have lottery-funded college scholarship programs, and all have different policies regarding reserves. West Virginia doesn’t have a reserve fund. Arkansas requires $20 million to be set aside for a rainy day, a quarter of the amount that goes to scholarships. Tennessee gave out $311 million from its 2015-16 proceeds and keeps $110 million in reserves. Additional proceeds go to support the state’s free community college initiative.
By contrast Georgia has been squirreling away $73 million on average per year for the past five years. The legally mandated reserve has grown from $332 million to $490 million and the unrestricted reserve, not mandated by law, to half a billion dollars in that time.
Restoring HOPE to its original mission – covering full tuition and fees at University System of Georgia schools – could cost up to $227 million a year and drain the reserves quickly, based on estimates from 2015 data. But there are other, less expensive options. It would cost up to $82 million annually to cover full tuition. The cost to fully cover tuition at technical colleges would be $21 million a year, according to the state Department of Audits and Accounts.
That’s an option that Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Smyrna, who is running for governor, has been pushing. Evans agrees it’s vital to have money in reserve but questions why the state has put so much away.
“It’s our money,” said Evans. “It’s money that the state told people… we’re going to spend on education. We have all this money coming in from the lottery that we’re not using for [that] purpose.”
Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, who is also planning a run for governor, disagrees.
“I am proud to have led our state to grow Georgia’s HOPE reserves so that we will always meet the obligation made to our scholarship students,” said Cagle.
He points to Senate Bill 5, passed by the Senate but not the House, that would increase the percentage of lottery proceeds that goes to the state treasury as a way to increase funding for HOPE.
The original 1992 law creating the lottery stated that as close to 35 percent as is practical of lottery earnings should be given to the state to spend on education, but the quasi-public Georgia Lottery Corporation (GLC) hasn’t given the state 35 percent since 1997. Last year it was 25 percent.
The GLC argues that it hands out bigger prizes, which results in more tickets sold and therefore bigger revenues overall. The senate bill would require the lottery to hand over 28 percent of its proceeds by 2019, unless its ticket sales dropped by a specified amount. State Sen. Fran Millar, chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, estimates that would translate to another $80 million for HOPE over three years.
Like Gov. Deal, he said it’s important for the state to be able to keep the promises it has made to current HOPE recipients should another recession hit. “In order to be prudent, the billion is probably not a bad number for that reason.”
Government officials and residents from all sides of the political spectrum tend to agree that HOPE has made college more affordable for hundreds of thousands of Georgians. But slowing growth in lottery collections, increasing numbers of students applying to college and rising tuition meant demand for the scholarship would soon outstrip supply, so the Legislature made changes in 2011.
Among them, HOPE stopped paying for fees and covered only a percentage of tuition. In addition, the Legislature created Zell Miller scholarships which cover full tuition for state university students who have a 3.7 GPA and a 1200 SAT score or are their high school’s valedictorian or salutatorian. Zell recipients overwhelmingly attend the state’s most expensive public colleges, leaving less money for HOPE scholars.
The addition of Zell scholarships also shifted more money to middle- and upper-income students. In 2013, 58 percent of HOPE scholarships went to middle- and upper-income families, while 79 percent of Zell Miller scholarships went to this group, according to state data compiled by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.
And although black students make up about 30 percent of Georgia’s university system, only 5 percent of Zell Miller scholars are black. White students, who make up 54 percent of university students, receive about 78 percent of Zell scholarships.
Although there was widespread agreement in 2011 that HOPE needed to be fixed, the solution was put together with some haste – it was signed by the Governor 22 days after being introduced to the General Assembly.
Evans was in her first term while this was happening and vividly remembers how quickly the process went.
HOPE needed to be changed to prevent bankruptcy, but she said the legislation upended an original goal of the program: to make college more affordable for people who didn’t have the money to pay for it.
“The rewrite in 2011 was a horrible mistake overall,” she said. The Zell Miller SAT score requirement “ignores the realities of who does well on those tests and the ways you can do well on the test,” citing the use of test prep and tutoring, which can be financially prohibitive for low- and middle-income families.
Since 2011, legislation has been routinely proposed to expand the program, but it stalls. In 2013, a piece of legislation was put forward to restore HOPE to paying for full tuition. In 2015, the Senate passed a bill that would require HOPE to pay at least $2,000 per semester, but the House never voted on it. In 2017, a bill was introduced that would base HOPE award amounts on the previous year’s tuition.
“Every legislative session we’re hopeful… that there will be some measures put in to place to kind of stop the bleeding and the student loan debt crisis, but it just does not seem to be a priority for state lawmakers,” said Brandon Hanick, from Better Georgia, a left-leaning advocacy group. “In fact, nothing has been done to restore HOPE to the pre-2011 levels. That’s obviously a huge component to the student loan debt.”
The average Georgia graduate in 2015 carried loan debts of $27,754, according to the Project on Student Debt.
Meanwhile, the high cost of college continues to drive away students. Alec Harden entered Georgia State University in 2012 as a top student from Luella High School in Locust Grove. His 3.8 GPA not only earned him a HOPE scholarship, but other academic ones as well.
Still, by the end of his first year he had racked up $10,000 in loans. The prospect of taking on more debt gave him pause. In high school, he had worked part-time at a State Farm office. His old boss told him he’d hire him full-time and help him get licensed, so Harden dropped out after his first year.
“At least I’ve only ended up with $10,000 worth of debt instead of $50,000 or $60,000,” said Harden, 23. “The lesson for me is, don’t go to big universities.”
His wife, Elizabeth Harden, graduated from Southern Crescent Technical College in Griffin, and they have paid off her loans. It will take them at least five more years to get out from under Alec’s student loan.
Meanwhile, Searcy spends her days working for commission fixing and selling cellphones at a kiosk in the Peachtree Mall and trying to make a dent in her loans.
At her mom’s urging, she’s already tried to go back to school once, completing another year before withdrawing again. If HOPE were fully funded, her debt would have been cut in half.
“My mom was like, ‘You need to get back to school,’” said Searcy, smiling. “She’s seen how hard it is out here to get a job without a degree, even little jobs.
“I’m hoping I can save up money and go back in 2018. I know I need a degree…and I want to make my mom proud.”
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report in a collaboration with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Hechinger Report is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. It receives support from a variety of individuals and philanthropies and works with news organizations across the country. Learn more at hechingerreport.org.
You can read about one change to HOPE scholarships that will affect students starting this year here.5G isn't quite a thing yet. Industrial standards and the finer details are yet to be completely cemented, but that's not stopping companies with a thumb in the carrier network pie trying to show us some crazy (but awesome) ideal of future wireless... ness. Samsung's next in line, and it's been able to crank its 5G network download speeds to 940MB while stationary, which is bananas. However, the company then decided to take the testing outdoors, to the racetrack, and apparently notched download speeds of around 150MB per second, while racing around at 100KPH (roughly 62MPH). Samsung says these impressive figures are due to the high-frequency 28GHz signal used. Previously, this meant a short range, but the company says it's got around that weakness with "Hybrid Adaptive Array Technology" that boosts the range of the signal. And if that collaboration between Korea and Europe still stands, these ridiculous on-the-go speeds could well make their way outside Asia. Please. Please.Guillermo Del Toro – the Oscar-nominated director of films such as Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy, and this year’s The Shape of Water – is well known both for his dedication to the macabre and his uncompromisingly vast imagination. And it is these very qualities which Patrón sought out when they tapped the Jalisco-born visionary for a collaboration tequila and liqueur kit named after the man himself.
The striking packaging, which was designed and pored over by Del Toro, is meant to look like an intricately carved shrine paying homage to tequila as a representation of the circle of life, death, and rebirth. It even comes with a pair of votive candles meant to be used in the ritual surrounding the enjoyment of the two included unique spirits. The bottles themselves resemble a skull and skeletal torso – the former containing a 35% ABV deep and sweet liqueur and the latter a 40% ABV bright aged tequila, intended to be enjoyed together. For fans of the Mexican-born director and singular alcoholic beverages, this $399 kit is as good as it gets.
Learn More: PatrónIT WAS the 19th-century British statesman Lord Palmerston who coined the maxim that nations have no permanent friends, simply permanent interests. And rarely in recent times has that adage been so nakedly displayed as near here in the tiny Gulf petro-kingdom of Bahrain, the first place in the Middle East where the West indulged its obsession with oil.
This week, with the world distracted by Japan's mounting calamities, the remote Bahraini royals sent their armed forces into central Manana to crack the democratic heads that have reared recently in what last year was a most unlikely theatre of discord.
They were well supported by the militaries of neighbouring monarchies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain's crackdown wasn't quite Gaddafi-esque but the state brutality was cut from similar cloth. Protesters guilty only of wanting a say in how their country and its wealth is managed were cut down by the state. Many more were beaten and maimed, as they retreated to the bosom of sympathetic mosques. Bahrain's ruling house of al-Khalifa, one of the world's richest dynasties, now has blood as well as petrocarbons on its hands.
The silence from Western countries has been deafening, a marked contrast with the revulsion delivered in spades to the wacky Gaddafis further west in Libya.
Bahrain hosts the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, the armada that secures America's oil interests in the Middle East. It is just 20 kilometres across a causeway to Dhahran, the Saudi boomtown that has reasonable claims to be the world capital of Petrolistan. A short drive south of Dhahran is the Ghawar Field, the world's most abundant oil deposit by some measure. Ghawar accounts for about half the oil output of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, which exports most of it to the US.“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
~ George Orwell, Animal Farm
A few days after bombs ripped apart two apartment buildings Moscow, residents of Ryazan — a town 100 miles southeast of the Capital City — were alarmed to find several suspicious-looking figures loitering near a 13-story apartment complex. After police arrived on the scene they extracted three large sugar sacks from the high-rise. An examination of the sacks found that they contained hexagen — the same high-yield explosive that had been used in the Moscow terrorist bombings just a few days earlier.
The police arrested two of the mysterious strangers, who immediately produced credentials issued by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB. Within a few hours high-ranking FSB officials intervened to free their operatives, claiming that they had been involved in an innocuous “training exercise.”
“This was not a bomb,” insisted then-FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev. “The exercise may not have been carried out well, but it was only a test, and the so-called explosive was only sacks of sugar.”
There was at least one lapse in efficiency on the part of the FSB: The agency neglected to retrieve the detonator, which remained in the custody of the local police. Leaving aside the fact that tests had confirmed the presence of hexagen inside the “dummy” bomb, Patrushev didn’t explain why the FSB would attach a genuine detonator to phony explosives. Nor did he explain why the Security Organs insisted on collecting the “sugar sacks” and keeping them under armed guard at a nearby military base.
Patrushev’s account didn’t satisfy one of the paratroopers given that peculiar assignment. The soldier smuggled a small sample collected from one of the sacks to a laboratory, and the resulting analysis confirmed that the substance was hexagen, not sucrose.
The Ryazan “training exercise” took place on September 22, 1999. During the previous two weeks, hundreds of people had died in the Moscow apartment bombings. The FSB, acting with what could charitably be called indecent haste, destroyed both of those crime scenes before critical evidence could be collected.
Shortly thereafter, six Chechen separatists (five of them in absentia) were accused of plotting the terrorist rampage. Invoking the need to avenge the innocent dead, Moscow carried out a punitive invasion of Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim province whose population has long sought independence from Russia.
Animal Farm George Orwell Best Price: $0.88 Buy New $7.98 (as of 02:45 EST - Details)
This series of events struck many in Russia as bit too tidy. In a house editorial published the day before the “training exercise” in Ryazan, the Moscow Times observed that “the bombed-out shell of the apartment block on Ulitsa Guryanova was destroyed in a controlled implosion, reducing to rubble the remains of the building and irreparably buying beneath it any remaining traces of evidence — just ten days after the explosion. Workers at Kashirskoye Shosse, meanwhile, began clearing the rubble from the site as early as September 13 — the day of the bombing.”
As the Times pointed out, the FSB’s insistence that the case had been “solved” was impossible to reconcile with the fact that “untold traces of chemical residue, fingerprints, technical fragments, [and] hair and DNA samples that were present at the [bombing] sites are now irrevocably lost.”
“Is this ignorance?” asked the Times. “In the capital city of a country where the current Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, was once its top security official, the assumption sells the FSB short. The Federal Security Service has the equipment, the know-how and political clout required to perform a proper investigation.”
Imputing guilt to shadowy Chechen separatists “has proved both viable and convenient for federal authorities,” the Times observed. “Are they playing it safe and making sure no other options show up?”
The case made by the Moscow Times was skeletal and circumstantial; the discovery of the FSB’s abortive apartment bombing -cum -“training exercise” on the following day put some substantive flesh on the bones of that theory. A few months later the “theory” was fleshed out even further when former Russian Prime Minister (and career KGB officer) Sergei Stepashin disclosed that the invasion of Chechnya that took place subsequent to the bombings “had been worked out in March,” and that the military campaign “had to happen even if there were no explosions in Moscow.”
The London Independent, which published Stepashin’s accusations, noted that they were an admission against interest, since the former Russian Prime Minister “played a central role in organizing the military build-up before the invasion” — and would thus be morally and legally liable for his role in the criminal conspiracy.
When we review those events in Russia from more than a decade ago, it’s difficult not to see parallels to the federally controlled “terrorist plots” that figure so prominently in the official narrative of the Homeland Security State ruling America today.
There are at least two significant differences, however. First, the FSB prefers to plant real bombs, rather than the dummy devices favored by its American counterpart, the FBI. Second, at least some local police and media organs in post-Soviet Russia, unlike their counterparts in America, have achieved a measure of independence from central government control. Although they are ruled by a gangster state, many Russians display an admirable cynicism regarding official fictions, an attitude Americans must acquire in a hurry if we want to arrest our descent into unalloyed totalitarianism.
Six years before he blew the whistle on the FSB’s false flag bombing campaign in Moscow, Sergei Stepashin played a significant role in a key event in the development of America’s police state apparatus: On July 4, 1994, while Stepashin was head of the FSB, he signed a cooperation pact with FBI Director Louis Freeh.
The Mighty Wurlitzer:... Hugh Wilford Best Price: $13.15 Buy New $17.77 (as of 05:10 EST - Details)
The agreement, which was signed at the Lubyanka Square headquarters of the KGB, envisioned close collaboration between Russian and American secret police in combating terrorism and international organized crime — that is, unsanctioned use of the same criminal means employed by the political elites that control those security organs. Thus it should hardly come as a surprise to see a strong similarity in the priorities that govern those secret police agencies, or the methods they employ in the service of official fictions. This family resemblance has been displayed to good advantage by two recent terrorism-related cases in the state of Oregon.
Stalin’s regime made an official hero out of Pavlik Morozov, the Ukrainian child who betrayed his father to the secret police. In the case of Mohamad Mohamud, the Somali-born U.S. citizen cast as the patsy in the FBI’s most recent pseudo-terrorism plot, the roles were reversed, with the father of the 19-year-old Oregon resident calling the political police to express concerns about his son’s political and religious views.
At the time, Mohamud hadn’t done anything that could be defined as a criminal act by even the most emancipated definition. This changed after the young man was radicalized by two specialists from the FBI’s vast and experienced corps of professional provocateurs, who successfully engineered a supposed terrorist plot and manipulated Mohamud into triggering what he was told was a powerful explosive device at a Christmas tree lighting in Portland.
"Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale," intoned FBI Special Agent Arthur Balizan, who gets the “Producer” credit for the most recent Homeland Security melodrama. "At the same time, I want to reassure the people of this community that, at every turn, we denied him the ability to actually carry out the attack.”
Even the Devil can cite scripture to his purpose, and even a Fed is capable of telling an isolated truth in the service of a larger lie. Balizan was entirely correct in saying that the FBI “denied” Mohamud the ability to carry out an attack, because the Bureau — following a familiar and tiresome script — supplied both the motivation and the means for this plot, once a suitable stooge had been identified.
Balizan insists that nobody was ever in danger as a result of the Bureau’s most recent charade. While it’s true that those who assembled in Pioneer Courthouse Square for the Christmas event were never in peril, the same can’t be said for those who attend the Salman al-Farisi Islamic Center, where Mohamud occasionally joined in worship services. Shortly after the FBI closed the trap into which it had lured Mohamud, the Muslim house of worship was the target of an arson attack — a bit of blow-back that was both eminently predictable and entirely useful to the FBI’s purposes.
The evidence presented in the FBI affidavit offers no reason to believe that Mohamud intended to harm anyone before he fell under the influence of two undercover operatives from the Bureau’s Homeland Security theater troupe.
Court-authorized surveillance of the teenager’s e-mail suggested that Mohamud was in touch with someone residing in northwest Pakistan, “an area known to harbor terrorists.” The affiant, FBI Special Agent Ryan Dwyer, recounts that Mohamud and his correspondent “communicated regularly, and in December 2009 I believe, using coded language” — presumably understood only by the wise and perceptive people employed by the Bureau — “they discussed the possibility of Mohamud traveling to Pakistan to prepare for violent jihad.”
Mohamud allegedly tried to contact another Muslim radical to make travel plans, but sent his e-mails to an inoperative address. Shortly thereafter, an FBI undercover operative contacted Mohamud and did what a federal operative will always do in such cases: He acted as a “terrorism facilitator” (a term actually used by a federal prosecutor in an earlier FBI-orchestrated plot), carefully nourishing whatever spark of potential radicalism he found in his subject.
This is the same template from which the FBI has created dozens or scores of ersatz terrorist plots. There is one critical and telling detail in this case that distinguishes it from the others: Prior to being approached by the FBI’s provocation squad, Mohamud attempted to travel to Alaska to work at a legitimate job, but was prevented from doing so when the Feds — who had him under surveillance — put him on a no-fly list. The teenager was then approached by a covert FBI operative who “hired” him to carry out a terrorist attack, providing the unemployed young man with $3,000 in cash.
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, she decided to file a complaint within the university. Doe, who was denied a chance to consult an attorney, was found "responsible" by the university because he could not prove his accuser consented.
Even as laws and regulations embracing affirmative consent proliferate, both judges and legal scholars -- many of them women -- express concern that this standard runs fundamentally counter to the presumption of innocence. To compound the problem, no one seems to know exactly what constitutes a "knowing, voluntary and mutual decision" to have sex, as required by the New York law, or what evidences such a decision.
The law states that "consent can be given by words or actions" expressing clear agreement to sexual activity. Yet in actual campus hearings, actions such as kissing a partner who initiates sex have been treated as insufficient. And consent workshops on campuses teach male students to perform periodic "Are you sure this is OK?" checkups during sexual activity -- which seems to reflect a stunningly patronizing assumption that a woman cannot say no without prompting from a man.
The issue of alcohol is equally murky. We can all agree that an incapacitated person cannot consent to sex; but does intoxication invalidate consent even if someone can walk, talk and text? Some colleges essentially openly embrace a double standard in which, if a man and a woman are equally intoxicated, only the man is responsible. Cuomo's remarks, which presume that all victims of sexual assault are women, suggest the same.
Yes, campus sexual assault is a real problem. However, affirmative consent gives us sexism masquerading as feminism and denial of due process masquerading as student rights. Enough is enough, indeed.4.6
Jul 04, 2013 2:57 pm
http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/04/xbox-one-built-with-advertising-in-mind-kinect-integral-to-next-gen-adverts/
Xbox One was designed with advertising in mind, members of the Xbox Live advertising team have confirmed.Speaking with StickTwiddlers, a number of Microsoft staffers in the Xbox Live advertising division have shed light on the lessons learned through Xbox 360 adverts, and how this will be applied in Xbox One. It also places Kinect as a key part of the strategy.Confirming that Kinect will use voice and facial recognition to tailor adverts on your console, one unnamed technical account manager said, “With the new Xbox One, the technology and Kinect has improved a lot, so that actually the voice recognition, the way you speak to your Xbox and the transition between gaming and watching TV is a lot smoother, and hopefully we can transpire [sic] that into advertising that we do.”The strategy goes hand-in-hand with Microsoft’s ‘Nuads’ campaign, which resulted in adverts that housed interactive polls, as a way of making users feel like they were participating in adverts, rather than absorbing them passively.The Microsoft employee added that Nuads, “transform passive TV advertising into something interactive, immersive, and actionable, redefining the relationship between consumers and brands with amazing new advertising opportunities”.While this might all sound intrusive and that Kinect is spying on users to sell them products, one of the Microsoft employees stressed that the company does not want the technology and its customers to be abused. However, the volume of data captured by Microsoft and advertisers via Kinect is said to be significantly lower than the information recorded by game developers.“This sort of works at two levels,” the Microsoft employee added. “There’s the game producers who have a different API, so a different set of code and system that they use, and they’ve got a lot more control of the whole thing, whereas from the advertising point of view we have a slightly more limited set, which is designed to protect the user. The company is very keen on protecting the user from any sort of abuse so we can’t do certain things.”Because Microsoft is wanting to move Xbox One into the living room of families using Kinect, the device can – for example – recognise when there are many people in a room, and target adverts to families and people of varying ages.Microsoft’s Senior Digital Art Director/UX Designer explained, “Xbox is moving more outside of the bedroom. We’re seeing much, much more people use it in living rooms where there is family, friends, there is lots going on, so there is a context of perceiving the content.“It’s not like when you’re at work when you sit in front of a screen and your experience is very personal. But with Xbox, it’s lots of people in front of once big screen. They are playing or watching together and advertising is being consumed in a totally different way.”They added, “On Xbox, the ad is part of the actual experience, it’s not something that is outside. The only difference is that the advertisement we have is quite small and not disruptive so people are not aware of clicking on the banners because they know this is a part of the whole experience on the dash.“So the users know that this is something that when they click on it, they won’t be hit by something crazy or something dangerous like on the web. Everything that lands there, we create.”One source called the development of adverts for Xbox One “exciting”, because, “the 360 console wasn’t built with advertising in mind, it was more of an afterthought, so we’ve had to adapt to the technology and how we work to fit them in to the console, whereas this new one is going to have advertising in mind.“So a lot of the limitations that we have now, hopefully the release of the boundaries will widened so the opportunities will be a lot greater.”What do you make of Microsoft’s attempts to target adverts to players using Kinect? Let us know below.Information Floyd Landis recently gave to the United States Anti-Doping Agency about how cyclists have and still are getting around the biological passport analysis system could have an immediate impact on the sport, according to at least two people with direct knowledge of the system.
Michael Ashenden, a Australian exercise physiologist and blood doping researcher who sits on the nine-man independent panel that reviews biological passport data for UCI (cycling's international governing body), and Dr. Don Catlin, an anti-doping researcher who pioneered methods for steroid detection, both told ESPN.com that Landis' information could be crucial in understanding how cyclists try to beat the system.
That biological passport, which monitors blood values and urine samples over time in order to build evidence of blood manipulation and is financed in large part by the sport's elite tier of teams, was put into place to supplement traditional drug testing.
Yet according to Landis, teams and riders with enough monetary resources and sophisticated medical advice knew how to circumvent the biological passport even before its official implementation in 2007.
Landis told ESPN.com last week that during the two or three years leading up to his 2006 Tour de France victory -- subsequently nullified after he tested positive for synthetic testosterone -- he and some of his fellow riders combined strategically timed transfusions and microdoses of EPO (erythropoietin, a red blood cell booster) in order to keep their blood values constant rather than spiking and dipping.
The main difference between their methodology and that of riders in the 1990s, Landis said, was riders of his era learned to inject EPO intravenously rather than subcutaneously, as a cancer patient or someone with another grave illness would do.
When EPO is injected under the skin, it is absorbed first into soft tissue and released into the bloodstream gradually, prolonging its therapeutic effects. Injecting EPO intravenously has the same effect of boosting red blood cell count and improving oxygen processing capacity. However, the drug disperses more quickly in the bloodstream and thus becomes undetectable sooner -- especially if riders dilute their blood with an intravenous drip of saline solution or simply by drinking a lot of water after injecting it.
Roughly speaking, the biological passport is designed to catch riders who cheat based on fluctuations in their baseline blood values. One fundamental element is the ratio of their "young" or new red blood cells, called reticulocytes, compared with mature cells. When an athlete transfuses his own blood, the body responds by slowing down production of reticulocytes. Landis said riders brought the level of red blood cell production back to normal by microdosing with EPO during races on a nightly basis..
AVEDA DAYSPA IN AMSTERDAM
Once I stepped into Aveda Dayspa, I could already feel the relaxed vibe. The white and brown colors of this spa just gives you that relaxed feeling including the calm music that was playing. Once I stepped into Aveda Dayspa, I could already feel the relaxed vibe. The white and brown colors of this spa just gives you that relaxed feeling including the calm music that was playing.
At the lounge area Marjolein explained how the stress-fix massage treatment will be, if I had any areas where she should put extra focus on and I had to fill in a short questionnaire. The questionnaire has questions about my skin type, hair type and my current mood. The results of this questionnaire would determine which aroma would suit me the most at that moment. Different aroma's will give a different feeling. Since I'm pretty stressed lately because of my work and blog I had an aroma including ingredients like lavender (works with stress) and lavandin (works with sore muscles). I have an office job so I asked them to put more focus on my neck and shoulders.
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Once I stepped into the room I could already smell the lavender scent. For the treatment they used products of their stress-fix line only. I had a nice foot scrub and foot massage to begin with. While I was laying on the massage bed, I was surrounded by the lovely aroma and my body and mind started to relax. She asked me to clear up my mind during the treatment - while my head kept thinking about writing articles and my next appointment where I had to be, can you imagine how hard it is to think about nothing? Well, eventually I was able to. She used
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After the treatment I had another chat with Marjolein and she asked if I enjoyed the treatment and I absolutely did. Since my hair was full with oil (which was used to massage my scalp), she washed my hair as well, so in the end I left with a clear mind, fresh & styled hair - LOVED IT! Now lets move on to the giveaway shall we ….
Once I was inside she led me to the lounge area where I enjoyed a cup of Aveda tea. It's their signature comforting tea which is 100% certified organic blend and it does not contain caffeine, sugar or added flavors. I even have this tea at home and I love it a lot, since it gives me a calm feeling after drinking it.At the lounge area Marjolein explained how the stress-fix massage treatment will be, if I had any areas where she should put extra focus on and I had to fill in a short questionnaire. The questionnaire has questions about my skin type, hair type and my current mood. The results of this questionnaire would determine which aroma would suit me the most at that moment. Different aroma's will give a different feeling. Since I'm pretty stressed lately because of my work and blog I had an aroma including ingredients like lavender (works with stress) and lavandin (works with sore muscles). I have an office job so I asked them to put more focus on my neck and shoulders.Once I stepped into the room I could already smell the lavender scent. For the treatment they used products of their stress-fix line only. I had a nice foot scrub and foot massage to begin with. While I was laying on the massage bed, I was surrounded by the lovely aroma and my body and mind started to relax. She asked me to clear up my mind during the treatment -Well, eventually I was able to. She used the composition and cleansing oil and massaged my whole body. Oh my, I couldn't really remember the last time that I felt so relaxed. My muscles felt loose as well. The 60 minutes flew by...After the treatment I had another chat with Marjolein and she asked if I enjoyed the treatment and I absolutely did. Since my hair was full with oil (which was used to massage my scalp), she washed my hair as well, so in the end I left with a clear mind, fresh & styled hair - LOVED IT! Now lets move on to the giveaway shall we ….
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GIVEAWAY
CLICK ON THE PICTURE BELOW AND FOLLOW THE 3 STEPS AND JOIN!
People who joined via the widget, don't worry i will count you in ;).
note: this is a sponsored treatment and giveaway, read my disclaimer. pictures are from aveda.
I recently went to the launch event for the new Aveda stress-fix products. During the event I met Marjolein de Swart, who is the owner of Aveda Dayspa in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She invited me to her shop, gave a short tour and I even had the chance to experience one of her treatments - the Stress-Fix Massage Treatment. Read my review about it in today's post and I have a small surprise at the end of the post, that's right… I'm giving a treatment away!Before I start about the giveaway I would like to share the address and contact information.Address:Laan der Hesperiden 901076 DX Amsterdam ZuidTelephone: 020 794 93 66Open every day, even on SundayWebsite: www.dayspa.nl Facebook page: Aveda Dayspa This treatment is worth €98.-, pretty expensive I would say, but I think it's ok to treat yourself, your friend or family member once in a while. This might be the chance! Join my giveaway below and everybody who joins will have 10% OFF on a treatment at your choice. You will all get an e-mail afterwards. But that's not only it, if the Aveda Dayspa Facebook Page reaches more than 529 likes, we will be giving away one stress-fix treatment! So the winner will get the exact same treatment that I had. Make sure to share this giveaway on your Facebook page or other social media page so we will reach that number more easily. You do need to be in The Netherlands to be able to join this giveaway. New as well as old followers may join this giveaway.Former Dundee United footballers David Goodwillie and David Robertson were ruled to be rapists and ordered to pay £100,000 damages today despite never facing a criminal trial.
A mother-of-one, who was left “devastated” by a Crown decision not to prosecute, sued striker Goodwillie and his then United colleague Robertson, claiming that they raped her at a flat in Armadale, in West Lothian, after a night out in nearby Bathgate.
The incident happened just hours after both players appeared for United in their 1-1 draw at Aberdeen on New Year’s Day 2011. Goodwillie scored a last-minute equaliser in the game.
The woman said she could not remember what had happened since she was in a Bathgate bar until she woke up in the strange flat the following morning.
The 30-year-old originally sought £500,000 in compensation, but damages were later agreed £100,000 in the civil action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.
The woman maintained that she was incapable of giving free agreement to sex because of her alcohol consumption, but Goodwillie (27) who now plays with Plymouth Argyle, and Robertson claimed that intercourse had been consensual.
A judge said: “Having carefully examined and scrutinised the whole evidence in the case, I find the evidence of the pursuer (the woman) to be cogent, persuasive and compelling.”
Lord Armstrong said: “In the result, therefore, I find that in the early hours of Sunday January2 2011, at the flat in Greig Crescent, Armadale, both defenders [the footballers] took advantage of the pursuer when she was vulnerable through an excessive intake of alcohol and, because her cognitive functioning and decision making processes were so impaired, was incapable of giving meaningful consent; and that they each raped her.”
The judge said that he found neither Goodwillie nor Robertson to be credible or reliable on the issue of whether they had a reasonable or honest belief that she was consenting.
He rejected evidence relied on by the players that the woman was not particularly affected by alcohol and was no more drunk than anyone else in the company they had been in that night.
Lord Armstrong there was evidence of flirtation between the woman and Robertson earlier in the evening, but the judge added: “The mere fact of sexual attraction does not preclude rape.”
The judge said of former Blackburn Rovers and Aberdeen striker Goodwillie: “The first defender was not an impressive witness. Particularly in relation to his assessment of the pursuer’s condition, his evidence was given with a view to his own interests rather than in accordance with the oath which he had taken. I did not find his evidence to be persuasive.”
Lord Armstrong said: “Like the first defender, I assessed the second defender as a witness who was being selective as to what he was prepared to tell the court and whose evidence, directed as it was entirely to his own interests, was partial and partisan.”
“He did not present as a witness who was being entirely candid. On the significant issues arising in the case, I did not find his evidence to be credible or reliable,” he said.
Lord Armstrong said that prior to the incident the woman had enjoyed life, but her life changed following the decision not to proceed with a prosecution.
She was told by Crown Office in July that year that they were not going ahead with criminal proceedings.
Lord Armstrong said: “She found that decision difficult to understand and had felt that she had not been believed.”
“She felt that her life had been destroyed by something which had happened although, because of her lack of memory, she was not fully aware of what it was that had caused that effect,” he said.
She had experienced suicidal thoughts and it was only last year that she felt comfortable forming an intimate relationship again.
Lord Armstrong said: “She maintained emphatically that she would never voluntarily have had sexual intercourse with two men simultaneously, and that she had never ever done that before. As she put it, she would never ever agree to do that.”
The judge said the woman’s memory loss was best explained by “the phenomenon of alcoholic blackout”.
He said that on the basis of expert evidence, eyewitness testimony and forensic findings of the woman’s blood alcohol level he held that during the period the woman was in the flat she “lacked the level of cognitive functioning necessary to make reasoned decisions and consequently lacked the ability to give meaningful consent by free agreement”.
It was only in the weeks after the rape that the woman knew with certainty that intercourse had taken place after DNA evidence was obtained from swabs taken from her.
The woman told the court that she had given a statement to the Crown in May 2011 and said: “It was set to go to court.”
But she was later informed there was to be no prosecution and said: “I kind of felt like they didn’t believe me, but I was really quite confused, upset…….I was actually devastated.”
During her evidence, which was given in a court closed to the public like a rape trial in the High Court, she said she was later awarded criminal injuries compensation.
She said that she had found herself naked and in pain after the incident at a flat in Greig Crescent, in nearby Armadale.
She said she had gone out for the evening for a drink with a friend on New Year’s Day in 2011 but had no recollection of leaving a pub for a nightclub in Bathgate.
She remembered waking the next morning in strange surroundings and said: “I seemed to be running about the house in a panic. I ran into every single room to see if I could make sense of my surroundings.”
Her counsel, Simon Di Rollo QC, asked her what she was wearing and she replied: “Nothing. I was naked, but I didn’t realise that until I was in the kitchen.”
She said: “I just felt sore. I felt sore inside as if something had happened to me, but I couldn’t say what it was. I felt a lot of pain inside.”
“I kind of thought something must have happened to me but I had no idea what. I didn’t know where I was,” she said.
She saw two women and asked where she was and was told it was Greig Crescent and that she was in Armadale.
Contact was made with a brother to come and get her. She told the court: “I didn’t know if someone was coming for me.”
The woman said she found articles of her clothing in the flat “stuffed down” the side of a bed. She added: “My pants were never recovered.”
Before the rape she had gone out with a friend to The James Young bar in Bathgate drinking Jack Daniels and coke, before moving onto the Glenmavis Tavern, known as Smiths, where Robertson was. She later went on to Chalmers nightclub but had no recollection of it and no memory of anything significant until the following morning.
Goodwillie had gone to join Robertson in Bathagte after the pair had played for Dundee United against Aberdeen on January 1 during which he scored an equaliser. He maintained that he did not think the woman was too drunk to consent to sex.
But a security firm employee working at the nightclub told the court that the woman was in need of an ambulance.
Gayle McGregor said: “She wasn’t in control of herself. Her eyes were rolling in her head. She couldn’t stand up straight. She couldn’t speak to me properly. She wasn’t compos mentis.”
In the action it was said the players offered her a lift home in a taxi, but the driver was requested to drop all three at the flat in Armadale.Mitt Romney was at his amiable, elder-statesman-like best as he was interviewed recently on Fox News Sunday. Romney’s characteristic moderation was in evidence in addressing recent controversies surrounding religious freedom laws in Indiana and Arkansas, both cases in which Republican governors felt the need to call for fixes to the work of Republican legislatures. Romney provided a nice capsule of the emerging moderate orthodoxy on this question: Religious freedom is fundamental for Americans, and so is nondiscrimination; therefore, wisdom consists in giving each of these fundamental principles its due.
This is an attractive formula, and it may indeed be the best that can be managed in the present political and social climate. But the terms of this settlement should give pause to anyone who examines them carefully. For is “nondiscrimination” really a fundamental principle on a par with religious freedom? And, for that matter, do we even know what “nondiscrimination” means, or what it implies and portends?
To be sure, “religious freedom” itself is a far from unambiguous term, but its status as our “first freedom,” both chronologically and logically, is clear enough. As I argued in a previous column (drawing upon a speech by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia), the freedom of churches (and not merely of private, individual “consciences”) is essential to limiting the state, because they nourish our awareness of an authority higher than any human power.
If the imperative of “nondiscrimination” now seems also to have a sacred status, this is clearly owing to its association with the noble struggle against cruel racial prejudice, a stain on our nation's honor inherited from our original sin of slavery. This most worthy cause has decisively marked our contemporary political sensibilities and now provides the definitive template for the progressive understanding of moral and political action. It thus suffices to classify a political or social interest as a replay of the great movement for civil rights in order to guarantee its moral bona fides and to insulate it from critical examination.
The “logic” of this ideology is simple enough: It was wrong to discriminate against African-Americans — so wrong that it was right to use the force of the federal government to prevent such discrimination, and this includes not only on the part of government but also that committed by private parties; and so now it follows that it is right to use whatever social and governmental means may be necessary to suppress anything anyone succeeds in naming “discrimination.”
Once this logic of the high principle of “nondiscrimination” is unpacked, I trust it is obvious that this cannot be good news for our erstwhile First Freedom. We should first note that “discrimination” has not always been a bad word. In fact, to discriminate is to distinguish, or to discern relevant differences; discrimination is thus coeval with reasoning. Moral reasoning, in particular, requires judgment and therefore “discrimination”; notably, it requires judgment between good and evil, noble and base, right and wrong. Christianity’s genius lies in part in leaving final judgment to God, but it in no way eliminates the need for moral judgment; on the contrary, the Christian religion gives the weight of eternity to fundamental moral judgments or discriminations. Notable among these judgments are those that concern sexual morality and the constitution of the family. It follows that the emerging regime of “nondiscrimination” as the highest moral and political principle is ultimately incompatible with religious freedom for Christians.
Of course we live in a “pluralist” society, which is to say a society in which fundamental principles are contested, and in which consensus is hard to achieve. But this is to state the problem and not to provide a solution. For those progressives who embrace “nondiscrimination” as the highest moral-political principle (and their influence exceeds their considerable numbers), a live-and-let-live policy will never be enough. For them, the Christian owners of a small pizza shop preferring not to cater a same-sex “wedding” is the moral equivalent of a “white only” drinking fountain or a back-of-the-bus section for “negroes.”
No matter that to compare the circumstances of African-Americans in 1950, disadvantaged in a hundred ways and persecuted from all sides, to a gay couple being turned down by one pizza shop in 2015 is obviously a stretch; the question disappears as soon as one assents to the fundamental principle of “nondiscrimination.” That many today not only disagree with the pizza owners, but are eager to use the power of government to crush them, should remind us that all fervent religions, including that of “nondiscrimination,” will have their victims.Occupying The Nation's Attention, If Not Its Cities
toggle caption Win McNamee/Getty Images
Most of the tents are gone, the parks are empty and nearly 99 percent of Occupy Wall Street's 99 percenters have gone home.
But even as the occupation enters a denouement, the nationwide movement sparked in September can claim a huge victory in the battle of ideas. Occupy has spoken, and Americans have listened.
Subjects that were largely taboo on Wall Street, Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue just six months ago have moved to center stage. Higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Capping the cost of higher education. Corporate greed.
It's difficult to imagine, even a few years ago, that politicians on both sides of the aisle would be talking about inequality in the United States.
"There's a better than reasonable chance that we are at this turning point in American life and American politics," says David Meyer, a sociology professor at the University of California, Irvine, and author of the book The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America.
Casting A Long Shadow
Nationwide, the familiar tent cities have mostly vanished — with protesters either leaving of their own accord or being forced out by police — and rallies that once attracted tens of thousands of people now draw hundreds.
New York City's Zuccotti Park, where the movement began, is quiet. Even in Oakland, Calif., where 400 Occupy protesters were arrested earlier this week, crowds have shrunk to perhaps a few thousand from the 50,000 that demonstrators claimed in October.
Even though its physical presence has dwindled, Occupy's message is likely to help shape the debate on fairness in America for some time to come, and have a direct impact on the 2012 presidential election.
President Obama obliquely referred to the Occupy movement in last week's State of the Union address when he talked about the need for economic fairness and the "98 percent of American families" who make less than $250,000 a year. In the Republican response, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said the United States could not be "a nation of haves and have-nots; we must always be a nation of haves and soon-to-haves."
Such sentiments existed before Occupy, but the protests crystallized them, says Deana Rohlinger, sociology professor at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Americans And The Wealth Gap A recent survey of 2,048 adults found a substantial increase since 2009 in the number of people who believe there are "very strong" or "strong" conflicts between the rich and the poor.
"It's difficult to imagine, even a few years ago, that politicians on both sides of the aisle would be talking about inequality in the United States," she says. "In terms of shaping the political discourse, this has had a huge effect."
Politicians are simply channeling a greater awareness of these issues, according to Dannagal Young, a professor at the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication who has been researching how the public perceives the Occupy Wall Street movement.
While there's a pretty even split on whether the protests are perceived as a good or bad thing, "a large proportion [of people]... know a lot about what Occupy Wall Street is all about," she says.
A New National Conversation
A Pew Research Center survey published earlier this month found that about two-thirds of Americans believe there are "strong" to "very strong" conflicts between rich and poor, up from less than half two years ago.
Young says that for all the talk about Occupy Wall Street protesters being gangs of anarchist youths, they have filled a very mainstream function in the public discourse. "They've caused a national conversation about wealth and political clout," she says. "If you are working within a representative democracy, that is the first step."
That conversation has resonated in some unlikely places. Republicans, who have excoriated Obama for fomenting what they see as "class warfare," now find themselves debating issues of wealth in their own primaries. Front-running multimillionaire Mitt Romney has had to defend himself against what he called "the politics of envy."
The shift in the dialogue on inequality might be broader than the political moment, observers agree. There's a long tradition in the U.S. of the two main parties absorbing big ideas that started out on the fringes of politics.
"What savvy politicians do is they appropriate these ideas for their own purposes," Rohlinger says.
Meyer, of UC Irvine, notes that successful movements strengthen the spine of politicians disposed to agree with them. "They give incentives for being a little bolder and a little more aggressive in pursuing policies that [those politicians] probably want to pursue anyway," he says.
The movement has even spawned its first national political candidate: Politico reported last week that Nathan Kleinman, a 29-year-old member of Occupy Philadelphia, is planning to run for Congress in Pennsylvania's 13th District against the Democratic incumbent.
But Meyer says a foray into politics could be precarious for Occupy, as it has been for the Tea Party.
"As the Tea Party has gotten involved almost exclusively in electoral politics, it's not as visible," he says. "And what are the chances that the Republican Party will nominate a candidate that looks remotely like what the Tea Party is? Miniscule."
The Youth Factor
Occupy's message also may have staying power because it has managed to galvanize a once-famously apathetic American youth.
While the movement's demographic is far broader than disaffected 20-somethings, Young of the University of Delaware thinks Occupy has likely had the biggest impact on that constituency.
"Suddenly, they see that politics is not just a spectator sport, it isn't just something that happens in the black box in my living room," she says. "For the first time, it's pulled them into the national discussion."As you read these words, the air’s molecules are zipping around you at 2,000 miles per hour, faster than a speeding bullet, and bombarding you from all sides. Meanwhile the atoms and molecules that make up your body incessantly tumble, vibrate or collide with one another. Nothing in nature is ever perfectly still, and the faster things go, the more energy they carry; the collective energy of atoms and molecules is what we call, and feel as, heat.
Even though total stillness, corresponding to the temperature of absolute zero, is physically impossible, scientists have edged ever closer to that ultimate limit. In such extreme realms, weird quantum effects begin to manifest themselves and to produce new and unusual states of matter. In particular, cooling gaseous clouds of atoms—as opposed to matter in the liquid or solid state—to a small fraction of a degree above absolute zero has enabled researchers to observe matter particles behaving as waves, to create the most precise measuring instruments in history, and to build the most accurate atomic clocks.
The drawback of these atom-cooling techniques is that they are applicable to only a few of the elements in the periodic table, limiting their usefulness. For example, hydrogen, the simplest of all atoms, was for a long time extremely challenging to cool. Now, however, my research group has demonstrated a new cooling method that works on most elements and on many types of molecules as well.
My inspiration: James Clerk Maxwell’s Victorian-era thought experiment. This great Scottish physicist theorized the possibility of a “demon” that seemed able to violate the rules of thermodynamics.
The newfound capability will open directions in basic research and lead to a wide range of practical uses. For example, variants on the technique may lead to processes for purifying rare isotopes that have important uses in medicine and in basic research. Another spin-off might be an increase in the precision of nanoscale fabrication methods that are used to make computer chips. On the science side, cooling atoms and molecules may enable researchers to explore the no-man’s-zone between quantum physics and ordinary chemistry or to uncover possible differences in behavior between matter and antimatter. And supercooling hydrogen and its isotopes could help small laboratories to answer questions in fundamental physics of the type that have traditionally required huge experiments such as those at particle accelerators.
Racing Bullets
Stopping and manipulating atoms and molecules is no easy feat. In a typical experiment, researchers begin by producing a rarefied gas of a certain chemical element by heating up a solid or vaporizing one with a laser. The gas must then be slowed, confined in a vacuum chamber and kept away from its walls.
I started out with a time-honored trick. More than 40 years ago chemists found out that at a pressure of several atmospheres, gas escaping through a small hole into a vacuum undergoes significant cooling as it expands. Remarkably these “supersonic beams” are nearly monoenergetic, meaning that the speeds of molecules will all be very close to the average: for example, if a beam comes out at 2,000 miles per hour, molecules in it will deviate from that speed by at most 20 mph. By comparison, air molecules at room temperature, with an average speed of 2,000 mph, can have speeds anywhere between 0 and 4,000 mph. What that means, from the thermodynamic point of view, is that the beam, despite having a substantial amount of energy, is extremely cold. Think of it this way: an observer traveling with the beam at 2,000 mph would see molecules moving so slow that the beam’s temperature would be just one 100th of a degree above absolute zero!
I realized that if my collaborators and I could slow down and stop such a beam while preserving the small spread in velocity, we could end up with a rather cold bunch of atoms that we could then trap and cool down even further.
To achieve that goal, my group started working with supersonic beams in 2004, together with Uzi Even, a chemist at Tel Aviv University. Our first attempt was to build a rotor with blades moving, at their edges, at half the speed as the supersonic gas beam. We aimed pulses from the beam at the rotor’s receding blades in such a way that the beam’s velocity would precisely cancel out with that of the blades. When the gas atoms bounced off the rotor, the rotor took all the kinetic energy out of them, just as a receding tennis racket can bring a ball to rest.
That setup, however, was difficult to work with because it required extreme fine-tuning. Robert Hebner, director of the Center for Electromechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, suggested a different design: bounce the gas off the back of a projectile as the projectile races down a coilgun. A coilgun is an experimental weapon that pushes magnetized projectiles out the barrel of a gun with magnetic fields rather than gunpowder. It works by accelerating the bullet through a series of wire coils that have electric current running through them, creating magnetic fields. The bullet, which is essentially a bar magnet, is attracted to the center of the coil it is passing through. An approaching bullet is thus accelerated by attractive forces. Once the bullet passes the center, on the other hand, the forces would start to pull it back and thus slow it down to its original speed. But the current in each coil is switched off precisely at the moment the projectile crosses its center, so that the magnetic forces always push the projectile in the right direction—down the barrel.
I quickly realized that we could apply Hebner’s idea but get rid of the bullet altogether. Instead we would use the same principle on the beam itself, though in reverse: rather than accelerating a bullet, the coils of the gun would act in this case directly on the gas molecules, bringing them to rest. The trick is possible because most atoms have at least a small amount of magnetism, and all do when their electrons are put in an excited state. Many types of molecules are magnetic, too.
We built the new device and tested it first on excited neon atoms and then on oxygen molecules. We succeeded in stopping both species. Unbeknownst to us, a group working in Zurich led by Frederic Merkt independently developed the same idea and succeeded in stopping atomic hydrogen at roughly the same time we conducted our own experiments. Several groups around the world have now built their own atomic coilguns, which are ultimately very simple and robust devices, based on ordinary copper wire, off-the shelf capacitors and transistors.
Once we succeeded in stopping atoms in this way, it was relatively straightforward to trap them in static magnetic fields. The more difficult problem was to find a way to cool them further. Although 0.01 kelvin (one 100th of a degree above absolute zero) sounds chilly, it is still very far from the limits reached by other techniques. We needed to find a way to go lower.
One-Way Roads
i was thinking about general cooling methods well before anyone thought about atomic coilguns, but for a long time I did not see a solution. The technique of laser cooling, which was invented in the 1980s, has been extremely successful—resulting in the creation of a state of matter called Bose-Einstein condensates and in the award of two Nobel Prizes in Physics in 1997 and 2001. But the range of applicability of laser cooling is mostly limited to the atoms |
your friends looking for their iPhone 6 chargers, because you’ll never be in the dark with this DROID.
Software
As stated, the Turbo is an amalgamation of DROID and Moto features–hefty specs matched with the software utility of Moto devices. This means the famed features of quick notifications (Active Display), nearly stock Android (KitKat 4.44), embedded Google Now access, and non-confusing camera software are ever present.
As a Moto X (2013) owner, this was a familiar environment I loved. “Hello, DROID Turbo,” or a passphrase of your choice, allows you to use Google Now at a bark, and you can still shake the device (a defining Moto X feature) to open the camera. It’s a bit of a heavier shake than the original, but it’s still a satisfying way to quickly snapshot a moment. Active Display allows you to tap, wave over (with your hand), or even wiggle the screen to see what texts, emails, or app notifications you have at any given moment. For efficiency, it only utilizes the pixels on the screen needed to show you the time or whatever is happening. This is a godsend in meetings where it’s inappropriate to be on your phone, or if you’re in a hurry and just need a quick time check. You can see this used above in our video review.
Settings menus are user-friendly and not overly-complicated, so even your mom can figure out how to turn on pattern security or face detection. We did try face detection for a while, and it worked about 50% of the time, but having a face that always looks the same doesn’t hurt. One fun suggestion is to make the same goofy face to unlock it. Don’t you worry about the looks you get on the Metro, this inside joke is priceless. One fun new innovation added is the ability to double tap the home button to open an application of your liking. Whether you want to open the Camera or Google Maps, you have a plethora of choices for this awesome customizable setting.
As for bloat, there’s plenty of Verizon apps thrown in including DROID Zap which is a bit like a Verizon-branded tap application for sharing media with friends who also use the application. Most people probably won’t use any of these apps included, but thankfully with 32 or 64GB of storage, if you can’t remove them, you can at least wipe them off your home screens without a second thought.
Camera
The 21-megapixel camera on the Turbo squashes any other iteration of Moto or DROID devices. It’s actually a really, really awesome camera. The brand new Moto X only has a 13-megapixel shooter. Shots are clear, sharp, and well saturated and contrasted, making nearly any scene attractive. I wouldn’t put this in iPhone 5S or 6 territory, but it definitely wipes out lower-res options on the market. The only problem with it is the software. Like the Moto X before it, taking individual shots has a bit of a focus lag to it. It’s good to note that taking multiple photos has the same initial lag, yet it can take 10 shots in mere seconds. we should also note default wide shots are shot in 15 megapixels rather than the 21 in 4:3.
IMG_20141112_214527450 IMG_20141115_135101698 IMG_20141115_135446633 IMG_20141115_135403180_HDR IMG_20141124_062944673_HDR IMG_20141116_153509231_HDR
Still, the photos turn out brilliant. It’s just a slight hiccup the previous and current Moto X have had since the beginning of Moto. With promises from carriers to upgrade the Turbo to Android Lollipop 5.0, it’s feasible fixes could be in place to cut down this photo lag, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. As for video, you can shoot in 4K with the rear camera and it turns out equally amazing.
You can see some of the shots I took with the Turbo during our review period above and in our video review above. In low light, photos would produce a bit of noise sometimes, but generally each picture was as satisfying as the next. Blue skies and nature shots really popped, no matter how dingy they were in real life. As for the 2.0-megapixel front-facing camera, it’s a great way to check out your blemishes and see how oily you really do look today. In other words, the Turbo’s selfie cam has great attention to detail, but it might not be the ones you like.
General Use
The Turbo is a great phone on the inside. The downfall is how heavy those internals make the device. Carrying this around was definitely a burden at 6.21 oz. For comparison, the Moto X weights a bit over an ounce less (5.08), but it’s also sleeker than the.44” thickness of the Turbo. It’s definitely a bulge in the pocket, but if you’re the type to throw your phone in a bag or purse, perhaps you don’t care anyway.
This is all to blame on that giant 3900 mAh battery. But some of the best parts of this phone are also affiliated. The supercharger and giant battery are a match made in heaven for the impatient and ever-connected. Never did I worry of killing the DROID during this review. Standby would get this device three entire days at times. During others when using it heavily on and off, 36 hours was not difficult to muster. And if the Turbo did die, that Supercharger amped the device enough in 20-30 minutes without a problem.
While the battery size is an amazing addition, the innovation of the supercharging is even more so. 15 minutes to get 8 hours of juice is something that deserves mad respect, and it was definitely useful for long days and nights away from home. It did not always live up to the hype, but even 5 additional plugged minutes can get you a reasonable amount of play time with the Turbo.
The software is my favorite part of the Turbo and every other Motorola Moto software-included phone. Active Display notifications and native Google Now access with Moto Voice are priceless features. Shake cam is also the coolest innovation to phones since capacitive screens. In addition, constantly up to date software is a must have if you’re going to get an Android, and thankfully Motorola, Verizon and Google do these devices well with Lollipop updates being promised shortly.
Texting on the device is actually fine with Swype type. I had my reservations on 5.2” but it wasn’t the girth of the phone that made its use difficult, it was the weight. I’d much prefer a 4.7”-5” handset over the Turbo nonetheless, because it was personally a bit of a pain to reach around. That said, the AMOLED was really lovely to look at. Text was clear, videos played brilliantly, and reviewing photos looks better than on your laptop with that high pixel density.
Lastly, the only major issue I had with the Turbo (Besides the heft) was the fact it’s just so damn clingy. Fingerprints, dust and food crumbs were all I could ever see on the Turbo. No matter how much I cleaned it, I couldn’t even get a nice clean shot of it in our video review. If you’re going to get a Turbo, be sure carry a dust rag around with it.
Overview
At the end of the day, the Motorola DROID Turbo is a lot of things. In fact, it’s too many things. Unless you’re an intrepid smartphone gamer, the 2.7 GHz and 3GB of RAM is excessive for most people. In addition, 5.2” is a bit of girth to carry around, and let’s not forget the 3900 mAh battery, which is larger than any other smartphone battery on the market. This device is a beast. It’s exactly what Verizon has always intended at DROID to be, a spec-hound to show off to your friends and boast numbers.
That said, it’s also a device with some of the most useful and bare-bones Android software features on the market. Motorola’s Moto version of Android is as close to stock as it gets without making it over-complicated. Active display, shake to camera, Google Now, and the great settings menus will not go unloved on the Turbo. But if you don’t need all of high-end specs or even the battery, we recommend considering the Moto X (2014). You can pick up your own DROID Turbo exclusively at Verizon Wireless for $199.99 with a 2-year contract. We recommend searching around, as $99.99 options also pop up for the 64GB version. If you want it contract free, the Turbo runs at $649.99.
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out our full video review further up.
8.5/10Abstract
Importance Patients with remitted major depressive disorder (MDD) were previously found to display abnormal functional magnetic resonance imaging connectivity (fMRI) between the right superior anterior temporal lobe (RSATL) and the subgenual cingulate cortex and adjacent septal region (SCSR) when experiencing self-blaming emotions relative to emotions related to blaming others (eg, “indignation or anger toward others”). This finding provided the first neural signature of biases toward overgeneralized self-blaming emotions (eg, “feeling guilty for everything”), known to have a key role in cognitive vulnerability to MDD. It is unknown whether this neural signature predicts risk of recurrence, a crucial step in establishing its potential as a prognostic biomarker, which is urgently needed for stratification into pathophysiologically more homogeneous subgroups and for novel treatments.
Objective To use fMRI in remitted MDD at baseline to test the hypothesis that RSATL-SCSR connectivity for self-blaming relative to other-blaming emotions predicts subsequent recurrence of depressive episodes.
Design, Setting, and Participants A prospective cohort study from June 16, 2011, to October 10, 2014, in a clinical research facility completed by 75 psychotropic medication–free patients with remitted MDD and no relevant comorbidity. In total, 31 remained in stable remission, and 25 developed a recurring episode over the 14 months of clinical follow-up and were included in the primary analysis. Thirty-nine control participants with no personal or family history of MDD were recruited for further comparison.
Main Outcomes and Measures Between-group difference (recurring vs stable MDD) in RSATL connectivity, with an a priori SCSR region of interest for self-blaming vs other-blaming emotions.
Results We corroborated our hypothesis that during the experience of self-blaming vs other-blaming emotions, RSATL-SCSR connectivity predicted risk of subsequent recurrence. The recurring MDD group showed higher connectivity than the stable MDD group (familywise error–corrected P <.05 over the a priori SCSR region of interest) and the control group. In addition, the recurring MDD group also exhibited RSATL hyperconnectivity with the right ventral putamen and claustrum and the temporoparietal junction. Together, these regions predicted recurrence with 75% accuracy.
Conclusions and Relevance To our knowledge, this study is the first to provide a robust demonstration of an fMRI signature of recurrence risk in remitted MDD. Additional studies are needed for its further optimization and validation as a prognostic biomarker.
Introduction
Patients with remitted major depressive disorder (MDD) are at increased risk of developing further episodes over their lifetime.1 Why some patients remain stable while others develop a recurrent episode, however, is elusive. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop biomarkers of recurrence risk to stratify remitted MDD into pathophysiologically and prognostically more homogeneous subgroups. Mapping the neuroanatomical bases of cognitive and emotional functions using functional magnetic resonance imaging2 (fMRI) is the most promising approach to bridge the gap between clinical symptoms and psychosocial and molecular genetic bases of MDD.3 Such imaging biomarkers serve the development of refined disease models and of novel treatments.
One central feature of cognitive models of vulnerability to MDD is a tendency to overgenerally blame oneself for negative events occurring in one’s personal life4,5 (eg, “My relationship failed; therefore, I am a total failure”). In support of these models, self-blaming emotional biases remained detectable in remitted MDD,6,7 and dormant self-critical attitudes are associated with recurrence risk.8 Proneness to experience self-blaming emotions such as guilt was reproducibly associated with activation of the subgenual cingulate cortex and adjacent septal region (SCSR) in healthy individuals.9-11 Furthermore, the SCSR exhibited abnormal metabolism in patients with current MDD,12,13 and its normalization and its deep brain electrode-based modulation14 were associated with remission,15 underscoring its central pathophysiological importance. Moreover, SCSR activation predicts outcomes of cognitive therapy,16 which tackles overgeneralized self-blame as central to depressive thinking.5
The SCSR, however, is only part of a brain network relevant for self-blaming emotions and MDD. Using fMRI, our group demonstrated that proneness toward self-blaming emotions in healthy individuals was associated with increased functional connectivity between the SCSR and the right superior anterior temporal cortex (RSATL),17 which we had previously demonstrated to enable differentiated interpretations of the meaning of social behavior18,19 (eg, differentiating actions as “impolite,” or “absent-minded” rather than just overgeneralized as “bad”). A subsequent study10 confirmed our group’s hypothesis17 that patients with remitted MDD exhibit lower functional connectivity between the RSATL and SCSR when experiencing self-blaming emotions (eg, “guilt”) relative to other-blaming emotions (eg, “indignation or anger” toward others) during fMRI. These results provided a specific neural mechanism that can account for biases toward overgeneralized self-blaming emotions20 (eg, feeling “self-disgust” or “guilty for everything”) and the resulting feelings of worthlessness4 in MDD. It is unknown, however, whether these abnormalities prospectively predict risk of recurrence. Prospective prediction of clinical outcomes from the presence of an imaging abnormality is a crucial step in establishing its potential causal role in the pathophysiology of MDD and its promise as a prognostic biomarker that could be used as a novel treatment target.21,22
Herein, we addressed this question by using our group’s previous fMRI paradigm to investigate functional connectivity of temporo-fronto-subcortical networks at baseline in psychotropic medication–free individuals with remitted MDD to predict subsequent recurrence over 14 months of clinical follow-up. Participants were asked to make emotional judgments about sentences evocative of self-blaming emotions (eg, “Tom [participant’s name] acts greedily toward Sam [best friend’s name]”) and emotions related to blaming others (ie, other-blame) (eg, “Sam acts greedily toward Tom”). We also recruited a closely matched control group with no personal or family history of psychiatric disorders to determine whether fMRI signatures predictive of recurrence also differed from those of the control group.
We used psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis, an established measure of functional connectivity,23 to test the hypothesis that RSATL-SCSR connectivity for self-blaming relative to other-blaming emotions would predict risk of recurrence in MDD. Based on our group’s previous cross-sectional study10 in remitted MDD, our more specific prediction was to find lower connectivity in the MDD group with a recurring episode compared with the stable remission group and the control group. We further hypothesized that self-blame–selective RSATL-SCSR connectivity would show a predictive effect independent of established clinical predictors24 such as residual symptoms as measured on the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale25 (MADRS) and the number of previous episodes. This hypothesis was based on the expectation that the neural basis of vulnerability to recurrence is at least partly independent of incomplete remission and scarring effects of previous episodes.26
Methods
Participants
This prospective cohort study from June 16, 2011, to October 10, 2014, in a clinical research facility was approved by the South Manchester National Health Service Research Ethics Committee. All participants gave informed consent (verbal for telephone prescreening and written for all other stages) and were compensated for their time and travel costs (eMethods, eTable 1, and eTable 2 in the Supplement).
Inclusion criteria for the MDD group were MDD, according to DSM-IV-TR,27 in remission for at least 6 months (eTable 3 in the Supplement). Main exclusion criteria were current Axis I disorders, including a history of substance or alcohol abuse, and past comorbid Axis I disorders being the likely cause of depressive symptoms (eMethods in the Supplement). The healthy control group had no current or past Axis I disorders and no first-degree family history28 of MDD, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia. Both groups were psychotropic medication free, right-handed, and native English speaking, with normal vision or vision corrected to normal.
After the initial clinical assessment (eTable 4 and eTable 5 in the Supplement), 138 eligible and available control subjects and participants with MDD underwent fMRI. Participants with MDD were subsequently followed up clinically at 3, 6, and 14 months in person or over the telephone using the well-validated Longitudinal Interval Follow-up Evaluation interview for DSM-IV29 (LIFE-IV) (eMethods in the Supplement). Raters (K.E.L., C.I.W., and R.Z.) were blinded to the fMRI results and had received training by the developers of the LIFE-IV. Interrater reliability was excellent (eTable 6 in the Supplement).
The fMRI data from 12 participants (7 MDD and 5 control) had to be excluded before analysis because of excessive head movement or excessive signal loss (eMethods in the Supplement). Six participants with MDD were lost to follow-up. Of the included 75 psychotropic medication–free patients with remitted MDD, 37 remained in remission (ie, stable MDD group), 27 developed a recurrent major depressive episode (MDE) (ie, recurring MDD group), and 11 developed significant symptoms not meeting MDE criteria (ie, subthreshold MDD group in eMethods in the Supplement) over the 14-month clinical follow-up period. For the primary imaging analysis, we focused on the 31 stable participants, 25 recurring participants, and 39 control subjects meeting the strictest imaging quality control threshold (eMethods, eFigure, and eTable 2 in the Supplement). To probe generalization of our results to the whole sample, we extracted the SCSR cluster averages,30 including those additional 10 MDD participants and 2 control group participants whose imaging data did not pass the strictest quality control threshold (ie, exhibiting greater movement or signal dropout outside the SCSR) and the subthreshold MDD group.
fMRI Acquisition and Paradigm
We used the same fMRI protocol (3-T Achieva; Philips) (eMethods in the Supplement) optimized for detection of ventral brain regions as described previously.10 The T1-weighted 3-dimensional MRIs were acquired for coregistration and axial T2-weighted images to rule out vascular and inflammatory abnormalities (eMethods in the Supplement).
As in our group’s previous study,10 participants saw sentences containing social concepts (eg, “stingy” or “impatient”) describing actions counter to sociomoral values. The agent was the participant (self-agency condition [n = 90]) or his or her best friend (other-agency condition [n = 90]). Self-agency and other-agency conditions contained the same social concepts. Participants were required to report how unpleasant they would feel (“mildly” or “very”) by pressing a button within 5 seconds, followed by a jittered intertrial interval with a mean duration of 4 seconds. A low-level resting-state baseline condition (null condition) requiring no response (n = 90) was pseudorandomly interspersed across 3 runs whose order was counterbalanced across participants.
After the imaging session, participants rated the degree of unpleasantness on a 7-point Likert-type scale (1 is not unpleasant, and 7 is extremely unpleasant) associated with each stimulus. In addition, they were asked to “choose the feeling that they would feel most strongly” from different self-blaming and other-blaming emotions as previously reported.7 Self-blaming and other-blaming emotion trials for the fMRI analysis were defined as those that were perceived as highly unpleasant (those rated at the individual median or above) in the respective self-agency and other-agency conditions.
Behavioral Data Analysis
Behavioral data were analyzed using 2-sided P =.05. A statistical software program was used (SPSS Statistics 20; IBM).
Image Analysis
Functional images were realigned, unwarped, coregistered to the participant’s T1-weighted images, and normalized to the SPM8 (http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/) template using the transformation parameters for the T1-weighted image. A smoothing kernel of 6-mm full-width at half maximum was then applied.
To measure functional connectivity, we used the well-established PPI analysis,23 which requires the extraction of the signal from a seed region (in this case, the RSATL) and the creation of an interaction term for the psychological variable (main effect of condition) with the physiological variable (the RSATL signal time course irrespective of condition). As shown previously,10 we used the RSATL seed region coordinates (Montreal Neurological Institute peak coordinates, 58, 0, −12; 6-mm sphere) shown to be equally activated for self-blaming and other-blaming emotions,10,17 which is ideal for a PPI seed region by avoiding confounding coactivation and connectivity differences between conditions to be expected in the SCSR. A PPI effect is a change in the slope of the regression effect of the RSATL on another brain area for one condition (eg, self-blame) relative to another (eg, other-blame).
To investigate our main hypothesis, between-group differences on the contrast self-blaming vs other-blaming emotions were thresholded at P =.005 (uncorrected voxel level). They were then corrected for familywise error at cluster level or voxel level at P =.05 over the a priori SCSR ROI (Montreal Neurological Institute peak coordinates, −4, 23, −5; 6-mm sphere) (eMethods in the Supplement) or the whole brain.
All analyses were inclusively masked with a gray matter mask, and only regions that survived inclusive masking vs the control group at uncorrected P =.005 are reported to ensure the results reflected abnormalities in connectivity. Regression coefficients for the cluster averages of regions resulting from the comparisons between the recurring and stable groups were entered into a predictive linear discriminant analysis31 in SPSS Statistics 20 (eMethods in the Supplement).
Results
Subgroup Characteristics
There were no group differences in the percentages of trials included in the self-blaming and other-blaming emotion conditions, their unpleasantness ratings, response times, or the degree of movement during fMRI (eTable 2 in the Supplement). There were also no differences in age, years of education, and sex between the recurring and stable MDD groups or the recurring MDD group and control group (eTable 7 in the Supplement). The recurring (n = 25) and stable (n = 31) MDD groups did not differ on the number of previous episodes, average length of the last MDE, or average time in remission (t < 0.19, P >.85) (eTable 4 in the Supplement). There was no difference in the MADRS scores at baseline, while the Beck Depression Inventory32 (BDI) scores were higher and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores were lower in the recurring MDD group (eTable 7 in the Supplement).
fMRI Findings
Standard blood oxygenation level–dependent (BOLD) effect analyses for self-blaming vs other-blaming emotions revealed no differences between the recurring and stable MDD groups. In contrast, when investigating our main hypothesis using the PPI analysis for self-blaming vs other-blaming emotions, patients with recurring MDD exhibited increased RSATL connectivity with the posterior SCSR, the right ventrolateral putamen (extending into the claustrum), and the right temporoparietal junction compared with patients with stable MDD (Table and Figure 1). All these regions also showed increased connectivity in the recurring MDD group relative to the control group. The reverse comparison of stable vs recurring MDD revealed no areas of increased connectivity.
The RSATL-SCSR connectivity group differences were driven by patients with recurring MDD showing higher connectivity in the self-blaming emotion condition and lower connectivity in the other-blaming emotion condition compared with patients with stable MDD. These results are shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.
The number of previous MDEs did not correlate with the RSATL-SCSR coupling coefficients in the MDD group (Spearman ρ = 0.111, P =.38), whereas there was a weak correlation with residual symptoms as measured on the MADRS (Spearman ρ = 0.285, P =.02). There were no correlations between the RSATL-SCSR coupling coefficients and the BDI or GAF scores in participants with MDD (ρ ≤ −0.202, P ≥.11). The RSATL-SCSR connectivity group differences also remained unchanged when using these variables as covariates of no interest (eTable 8 in the Supplement). Finally, when comparing the physiological connectivity of the RSATL, there was no difference between the recurring and stable groups (t 54 = −0.90, P =.37) within the SCSR cluster that showed a PPI effect.
Discussion
We found that during the experience of self-blaming relative to other-blaming emotions, connectivity of the RSATL with the SCSR predicted risk of subsequent recurring depressive episodes, as predicted. Intriguingly, contrary to our more specific hypothesis, patients with recurring MDD showed higher rather than lower connectivity compared with the stable group and the control group. In addition to RSATL hyperconnectivity with the SCSR, we also revealed similar effects with the right ventral putamen, claustrum, and the temporoparietal junction as distinctive of recurring compared with stable MDD. While residual depressive symptoms were associated with neural signatures of recurrence risk, most of the variance in RSATL-SCSR connectivity was independent of residual symptoms. Furthermore, there were no associations between RSATL-SCSR connectivity and the number of previous episodes. Together with our finding of 75% accuracy of predicting recurrence from our fMRI measures with no significant predictive value of our clinical measures (Figure 1), this result shows that the fMRI measures add information to clinical predictors and are not solely accounted for by incomplete remission or scarring effects of previous episodes.26
The RSATL-SCSR hyperconnectivity for self-blaming vs other-blaming emotions in the recurring MDD group relative to the other groups was confirmed when extending the analysis to patients with lower-quality MRI acquisitions, corroborating the feasibility of our fMRI measure for wider use. Furthermore, using full MDE criteria as a categorical outcome was supported in that RSATL-SCSR connectivity was comparable between stable and subthreshold MDD.
In contrast to the clear predictive effects of functional connectivity, standard BOLD analyses revealed no differences between recurring and stable MDD. This finding further corroborates the notion that functional connectivity has an important pathophysiological role in MDD33 and may be more informative than regional BOLD10 because it reflects the functional integration of information within networks23 such as the “default mode network” to which both the RSATL and SCSR are contributing.34 Two previous pilot studies35,36 comparing recurring episode patients (N = 10 and N = 7, respectively) and stable remission patients (N = 6 and N = 11, respectively), however, found lower36 and higher35 BOLD effects in medial frontal areas to be predictive of subsequent recurrence. Another study37 found lower ventrolateral frontal BOLD to correlate with subsequent worsening on the BDI. Although interesting, difficulties in adequately controlling for confounding effects of antidepressant medication status36,37 and randomization to different treatments,35 together with small sample sizes, may limit the generalizability of these findings.
This study corroborates the pathophysiological importance of the RSATL for MDD.10 The finding that self-blame–selective changes in RSATL connectivity are associated with vulnerability to MDD recurrence is in keeping with the hypothesis that deficient integration of conceptual social knowledge detail (eg, what it means to act “stingily”) increases proneness to overgeneralized self-blame (eg, “I acted badly”),17,20 described as a central cognitive feature of MDD.4,38 This result is compatible with the view that the RSATL may implicitly enrich moral feelings such as guilt with detailed implicit social meaning (ie, social conceptual representations) even in the absence of verbalization.39 Activation of the anterior temporal lobes for tasks probing social meaning has been corroborated independently.40-43 Overall, this evidence is in agreement with a more general view of anterior temporal lobe function as a “hub” representing context-independent aspects of concepts.44,45
Our finding of increased self-blame–selective RSATL connectivity with the ventral putamen supports previous reports of abnormal ventral striatal functional connectivity46 and activation in response to self-negative attribution47 in current MDD. Notably, reduced reward-related ventral striatal BOLD prospectively predicted first-onset depression in adolescents.48 The putamen is part of a core frontal-subcortical circuit that has been implicated in hedonic abnormalities in mood disorders.49 Dysfunction of the adjacent claustrum, which is closely connected with the lateral amygdala,50 has also been associated with anhedonia and psychomotor symptoms in current MDD.51
Our result of self-blame–selective increases in RSATL connectivity with the right temporoparietal junction in the recurring MDD group relative to the stable MDD group and control group is in keeping with its proposed role in enabling internal predictions about external sensory events.52 Such a role is needed for mental models of social agency (self vs other52) probed on our task.53
Although the direction of effects (namely, self-blame–selective increases rather than decreases in RSATL-SCSR connectivity in our recurring MDD group) is at odds with the expectation based on our group’s previous cross-sectional study,10 it is in keeping with converging findings from resting-state fMRI-based connectivity analyses in current MDD showing subgenual cingulate hyperconnectivity with the default mode network,”54 particularly dorsomedial frontal regions,55 previously implicated in negative self-focus in MDD.47,56 Overall risk of recurrence in MDD samples differed between the present study (23% [13 of 56] with only one MDE) and our group’s previous study10 (56% [14 of 25] with only one MDE) and may explain the discrepancy in the direction of the results. This difference is because the MDD sample in our group’s previous study may have been biased toward patients with relatively stable remission, thus preventing detection of the self-blame–selective RSATL-SCSR hyperconnectivity effects that only occurred in the recurring group of the present study. Future studies are needed to determine whether lower self-blame–selective RSATL connectivity observed in patients with stable remission relative to the control group in the present study and in our group’s previous study reflects correlates of compensation mechanisms, rendering these individuals more resilient against recurrence, rather than correlates of vulnerability as previously surmised.
The following limitations of this study need to be discussed. First, we used a broader definition of self-blaming emotions in the present study compared with previous studies10,17 specifically investigating guilt, which makes the results less comparable, and may have included negative emotions that did not entail blame. This approach, however, increased the simplicity and power of our analysis for future applications and was justified by our finding that 2 important self-blaming emotions (shame and guilt) showed no BOLD activation differences in the SCSR.57 Second, although we demonstrated robust cross-validated positive and negative predictive values of self-blame–selective RSATL hyperconnectivity around 75% (Figure 1), this threshold falls short of the 80% benchmark suggested for clinically useful biomarkers.22 Rather than using a standard approach as chosen herein to investigate regional hypotheses, this benchmark could be achieved in further analyses by using machine-learning algorithms that capture multivariate information across the whole brain and have been successfully used for predicting treatment outcomes in current MDD.58-61
Conclusions
We demonstrated that recurrence risk in MDD is predicted by a self-blame–selective increase in RSATL connectivity with the SCSR, right ventral putamen, claustrum, and right temporoparietal junction. Our finding supports the hypothesis that self-blame–selective changes in connectivity with the RSATL have a causal role in the pathophysiology of MDD.10 A definitive proof of causality, however, will require showing that modulation of this neural signature by specific interventions has effects on clinical outcomes.
Back to top Article Information
Submitted for Publication: June 2, 2015; final revision received August 7, 2015; accepted August 9, 2015.
Corresponding Author: Roland Zahn, MD, Department of Psychological Medicine, Centre for Affective Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, De Crespigny Park, Main Bldg London, London SE5 8AF, England (roland.zahn@kcl.ac.uk).
Published Online: October 7, 2015. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.1813.
Author Contributions: Drs Lythe and Zahn had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.
Study concept and design: Moll, Green, Lambon Ralph, Deakin, Zahn.
Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Lythe, Moll, Gethin, Workman, Lambon Ralph, Zahn.
Drafting of the manuscript: Lythe, Deakin, Zahn.
Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Moll, Gethin, Workman, Green, Lambon Ralph, Zahn.
Statistical analysis: Lythe, Zahn.
Obtained funding: Lambon Ralph, Deakin, Zahn.
Administrative, technical, or material support: Moll, Gethin, Workman, Lambon Ralph.
Study supervision: Lambon Ralph, Deakin, Zahn.
Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Deakin reported providing consultancy and speaking engagements for Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Schering-Plough, Janssen-Cilag, and Servier (all fees are paid to The University of Manchester as reimbursement for time taken). Dr Deakin also reported having share options in P1vital Limited. No other disclosures were reported.
Funding/Support: This study was funded by Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist Fellowship G0902304 (Dr Zahn). Dr Moll was supported by the LABS-D’Or Hospital Network, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ms Gethin was funded by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council United Kingdom PhD Studentship.
Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
Additional Contributions: Argyris Stringaris, PhD, and Paul Stokes, PhD (Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London) provided helpful comments on the manuscript. No compensation was provided. We thank the participants of this study for their support.
Correction: This article was corrected on October 15, 2015, to add an inadvertently omitted word in the Abstract.On Saturday night, hashtag #YoRajdeepSoNeutral was number one trend in India on Twitter. The hashtag was Twitterati’s response to a tweet by journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, where he claimed that he was called “neutral” by someone after he praised the Modi government.
Strange. When you praise the Modi govt, you are branded ‘neutral’; when you criticise, you are biased! — Rajdeep Sardesai (@sardesairajdeep) May 23, 2015
The tweet amused a lot of people as Rajdeep Sardesai is known to be an anti-Modi voice on social media. He is seen close to Aam Aadmi Party as there are videos that show him admitting that it was him who advised Arvind Kejriwal to do a “Tehrir like drama” on the issue of Lokpal.
And his advice did work. The attempted Tehrir square like anti-corruption movement launched the political career of Arvind Kejriwal, who earlier this year swept Delhi assembly elections decimating Congress and BJP. Rajdeep Sardesai had taken a dig at Narendra Modi even then.
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Not only this video, there are numerous other instances, such as Rajdeep going soft on Kejriwal when the AAP supremo attacked media while taking umbrage when Modi does the same. And his fist-fight with a Modi supporter outside Madison Square in the USA is a well known event.
So with such a background, can someone really call Rajdeep Sardesai a “neutral” journalist?
People on Twitter searched for tweets that had “neutral” keyword in it and had Rajdeep Sardesai tagged. They could not find any tweet where he was called “neutral” for praising Modi government, contrary to what was claimed by Rajdeep in his tweet.
And thus the hashtag started, which had following hilarious tweets:
#YoRajdeepSoNeutral that scientists are considering renaming neutron as rajdeeptron. ☺ — Namrata (@dixitnamrata) May 23, 2015
#YoRajdeepSoNeutral that in cricket matches, he cheers for umpires. — Deepak (@poetrification) May 23, 2015
Epic 1!! #YoRajdeepSoNeutral That he only eat nutrela!!! — Madhukar pandey (@21jags) May 23, 2015
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like Ruby generate more CPU instructions than compiled languages like C or Rust. Efficiently using all the available CPU resources varies depending on the language - Go’s goroutines, Elixir’s “processes”, multi-process servers to get around global VM locks like Python and Ruby, event-driven architectures like Node, or true threading like Java.
Latency, however, is even more important. This is because latency is inversely proportional to throughput. If we halve the latency of our web application, we double its maximum throughput. Latency also affects the end-user experience - a 500 millisecond response time manifests as an extra 500 milliseconds the user must spend waiting for the webpage to load.
Benchmark Trip-Ups
TechEmpower’s servers Let’s take a look at the TechEmpower web framework benchmarks. TechEmpower measures latency and maximum throughput across six synthetic benches. These benchmarks are run on pretty fat servers - they’ve got 4 cpus with 10 cores and 20 threads each (so, 40 cores and 80 hyperthreads in total). Oh yeah, and 528 GB of RAM.
Rails implementation of the benchmark One of the more relevant benchmarks is the multiple-queries benchmark. It’s pretty simple - it executes 20 queries, sequentially, against a SQL database, and then returns the result. This is a pretty common web application workload - most Rails applications I’ve worked on roughly look like this. As we render the template, we execute a few SQL queries to get the results to populate the template, and return it.
In Round 14, the typical Rails setup (puma-mri-rails) clocks in at a measly ~531 requests per second. Roda, an extreme lightweight Ruby web framework, when used with Sequel, clocks in at about 7000 requests/second, depending on the webserver used.
So does that mean Rails is more than 10 times slower than Roda and Sequel? On an 80 core machine, is 531 requests/second really all you can get out of Ruby on Rails?
TechEmpower’s Rails setup is unbelievably crippled compared to their Roda setup. Their Puma server is configured to run just 8 processes, while Roda auto-tunes itself, ending up with around 100 processes. So the Rails benchmark is using, at best, about 15-20% of the available hyperthreads, while the Roda benchmark is using all of them. So that’s at least a 5-8x throughput penalty for the Rails benchmark out of the gate. But that’s fixable - TechEmpower is open source and we can just open a pull request and fix this, and we’ll get better results for Round 15.
Let’s take a look at another TechEmpower measurement - average request latency. Focusing on request latency allows to put all languages and frameworks on a somewhat more even footing, because things like global VM locks and other concurrency features usually don’t really matter when processing a single request.2(Concurrency features generally increase throughput, not decrease latency.)2 Concurrency features generally increase throughput, not decrease latency. On the multiple-query database test, Puma and Rails clock in at 129 milliseconds. The Roda/Sequel/Puma stack clocks in at 31.3 milliseconds.
Now, as I said, the Puma settings for Rails on TechEmpower are incredibly crippled compared to the Roda settings, so Rails could probably still shave a lot off of that time, but let’s take it as it is. Let’s just say Rails adds one hundred milliseconds of latency to the average web application response over a microframework or other competing platform like Phoenix. (Actually, Phoenix is slower on this test than Rails. The framework creators dispute this result though, and I don’t doubt it if the Rails benchmark is this gimped too).
The Computer Changes, But The Human Does Not
The funny thing about computers is that although they keep getting faster, squishy human beings stay the same speed. Just how fast a human-computer interaction has to be has been studied since the 1960s. You can understand their interest in this, back in the times when computers were the size of rooms and computations took hours rather than microseconds. If the computer was going to move out of the mainframe and the science lab and into public life, it was going to have to be faster. But how much faster?
Jakob Nielsen summarized the results in 1993:
Jakob Nielsen. I am glad that this photo exists.
0.1 second: Limit for users feeling that they are directly manipulating objects in the UI. (…) 1 second: Limit for users feeling that they are freely navigating the command space without having to unduly wait for the computer. (…) 10 seconds: Limit for users keeping their attention on the task. (…)
You can read his full article on the topic here.
On the web, how fast is fast enough?
Let’s assume that all our little web application does is return an HTML response with no JavaScript or CSS. It’s just a flat, HTML document with the default browser styling.3(Imagine if you would, for a moment, a website whose styling is even more boring than this one.)3 Imagine if you would, for a moment, a website whose styling is even more boring than this one. How long would it take for a user to visit www.oursite.com and receive a response?
Well, if our user is on a desktop computer in the same country as our servers, it will take about 20 milliseconds for their packets to get from their computer to our servers, and another 20 milliseconds back. This is a best case scenario: if they’re on the other side of the world, this could easily be 100 milliseconds each way. If they’re on a mobile cellular connection, we’re talking ~300-400 milliseconds. My home DSL connection fluctuates from 50-150 milliseconds to most US servers.
150 milliseconds time-to-first-byte? That’s Brent Rambo Approved. So, if we’ve already got ~40 milliseconds of round-trip network latency in the first place, will our users be able to perceive the difference in a web application which renders a response in 1 millisecond or 100 milliseconds? That is, one application will take 41 milliseconds in total and the other 141. The answer is emphatically no. Both applications will appear almost instantaneous to the user. And in the worst cases of network conditions, the difference will completely vanish. So minor latency differences (100 milliseconds or less, as in the difference between web frameworks) only matter in their contribution to improving throughput.
Your Server is Just a Small Part of the User Experience
WELCOME TO THE MODERN WEB, BITCH. It’s 2017 and web applications don’t return flat HTML files anymore. Websites are gargantuan, with JavaScript bundles stretching into the size of megabytes and stylesheets that couldn’t fit in ten Apollo Guidance Computers. So how much of a difference does a web application which responds in 1 millisecond or less make in this environment?
Vanishingly little. Nowadays, the average webpage takes 5 seconds to render. Some JavaScript single-page-applications can take 12 seconds or more on initial render.
Server response times simply make up a teeny-tiny part of the actual user experience of loading and interacting with a webpage - cutting 99 milliseconds off the server response time just doesn’t make a difference.
There’s a Ceiling: Web Apps Aren’t Video Games
In the video gaming world, speed matters. Faster languages can mean more polygons on the screen per frame. There’s really no upper limit for this - more polygons will always be good, so a faster language will always help with increasing the fidelity of the simulation.
for those unfamiliar with the meme
Web applications are not like this. Fundamentally, 90% of them are simple CRUD applications. A faster language does not open more possibilities for functionality or features, it just takes the same HTML webform we’ve been rendering and renders it a few milliseconds faster. There’s a ceiling on the usefulness of reduced request latency.
Ruby is Slow, so More Ruby is Slower
Mike Perham. And, ultimately, most of Ruby’s internals boil down to hash tables, so… Ruby isn’t a fast language. So, if you execute less of it, you’ll have a faster benchmark result.
Feature-rich frameworks like Rails have a lot of code, and execute a lot more on each request because they are doing more stuff.
This seems like 101-level stuff, but again, TechEmpower and other benchmarks typically do not make the difference in features obvious. On TechEmpower, all you get is this impossible-to-skim array of tags.
Yes, this is is an easy-to-understand feature comparison which humans can read. On throughput microbenchmarks like TechEmpower, where differences are measured in milliseconds (or even microseconds), what you’re really measuring is how many CPU instructions a particular language runtime generates in response to a particular request. And since there’s no real way to compare featuresets between frameworks on TechEmpower, all frameworks are placed on an “equal footing” and you’ll think that Rails is the slowest web framework in the world.
The truth is that Rails does a lot on every request. Just create a new Rails app and look at the middleware stack ( rake middleware ). There’s a lot of work being done here that every good web application should do but many frameworks do not do for you, at least by default.
Performance is More Complicated than CPU or Maximum Throughput
While on TechEmpower CPU usage is the bottleneck, in the real world, the CPU performance of language or the framework is almost never the bottleneck for a web application’s performance. Web applications are fairly I/O heavy, especially as they grow more complicated. The modern Rails application may interact with three separate databases or more - their SQL database, Redis for their backend job processor, and Memcache for caching. Often, time spent interacting with these databases can make up 25% or more of a response.
In addition, as a Ruby on Rails performance consultant, I’ve seen so many problems with application deployments that have nothing to do with the CPU performance of the framework or language: poor server configurations, memory leaks or bloat, or poor use of caching. Programmers, mysteriously, seem to find a way to completely degrade the performance of their application all on their own!
Finally, most mature web applications spend at most 50% of their execution time in the framework itself, and far more time in the actual application code and other added dependencies. This is pretty easy to see in Ruby - take a look at a stacktrace and count how many of the top frames are from your framework. It won’t be many. If your application could be rewritten in a faster framework in the same language, you would halve its response times at best.
Rewrite Your Entire Application to Save $1,000/month
What I worry about is what people do with the information presented in relative benchmarks like TechEmpower. Do they go home and rewrite their applications in the flavor-of-the-week framework or stack? Or, when choosing a stack for a new product or service, do people choose the “faster” stack over the “slower” one?
Heck, Pinterest rewrote it’s Ads API in Elixir and now they have response times of less than a millisecond. Surely, that’s just better, right?
The question is, why? As we’ve already established, there’s no difference for the end-user experience. So there’s really only two reasons to choose a framework over another: a) it’s faster and therefore I’ll spend less on server costs to host it b) it’s easy to develop with, and helps me ship quality features faster.
Let’s take a look at that server cost one, for a second.
The majority of web applications handle far less than 1000 requests per second. I’d go as far as to say that most web application developers are employed by a company whose entire webapp does far less than 1000 requests/second. Most of them do less than 1000 requests/minute.
Let’s say you have a Rails application which serves 20,000 RPM (request/minute, or about 300 req/sec) at an average response time of 250 milliseconds. That’s a pretty average profile for a large, mature Rails application. Such an application will take about 200 Puma processes to serve properly. That’s equal to roughly a dozen Performance-L dynos on Heroku, or $6,000/month.
Now, let’s say you rewrite it in Phoenix, Node, or whatever flavor of the week you want and reduce that to 125 milliseconds. Before you jump out of your seat, remember that you’re not going to reduce latency to 12 milliseconds or some other stupid-low amount: you’re still going to be limited by I/O to the databases that back this application.
Halving our application’s latency means we need about half the amount of servers we needed before. So, congratulations: you rewrote your application (or chose your framework) to save $3,000/month. The load on the relational database backing this application won’t change, so those costs will remain the same. When your application is big enough to be doing 20,000 RPM, you will have anywhere from a half-dozen to even fifty engineers, depending on your application’s domain. A single software engineer costs a company at least $10,000/month in employee benefits and salary. So we’re choosing our frameworks based on saving one-third of an engineer per month? And if that framework caused your development cycles to slow down by even one third of a mythical man-month, you’ve increased your costs, not decreased them. Choosing a web framework based on server costs is clearly a sucker’s game.
Why cargo-cult engineering practices from huge companies where a few milliseconds can save tens of thousands per month? You’re not Pinterest (or Netflix, or…), you have different problems, and that’s OK.
It Isn’t Getting Worse
Computers aren’t getting slower. While Wirth’s Law4(Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster.)4 Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster. certainly holds for most end-user applications like your mobile phone apps, it doesn’t really hold for your typical web application. Ruby web applications (and any web application) will continue to get faster because the slow grind of progress in hardware will continue to find ways to jam more CPU instructions into a clock cycle, or to make those clock cycles even faster, or to cram more cores onto a die.
And the language isn’t getting slower, either. Noah Gibbs of Appfolio has shown that each minor version of Ruby decreases average response times by about 5-10%.
Let’s Talk About Happiness
The performance doomsayers have always been wrong, and will continue to be wrong. Take this gentleman from 2007:
No matter what implementation becomes the next de-facto Ruby platform, one thing is clear: People are interested in taking advantage of their newer, more powerful multi-core systems (as the recent surge in interest in Erlang in recent RailsConf and RubyConfs has shown). As Ruby becomes increasingly part of solutions that deal in high volumes of data processing, this demand can only increase.
Ten years later, and scaling across multiple cores through preforking webservers like Puma and Unicorn is still plenty Good Enough. Ruby still isn’t dead. I’m excited for the possibilities afforded by the proposed Guild model, but is the language unusable until then? Nope.
What I want is for the conversation around web frameworks and programming languages to change. There’s too much talk of performance and concurrency, when in reality the margins are narrow and the costs minimal and getting lower. Languages aren’t dying based on their concurrency or performance features alone.
The better conversation, the more meaningful and impactful one, is which framework helps me write software faster, with more quality, and with more happiness. I know what the answer to that question is for me, and maybe the answer is different for you.
“Polyglots” and “The New Hotness Stack”
There’s a subset of engineers who will never be happy writing software which isn’t on the “new hotness stack”. Engineers are always looking for a new problem to solve, something new to learn - and that’s great! I’ve never related. GORUCO, the NYC Ruby conference started calling itself a “polyglot conference” this year, and the speaker schedule features talks on Python, Elixir, Rust, React and static typing. Conference organizer Mike Dalessio’s blog post announcing this reads like a tombstone.
Benchmarks are often waved around in this “is X dead” discussion. As I hope I’ve shown above, there really is no benchmark which can prove that any language or framework is not suitable for writing web applications. Performance isn’t the concern.
Instead, the performance discussion regarding web applications is mostly FUD, spread by those trying to justify the engineering time they just spent rewriting their entire stack or what they’re telling management so that they get to play with the coolest new toy they saw on Hacker News.
Programmers are perpetually terrified of career obsolescence. Some are afraid of intellectual stagnation - that they’ll become the crusty old person in the back office writing RPG to keep a truck parts company’s order system running. But almost all of them are afraid of unemployment. They’re worried that the world will move on from their particular stack, leaving their salaries and jobs in jeopardy. These fears are real - but let’s realize that most of the discussion around “is stack X dead?!” are driven by fear, not concerns for the requirements of web applications.
Fun and Games
Let’s be clear - performance still matters. Most organizations can and should save on server costs by focusing on speeding up their endpoints, and particularly slow endpoints probably do impact the customer experience or the bottom line and should be sped up. What I’ve talked about above is just how little framework choice matters in the performance of your web application.
Also, I’m not ragging on TechEmpower. It’s a massive project, and they depend on domain experts creating PRs that fix any problems with the results. They’re genuinely good people in my opinion, and aren’t trying to push an agenda or participate in benchmarketing in favor of any particular stack.
In conclusion, JavaScript, Go, Elixir and Python all suck, write Ruby :) No, of course not - write what you’re productive in. If you’re a web programmer, count your lucky stars that you get to choose your tools based on ergonomics, not on performance.
The highest rule of computing: computers SHOULD exist to accommodate their creators, never the other way around. — Gary Bernhardt (@garybernhardt) June 28, 2017
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E-Mail E-MailRight then. There's a Neil Tennant interview coming up, but first let's get some housekeeping out of the way.
We've put together a Spotify playlist of some of the songs Neil mentions during the course of the interview.
(Actually the Demi Lovato one is our fault, apols.)
Anyway once you've got the playlist off and running you can start the interview. It all takes place at the Pet Shop Boys' office, a former architect's office in a quite nice part of London.
So this is where the magic happens.
THIS is indeed where the magic happens.
I didn’t know you had an office here.
Well, it’s top secret!
How long have you been here?
It’s funny. Our accountant said to us a few years ago, "do you know how much money you pay on storage?" And we said, "not really". Well it was an astonishing amount of money. He said, "if you put that into a mortgage, you could buy a little warehouse in Stevenage or somewhere". We said: "great! We’ll buy somewhere in [PRICEY NON-STEVENAGE LONDON LOCATION]!"
And do you use it for storage?
Would you like to see?
YES.
Follow me.
At this point Neil leads us into the building's basement. At the bottom of the stairs are two doors. Neil opens the first and we walk into a room with shelves full of old synths and music-making paraphernalia.
Blimey.
This room here is our gear. We’ve got tonnes of the fucking stuff. Obviously we are on tour at the moment so it’s not all here.
Is this all quite recent or is it from ‘through the years’?
Well, this one (points at vintage-looking synth) looks quite ‘through-the-yearsy’. It’s got wood on it, anyway.
Do you remember what you recorded with it?
I don’t know. Unfortunately Chris is at the dentist this afternoon, which is why he’s not here. Anyway the other room is much more exciting.
He flings open the door to the second room full of costumes, memorabilia, props and archive material.
Goodness me.
Now! This (points at scale model of ‘Can You Forgive Her’ video) I was given for my 40th birthday by Howard Greenhalgh, who directed that video. We should dust it down and put it upstairs!
What’s that wire coming out of the back? Does it plug in?
I think it must do! (Pulls pink bobbly waistcoat off rack) ‘I Wouldn’t Normally Do This Kind Of Thing!' (Points at suit) Glastonbury 2000. (Inspects jacket) Fundamental tour. (Finds white coat.) 'Go West' at the Brits!
In the bucket!
In the bloody bucket! And this fur coat… (Pulls fur coat off rack) This is from Performance — it’s the fur coat that the singers wore in the famous blowjob scene! (Examines another jacket) The Nightlife tour! Worn with the skirt. That’s a very nicely made jacket, actually — ‘one’ could still wear that…
I can see some pointy hats.
Yes! They’re not the real ones though. The real ones got destroyed at the 'Very' launch party. What do you get the impression of though, from these, is how incredibly low-tech they were.
And this staff, as wielded in the 'Go West' video?
Yes it is! God! (Grabs staff, stands triumphantly)
How does it feel?
It feels pretty good actually.
There’s a certain level of authority to a man with a stick.
The great thing is, you know what you’re going to do when you’ve got a stick. You’ve got something to hold onto. (Opens box) Here are presents people give us, which we can’t bear to give away because they’ve put so much work into them. (Opens another box) This is archive stuff, for a historian of the future. (Flicks through notebook) These are Chris’ notes from the Release tour. Look, here are the notes for ‘Love Is A Catastrophe’, a very underrated song. (Plonks ‘Discography’ display stand on box) Marketing stuff, always worth keeping. A mixing desk, that Polaroid camera you’ve always promised yourself… (Picks up oddly-shaped award) What’s this? (Peers at engraving) Oh, this is only from last year! (Laughs)
What’s in this box here?
(Rifles through box) Discs and tapes. ‘TFI Friday, December 2000 — It Doesn’t Always Snow At Christmas backing track’. Elton John introduced us. There were complaints! (Opens box full of dozens of pairs of sunglasses) Chris Lowe’s sunglasses. Magazines are always saying, ‘can we do a piece on Chris Lowe’s sunglasses’, and we always say we don’t know where they are. Mind you I don’t think this is all of them.
Did you see that man trying to flog Chris’ ‘Suburbia’ sunglasses on that Channel 4 programme, Four Rooms?
Were they actually Chris Lowe’s genuine sunglasses? (Looks disapproving) I don’t think he should have those. They’ve obviously been STOLEN. So anyway, that’s the store room. We do still have another storage place, of course, and that is in somewhere like Stevenage.
We head back upstairs, where Neil makes a cup of tea.
When did you start work on the new album?
Well if you remember, when we saw you in Berlin…
This was at the 'Elysium' launch where you told me, on the day your album was released, that you already had another one ready to go?
That’s right. And you couldn’t believe it. But we had! Well, pretty much. But then we were writing this piece about Alan Turing, and we ended up writing new songs, like ‘Bolshy’ and ‘Love Is A Bourgeoise Construct’. ‘Electric’ was originally an eight-track album until two and a half months ago Chris made some demos at home. I remember I was cooking and flicking through things on my computer and I thought, "what’s this track?". I thought it was something on the Kompakt label. Then I realised it was Chris, and I sent it to Stuart Price, who produced the album, saying "why aren’t we doing this?"
If you were thinking of it as an eight track album, were you originally thinking that it would be the next album in the ‘Disco’ series?
Well I think it’s more than that. When we started work on it, it was more Chris’ project really, and we agreed that it wasn’t going to be ‘Disco 5’. But it still had the slight feel of a side project. But then last year we sat down and said, "what is this? Is this the Pet Shop Boys' twelfth studio album?" And the answer was: YES IT IS. And there was something rather exciting about bringing out an album — originally it was due to come out in April — eight months after our previous one. David Bowie did it with ‘Heroes’ and ‘Low’, why can’t we?
Is it quite a recent development in pop, to create an almost artificial delay between albums? You release an album, go on a long tour and nothing from one campaign can overlap with another? It seems that at one point people would just whack out albums as soon as they were ready.
Well when ‘Ziggy Stardust’ by David Bowie came out it was very soon after ‘Hunky Dory’. Me and my brother already knew every song apart from one, because he’d already played them on Sounds Of The Seventies on Radio 1. And so with this album, we decided that we were going to go on tour, and start the tour playing songs that hadn’t been released yet. Yes, we decided, we’re going to do that. Of course, as ‘the singer’, at the front of the stage, I was slightly nervous about this.
Because you thought it would all end up on YouTube?
Well, the YouTube thing kind of worked for it — again, I thought back to me and my brother Simon already knowing ‘Ziggy Stardust’ before it came out, and it just helped to create the excitement. So I was quite happy that it was a way to get the songs out. My nervousness was more about whether the audience would be bored to death. We made the incredibly crazy decision — not that I had much choice in it — to dump ‘Go West’ as the final encore, and do ‘Vocal’ as the last song. I was very reluctant about this. All the way through the concert I’m thinking, “I’m not looking forward to this”. So we come back on, and I start singing: “I like the people…” The audience look puzzled. “I KNEW IT!” I think. “I knew this was going to happen.” Then it goes into “It’s in the music…” Well, the whole place erupts. WHOLE PLACE ERUPTS. For a song they’d never heard. There is, nowadays, a very strict ‘you can only play your hits’ thing. Which I don’t really agree with. If I were to see David Bowie live, I don’t really want to see ‘The Jean Genie’ followed by ‘Suffragette City’ followed by ‘Let’s Dance’, great as they are; I want to hear something from side two of ‘Heroes’, or something from ‘Diamond Dogs’. Because I’m a fan. I know a lot of people won’t agree with that, of course. But on this new tour we have two new albums to play songs from, and they all work really well. And everything is ‘Electriced up’.
How is everything ‘Electriced up’? Have you just put a donk on everything?
It’s funny, you used to say ‘put a donk on it’ a lot, but I only discovered last year, while working with Stuart Price, that there’s an actual fucking video! I had no idea! I sort of knew what it meant, but I didn’t know it actually referred to an actual song!
What did you think of it?
Well, it made me want to put a donk on everything. Also with this album, we were inspired by the EXTREME irritation that someone had written a review on iTunes, slagging off ‘Elysium’, saying they wanted “more banging and lasers”. And in fact, we thought, “alright then — more banging and lasers, here it comes”.
Is ‘Vocal’ about a particular night out?
It started off as a joke — based on the fact that dance songs don’t have vocals any more. So it’s got the line “I like the singer, he’s lonely and strange — every track has a vocal, and that makes a change”. Which was rather camp. But then it turned into something quite heartfelt. I can remember us being on the Discovery tour in Brazil, and on the last night of the tour we were all on the dancefloor — me, our dancers, Chris Lowe, Chris Heath, in this club in either Sao Paulo or Rio, and it was just brilliant. I remember having a very similar experience when we were somewhere during the era when ‘Music Sounds Better With You’ was out, which is quite a long time ago…
It’s fifteen years ago!
It can’t be fifteen years ago. God, is it that old? I thought it was ten years old. Anyway, you couldn’t get enough of that record at the time. I remember looking around and everyone was just so happy. Also with ‘Vocal’, while I didn’t do the rave thing in 1988 and 1989, Chris saw the light then and I was thinking of that from his perspective. It’s actually a very sincere song.
It’s quite ‘It’s Alright’.
Embarrassingly for him, our lighting director on the current tour said to me, ‘it reminds me of an old song called ‘It’s Alright’, have you ever heard it?” I said, “heard it? We had the fucking hit with it!” But yes, it is quite like that. It’s about what music does to people.
Is it true that Chris Heath wrote a book on the Discovery tour — but it will never come out?
I don’t think we’re sure where the manuscript is. It might even be in the cellar below us.
Why didn’t it come out?
Well, it was too much like the previous book. Also, there was too much stuff that couldn’t be printed. (Chortles) I think we’re going to publish it posthumously. There’s another one too, actually, from when we went to Russia. I don’t know where that manuscript is either. It’s not that the content is shocking, necessarily, just what we say about other popstars. I’ll say to Chris Heath, “I’m sure I would never say such a thing about Bono.” “Yes you did.”
I guess you started going out in the 70s — between then and now, which has been the best decade to go out dancing?
The first club I ever really went to was this club on Neal Street, in London. It was a gay club — we used to pronounce it ‘Shag-o-ramas’, but it was spelt Chaguramas. It’s the name of a Spanish sheep or something. I was 18, coming down from Newcastle, and I used to go to Shag-o-ramas on a Saturday night with my two friends from Tottenham. It was so expensive and we were so poor.
How expensive is expensive?
Well, half a pint of lager was fifty pence. And fifty pence then must be eight pounds now. It was inconceivably expensive. We’d maybe have one drink each. And that was when disco music was really just starting. They’d play ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ by Lou Reed — which was meant to be a dance record. They’d play ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ by The Temptations. We used to go crazy to that. And then I didn’t go clubbing for a while, but in the early 80s I met Chris and we started to go clubbing. We’d go to The Bell in Kings Cross, but the most fun was when I went to New York for Smash Hits in 1983. I was living in a quite smart flat on the upper west side with the designer, Kimberley Leston, who sadly killed herself in the 90s. But every night — I was only 27 — we used to go back to the flat from work, have a Chinese takeaway, then at 11 o’clock we’d be in a taxi heading downtown from West 80th Street to Avenue A to go to The Pyramid, or Area. Area was my favourite club: every month they changed the way it looked. You used to walk down this corridor and they had glass boxes with living human artworks in them. I remember once being at the bar and turning round to ask Kimberley what she wanted to drink, and Andy Warhol was standing behind me. There was an amazing mixture, which has never really happened in Britain, where you would get club kids, and boys wearing cut-off shorts and nothing else, but also the entire uptown crowd would come down too. So you’d have people in tuxedos and ballgowns mixing with drag queens. The music was amazing. And before that, when Chris and I went to New York to record with Bobby O, Arthur Baker was in the studio next door, and we’d go to The Funhouse, which was a club for Latino and Hispanic kids, really. And Jellybean Benitez was the DJ. There we were! In the booth with Jellybean! He was going out with Madonna at the time, of course. So that’s my favourite club period, but I think Chris would say the rave scene in 1988 and 1989. And one of my favourite club memories is of being in a club in Naples, rapping ‘West End Girls’ with Miss Kittin. These days, when we’re in Berlin, we go to Berghain.
What happens there?
It’s the best club in Europe! It’s a converted East German power station. It runs from Friday night until, I think, Monday night. Maybe even Tuesday morning. The great thing, when you get to a slightly advanced age, is you can go at midday on Sunday. Chris and I sometimes go with friends for two hours, have a couple of drinks, then go out for lunch! (Laughs) You stand at the bar, you hear what they’re playing, it’s quite interesting. I can’t really be bothered with clubbing now though — I’ve put in forty years. I deserve a long service medal!
You know how everyone’s gone bonkers for this new album and seems genuinely very excited for it?
Yes…
How does that make you feel about the way people responded to the last album?
Um…
The reception was quite muted.
I think we feel frustrated about the last album because we don’t like to feel boxed in as to what we’re ‘meant’ to write and record and put out. Chris and I had for a long time wanted to make a ‘Los Angeles’ album, with a very smooth sound, and we made that album with ‘Elysium’. I mean one track, ‘A Face Like That’, could be on the new album. In some ways it should be. I think it’s an amazingly good album, I’ve got to be honest with you. It’s one of the albums I feel most proud of. But for people who don’t really know us, and have a sort of an idea about us, ‘Electric’ is more what the Pet Shop Boys are meant to be. And it was interesting making that album with Stuart. What’s strange with this album is that Stuart decreed, at the start, that we would work on the songs in alphabetical order. And they’re still in that order, so it starts with ‘Axis’ and finishes with ‘Vocal’. ‘Love Is A Bourgeoise Construct’ was originally just called ‘Bourgeoise’, which is why it comes after ‘Bolshy’.
What, the whole album recorded in alphabetical order?
Yes! ‘Axis’ was the first song that was finished, and ‘Vocal’ was the last.
Broadly speaking, you worked on all the tracks at the same time, though?
Not really, no. There was one point when I had to go away somewhere for a few days and I said, “can we work on ‘Bourgeoise’ when I get back?”. I got back and Chris just went, “sorry, we worked on that while you were away because it was next in the alphabet”.
Did you ask Stuart why you were working in alphabetical order?
It’s pointless to argue with Stuart. In the same way that Stuart has, in the studio, daytime television on. Which is fine. But he has it with the sound up. (Looks aghast) This is unique in my experience. I normally ask for the TV to be turned off as I find it too distracting. Stuart wasn’t turning the television off. “It gives a rhythm to the day,” he said. You’ve got the property programmes, then the news, then this quiz programmes, then children’s TV, then you go home. I was in Peter Jones the other day buying a lead and they had one of those shit quizzes on the TV there…
The Chase is good, with Bradley Walsh.
Oh we only had the BBC on. We had Escape To The Country.
Before you go any further, what lead were you buying in Peter Jones?
My luggage got lost between Bogotá and Mexico City and I’ve got a new MacBook which, annoyingly, has a different size charger. Which I think should be illegal. Anyway, I had to get a new one, so I did. And of course, at that point |
would hav e been enough
to accomplish the task of folding paper in half
twel ve times. For a nice writeup on this episode,
please see [5]. See also [6].
Ex ercise
After the above analy sis, the following question
may arise: “How many times can we fold a sheet
of paper in half, by folding in alternate directions,
keeping all other rules the same?”
As expected, the answer is: The length and width
of the given sheet decide the number of times we
can fold the paper in half.
A good idea to proceed will be to start with a
square sheet of paper and calculate its limiting
width. Without considering the effects of
material lost in radii of earlier folds, we get a
crude bound for the width of a square sheet of
paper of thickness required for folding in half
times as:
I invite readers to deriv e the above formula.
Surel y, the above formula does not giv e any
minimum limit. Using analy sis seen in one
direction folding, we can deriv e a Limit Formula
for alternate folding. But in alternate folding, we
get separate equations for odd and even folds.
Note that odd folds accumulate losses in an odd
fold direction, and even folds accumulate losses in
an even fold direction. Also, each fold in an odd
direction doubles the amount of paper for the
next even direction, and vice versa.
Refer ences
1. Britney C. Galliv an, How to Fold Paper in Half Twelv e Times, Historical Society of Pomona V alley Inc. (2002); see
http://pomonahistorical.org/12times.htm
2. Arvind Gupta, Hands on Ideas and Activities, Vigyan Prasar (An autonomous organization under the Department of
Science and T echnology, Gov ernment of India), ISBN : 87-7480-118-9 (2005)
3. http://mathforum.org/libr ary/drmath/view/60675.html
4. http://mathforum.org/mathimages/inde x.php/Bedsheet_Problem
5. http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2005/12/21/1523497.htm
6. W eisstein, Eric W. ”F olding. ” From MathW orld–A W olfram W eb Resource. http://mathworld.w olfram.com/F olding.html
4 At Right Angles V ol. 4, No. 3, November 2015
GAURISH K ORP AL is an undergraduate student at National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER),
Jatni; he is currently in his second year. He loves mathematics and is a regular blogger at gaurish4math.Humans are bags of meat. Atop this bag sits a gelatinous electrochemical information processor the bag needs to help find nourishment to sustain itself, protect it from danger, and produce new bags of meat. The processor, what we call the “brain,” is very adept at recognizing patterns which we refer to as “ideas.” Ideas can have profound effects on the brain and give rise to emotions such as joy, fear, anxiety, love, excitement, boredom, lust, hate, curiosity and so forth. Though we don’t fully understand the scientific underpinnings of emotions, we know that they can provoke extremely powerful physical responses in the bags of meat they are attached to which in turn influences the state of the brain and the emotions it feels, thereby creating a tightly bound feedback loop between what we have traditionally referred to as “body, mind and soul.”
Generally speaking, the more successful our minds are at finding patterns and generating the proper emotional response to affect the body in a manner to properly respond to these patterns, the more likely and longer the body it’s attached to can thrive. If, for example, the idea of food provokes an emotion of fear, the meat bag associated with the brain generating that emotion is not long for this world. If the idea of intercourse brings no imagined sense of pleasure, the body will be far less likely to engage in the activity. And so emotions, coupled with the ideas that drive them, are critical phenomena to our well-being. We need to be able to recognize the patterns that inspire the right emotions at the right time in order to be successful biological entities.
Now, complex brains have the ability to associate different patterns with one another if they occur at the same time in the brain. This allows the brain to think abstractly and communicate with other brains.
For example, if the brain is exposed enough times to the same aural stimuli generated by a vocalized grunt at the same time it gets exposed to visual stimuli generated by a clear, odorless liquid on the ground, that grunt can come to mean “water.” If this happens enough times, a single grunt will conjure up the electrochemical patterns representing water inside the brains of those who hear it even if there is no water in sight. We can imagine crude grunts slowly evolving into sophisticated oral language as the pre-human brain grew in capacity. A language is simply the symbolic representation of the ideas inside of our heads in aural form.
More recently, humans learned how to purposefully manipulate objects in order to symbolize ideas. Cave drawings, totem poles, pictographs and written language are physical representations of the electrochemical patterns stored inside of our brains. Anything can become a symbol and, in turn, these symbols can generate very specific kinds of patterns inside of our brains, which, in turn, can cause us to feel emotions which then, as mentioned earlier, cause our bodies to respond. And so, through this almost mystical process, inanimate objects have the power to provoke physical responses in our bodies.
In general, the more efficiently a group of separate brains can share patterns, the more they can coordinate and cooperate to ensure mutual survival of their associated meat bags. This is what we call “society.” Without the phenomena of idea transference (i.e. communication) you cannot have complex society. Animal brains aren’t equipped to produce very complex pattern associations and they have only crude forms of communication and so are very limited in their ability to cooperate. Humans, however, have the capacity to recognize very complex patterns, associate them with one another easily and share them efficiently using technologically advanced methods of symbol transference. Our brain’s enhanced ability to recognize and associate subtle and sophisticated patterns and communicate them effectively allow us to evolve highly complex societies.
Today, we have a seemingly infinite number of ways for sharing symbols in the physical world: sculpture, painting, books, magazines, television, movies, radio, blogs, social media platforms, virtual reality, websites, memes, etc. The symbols these types of media deliver to us each contain other symbols that we can deconstruct and try to find meaning and patterns that resonate with existing patterns in our brains. Sometimes the symbolism is easy to determine while other times it happens at a wholly unconscious level either on the side of the author, audience or both. Symbols transmitted for a commercial purpose are often intended to delight us or make us feel profound emotions so that we will pay to witness the collection of symbols compiled for us. Advertisements employ highly crafted symbols to try to induce us into exchanging our money symbols for products infused with emotions such as comfort, status, happiness and well-being (beds, cars, soda, health pills).
Symbols have many practical applications, but the generation and deconstruction of symbols is the very fabric of our social beings. Symbols are so fundamental to our survival that we are wired to create and seek them out. Everything from engaging in idle chit chat to creating high art can be a source of great pleasure and satisfaction. Even the way we dress, move, and talk are symbolic. These cues, generated consciously or not, elicit patterns inside the brains of others that tell them, unconsciously or not, if there is reason to coordinate with the other brains they encounter. You have gotten this far in my essay because the symbols contained herein are affecting your brain patterns, creating an emotion inside of you that your brain thinks is worthwhile.
People who have the ability to create symbols that resonate with many brains–or even just the brains of key meat bags that can motivate other meat bags to action–can become powerful actors in a society. Gifted thespians, musicians and other artists can amass fame and fortune for their ability to arouse great emotions with the compelling symbols they generate for our pleasure or edification. Meta symbols–symbols which represent other powerful symbols that stir very strong emotions and desires–are the most powerful kinds of symbols. Money and religious texts are good examples of meta symbols. A person who can control meta symbols can more easily direct the physical actions of many individual meat bags. When the Catholic Church was more or less hegemonic in Europe and the sole arbiter of what was good and evil according to the meta symbol of the The Bible, the Pope was at the peak of his power. A key ingredient to Hitler’s ability to start WW II was figuring out how to attach iconic symbols to feelings of tribalism and ethnic pride.
Political power comes as the result of an accumulation of many other symbols representing physical force and coercion. Kings, dictators, presidents, legislators, judges, armies, weaponry, jails, courts, police, and legislative bodies are all symbols that work together to compel members of a society to behave in ways approved by the society. Political symbols are also often reinforced with money and religious texts to aid in the control of individuals.
So symbols are of extreme importance to a well functioning human society. In fact, they are the foundation for it. Of course, symbols only facilitate coordination so long as they create similar patterns inside the brains of the members within a society. If, for example, a flag representing a society provokes profound pride and cooperation in one half of a society and deep-seated hatred and hostility when flown by the other half, that society is probably in the midst of a civil war or on the verge of starting one.
And so if too many people cannot agree upon a common meaning for the symbols that are shared within the society, it’s a sign that the society is not firing on all cylinders, making coordination more difficult and strife more likely especially when resources are scarce and survival becomes more precarious. That’s not to say the healthiest societies are those where symbols are fixed with permanent meaning and mean the same thing to all individuals. In fact, static, homogenization of symbolic meaning is a very unhealthy state because such society’s are extremely brittle and cannot adapt very well to new problems encountered. A society such as North Korea can be considered a prime example of such a society.
Diversity in the symbolic representation of the world within a population can help it adapt by allowing new ideas to form and spread if they resonate with enough brains or resonate with the brains that control meat bags with power and influence within the society. Diversity of thought and openness to new symbolic representations are characteristics of a society that can overcome new challenges.
In early 21st century America, we are witnessing a recent outbreak of skirmishes around symbols and what they mean. We argue about flying the confederate flag, we argue about what the meaning of “Black Lives Matter” is, and we argue about the burning of the American flag or even what the recently iconic “Pepe the Frog” avatar means. Without understanding the power of symbols, it’s easy to be dismissive about these debates and wonder “What does it matter, they are only symbols, these debates are nothing but tempests in a teapot.” But as we have seen, symbols do matter a great deal. Certain symbols can arouse great passions within us which influence behaviors of individuals in the physical world. If there is enough disagreement over these symbols, it can lead to conflict and even death, as we have recently witnessed by the events in Charlottesville, VA.
Disagreements over symbolic meaning are not new and have been with us since the United States was founded. As an ethnically and politically diverse society where competing symbols often clash, conflict and violence has come to be a mark of American culture. Fortunately, the symbolic foundation of our democracy, the Constitution, has flexibility built into it that allows our society to both change the document’s symbolic meaning and enforce new meanings with political power. It is this very ability that has allowed the United States to not only survive but thrive despite the vast symbolic diversity of its people.
I will return to this thought in a moment. But first, I want to point out that not so long ago, the ability to imbue symbols with power was something reserved only for a select few members of society. At first, kings and priests, who were often one and the same, controlled the political symbols and religious texts giving them vast control over the societies they ruled. As monetary symbols came into existence, those who accumulated money could gain some level of control over society as well. As technology advanced, more and more control over symbols was delivered into the hands of outsiders. Gutenberg single-handedly broke the Catholic Church’s monopoly over religious texts with the printing press. The printing press also ushered in an age of literacy which in turn allowed commoners to share symbols more easily which in turn made it possible for them to coordinate and break King George’s grip over the Americas. The Founding Fathers recognized that the sharing of symbols was key to their victory over the monarchy and so they protected the free exchange of symbols in the form of the First Amendment. Later, in the 19th century, the telegraph made it possible for trains to coordinate over great distances which opened the door for ordinary citizens who controlled the telegraphic infrastructure to accumulate massive amounts of wealth and become influential in society. Newspapers, followed by radio and television provided powerful new ways to disseminate symbols to a mass audience. These symbolic transference technologies also gave rise to the advertising industry to promote the consumption of other symbols. Those who gained control and consolidate the new mass communication technologies garnered considerable influence over society by directly controlling the symbols it consumed.
Although these technologies which spread the power of symbols enabled vast amounts of disruption and changes in the balances of power within society, they are nothing compared to what is coming.
Within the past past twenty-five years, two new technologies arrived that promise to profoundly change our society in ways we cannot yet imagine: the personal computer (including mobile devices) and the Internet. Together, these two advancements give just about anyone the ability to generate and disseminate new symbols to anyone, anywhere. Not only that, these symbols can be generated by groups or individuals lacking any serious authority. As a result, our psyche’s are now bombarded with an explosion of powerful symbols that have made it extraordinarily difficult for us to recognize any particular pattern in the symbols we are exposed to and which patterns deserve serious attention. Navigating this new symbolic space is like the difference between sailing a boat in a well-marked channel with a steady breeze and plowing a vessel through the open seas during a violent maelstrom. Our symbols are losing their reference points making it increasingly difficult for individuals to maintain their psychic bearings. And perhaps more significantly, the ability of symbols to provide social cohesion is getting diluted, making it more likely our society will become unglued and fall apart. As our collective semiotic library is getting more and more balkanized along many different fault lines, our ability to comprehend and “speak to” others who don’t share or agree upon the meaning of our symbols becomes more and more difficult.
Though only roughly twenty-five years deep into the introduction of these two new technologies, we are witnessing their profound impacts on society. First, we see increasing disagreement about which symbols are significant. For example, leaders at the highest level of government tell us that the symbols in scientific research papers that say we are headed for near certain global catastrophe as a result of CO2 emissions should be ignored. Second, we see a huge rise in the challenge of authorities that used to be able to imbue symbols with almost unquestioning power. The authority of news organizations, politicians, government agencies, businesses, unions and other established institutions is under constant attack, undermining their ability to create unifying symbols that help us coordinate. Third, and perhaps most alarmingly, it is increasingly difficult for us to agree on the meaning of symbols. Perhaps the most striking examples is our current and former presidents, Donald Trump and Barack Obama, which highlight the very polarized nature of one of our most powerful symbols, the presidency.
So when we cannot agree on the importance of the symbols, and when we are unwilling to trust many of the authorities creating the symbols, and when we can’t even agree on the meaning of the symbols we do share, what hope is there for us of ever coordinating on a large scale again? Not much, I’m afraid. And I predict we will soon see our founding symbolic document, the Constitution, come under great strain. It’s importance, meaning, and the authority to imbue it with power will come under increasing attack which will eventually lead to chaos because a society that cannot agree on the fundamental meaning of one of its most fundamental symbols cannot possibly function well.
Other society’s which do not place as high of a value on the free creation and exchange of symbols understand the importance of controlling symbols to maintain a functional society. China has gone to great lengths to try to ensure the Internet and computers do not introduce new disruptive symbols into their culture that could undermine the existing power structures. I am not suggesting the United States should follow this path. As I’ve pointed out, the maintenance of symbols from a single authority leads to a very brittle and unhealthy society and usually only to the benefit of the few who maintain those symbols. But it’s ironic to point out that the free flow of symbolic ideas that once gave the United States its strength is now working to directly undermine it.
Collectively, we are only at the beginning of our journey out into the open sea of symbolic flotsam and and jetsam. We can still see the shore behind us and we will still see the beacon of the Enlightenment on the horizon for some time to come. But before too long those will disappear as time places a distance between an age when symbols had meaning and had the power to unify and the coming age when all symbols become mere noise. Perhaps there will be some kind of rescue boat that we will find which can restore the power of symbols for us and hopefully it is a benevolent one. Or, perhaps the death of shared symbols is the next step in human evolution and will open the door for some new extraordinary method of coordinating our actions. Whatever the fix, we better find one of these deus ex machina solutions quick. The open sea does not look very inviting.Media outlets including CNN and Politifact appear apoplectic that Donald Trump called President Barack Obama the founder of ISIS, fact checking him in on-camera chyrons and giving him a “pants on fire” rating for his comment.
An exasperated Trump pointed out that he was being sarcastic, ridiculing the media for taking his comment literally.
“Ratings challenged CNN reports so seriously that I call President Obama (and Clinton) “the founder” of ISIS, & MVP,” Trump wrote earlier today on Twitter. “THEY DON’T GET SARCASM?”
But news organizations like CNN and Politifact didn’t fact check Hillary Clinton after she called Donald Trump the “recruiting sergeant” of ISIS back in April.
“I think it was said just this week that the way Donald Trump talks about terrorism and his very insulting language towards Muslims is making him the recruiting sergeant for ISIS,” Clinton said.
Breitbart News is willing to do the hard work that CNN and Politifact will not. Donald Trump is not the recruiting sergeant of ISIS. Hillary Clinton deserves a big league Pinocchio PantSuits On Fire for her statement in April and we demand that she clarify her position immediately.Parents across the country are rushing their children to the emergency room because of a virus that may have claimed the life of a 4-year-old New Jersey boy.
It's called Enterovirus D-68 and it's been reported in nearly every state.
Enterovirus D-68 attacks the respiratory system. Symptoms of children admitted to the hospital with the virus include coughing, wheezing, and difficulty breathing.
Now a new symptom is being linked to Enterovirus D-68: paralysis.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert, explains how it happens.
"In a circumstance like that, the virus actually infects the central nervous system, the spinal cord, causes injury to some of the cells and that's what causes the paralysis," he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating whether Enterovirus D-68 can lead to paralysis. Their findings should be released next week.
Doctors say most children suffering from difficulty moving their limbs in association with the virus should regain movement, but in rare cases may not.
Medical staff at Children's Hospital Colorado admitted 10 children who are having difficulty moving their arms and legs.
Dr. Sam Dominguez said it appears the paralysis is linked to the virus.
"Most of these cases are preceded about a week before with a respiratory illness and then about a week later they have the onset of their neurological symptoms," he said.
The best protection against this and all viruses is frequent, thorough hand washing. That means lathering your hands for a full 20 seconds, about the time it takes to sing the "Happy Birthday Song" twice.
If there's no soap and water around, hand sanitizer and hand wipes are a good substitute.
The reason keeping your hands clean is so important is because viruses can live on hard surfaces, like door knobs, remote controls, and keyboards, for up to two days.
When we touch contaminated surfaces, the virus then transfers to our hands. If we don't wash off the virus, it can enter our body in a number of ways, such as through food we handle or when we touch our eyes, nose, mouth, or even open cuts.Hillary Clinton asked to be removed from a 1975 rape case in which her client was accused of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl, the onetime Arkansas lawyer said recently, addressing for the first time fresh retrospective reproach for her defense of a man she's suggested was guilty.
"When I was a 27-year-old attorney doing legal aid work at the [University of Arkansas] where I taught in Fayetteville, Arkansas, I was appointed by the local judge to represent a criminal defendant accused of rape," she said when broached with the topic in an interview with British online network Mumsnet. "I asked to be relieved of that responsibility, but I was not. And I had a professional duty to represent my client to the best of my ability, which I did."
The Washington Free Beacon recently obtained audio from a 1980s interview with Clinton in which she concedes some admittedly disquieting information about how she was able to seize on loopholes to minimize the sentence of the suspect, 41-year-old Thomas Alfred Taylor. Though he faced 30 years to life in prison, Clinton negotiated a plea deal that sentenced him to just one year in county jail and four years of probation.
In a sworn affidavit aiming to coerce a psychiatric evaluation of the sixth-grade victim, Clinton during the case nearly 40 years ago called into question the girl's emotional stability, arguing she had exhibited "a tendency to seek out older men and engage in... fantasizing." She added, citing a child psychology expert that "children in early adolescence tend to exaggerate or romanticize sexual experiences and that adolescents with disorganized families, such as the complainant, are even more prone to such behavior."
But in the recording, Clinton indicated she believed her client was indeed guilty. Heard laughing, she said the polygraph test he managed to pass "forever destroyed my faith in polygraphs."
Grasping to cast Clinton - the early frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination - as someone far removed from the champion of women's rights around which she's molded her reputation as first lady, senator and secretary of state, some Republicans have rallied attention back to her handling of the case.
Todd Akin, whose 2012 Senate campaign was largely annihilated by his theory that women who are victims of "legitimate rape" shouldn't be exempted from anti-abortion laws because they're unlikely to become pregnant, last month lambasted as "incredibly hypocritical" Clinton's defense of a child rapist "she knew to be guilty." He added that by laughing while discussing the case, Clinton "de-legitimized the legitimate claims of the 12-year-old victim," and that she "slandered the victim to justify her tactics."
Clinton stood by her defense during her interview with Mumsnet: "When you're a lawyer you often don't have the choice as to who you will represent," she said. "And by the very nature of criminal law there will be those you represent you don't approve of. But, at least in our system, you have an obligation. And once I was appointed I fulfilled that obligation."Image copyright AFP PHOTO/KCNA VIA KNS Image caption "The door remains open" for North Korea's leaders to choose a different path, US diplomats say
The UN Security Council has slapped new sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear programme, this time targeting its valuable coal exports to China.
Coal exports will be slashed by about 60% under a strict new sales cap.
China agreed to the sanctions after months of negotiations with the United States following North Korea's fifth and largest nuclear test in September.
Exports of copper, nickel, silver, zinc and the sale of statues will also be banned.
The council unanimously approved the sanctions resolution.
As the reclusive country's primary ally, China has traditionally protected it diplomatically, fearful of what might happen if the government collapses. It has, however, grown increasingly impatient with its actions.
North Korea has been under UN sanctions since 2006 over its nuclear and missile programme.
Coal is North Korea's top export earner and diplomats say the export cap of 7.5m metric tonnes would cost it $700m (£562m) in lost earnings compared with 2015 sales. China is believed to be the only state that buys North Korean coal.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the sanctions sent an "unequivocal message that the DPRK must cease all the provocative actions and comply fully with its international obligations".
He added: "Sanctions are only as effective as their implementation."
Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the UN, admitted that "no resolution in New York will likely tomorrow persuade Pyongyang to cease its relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons".
But, she said, "unprecedented costs" were being placed on North Korea for defying the international community.
The resolution also blacklisted 11 more people and 10 entities said to be connected to North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programme, imposing a travel ban and asset freezes.WATERLOO REGION – More than 4,000 elementary students whose immunization records aren’t up to date face suspensions from school for up to 20 days, according to officials at Region of Waterloo Public Health.
A total of 4,115 suspension orders have been sent to families this week to advise parents they have until April 6 to provide public health with documented proof of immunization or a valid exemption to vaccination.
Public health is required under the Immunization of School Pupils Act to maintain immunization records for all students in Waterloo Region, however, it’s parents’ responsibility to provide immunization proof – or official exemption – to the region.
“Enforcing the law ensures that children and our community are protected against vaccine preventable diseases”, says Linda Black, manager of vaccine preventable disease programs at public health.Chris Neil was beneath the stands at the Canadian Tire Centre as his Ottawa Senators took on the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Final. The 37-year-old enforcer watched on a television in the weight room with the team’s other healthy scratches, working to keep his body game-ready — in case he got the call he’d been hoping for.
Even beneath those stands, out of the spotlight, Neil could feel the rush of the crowd, the energy of that place. It felt like a return to a different time, when he was younger and the game was different, and the shape of his life was still forming.
“It sends shivers up your back,” he says. “It’s just the vibe that you get throughout the city. Everyone is talking about the Senators.”
But while Neil wants to be on the ice with his teammates, the Senators assistant captain is doing what he can to lead them off it — knowing well that they’re on the edge of something few ever achieve. And while still unsure if he’ll return for another season, he’s reflecting from a unique vantage point on what 15 seasons in Ottawa have meant to him.
After the Senators took Neil in the sixth round of the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, he broke into the league in 2001. One of his closest friends, Mike Fisher, was selected in the same draft. Together they were part of a different Senators era, one that culminated in a trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2007. And while those memories were made on the ice, life unfolded off of it. He met his wife, Caitlin, at a local church they still attend. They had three kids — the first, his daughter, between Games 2 and 3 of that Final a decade ago. And he lived through the agony of losing his mother, Bonnie, who was killed in a car accident in 2005. He learned of her death after being called into a meeting with then-coach Bryan Murray while the team was in Carolina. He thought he’d been traded. When he walked in and saw Fisher there, too, he thought his friend was going with him. “Can’t be that bad if Mike’s going with me,” he thought.
“Chris, you better sit down,” Murray said. And Neil’s world shattered.
Back in Ottawa, in time, the pieces started to come back together. He surrounded himself with the family he’d gained in the place he’ll call home long after he hangs up his skates for good.
That will be sooner than later, of course. In this, the final year of his contract with the only NHL team he’s ever played for, Neil has been sparsely used. After missing part of the regular season due to injuries, he’s been a healthy scratch in all but two games during the Senators’ playoff run. During those appearances (when he was tasked with sending a message to Rangers pest Tanner Glass) he saw fewer than four minutes of ice time, combined. But he’s still doing what he can to lead, imparting wisdom on younger teammates from his own playoff experience.
“I’m no different than anybody else. I want to be in the lineup, contributing and helping out,” he says. “But I look back on when I first came into the league, and there were older guys who were sitting out. It’s just the way the clock goes.”
His assignment as an on-ice policeman, protecting the Senators’ stars, was one he adopted after being drafted in order to fill a role in the NHL and fulfill his dream. It’s one he still believes in, though he’d happily do without the fights. And it’s the role that, along with his age, is rendering him less useful to the present than he was to the past.
Are the Penguins just too beat up to get past Senators May 18 2017
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But Neil’s not complaining.
“I’ve been fortunate and blessed to have been part of it for so long. And to have played for so long,” he says. “I don’t take anything for granted.”
Neil hasn’t made a decision on what he’ll do when this playoff run ends. There is a good chance he’s already played his last game as a Senator, if not as an NHLer. But he’ll worry about that when it’s time.
Right now, he’s just thinking about the next game. And if the opportunity comes, Neil will be ready.ABOUT
A group of file transfer software experts from Germany founded this File Transfer Appliance Company in 1996 which later spanned to France and Singapore in 2007.
The company stands on a mission to offer the latest Hardware Technologies coupled with the leading Software Solutions as “Plug-and-Play” appliances designed for security problems and compliance tasks.
The campaign’s initial run in April 2011 mainly focused on the Singapore market. The client preferred to cater to companies that send out big files. These are companies that have worldwide presence and do site-to-site file sending, or those that require file-sharing with their resellers or customers.
The initial campaign production delivered 19 leads. Such number was instrumental to the client’s positive decision to renew for another campaign that was even more impressive with 34 leads. Since then, the team continuously worked on for the lead generation campaign. The number of leads fluctuated but nevertheless quality was maintained at its best. The following campaign period brought in 28 leads with positive contacts at 63%, the next with 26 leads at 50% positive contacts, followed by another month with 35 leads at 71% positive contacts, and proceeded to another renewal month with 14 leads at 71% positive contacts and the last month with 23 leads at 76% positive contacts.
As the Singapore database was close to being exhausted, Callbox proposed to the client to divert its focus to other countries. In 2012, Malaysia came into the picture and kicked off with 30 leads in the 1st run, and went on alternately running MY and SG markets for the rest of the campaign period, with 18-20 leads per month, renewing contract after contract of 3 or 6 months, until the final leg in May 2015.Part of what makes this iteration of the Miami HEAT one of the more fascinating teams of the preseason is that for as highly talented as this group of players is, it’s not immediately clear how they’re going to fit together.
It’s not necessarily a good or bad thing not to know how a team is going to play together. For now, it’s just a thing – one specific to a team of veterans ready to win. Were this a younger cast, most of the discussion during training camp would revolve around skill development. With a large percentage of the roster in the middle of or very near their prime years, we’re already quite familiar with the skills and abilities on hand.
This knowledge has led most observers to two questions. The first, concerning the defense, we won’t be able to properly address until the team gets on the floor and shows off it’s new scheme. The seconds deals with floor spacing.
The HEAT have some of the league’s best attacking guards, some of the best finishing big men and some of the most versatile players across all positions. What they don’t seem to have, going by historical volume and percentages, are many true-blue three-point shooters outside of recently-added Gerald Green – at least not the ones that defenders have to go out of their way to practically hug.
“There may not be the type of three-point shooting that will be competing in the three-point shooting contest,” Erik Spoelstra said. “But you don’t want to leave some of our guys open.”
While the league is certainly trending more and more toward emphasizing threes, there’s no steadfast rule that says you have to get a huge chunk of your offense from beyond the arc. The ultimate goal is to be efficient with every possession at your disposal, but the actual scoring can come from anywhere on the floor as long as you’re good enough from those spots.
The key in Miami is finding ways to make those spots as spacious as possible.
The first solution is to take your current shooters and find ways to make them better. Some of that comes from simple math, as Mario Chalmers is likely to experience a good chunk of positive regression from last season’s sub-30 percent mark, while also putting players in the best position possible. And Erik Spoelstra tends to have a good nose for finding player who can excel in the corners.
“I played with Ray Allen, I played with Jason Kapono, Mike Miller, James Jones,” Dwyane Wade said. “You would love to have those guys, but when you don’t have them, you got to have a guy like [Quentin Richardson and Dorell Wright] who can make threes.”
Both Richardson and Wright featured heavily as corner shooters on Spoelstra and Wade’s 2009-10 playoff team – shooting well above their career averages – just as Chalmers and Luol Deng (exceptional in the right corner) could this season.
“We’ll try to feed our guys as much confidence as possible and see if we can have some career high shooting levels,” Spoelstra said.
Even if those career-high levels don’t come – three-point shooting suffers from high degrees of variance no matter how many things you’re doing right – it’s almost more important for Miami to have highly willing, if not always highly effective, shooters. NBA players, after all, tend to defend the arc not just by how likely you are to make a shot, but by how often you are to take it.
“We have to make sure guys are shooting wide-open shots,” Bosh said. “I feel that they’re going to give us those shots. We have to anticipate those outside shots coming, especially those corner threes.
“The stigma of this team is like, ‘Oh, we don’t have any outside shooters, guys aren’t going to respect that’. So, kick it out. Shoot it. Then when we make a couple. Now we get the space that we need.”
It’s a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg predicament. Generally, the thinking goes that you need shooters giving you space in order to drive, but you also need to be driving in order to create open shots for shooters. Which comes first?
Court action is never so arbitrary.
In Charlotte two years ago, Josh McRoberts played on a team that similarly didn’t have many proven 40-percent threats from downtown. But under Steve Clifford that team still found plenty of space to help Al Jefferson have an exceptional season in the post. It wasn’t rocket science, according to McRoberts, how they did that.
“I just shot a lot of threes if I remember right,” McRoberts said. “Just to keep the defense honest. [Michael] Kidd-Gilchrist played in the post a bit more, where he could bully threes, and I would step out. We would invert our spacing a little bit.”
Sound familiar?
That Charlotte team may have two answers for us. Clifford would often have Kidd-Gilchrist, who has attempted just 18 threes in his entire career, along the baseline while McRoberts played at the top of the key to create paint space for Jefferson and Kemba Walker – just as Wade and Deng can use their exceptional cutting talents along the baseline while Bosh spaces from the top of the floor. Charlotte also ran a ton of Walker-McRoberts pick-and-rolls that started near the middle of the floor and had McRoberts flare out to the wing. With the other three players stationed on the opposite side of the court, Walker would either get space to drive, McRoberts would get an open three or Jefferson could flash across the paint for an entry pass.
Now imagine the same thing with Goran Dragic, Bosh and Hassan Whiteside.
“Spo puts a really |
“Man of the Year”, Time, 83 (January 3, 1964) 13-16; 25-27.
“Martin Luther King, Jr.”, in Current Biography Yearbook 1965, ed. by Charles Moritz, pp. 220-223. New York, H.W. Wilson.
Reddick, Lawrence D., Crusader without Violence: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York, Harper, 1959.
From Nobel Lectures, Peace 1951-1970, Editor Frederick W. Haberman, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
* Note from Nobelprize.org: This biography uses the word “Negro”. Even though this word today is considered inappropriate, the biography is published in its original version in view of keeping it as a historical document.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1964
To cite this section
MLA style: Martin Luther King Jr. – Biography. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Wed. 27 Feb 2019. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/biographical/>Arizona Coyotes goalie Louis Domingue. (Photo: Matt Kartozian/USA TODAY Sports)
Did you hear that? It’s the sound of opportunity knocking on the Coyotes’ Plexiglas.
Carpe Domi. Seize the day.
A franchise that has advanced past the first round of the NHL playoffs just once in two decades has a chance to change the narrative. With details of a location for a new facility close to breaking and a young lineup that could be the core of a successful team in the long haul, a patient fan base says respectively: Don’t screw it up.
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The team is 5-7 but winners of three of its last four heading into Thursday’s visit from the Winnipeg Jets. Injuries, an infusion of youth wreaking havoc on the defense and a slow start by some of its offensive stars have clouded the promise of this team. It’s there, and for the first time in a while, the franchise has a blueprint worthy of our attention.
A key is the finalization of a new arena deal. The organization is deep in talks with Arizona State about the land at Karsten Golf Course which would house a joint facility. ASU -- which launched a Division I hockey program last season -- will not comment and the Coyotes, out of respect for ASU, have been quiet, other than president and CEO Anthony LeBlanc’s proclamation at the team’s kickoff luncheon last month that he would have information soon.
A new facility in Tempe would be an important boost for the organization. The location is better, near the intersection of the 101 and 202 freeways, and accessible by light rail.
APRIL 2016: Coyotes boss pledges arena-plan announcement
An organization long plagued by relocation rumors and unsatisfying arena deals would benefit from a more fan-friendly location.
It is a good time to turn the corner.
The national perception of the Valley as a hockey community improved when Scottsdale’s Auston Matthews was the top pick in this year’s draft. He is an elite talent – scoring four goals in his NHL debut – and has said the Coyotes’ Shane Doan was one of his favorite players growing up.
He has enhanced the area’s hockey street cred.
Next season, the league will add a team in Las Vegas, which will unveil its name and logo in two weeks, bringing more attention to hockey in the Southwest.
Winning is the next important step.
MORE: Arizona Coyotes coverage
How appropriate that Thursday’s opponent is Winnipeg. The original Jets became the Coyotes 20 years ago, and there was genuine enthusiasm in the community with personalities like Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk and yes, Doan was on that team. (The current Jets are products of a different franchise.)
In that postseason, the team introduced fans to a White Out. They beat Anaheim 4-1 in Game 3 of the Western Conference quarterfinals. It was rowdy. It was fun. And it set an exciting tone.
A tone that lost its mojo quickly.
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The Coyotes advanced to the playoffs five of their first six seasons here before a drought of six years. A promising stretch from 2009 to ’12, highlighted by a 2012 Western Conference finals meeting with the Kings, was followed by four consecutive seasons of no playoffs.
Those fun times are distant memories.
Fans can handle another inconsistent season if it’s the start of something better. The Coyotes have spent the past few years stockpiling young talent, including five rookies on the team this season, ranging in ages from 18 to 21.
Jakob Chychrun of the Arizona Coyotes. (Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Jakob Chychrun, the youngest, has excelled at defenseman. The team astutely traded up four spots to secure him with the No. 16 pick, a move many in hockey are now applauding.
Lawson Crouse, 19, Christian Dvorak, 20, and Laurent Dauphin, 21, have displayed promise at a time when the Coyotes’ young stars from last season are beginning to step up, including Max Domi, who had a goal and two assists in Wednesday’s 4-2 victory over Colorado, a game coach Dave Tippett believed was the closest to a complete one the team has had.
It was very much a game that displayed the team’s youth.
Goalie Louis Domingue, 24, posted 25 saves. Defenseman Anthony DeAngelo, 21, scored in his NHL debut and forward Jordan Martinook, 24, scored a pair.
Not having goalie Mike Smith, forward Martin Hanzal and defenseman Michael Stone healthy have hurt, but giving the young players time may pay off in the long run.
Smith, who sustained a lower-body injury on Oct. 18, has played only two games but could return to the lineup next week.
This season has a lot of question marks.
Can the youngest general manager in NHL history, 27-year-old John Chayka, deliver?
And can fans be patient with a talented but inexperienced group of young players?
If they develop, and team continues to show vision, including securing a new arena, the answer is a resounding “yes.”
Reach Paola Boivin at paola.boivin@arizonarepublic.com and on Twitter at Twitter.com/PaolaBoivin. Listen to her streaming live on “The Brad Cesmat Show” on sports360az.com every Monday at 10:30 a.m.What cities have the most and least profitable public transportation services in the US? Perhaps you can find out in this graphical visualization of the data!
The US data I'm analyzing here covers things like buses, vans, and rail... but it might be even more interesting to analyze data from other countries, where they have a bit more variety in their modes of transportation. Can anyone guess what country my friends Joy and Erik are in?
And now, back to the US data!...
I found the data on the National Transit Data page, maintained by the Federal Transit Administration. The tables are in Excel spreadsheet format, so I had to import them into SAS, and then perform some SQL table joins to wrangle them into just the right form to plot.
Several variables are tracked in the data, but I decided to focus on the total operating expenses, and the fare revenues earned. I used a scatter plot with a marker for each individual type of transportation in each city or county (for example NC's "Rowan Transit Systems (RTS), Demand Response - Purchased Transportation"). And I annotated a diagonal line - markers above the line are 'profitable' (in the sense that the fares were higher than the expenses) and those below it lost money.
My first plot was a bit disappointing. Since a few of the really large cities (such as NYC) had such higher values than all the others, most of the markers were squished into the bottom left corner of the graph:
So I changed to a log-based scale for my axes, which helped a lot:
This graph lets me see the overall trend of the data, but I assumed that most people would want to see something a little more specific - like "How did my state do?" So I set up a graph for each state, where that state's markers are red, and all the other markers are light gray. And the red markers have hover-text so you can see the name and exact values. Click the North Carolina graph image below to see the interactive graphs for all the states:
It appears North Carolina has a big variety. We had one of the few profitable markers above the line (a Vanpool in Wilmington), and one of the markers farthest below the diagonal line (some Demand Response transportation in Rowan county).
So, how did your state do? Or, if you're from another country, do you think your country's transit systems are more, or less, profitable?Another hot-hitting Red Sox prospect continued to rake on Saturday, as Michael Chavis ( Red Sox's No. 10 ) went 4-for-6 with a home run in Class A Advanced Salem's 13-8 win over Winston-Salem. The first-round selection from the 2014 Draft is batting.358 with six homers in 18 games.
Several prospects in the Red Sox's farm system turned in impressive performances on Saturday, led by No. 1 (No. 15 overall) Rafael Devers, who smashed a grand slam in Double-A Portland's 5-0 win over Reading in Game 1 of a double-header. The 20-year-old third baseman has six homers on the season, four of which have come just this month.
Several prospects in the Red Sox's farm system turned in impressive performances on Saturday, led by No. 1 (No. 15 overall) Rafael Devers, who smashed a grand slam in Double-A Portland's 5-0 win over Reading in Game 1 of a double-header. The 20-year-old third baseman has six homers on the season, four of which have come just this month.
Another hot-hitting Red Sox prospect continued to rake on Saturday, as Michael Chavis (Red Sox's No. 10) went 4-for-6 with a home run in Class A Advanced Salem's 13-8 win over Winston-Salem. The first-round selection from the 2014 Draft is batting.358 with six homers in 18 games.
Watch: Devers launches grand slam
A pair of pitchers in Boston's organization also shined on Saturday. Right-hander Michael Shawaryn (Red Sox No. 12) tossed six dominant innings for Class A Greenville, yielding just one run on three hits, walking one and striking out 12. Left-hander Jalen Beeks (Red Sox No. 27) tossed five scoreless innings with eight strikeouts for Double-A Portland.
Watch: Shawaryn notches 12th K
Other top prospect performances from Saturday's action:
• Clint Frazier (Yankees' No. 2, No. 21 overall ) went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in a 9-3 win over Syracuse. The 22-year-old outfielder is 8-for-17 (.471) with four doubles and a homer so far in May.
• Brent Honeywell (Rays' No. 2, No. 27 overall) turned in 5 2/3 scoreless frames for Triple-A Durham in a 1-0 win over Norfolk. The 22-year-old right-hander gave up five hits, walked two and struck out eight. It was his best showing at the Triple-A level after posting a 5.87 ERA over his first three starts.
Watch: Honeywell fans 8th hitter
• Kyle Tucker (Astros' No. 2, No. 31 overall) belted two solo homers in Class A Advanced Buies Creek's 8-4 loss to Myrtle Beach. The 20-year-old outfielder now has eight doubles, three triples and six home runs in 28 games.
Watch: Tucker launches 2nd homer of the day
• A.J. Puk (Athletics' No. 2, No. 62 overall) was downright dominant for Class A Advanced Stockton, striking out nine and allowing just one hit in five scoreless innings. It was arguably the best pro start for the former Florida Gator, who was taken sixth overall in the 2016 Draft.
• Ronald Acuna (Braves' No. 7, No. 93 overall) went 2-for-5 with a solo homer in Class A Advanced Florida's 7-4 loss to Clearwater. It was the 19-year-old outfielder's third home run of the season. Another Atlanta prospect, Alex Jackson (Braves' No. 23) also homered in that game, blasting his ninth of the season in 28 games (he had 11 homers in 92 games for Class A Clinton in 2016).
• Cody Ponce (Brewers' No. 15) tossed seven strong innings for Class A Advanced Carolina, giving up a run on four hits, walking one and fanning eight in a 1-0 loss to Frederick. It was the 23-year-old right-hander's best start since his first of the season, when he tossed seven scoreless frames against Frederick on April 9th.
• P.J. Conlon (Mets' No. 22) was masterful in seven scoreless innings for Double-A Binghamton, surrendering just one hit and one walk while striking out nine in a 9-0 win over New Hampshire. It was the southpaw's best start at the Double-A level -- he entered the contest with a 4.21 ERA in five Double-A starts this season.
Watch: Conlon completes shutout
• Another Mets prospect, Patrick Mazeika (No. 27) was 3-for-5 with two doubles, a home run and four RBIs in Class A Advanced St. Lucie's 11-10 loss to Ft. Meyers. The 23-year-old catcher is batting.374 with five homers on the season.
• Max Moroff (Pirates' No. 25) had a two-homer game in Triple-A Indianapolis' 6-1 win over Columbus, belting his seventh and eighth round-trippers of the season. Twelve of his 24 hits this season have been of the extra-base variety.
Watch: Moroff's second homerODF TC Creates Advanced Document Collaboration Subcommittee
The OASIS ODF Technical Committee voted a couple of weeks ago to create a new subcommittee, on “Advanced Document Collaboration”. Robin LaFontaine, from DeltaXML will chair the subcommittee.
Since the entire ODF TC is quite large now (almost 20 active members attend each meeting) it is impossible to do a technical “deep dive” on every topic in our meetings. So when a particular specification domain requires sustained attention for a period of time, we can create a subcommittee, to allow interested TC members to study and draft specification enhancements. We’ve done this several times before. For example, the Accessibility SC developed the accessibility enhancements for ODF 1.1. And the Formula and Metadata subcommittees drafted those key parts of ODF 1.2. I hope that this new SC will be equally successful in their work.
So what is “Advanced Document Collaboration”? A key part of this will be enhancing change tracking in ODF. I’ve been looking at how existing applications implement change tracking and I’m not 100% satisfied. And I don’t mean only ODF editors. Even Microsoft Office using OOXML lacks full and complete change tracking support. For example. Microsoft Word does not track changes that occur in an OLE object. And change tracking in PowerPoint is entirely absent. And starting in ODF 1.2 we have an additional RDF metadata layer in documents and we need to consider how change tracking deals with this. So there is a good opportunity here for us to advance the state of the art.
We are fortunate that earlier this year the OpenDoc Society, with sponsorship from NLnet Foundation. commissioned a proposal of a feature-complete change tracking specification from DeltaXML. This draft has also been contributed to the ODF TC and has attracted some implementor interest, with prototyping work occurring both in KOffice and AbiWord.
While studying change tracking, I’m hoping the SC will be able to give some thought to how we might canonically represent an “editing change” artifact. By this I mean a high level change which in the general case might be a correlated set of content, style and metadata changes which appears atomic the user, but which at the implementation level might touch several XML files in the ODF document. This editing change artifact, aside from being necessary to represent change tracking, could also be quite useful in other problems, such as a runtime clipboard format, as a quantum of change in a real-time collaborative editor, or to represent the persistent form of a document selection, which itself is useful in contexts such as fine-grained digital signatures. Not all of this happens overnight of course But I’m hoping that the initial work on feature-complete change-tracking will give other benefits down the road.
The charter for the new Subcommittee follows. If you are interested in these topics but are not already a member of OASIS, then I’d encourage you to join now, so you can “get in on the ground floor” with these exciting new discussions.In the soft spring sunshine it was possible to believe the Brussels briefings that Europe was finally getting on top of the crisis in the eurozone. But a shadow fell across the summit.
It was not just the fact that Portugal was edging ever closer to needing a bail-out. It was not even that the Portuguese Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, had resigned and that there could be a political vacuum in Lisbon for two months. It was more fundamental than that.
Portugal's parliament had rejected an austerity plan that carried the imprint of the European Central Bank and the European Commission. The country was told that an extra round of spending cuts and tax increases was essential to appease the markets. It was sold as a matter of survival. All the pleadings counted for little. The plan - the fourth austerity package in the space of a year - was thrown out. The people had had enough of belt-tightening. They would be squeezed no more.
Now Portugal's political parties say they'll respect the deficit-cutting targets, but elections lie ahead and the people will deliver their verdict.
All of this reflects a deeper trend. A fault line is developing between Europe's prosperous north and those debt-ridden countries on the periphery.The plates are shifting, creating a divide. The people in the northern countries are increasingly frustrated at having to bankroll the weaker nations. At the same time the people in the Republic of Ireland, Greece, Portugal and elsewhere are increasingly resistant to the austerity imposed on them. There is increasing tension between the bankrollers and the bailed-out.
Now in order to fix the crisis the EU has agreed to increase the lending capacity of the current fund and to set up a permanent bail-out mechanism after 2013. With it comes a "grand bargain" drawn up by Germany. In exchange for being Europe's paymaster Berlin has demanded a say in how other economies are run. So there will be a pact aimed at bringing eurozone countries closer together in areas like tax rates and wage bargaining. Economic co-ordination will have arrived. Sanctions will rein in those inclined to run up deficits.
Whether these measures truly address the cause of the crisis is an interesting question. But even before they are introduced there is potential trouble.
The historian Niall Ferguson recently described it as a giant "Ponzi scheme" where the burden of supporting weaker nations was placed on the shoulders of an "ever-shrinking number of healthy ones".
On 17 April Finland will hold an election.The party that may end up holding the balance of power is the True Finns. It opposes increasing the size of the EU's bail-out fund and wants the whole deal renegotiated.
A casual glance at today's German papers indicates just how unpopular a larger bail-out fund is with German voters. Bild said "the old promise that we won't pay for others has been broken once again". Several German papers pointed out that topping up the euro rescue fund would now cost 22bn euros (£19bn). That is money up front. Kurt Lauk from the CDU is quoted as saying "Europe is on the threshold of becoming a transfer union."
In response to the collapse of the Portuguese government the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: "A lot depends now on those who represent Portugal making it clear that Portugal feels obliged to stick to the goals" of its deficit-cutting programme.
But say the mood is shifting. Say the ability of weaker states to adopt austerity measures is weakening. What then?
In Ireland - despite a bail-out - the crisis is not yet over. The new government says that the bill to bail out the sickly banks is still growing. It may need a further rescue. Otherwise the threat is there. Investors, including French and German institutions, will have to be burned. There will be further bank stress tests next Thursday. The Irish government is hemmed in. There is growing hostility towards Brussels. The public won't take more austerity.
And even though the bail-outs have bought some breathing space they have not solved the fundamental problem. Greece has had the interest rates of its loans reduced and its repayment period extended, yet the country shows no sign of being able to grow its way out of its debt crisis. Its tax revenues are actually falling. Growth is elusive. Sooner or later Greece will have to face its debt mountain.
Chancellor Merkel offers no relief. "Member states," she said at the summit, "face many years of work to atone for past sins". And that's part of the problem - countries like Greece, Ireland and Portugal will be taking the austerity medicine not just for this year, but quite possibly for a generation.
As Charles Grant from the Centre for European Reform observes, "there may be a time when, even if politicians want to do the right thing for the euro, the public will not allow them to do it."
Brussels is often a strange world. There is a Panglossian upbeat tone to much of what is said publicly, whilst economist after economist predicts a restructuring of the debt is coming.
This was supposed to be the summit that delivered the comprehensive package to end the eurozone crisis. It hasn't. Three months of uncertainty lie ahead. The fix is not in. A line has not been drawn. And tensions are rising.In order for something to be hated, it must first be loved; that love is what gives the hatred its roots. There will always be those unfathomably popular bands and singers that get an inordinate amount of airtime, and are loved by obsessed, cultish fans, only intensifying the hatred of those who realize one objective truth: that when you get down to it, the music isn't even good. In fact, it downright sucks.
In the last week, Rush and the Eagles have been reappraised and argued about on Salon. We wondered which recent bands we might all be fighting about in 20 years. (When, by the way, they'll still be terrible.)
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Nickelback
Hating Nickelback used to be cool, but it's so easy that it's kind of just a fact, now. It's sort of like hating Jonah Lehrer, partially because, like Lehrer, Nickelback plagiarizes itself and somehow still has fans. Oh, and also, Nickelback sucks.
98 Degrees
Even in the 1990s, there were only so many mock turtlenecks and cargo pants the front cover of Tiger Beat could handle before fans revolted against the fashion. In a musical genre already dominated by the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync, Nick Lachey's ersatz boy band never really had a chance.
Smash Mouth
Smash Mouth is what would have happened if Limp Bizkit made love to a Lisa Frank poster. In theory, that sounds kind of amazing. In practice, it is not.
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Black Eyed Peas
If the Black Eyed Peas, the creators of nonsensical hits like "Boom Boom Pow" and "My Humps," qualify as music, then any kid with a Barbie Mix It Up DJ Turntable is Mozart. Who needs vocals when you've got auto-tune?
Insane Clown Posse
"The Most Hated Band in the World" gave birth to the most obnoxious fans in the world, the Juggalos, who are virtually a gang at this point. But at some point, founders Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope sort of lost their way and now this is all that's left of them:
Hootie & the Blowfish
If music on the radio in the early 1990s all sounded the same, that's because it was All Hootie & The Blowfish, All The Time. The band's bland music had no real edge and just enough melody to have comfortably become background noise, except then the booming baritone voice of Darius Rucker came on and bore into your skull like a drill. Twenty years later and chances are that you can still hear Rucker rattling around there in your brain.
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The Goo Goo Dolls
Interchangeable with Matchbox 20, but technically not Matchbox 20. They are allegedly a different, other hated band.
John Mayer
John Mayer is that insufferable bro -- you know, the one who wears a pukka bead necklace, is always shirtless, toting around a guitar at that house party you didn't want to go to, anyway. He'll suck the humor out of a joke and ruin the punch line every time, but no one else seems to care, because he's a shirtless bro with a guitar. He probably likes Dane Cook. And misogyny.
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Dave Matthews Band
Thirty-something adults who now now roll their eyes at Drake's "YOLO" are no better: Chances are good that they used to follow around the cultish Dave Matthews Band 10 years ago, imparting profound, oft-quoted wisdom like "eat, drink and be merry" and "life is short but sweet for certain" while living it up in the suburbs and broadening their worldview by sneaking in SoCo and taking road trips to the Jersey Shore.
Creed
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Listening to even one song by Creed invokes a sea of nausea, as if your brain is fried from watching "Two and a Half Men" reruns for 24 hours. As Spin magazine put it, they're like "Nickelback before there was Nickelback."
Train
Basically the Goo Goo Dolls of the next millennium.
Phish
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Reflecting on Phish’s 30 years of music, Grantland’s Steven Hyden puts the problem best: "In order to like Phish, you must consciously decide to like Phish."
Limp Bizkit
Limp Bizkit is one of the rare band names that could not be made any more ridiculous if it were spelled "LiMp b!ZKiT," an observation that makes the band's unchecked anger so hard to take seriously. I mean, really, was the "he-said-she-said bullshit" that rage-inducing, Fred Durst?
Blink 182
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Blink 182 began as an attempt to wean tweens off of boy bands, except they soon turned into self-parody when teenagers began to like them in earnest, ushering in an unforgivable era of wannabe-pop-punk rockers like Good Charlotte, Avril Lavigne and Jimmy Eat World.
Lana Del Rey
It's not that Lana Del Rey is bad, per se, it's that her music seems fraudulent when compared to the '60s-era musical acts she's invoking. Her emotionless performance on "SNL" cemented her reputation as robotic, the product of overly manufactured pop perfection. She's another reminder that we live in a post-Black Eyed Peas era.
Dishonorable Mentions not on this list: Kid Rock, Linkin Park, real Matchbox 20, Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler... rest assured you are all hated, as well.On January 18th of this year, we celebrated 40 years of the documentary “Pumping Iron”, which showcased the 1975 Olympia contest. While it wasn’t considered to be a significant movie to those outside of the bodybuilding world, fans of the sport knew they were witnessing greatness in the form of then six-time Mr. Olympia, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who went head to head against the likes of Franco Columbo and The Hulk himself, Lou Ferrigno.
What most didn’t realize was that five years later, on May 14th, 1982, the man affectionately called “The Oak” would slash and maim onscreen as Conan, the fictional warrior created 50 years prior, a role which would thrust him into the spotlight as a bonafide action star and enshrine him in both Hollywood and pop culture history.
Conan was created by Robert E. Howard in 1932, making his first appearance in the publication “Weird Tales.” Influenced by Greek mythology, Celt history, the Mongolian empire and other empires throughout history, Howard was able to bring the Cimmerian warrior to life when he re-wrote a rejected story “By This Axe I Rule” and replaced it’s main character, Kull of Atlantis, with Conan and then re-titled the story “The Phoenix on the Sword.” It was eventually published in December of 1932, an irony which becomes evident fifty years later.
Over the next four years, before he committed suicide in 1936, Howard wrote 21 Conan stories and had 17 of them published in “Weird Tales.” Even after his death, stories of Conan continued to be published over the next four decades, finally making it to the silver screen after years of negotiations, rewrites and production changes. But after John Milius signed on as the director, things started to move in the right direction and they could finally create the story for Mr. Olympia himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Coming off of seven Olympia titles, his last in 1980, Schwarzenegger wasn’t well known outside of bodybuilding circles. But through “Conan the Barbarian”, his first major on-screen role, Arnold forced fans and Hollywood to pay attention to not only his physique but to his unique on screen presence. From begrudgingly pushing the wheel of pain as he transitioned from boy to man, reciting the philosophy on what is best in life and uttering a prayer to the god Crom, Arnold displayed a penchant for timely and memorable lines delivered through his Austrian accent.
Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no time for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought and why we died. No, all that matters is that two stood against many. That’s what’s important. So grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to hell with you!
“Conan the Barbarian” also featured James Earl Jones as the evil Thulsa Doom, the man who killed Conan’s parents, destroyed his village and enslaved the young Cimmerian. Five years after exciting audiences as the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars, Jones returned to the silver screen as another villain, this time as the leader of the Cult of Set and possessing the ability to transform into a snake.
Like other cult leaders with followers whose devotion is absolute, Doom could snap his fingers and people would jump off of a cliff, literally. Visions of Doom destroying his village and beheading his mother in front of him would fuel Conan’s thirst for revenge during his days of slavery and as a gladiator. He would join up with Valeria (Sandahl Bergman), Subotai (Gerry Lopez) and the crazy Wizard (Mako) during his quest for riches and fame, eventually finding and failing to kill Doom, leading to his crucifixion. Then he was saved by Subotai, lost Valeria to a snake arrow from Doom, took on Doom’s elite squad with some help from the ghost of Valeria and ultimately placated his thirst for revenge by killing Doom.
The movie held true to Howard’s vision, reaching back in history to fulfill the roster of characters. Subotai was the greatest general under Genghis Khan, Valeria could be based upon the Valkyries and Doom looks to be based upon Egyptian mythology.
Conan wore the leather neck collar of a slave and fought as a gladiator, invoking thoughts of the Roman empire and during Conan’s aforementioned infamous “What is best in life” speech the surrounding warriors resembled Mongolian warriors and discussed the open steppe.
The movie was actually intended to be developed into a series, with the less successful “Conan the Destroyer” and a third movie to follow the original to complete the trilogy. But Arnold’s star took off in 1984 with “Terminator” and he followed it up with lead roles in six additional, highly successful movies in the ’80s including “Commando”, “Raw Deal”, “Predator”, “The Running Man”, “Red Heat” and “Twins.” None of them would win an Oscar, but they all performed well at the box office and provided audiences with “Arnoldisms” that are still repeated today.
In 1987, after Arnold signed on to play Dutch in “Predator”, the third installment of Conan stalled and in its stead came “Kull the Conqueror” ten years later, played by Kevin Sorbo. Fifty years after Kull took a backseat for Conan, Arnold and Conan returned the favor to Sorbo and Kull. Years later, studios tried to revive the franchise with “Conan: Crown of Iron” but Arnold had moved on to become governor of California, so the project fizzled out once again.
Despite its one movie success and two movie failures (“Conan the Destroyer” and Jason Momoa’s “Conan the Barbarian” were both extremely forgettable, ever if the former featured Grace Jones and Wilt Chamberlain), the Conan character lived on successfully through books, TV, video games, comic strips and comic books, the latter of which housed its greatest success.
Marvel published Conan the Barbarian from 1970 – 1993 and Savage Sword of Conan from 1974 – 1995. Dark Horse Comics launched their own series in 2003 with titles such as Phoenix in the Sword, King Conan and the current series, Conan the Slayer.
Through the 1982 film, we got to see the unique ability of Arnold to captivate audiences through his muscles, charisma and speech. We weren’t used to hearing an Austrian accent on the silver screen, and its uniqueness instantly drew fans to Schwarzenegger. That’s one of his strongest qualities, his ability to capture a character and deter its duplication. Momoa couldn’t do it and 35 years later talk of a new movie, “Legend of Conan”, has surfaced and Arnold is the name the studios are hoping to enlist.
Conan the Barbarian was not meant to win awards nor would it win much critical acclaim. But it was a financial success, generating over $100 million worldwide while also launching Schwarzenegger’s career as a Hollywood icon.
35 years later, we still remember the movie as a pop culture success, the first of many for Arnold in the ’80s and ’90s, and we still appreciate Conan the Cimmerian for the warrior, thief, conqueror, leader and king that he has become over the last 70 years. And if Conan is good enough for President Obama, then it’s damn good for all of us.
Schwarzenegger will always be known for bodybuilding, the roles he played and memorable lines such as “Get to the chopper” and “Let off some steam, Bennett.” But without the 1982 film “Conan the Barbarian”, his journey to the Hollywood Walk of Fame might have been as fictional as the country of Cimmeria.Liberty lashes out at Home Office plan to retain data on survivors of the tower block fire after amnesty
The Home Office has been accused of misleading survivors of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, after insisting their data would never be used in immigration checks.
Human rights group Liberty has spoken out after discovering that anyone seeking help from the authorities after being caught up in the disaster will have to provide biometric information.
Furthermore, guidance to Home Office staff shows that “biometrics will be retained” after a 12-month promised amnesty period is over.
“Theresa May promised the Government wouldn't use this tragedy as a reason to carry out immigration checks,” Martha Spurrier, director of Liberty, told the politics.co.uk website. “That's exactly what they're doing – and they're dressing it up as an act of compassion.
“This policy lures undocumented Grenfell survivors in at their most vulnerable, gets their data on file, gives them a brief reprieve, then exposes them to the same inhumane policies the Home Office inflicts on other undocumented migrants – enforced destitution, denial of basic services and the constant threat of detention and removal.”
Denying help
An annotated version of the Grenfell guidance, published by Liberty, indicates that help will be denied to anyone who “has refused to supply their biometrics” – which will then be stored and, potentially, used in the future.
“The only way to ensure undocumented survivors can access the help and support they so desperately need is to grant them a permanent amnesty,” Spurrier said.
The Home Office has insisted that it will not conduct immigration checks on survivors or those coming forward to provide information to assist the authorities in their enquiries.
Brandon Lewis, the immigration minister, said: “The Government has been clear that our priority is to ensure that victims of this tragedy get the access they need to vital services, irrespective of immigration status.”
UKAuthority.com reported last month that data transfer rules had been lifted for Grenfell Tower victims, after immigrants said they were too scared to seek help. Under pressure from support groups, Downing Street agreed that information obtained by the Metropolitan Police would not be passed onto the Home Office for possible further action.
The move came after community leaders in West London said many foreign nationals with uncertain migration status who lived in Grenfell Tower had simply “disappeared”. They were not on any missing lists, raising |
in to this false sense of security. Ultimately, never fully trust a player just because you know what their voice sounds like, they are still anonymous to you and it’s not like there’s anything you can do just because you know what their voice sounds like.
Shoot on Sight: A lot of players, even friendly ones, have been so badly tormented by Bandits that they have adopted a shoot on sight policy. You will find that most clans will hold such a policy as well, only trusting those within their clan. I don’t advise taking up this policy, as it can be deterring to new players, and not everyone is opposed to teaming up with other players, just be aware that the odds are always stacked against you when trying to make new friends.
MAN DOWN! I REPEAT, MAN DOWN!
In your adventures you are at some point going to receive injuries from one of the many dangers in DayZ – Players, Doors, Infected, Stairways, that sort of thing. DayZ is about survival, therefore there are many survival mechanics which come in to play and need to be tended to:
Bleeding: When attacked you have a chance to start bleeding from your wounds, a plus symbol will show on your health meter when you are bleeding, as well as blood spurting from your body. To stop bleeding you need to use a bandage. To restore blood, either use a blood pack found in hospitals or eat cooked meat.
Pain: When your character is in pain you will begin shaking uncontrollably, this leaves you unable to aim. In order to remove pain you need to take painkillers.
Broken Bones: You can break your bones in DayZ, by closing a door on yourself, falling down stairs or being attacked. A broken bone symbol will appear on the right of your screen, and you will only be able to crawl or crouch without moving. In order to fix a broken bone you need to take a morphine injection, which can be found in hospitals.
Shock: Your player can go in to a state of shock when taking large amounts of damage or from gunshot wounds. Shock is an incurable state and lasts five minutes; if you log out while this effect is active then you will become unconscious for 2 minutes and 20 seconds when you next log in. Be careful!
Unconscious: When your blood is below 9,000 you have a chance to be knocked unconscious when begin attacked. While unconscious, a timer will appear on the screen and you will not be able to perform any actions until the timer runs out.
SETTING UP CAMP
After spending some time playing, you will probably get to the point where you have too much stuff but don’t want to get rid of it. This is where setting up your own camp on a server you wish to call home is a brilliant idea. Camping tents can be found at various locations such as supermarkets, and will allow you to set up a tent wherever you like on the map and store items in its own inventory. A camp needs to be placed in a hidden location, preferably in a location where players have no reason to visit. This could be out in the far depths of the wilderness, or hidden in a tree line near a low value town in which players never visit because there is little to no loot.
After finding a tent and a good location to place it, right click it in your inventory and click ‘pitch tent’. Upon pitching your tent, aim at the tent and scroll your mouse wheel to select ‘gear’. Place all the items you wish to keep in your tent through the inventory window. Whenever you place items in your tent, don’t forget to scroll your mouse wheel over the tent and select ‘save old camping tent’. This saves all the items within the tent so that in case of a server restart, which happens very often for most servers, you won’t lose all your items. Additionally, players can set up barbed wire and tank traps around their camp for added protection from both infected and players.
GET TO THE CHOPPER!The orbit of near-Earth asteroid 2014 HQ124, first discovered on April 23, 2014, is shown in this NASA graphic. The asteroid will fly by Earth Sunday, June 8, at a safe distance of three times the Earth-moon distance.
A newfound huge asteroid, nicknamed "The Beast," is expected zoom by Earth this weekend, and you can get a sneak preview of the space rock flyby today (June 5).
The asteroid 2014 HQ124, which is the size of a football stadium, poses no chance of hitting Earth in its flyby on Sunday (June 8), and will pass by at a range of three times the distance between the Earth-moon on Sunday (June 8). It was discovered on April 23 by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, a sky-mapping space telescope.
This afternoon, the online Slooh community observatory will host a live webcast preview of asteroid 2014 HQ124, beginning at 2:30 p.m. EDT (11:30 a.m. PDT/1830 GMT) at its website: http://www.slooh.com. You can also watch the asteroid 2014 HQ124 webcast on Space.com, courtesy of Slooh. The webcast will feature a discussion with Slooh astronomer Bob Berman, host Geoff Fox and asteroid impact expert Mark Boslough.
The mammoth asteroid 2014 HQ124 is about 1,100 feet (352 meters) across, according to scientists with NASA's Asteroid Watch program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. [Potentially Dangerous Asteroids (Photos and Images)]
A sky map from Slooh shows the path of Near Earth-Asteroid 2014 HQ124, or "The Beast." (Image: © Slooh)
Asteroid 2014 HQ124 will be traveling up to 31,000 mph (14 km/s) — 17 times faster than a shot from a high-speed rifle — when it makes its closest approach to Earth on Sunday at 1:56 a.m. EDT (0556 GMT) at three lunar distances away, a Slooh representative said in a statement. One lunar distance, or the distance between the Earth and the moon, is about 238,855 miles (384,400 kilometers).
Berman said it is "disconcerting" that an asteroid this large flying so close to the planet was only spotted less than two months before its nearest approach to Earth.
"HQ124 is at least 10 times bigger, and possibly 20 times, than the asteroid that injured a thousand people last year in Chelyabinsk, Siberia," Berman said in a statement. "If it were [to] impact us, the energy released would be measured not in kilotons like the atomic bombs that ended World War II, but in H-bomb type megatons."
NASA estimates that more than 90 percent of the mountain-sized near-Earth asteroids, or objects wider than 0.6 miles (1 km), have been discovered. A space rock of this size could unleash global destruction if it were to collide with Earth.
Smaller asteroids have been much more elusive. There are believed to be 15,000 near-Earth asteroids 460 feet (140 m) wide, and of these, only about 30 percent of those have been found. Meanwhile, NASA scientists estimate that there are more than 1 million near-Earth objects with a diameter of about 100 feet (30 m); less than 1 percent of those have been detected.
Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @SPACEdotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.For other people named George Harrison, see George Harrison (disambiguation)
George Harrison[nb 1] MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer-songwriter, music and film producer who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work. Although the majority of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group included "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something".
Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt; Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry were subsequent influences. By 1965, he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in Bob Dylan and the Byrds, and towards Indian classical music through his use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Having initiated the band's embracing of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement. After the band's break-up in 1970, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, a critically acclaimed work that produced his most successful hit single, "My Sweet Lord", and introduced his signature sound as a solo artist, the slide guitar. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, a precursor to later benefit concerts such as Live Aid. In his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles' Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founding HandMade Films in 1978.
Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer. In 1988, he co-founded the platinum-selling supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. A prolific recording artist, he was featured as a guest guitarist on tracks by Badfinger, Ronnie Wood and Billy Preston, and collaborated on songs and music with Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Tom Petty, among others. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 11 in their list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, and posthumously for his solo career in 2004.[3]
Harrison's first marriage, to model Pattie Boyd in 1966, ended in divorce in 1977. The following year he married Olivia Arias, with whom he had a son, Dhani. Harrison died from lung cancer in 2001 at the age of 58, two years after surviving a knife attack by an intruder at his Friar Park home. His remains were cremated and the ashes were scattered according to Hindu tradition in a private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India. He left an estate of almost £100 million.
Early years: 1943–1957 [ edit ]
Harrison was born at 12 Arnold Grove in Wavertree, Liverpool, on 25 February 1943. He was the youngest of four children of Harold Hargreaves (or Hargrove) Harrison (1909–1978) and Louise (née French;[5] 1911–1970). Harold was a bus conductor who had worked as a ship's steward on the White Star Line, and Louise was a shop assistant of Irish Catholic descent. He had one sister, Louise (born 16 August 1931), and two brothers, Harold (born 1934) and Peter (20 July 1940 – 1 June 2007).[9]
According to Boyd, Harrison's mother was particularly supportive: "All she wanted for her children is that they should be happy, and she recognized that nothing made George quite as happy as making music." Louise was an enthusiastic music fan, and she was known among friends for her loud singing voice, which at times startled visitors by rattling the Harrisons' windows. When Louise was pregnant with George, she often listened to the weekly broadcast Radio India. Harrison's biographer Joshua Greene wrote, "Every Sunday she tuned in to mystical sounds evoked by sitars and tablas, hoping that the exotic music would bring peace and calm to the baby in the womb."
Harrison lived the first four years of his life at 12 Arnold Grove, a terraced house on a cul-de-sac. The home had an outdoor toilet and its only heat came from a single coal fire. In 1949, the family was offered a council house and moved to 25 Upton Green, Speke. In 1948, at the age of five, Harrison enrolled at Dovedale Primary School. He passed the eleven-plus exam and attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys from 1954 to 1959.[16][17] Though the institute did offer a music course, Harrison was disappointed with the absence of guitars, and felt the school "moulded [students] into being frightened".
Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby, Cab Calloway, Django Reinhardt and Hoagy Carmichael; by the 1950s, Carl Perkins and Lonnie Donegan were significant influences.[20] In early 1956 he had an epiphany: while riding his bicycle, he heard Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" playing from a nearby house, and the song piqued his interest in rock and roll.[21] He often sat at the back of the class drawing guitars in his schoolbooks, and later commented, "I was totally into guitars." Harrison cited Slim Whitman as another early influence: "The first person I ever saw playing a guitar was Slim Whitman, either a photo of him in a magazine or live on television. Guitars were definitely coming in."[23]
Although Harold Harrison was apprehensive about his son's interest in pursuing a music career, in 1956 he bought George a Dutch Egmond flat top acoustic guitar, which according to Harold, cost £3.10 (equivalent to £100 in 2019[24]).[25][26] One of his father's friends taught Harrison how to play "Whispering", "Sweet Sue" and "Dinah", and, inspired by Donegan's music, Harrison formed a skiffle group called the Rebels with his brother Peter and a friend, Arthur Kelly.[27] On the bus to school, Harrison met Paul McCartney, who also attended the Liverpool Institute, and the pair bonded over their shared love of music.[28]
The Beatles: 1958–1970 [ edit ]
Harrison became part of the Beatles with McCartney and John Lennon when the band were still a skiffle group called the Quarrymen. In March 1958, he auditioned for the Quarrymen at Rory Storm's Morgue Skiffle Club, playing Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's "Guitar Boogie Shuffle", but Lennon felt that Harrison, having just turned 15, was too young to join the band. McCartney arranged a second meeting, on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, during which Harrison impressed Lennon by performing the lead guitar part for the instrumental "Raunchy".[30] He began socialising with the group, filling in on guitar as needed, and then became accepted as a member. Although his father wanted him to continue his education, Harrison left school at 16 and worked for several months as an apprentice electrician at Blacklers, a local department store.[33] During the group's first tour of Scotland, in 1960, Harrison used the pseudonym "Carl Harrison", in reference to Carl Perkins.[34]
In 1960, promoter Allan Williams arranged for the band, now calling themselves the Beatles, to play at the Indra and Kaiserkeller clubs in Hamburg, both owned by Bruno Koschmider. Their first residency in Hamburg ended prematurely when Harrison was deported for being too young to work in nightclubs. When Brian Epstein became their manager in December 1961, he polished up their image and later secured them a recording contract with EMI.[37] The group's first single, "Love Me Do", peaked at number seventeen on the Record Retailer chart, and by the time their debut album, Please Please Me, was released in early 1963, Beatlemania had arrived.[38] Often serious and focused while on stage with the band, Harrison was known as "the quiet Beatle".[39][40] He had two lead vocal credits on the LP, including the Lennon–McCartney song "Do You Want to Know a Secret?", and three on their second album, With the Beatles (1963). The latter included "Don't Bother Me", Harrison's first solo writing credit.
Harrison at a Beatles press conference in Amsterdam in 1964
Harrison served as the Beatles' scout for new American releases, being especially knowledgeable about soul music. By 1965's Rubber Soul, he had begun to lead the other Beatles into folk rock through his interest in the Byrds and Bob Dylan, and towards Indian classical music through his use of the sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".[44][nb 2] He later called Rubber Soul his "favourite [Beatles] album". Revolver (1966) included three of his compositions: "Taxman", selected as the album's opening track, "Love You To" and "I Want to Tell You".[47] His drone-like tambura part on Lennon's "Tomorrow Never Knows" exemplified the band's ongoing exploration of non-Western instruments, while the sitar- and tabla-based "Love You To" represented the Beatles' first genuine foray into Indian music. According to the ethnomusicologist David Reck, the latter song set a precedent in popular music as an example of Asian culture being represented by Westerners respectfully and without parody.[50] Author Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1978 that following Harrison's increased association with the sitar after "Norwegian Wood", he became known as "the maharaja of raga-rock". Harrison continued to develop his interest in non-Western instrumentation, playing swarmandal on "Strawberry Fields Forever".
By late 1966, Harrison's interests had moved away from the Beatles. This was reflected in his choice of Eastern gurus and religious leaders for inclusion on the album cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967.[nb 3] His sole composition on the album was the Indian-inspired "Within You Without You", to which no other Beatle contributed.[55] He played sitar and tambura on the track, backed by musicians from the London Asian Music Circle on dilruba, swarmandal and tabla.[nb 4] He later commented on the Sgt. Pepper album: "It was a millstone and a milestone in the music industry... There's about half the songs I like and the other half I can't stand."
Magical Mystery Tour The Beatles dressed in Indian clothing in a scene from their 1967 television film
In January 1968, he recorded the basic track for his song "The Inner Light" at EMI's studio in Bombay, using a group of local musicians playing traditional Indian instruments. Released as the B-side to McCartney's "Lady Madonna", it was the first Harrison composition to appear on a Beatles single. Derived from a quotation from the Tao Te Ching, the song's lyric reflected Harrison's deepening interest in Hinduism and meditation.[60] During the recording of The Beatles that same year, tensions within the group ran high, and drummer Ringo Starr quit briefly. Harrison's four songwriting contributions to the double album included "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", which featured Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and the horn-driven "Savoy Truffle".
Dylan and the Band were a major musical influence on Harrison at the end of his career with the Beatles. While on a visit to Woodstock in late 1968, he established a friendship with Dylan and found himself drawn to the Band's sense of communal music-making and to the creative equality among the band members, which contrasted with Lennon and McCartney's domination of the Beatles' songwriting and creative direction. This coincided with a prolific period in his songwriting and a growing desire to assert his independence from the Beatles. Tensions among the group surfaced again in January 1969, at Twickenham Studios, during the filmed rehearsals that became the 1970 documentary Let It Be. Frustrated by the cold and sterile film studio, by Lennon's creative disengagement from the Beatles, and by what he perceived as a domineering attitude from McCartney, Harrison quit the group on 10 January. He returned twelve days later, after his bandmates had agreed to move the film project to their own Apple Studio and to abandon McCartney's plan for making a return to public performance.
Relations among the Beatles were more cordial, though still strained, when the band recorded their 1969 album Abbey Road. The LP included what Lavezzoli describes as "two classic contributions" from Harrison – "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" – that saw him "finally achieve equal songwriting status" with Lennon and McCartney. During the album's recording, Harrison asserted more creative control than before, rejecting suggestions for changes to his music, particularly from McCartney. "Something" became his first A-side when issued on a double A-side single with "Come Together"; the song was number one in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and West Germany, and the combined sides topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. In the 1970s Frank Sinatra recorded "Something" twice (1970 and 1979) and later dubbed it "the greatest love song of the past fifty years". Lennon considered it the best song on Abbey Road, and it became the Beatles' second most covered song after "Yesterday".[72][nb 5]
In May 1970 Harrison's "For You Blue" was coupled on a US single with McCartney's "The Long and Winding Road" and became Harrison's second chart-topper when the sides were listed together at number one on the Hot 100. His increased productivity meant that by the time of their break-up he had amassed a stockpile of unreleased compositions. While Harrison grew as a songwriter, his compositional presence on Beatles albums remained limited to two or three songs, increasing his frustration, and significantly contributing to the band's break-up. Harrison's last recording session with the Beatles was on 4 January 1970, when he, McCartney and Starr recorded his song "I Me Mine" for the Let It Be soundtrack album.
Solo career: 1968–1987 [ edit ]
Early solo work: 1968–1969 [ edit ]
Wonderwall Music Trade ad for
Before the Beatles' break-up, Harrison had already recorded and released two solo albums: Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound, both of which contain mainly instrumental compositions. Wonderwall Music, a soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall, blends Indian and Western instrumentation, while Electronic Sound is an experimental album that prominently features a Moog synthesizer.[78] Released in November 1968, Wonderwall Music was the first solo album by a Beatle and the first LP released by Apple Records.[79] Indian musicians Aashish Khan and Shivkumar Sharma performed on the album, which contains the experimental sound collage "Dream Scene", recorded several months before Lennon's "Revolution 9".[80]
In December 1969, Harrison participated in a brief tour of Europe with the American group Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. During the tour that included Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, drummer Jim Gordon and band leaders Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett, Harrison began to write "My Sweet Lord", which became his first single as a solo artist. Delaney Bramlett inspired Harrison to learn slide guitar, significantly influencing his later music.
All Things Must Pass: 1970 [ edit ]
For many years, Harrison was restricted in his songwriting contributions to the Beatles' albums, but he released All Things Must Pass, a triple album with two discs of his songs and the third of recordings of Harrison jamming with friends. The album was regarded by many as his best work, and it topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.[nb 6] The LP produced the number-one hit single "My Sweet Lord" and the top-ten single "What Is Life". The album was co-produced by Phil Spector using his "Wall of Sound" approach, and the musicians included Starr, Clapton, Gary Wright, Preston, Klaus Voormann, the whole of Delaney and Bonnie's Friends band and the Apple group Badfinger.[nb 7] On release, All Things Must Pass was received with critical acclaim; Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone described it as being "of classic Spectorian proportions, Wagnerian, Brucknerian, the music of mountain tops and vast horizons".[94] Author and musicologist Ian Inglis considers the lyrics of the album's title track "a recognition of the impermanence of human existence... a simple and poignant conclusion" to Harrison's former band. In 1971, Bright Tunes sued Harrison for copyright infringement over "My Sweet Lord", owing to its similarity to the 1963 Chiffons hit "He's So Fine". When the case was heard in the United States district court in 1976, he denied deliberately plagiarising the song, but lost the case, as the judge ruled that he had done so subconsciously.
In 2000, Apple Records released a thirtieth anniversary edition of the album, and Harrison actively participated in its promotion. In an interview, he reflected on the work: "It's just something that was like my continuation from the Beatles, really. It was me sort of getting out of the Beatles and just going my own way... it was a very happy occasion." He commented on the production: "Well, in those days it was like the reverb was kind of used a bit more than what I would do now. In fact, I don't use reverb at all. I can't stand it... You know, it's hard to go back to anything thirty years later and expect it to be how you would want it now."
The Concert for Bangladesh: 1971 [ edit ]
Harrison responded to a request from Ravi Shankar by organising a charity event, the Concert for Bangladesh, which took place on 1 August 1971. The event drew over 40,000 people to two shows in New York's Madison Square Garden.[100] The goal of the event was to raise money to aid starving refugees during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Shankar opened the show, which featured popular musicians such as Dylan, Clapton, Leon Russell, Badfinger, Preston and Starr.
A triple album, The Concert for Bangladesh, was released by Apple in December, followed by a concert film in 1972.[nb 8] Credited to "George Harrison and Friends", the album topped the UK chart and peaked at number 2 in the US,[104] and went on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Tax troubles and questionable expenses later tied up many of the proceeds, but Harrison commented: "Mainly the concert was to attract attention to the situation... The money we raised was secondary, and although we had some money problems... they still got plenty... even though it was a drop in the ocean. The main thing was, we spread the word and helped get the war ended."[106]
Living in the Material World to George Harrison: 1973–1979 [ edit ]
Harrison's 1973 album Living in the Material World held the number one spot on the Billboard albums chart for five weeks, and the album's single, "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)", also reached number one in the US.[107] In the UK, the LP peaked at number two and the single reached number 8. The album was lavishly produced and packaged, and its dominant message was Harrison's Hindu beliefs. In Greene's opinion it "contained many of the strongest compositions of his career". Stephen Holden, writing in Rolling Stone, felt the album was "vastly appealing" and "profoundly seductive", and that it stood "alone as an article of faith, miraculous in its radiance". Other reviewers were less enthusiastic, describing the release as awkward, sanctimonious and overly sentimental.
In November 1974, Harrison became the first ex-Beatle to tour North America when he began his 45-date Dark Horse Tour. The shows included guest spots by his band members Billy Preston and Tom Scott, and traditional and contemporary Indian music performed by "Ravi Shankar, Family and Friends".[113] Despite numerous positive reviews, the consensus reaction to the tour was negative.[114] Some fans found Shankar's significant presence to be a bizarre disappointment, and many were affronted by what Inglis described as Harrison's "sermonizing". Further, he reworked the lyrics to several Beatles songs, and his laryngitis-affected vocals led to some critics calling the tour "dark hoarse".[116] The author Robert Rodriguez commented: "While the Dark Horse tour might be considered a noble failure, there were a number of fans who were tuned-in to what was being attempted. They went away ecstatic, conscious that they had just witnessed something so uplifting that it could never be repeated." Simon Leng called the tour "groundbreaking" and "revolutionary in its presentation of Indian Music".
In December, Harrison released Dark Horse, which was an album that earned him the least favourable reviews of his career. Rolling Stone called it "the chronicle of a performer out of his element, working to a deadline, enfeebling his overtaxed talents by a rush to deliver a new 'LP product', rehearse a band, and assemble a cross-country tour, all within three weeks". The album reached number 4 on the Billboard chart and the single "Dark Horse" reached number 15, but they failed to make an impact in the UK.[121][nb 9] The music critic Mikal Gilmore described Dark Horse as "one of Harrison's most fascinating works – a record about change and loss".
Harrison's final studio album for EMI and Apple Records, the soul music-inspired Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975), peaked at number 8 on the Billboard chart and number 16 in the UK. Harrison considered it the least satisfactory of the three albums he had recorded since All Things Must Pass. Leng identified "bitterness and dismay" in many of the tracks; his long-time friend Klaus Voormann commented: "He wasn't up for it... It was a terrible time because I think there was a lot of cocaine going around, and that's when I got out of the picture... I didn't like his frame of mind". He released two singles from the LP: "You", which reached the Billboard top 20, and "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)", Apple's final original single release.
Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), Harrison's first album release on his own Dark Horse Records label, produced the hit singles "This Song" and "Crackerbox Palace", both of which reached the top 25 in the US.[nb 10] The surreal humour of "Crackerbox Palace" reflected Harrison's association with Monty Python's Eric Idle, who directed a comical music video for the song. With an emphasis on melody and musicianship, and a more subtle subject matter than the pious message of his earlier works, Thirty Three & 1/3 earned Harrison his most favourable critical notices in the US since All Things Must Pass. The album peaked just outside the top ten there, but outsold his previous two LPs. As part of his promotion for the release, Harrison performed on Saturday Night Live with Paul Simon.
In 1979, Harrison released George Harrison, which followed his second marriage and the birth of his son Dhani. Co-produced by Russ Titelman, the album and the single "Blow Away" both made the Billboard top 20.[137] The album marked the beginning of Harrison's gradual retreat from the music business, with several of the songs having been written in the tranquil setting of Maui in the Hawaiian archipelago. Leng described George Harrison as "melodic and lush... peaceful... the work of a man who had lived the rock and roll dream twice over and was now embracing domestic as well as spiritual bliss".
Somewhere in England to Cloud Nine: 1980–1987 [ edit ]
The murder of John Lennon on 8 December 1980 disturbed Harrison and reinforced his decades-long concern about stalkers. The tragedy was also a deep personal loss, although Harrison and Lennon had little contact in the years before Lennon was killed.[nb 11] Following the murder, Harrison commented: "After all we went through together I had and still have great love and respect for John Lennon. I am shocked and stunned." Harrison modified the lyrics of a song he had written for Starr in order to make the song a tribute to Lennon. "All Those Years Ago", which included vocal contributions from Paul and Linda McCartney, as well as Starr's original drum part, peaked at number two in the US charts. The single was included on the album Somewhere in England in 1981.
Harrison did not release any new albums for five years after 1982's Gone Troppo received little notice from critics or the public.[147] During this period he made several guest appearances, including a 1985 performance at a tribute to Carl Perkins titled Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session.[nb 12] In March 1986 he made a surprise appearance during the finale of the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert, an event organised to raise money for the Birmingham Children's Hospital. The following year, he appeared at The Prince's Trust concert at London's Wembley Arena, performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes the Sun". In February 1987 he joined Dylan, John Fogerty and Jesse Ed Davis on stage for a two-hour performance with the blues musician Taj Mahal. Harrison recalled: "Bob rang me up and asked if I wanted to come out for the evening and see Taj Mahal... So we went there and had a few of these Mexican beers – and had a few more... Bob says, 'Hey, why don't we all get up and play, and you can sing?' But every time I got near the microphone, Dylan comes up and just starts singing this rubbish in my ear, trying to throw me."
In November 1987 Harrison released the platinum album Cloud Nine.[155] Co-produced with Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), the album included Harrison's rendition of James Ray's "Got My Mind Set on You", which went to number one in the US and number two in the UK.[156][157] The accompanying music video received substantial airplay,[158] and another single, "When We Was Fab", a retrospective of the Beatles' career, earned two MTV Music Video Awards nominations in 1988.[159] Recorded at his estate in Friar Park, Harrison's slide guitar playing featured prominently on the album, which included several of his long-time musical collaborators, including Clapton, Jim Keltner and Jim Horn. Cloud Nine reached number eight and number ten on the US and UK charts respectively, and several tracks from the album achieved placement on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart – "Devil's Radio", "This Is Love" and "Cloud 9".[156]
Later career: 1988–1996 [ edit ]
The Traveling Wilburys and return to touring: 1988–1992 [ edit ]
In 1988, Harrison formed the Traveling Wilburys with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. The band had gathered in Dylan's garage to record a song for a Harrison European single release.[161] Harrison's record company decided the track, "Handle with Care", was too good for its original purpose as a B-side and asked for a full album. The LP, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, was released in October 1988 and recorded under pseudonyms as half-brothers, supposed sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury, Sr.[162] It reached number 16 in the UK and number 3 in the US, where it was certified triple platinum.[163] Harrison's pseudonym on the album was "Nelson Wilbury"; he used the name "Spike Wilbury" for their second album.
In 1989, Harrison and Starr appeared in the music video for Petty's song "I Won't Back Down". In October that year, Harrison assembled and released Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989, a compilation of his later solo work. The album included three new songs, including "Cheer Down", which Harrison had recently contributed to the Lethal Weapon 2 film soundtrack.
Following Orbison's death in December 1988, the Wilburys recorded as a four-piece. Their second album, issued in October 1990, was mischievously titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3. According to Lynne, "That was George's idea. He said, 'Let's confuse the buggers.'"[169] It peaked at number 14 in the UK and number 11 in the US, where it was certified platinum.[163] The Wilburys never performed live, and the group did not record together again following the release of their second album.[170]
In December 1991, Harrison joined Clapton for a tour of Japan. It was Harrison's first since 1974 and no others followed.[nb 13] On 6 April 1992, Harrison held a benefit concert for the Natural Law Party at the Royal Albert Hall, his first London performance since the Beatles' 1969 rooftop concert.[174] In October 1992, he performed at a Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, playing alongside Dylan, Clapton, McGuinn, Petty and Neil Young.[175]
The Beatles Anthology: 1994–1996 [ edit ]
In 1994 Harrison began a collaboration with McCartney, Starr and producer Jeff Lynne for the Beatles Anthology project. This included the recording of two new Beatles songs built around solo vocal and piano tapes recorded by Lennon as well as lengthy interviews about the Beatles' career. Released in December 1995, "Free as a Bird" was the first new Beatles single since 1970.[177] In March 1996, they released a second single, "Real Love". Harrison refused to participate in the completion of a third song.[178] He later commented on the project: "I hope somebody does this to all my crap demos when I'm dead, make them into hit songs."
Later life and death: 1997–2001 [ edit ]
Following the Anthology project, Harrison collaborated with Ravi Shankar on the latter's Chants of India. Harrison's final television appearance was a VH-1 special to promote the album, taped in May 1997. Soon afterwards, Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer; he was treated with radiotherapy, which was thought at the time to be successful.[182] He publicly blamed years of smoking for the illness.[183]
In January 1998, Harrison attended Carl Perkins' funeral in Jackson, Tennessee, where he performed a |
safe to call this a small win.
In just 35 theaters, Chinese mega-blockbuster The Mermaid grossed a fantastic $1M, giving it a per theater average of $29K. The film is already the highest grossing Chinese film ever, so releasing the film into a small number of theaters in heavily-Chinese areas was a smart move. In US dollars, the film cost around $60M to make and has grossed over $400M. It’ll be interesting to see how the Chinese film industry develops alongside the US one, as for a while US blockbusters were all the rage, but films like Monster Hunt, The Monkey King and now The Mermaid are clearly changing the game. This is especially impressive considering the films R rating, something that can be compared to Deadpool. The movie industry is a constantly changing one, and its sure to be very different in 5 years than what it is now.
AdvertisementsAll eyes that weren't focused on scanning the skies ahead of them watched the ground pass by below as they began to reach the Menagerie shoreline. Fires raged out of control across numerous buildings as citizens of the island ran back and forth in a panic, the Grimm scattered amongst them searching for easy prey that were either injured or too slow to escape their ravenous appetites. Those that had witnessed the fall of Beacon set their jaws tight as memories flashed back through their minds. Even Penny, who had been offline during the incident, looked around with a look of shock and sadness as the massacre lay before them.
The hand that Frost didn't have propped against the open frame of the airship clenched tightly at the similar sight, this now being the third time he had seen such devastation occur so close to him. The others knew only of Beacon, but due to the freshness of the memories that had rushed through his mind while he had been unconscious in Patch, there was no way he could forget such a thing when a similar sight lay right in front of him, no matter how hard he tried.
Qrow tapped Weiss on the shoulder and gestured with one hand to a more open area just off the docks, to which the white-haired girl nodded and redirected the airship towards their destination. As they descended into place, the heads of multiple Grimm turned to face them as they became aware of the new visitors to the island. Snarls and growls echoed from amongst them before a large cluster broke off from the masses and charged towards the airship.
They didn't get far however, as anyone capable of used ranged attacks began to unload their weapons onto the charging beasts. The only ones that didn't were Weiss and Qrow due to them landing the ship while Frost conserved his energy to better fuel his attacks once they were on the ground. Within moments, a slight shaking of the ship signified that they had touched down, to which all of those waiting at the doors disembarked while Weiss, Qrow, and Penny waited aboard the metal vehicle. After the group hopped onto the ground, Yang rapped her metal arm against the hull a few times to give the signal before it once again took off for the second part of their plan to scout ahead. They had long since decided that leaving the airship unattended would have been the worst possible decision, and even though her original personality had returned Penny had still insisted on watching over Weiss while she flew Qrow and herself to another part of the island where they could better hide the airship.
This now left Yang, Neo, Emerald, and Frost all huddled together as they stood off against the masses of Grimm milling about the streets. It didn't last long as Yang immediately jumped into the fray and began to unleash devastating kicks and punches to the bodies of the Grimm, the latter of those attacks occasionally bolstered by the shotgun blasts fired from her weapons. With an opportunity to now release the pent up frustration she had felt for weeks without reservation, her eyes blazed red as the dark beings were erased left and right.
Neo and Emerald, meanwhile, were guarding Frost as he stood with his eyes closed and fists clenched at his sides as electricity started to crackle along the surface of his arms. Their weapons were loud with the sounds of gunfire as the two fired countless rounds of Dust into any Grimm naïve enough to charge at them in the attempts to land a hit on one of them. Occasionally Emerald would swing her weapons out to catch something with the bladed ends while Neo used the parasol to deflect any incoming swipes from those with claws before firing a point-blank shot out of the cane into the abdomen of whatever had gotten close.
As the three of them fought around him, however, Frost was also half lost in thought as he charged his Semblance through his body.
"You know this will only work for so long…why delay the inevitable?" The sinister voice filled his mind as he stood within the chambers of his mind. "Can't you just FEEL the negativity in the air around us? It's an all-you-can-eat buffet and yet here you are trying to hold onto the last vestiges of your sanity before I manage to take control for once. What happens when you start fighting? When the bloodlust and thrill of battle fill you? What will you do then?"
Frost's eyes turned to focus on the darkness, even though there was no actual physical figure to lock his eyes onto. He knew, however, what lay beyond the shadows surrounding him, now more than ever.
"And let you do what you did all those years ago? I saw what happened, and I know now that whatever you are, you're the one responsible for my parent's death. You and whoever made you. I don't know what kind of twisted science was performed to make you, or how you managed to survive such a fatal attack, but it doesn't matter. I won't let anything happen to these people while I have control."
"And therein lies your problem. You don't even know how long you have left before I'm able to take hold of the reigns. You've felt it since Atlas. I'm that much closer to having your body for myself, and once that happens you can't do anything to stop me. So enjoy your petty strands of hope you clutch to so tightly, because I'm merely waiting until the strands are thin enough for me to slice them apart and take what's rightfully mine."
"We'll see about that." Frost's eyes hardened as he returned to the world around him. His gaze quickly scanned over the crowd to see Yang, Emerald, and Neo all fulfilling their parts of the plan.
Now it was his turn.
"READY!" His yell carried over the din of battle to the ears of those that had arrived with him before they all hopped back and landed just behind him, Yang having to use a few precise blasts from her weapons to propel her into position. Once he knew they were all out of the way, he reached deep inside of himself towards the power that he had been building as they had approached the island. This was their only way to clear a path quickly since Penny had refused to leave Weiss' side, even if it would drain a good portion of Frost's reserves in the event of a more difficult foe arriving at some point.
He could feel the electricity crackling along his arms and popping at his fingertips as he gazed across the Grimm standing around them. Their plan had worked so far. The Grimm lay clustered up in front of the four of them, teeth and claws clicking against jaws and stonework as the beasts stood warily away from them after so many had been slaughtered already. That, however, was nothing compared to what came next.
"BRACE YOURSELVES!" Frost's voice echoed around them as he brought both arms out in front of him with his hands open wide as he held them at a 90 degree angle from his torso. Seconds later, after the lightning pulsing along his arms began to grow in speed and intensity, the energy was released in a massive wave as bolts of lightning cast out into the large group of monsters. There was no time to react as the power coursed through each of them and chained to their brethren nearby as the gathering began to glow from the sheer force of the attack flooding their bodies. Nothing was left untouched as the energy swapped from body to body before returning back to its previous host and eviscerating the crowd in instants.
As soon as the energy stopped flowing the beasts lay defeated and their bodies drifted away into black smoke one by one. Frost's arms hung at his sides as he took deep rasping breaths and his forehead glistened with sweat. That had been the largest lightning blast he had ever unleashed, and it had clearly taken more out of him than he had originally thought or intended. The others gathered closely around him as they quickly scanned for any remaining Grimm before turning to check on their out of breath companion.
"Dude, are you alright?" Yang asked with wide eyes as she scanned his tired face. "I know you said that was a thing you could do, but did you have to go so overboard? Seriously, even for me that seemed like a bit much."
Frost's eyes turned to give Yang a slight squinting look before he panted out a reply. "Well clearly fighting some Grimm cleared up your temperament a bit, but isn't that a little pot calling the kettle black, even for you?"
The blonde shrugged her shoulders as she gave him a strong pat on the back, his footing stumbling slightly as his squint turned into a glare at the suddenness of the gesture. Meanwhile Neo looked worriedly at his tired face while he was unaware before she felt a tapping sensation on her shoulder from Emerald, whom she turned to face questioningly.
"He's done stuff like this before, remember?" She whispered quietly enough for only Neo to notice. "You told me yourself this was normal for him to do, even if it left him in a state like this."
"I know." Neo responded plainly as her eyes flickered back to Frost for a brief second. "But it doesn't mean I have to like it, even if it WAS part of the plan."
The two turned back to Yang chuckling by herself while Frost straightened up his posture now that he had a few moments to regain his breath and return to whatever passed for normal for their group. His eyes still carried a controlled rage however, something that did not pass Neo's attention as she had learned how to read his gestures and face a long time ago. She passed it off as being caught up in the moment of trying to rescue Menagerie however, and disregarded it for the time being.
The four of them began to roam the streets for any signs of a place of safety where citizens were being gathered and protected. So far they had only come across more signs of destruction and chaos as Grimm continued to pass, with the occasional pack noticing them only to be decimated moments later by the four fighters as they pressed on. It was a while still before they eventually reached any indications of where the safe house would be.
Ruby's scythe planted into the concrete beneath her with a sickening crunch as the head of Beowolf was pinned beneath the massive blade. Shots fired from the gun barrel as its wielder took aim at the large pack of Beowolves lumbering towards them. Moment later, a clutter of grenades exploded in their midst scattering the bodies in a cloud of pink dust before it mingled with the black dust of the defeated Grimm as their bodies dissipated. Sounds of blades slicing cleanly through objects came from behind her and Nora as Jaune and Ren finished up the Grimm that had been coming at them from the opposite direction. The four of them gathered themselves as they looked back at the departing ship that they had arrived on.
The captain had been okay with transporting them to Menagerie as he had been in the midst of delivering supplies overseas. Once it had become aware that there was a mass of Grimm attacking the capital, they had nearly been turned around had it not been for Ren's careful negotiation that they had only wished to reach land, after which point he could immediately turn around and return to Anima. That and a large sum of Lien to guarantee his cooperation. Diplomacy could only go so far, unfortunately, before things had to be guaranteed with the right price.
"Are we sure this is even a good idea?" Jaune spoke first as the four turned to face inland now that they were forced on their current path. "I know we don't have a choice now, but maybe we should have listened to your sister, Ruby."
"No. Yang is just babying me as usual." Ruby's determined look turned to face the blonde in their group. "Besides, you want to help just as much as I do, I can tell."
Jaune sighed. "Yes, I do. But that doesn't mean I have to like this."
"Besides, there are more of them and they have a trained Huntsman with your Uncle." Ren stated plainly from the side.
"So then why did you let me drag us onto that boat then once we saw the White Fang flying over the sea? Why did you convince the captain of the boat not to turn around once we knew what we were getting into? Huh?"
"Ruby." Nora's voice was calm from beside Ren as she spoke up from her rare silence. "We want to help just as much as you. We can't let Beacon happen again, no matter where it is. But what if they have a point? What if we're in over our heads without any backup or a trained Huntsman or Huntress to help us? We can't call for help or expect a teacher to protect us like then."
"If this is how you're all going to be, then fine! Wait for the next ship to arrive and go back to Mistral." Her scythe shifted back into its gun form as she took off running. "I'm going to help these people even if I have to do it alo-ack!"
"Dammit Ruby, wait!" Jaune called out as he pounced forward and barely caught the edge of her cloak, the girl yelping out with a strangled voice as it pulled her off-balance and into a heap on the ground. "We never said that we weren't going to help. But since there's fewer of us, we need to be more careful! We need to stick together if we want to stand a chance!"
Ruby grumbled from the ground as she untangled herself from her cloak and stood while dusting herself off. "Why didn't you say that in the first place?!"
"Maybe it was because you started rushing ahead, again?" The blonde regarded her with a targeted frown on his face.
Ruby sheepishly rubbed the back of her head with a nervous giggle. "I kind of did, didn't I?"
"Don't worry about it, Ruby!" Nora stated with pep as she wrapped one arm around the smaller girl's shoulders. "We'll just rush into things alongside you!" With that, the two of them charged off into the streets of Menagerie in search of survivors.
"Nora, wait!" Ren reached out but was unable to catch Nora like Jaune had caught Ruby previously. He hung his head with a sigh as Jaune rested an armored hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, Ren. They'll be fine. Besides, I doubt we could slow them down even if we tried at this point. Might as well charge in with them to watch their backs."
"I suppose. But perhaps in the future we could consider teaching the two of them some restraint?"
"If you want to try, go ahead. But let me ask you something. Has that ever worked before for Nora?"
"…No."
"That's what I thought. Let's go and catch up with them before they destroy half the island, alright?"
Ren cracked a small smile at the joke before sprinting ahead alongside his blonde companion. "Lead the way."
It was a long slog of bullets, punches, kicks, and stabs before the four of them came to a large clearing in the streets in front of a mass of armed citizens that seemed to be fighting a losing battle against both the Grimm and the White Fang alike. What was even stranger was that the Grimm only seemed intent on attacking those that weren't dressed as the White Fang, who seemed to be completely ignored by the monsters.
"What the hell?!" Frost exclaimed as the four of them looked over the battle. "What is going on?!"
"I don't know, but we can't stop to think about it!" Yang yelled before leaping into the fray and sundering two Grimm with quick swipes of her weapons before delivering a vicious punch to the back of the head of a White Fang member that hadn't turned to face her appearance right away as they collapsed to the ground beside the two dissipating Grimm, unconscious. "Protect the Faunus!"
The other three leapt into action seconds later as the Grimm and White Fang became aware of their presence and began to split their focus between the guards and the four newcomers. Fortunately, this meant that the pressure wasn't entirely on the Faunus guards and they were able to regain control of their end of the street that they currently presided over.
Frost's eyes whirled from opponent to opponent as he released bursts of energy into each combatant he faced, which resulted in them either being launched from the force of the attack or knocked unconscious by the force of it and collapsing to the ground in a heap. His fists began to burn as the fight went on and on, the ache almost becoming too much to bear as his vision began to tint red from the fury he felt. His mind began to race as he started to realize what this meant, his eyes starting to fill with panic even as his one eye turned into the sickly black and red that meant the Grimm side of him was growing stronger once more. There was only one thing he could do at this point, even if it was incredibly risky.
"NEO! SHIELD, NOW!" His voice carried over the large gathering to the ears of the girl in question, whose eyes widened in surprise at the suddenness of the order. Recognition flashed across her eyes as she realized what he meant and rushed towards Yang and Emerald before teleporting them both to stand beside the Faunus standing guard at the path, away from the cluster of Grimm and White Fang that Frost was still in the middle of.
"Wait, what's going on? What's he talking about?!" Yang questioned over the confused yelling of the Faunus around them as orders were barked to hold their ground.
"No time!" Neo yelled before engaging the parasol on her weapon and clicking the heels of her boots together as a series of spikes embedded themselves into the ground below her, keeping her feet planted. "Grab onto me! As for anybody else, grab onto something if you don't want to get thrown off your asses!" Her second yell was directed towards the Faunus around them, many of them looking on in confusion before turning to look into the throng of White Fang and Grimm as a large light began to form and grow brighter from within the crowd. Moments later, orders were given to grab onto something firmly planted into the ground as the Grimm and White Fang made one final charge towards them.
The order came just in time as a massive shockwave of force pulsed from the light in the crowd, Grimm and White Fang alike being sent flying from the sheer power behind it before slamming into buildings and debris alike, the continued pulsing from the shockwave forcing bodies to remain pinned in place until it subsided and bodies either fell to the ground unconscious or dissipating into smoke. Where the light used to be emitting, Frost was hunched over on his hands and knees as his body shook from fatigue and the lingering sensations of panic. Neo was the first to move as the spikes in her boots retreated inside, her feet immediately carrying her to his side as he tried to struggle to his feet.
"You complete IDIOT!" Neo yelled as a sharp crack signified her slapping him rather harshly across the face. "That may have worked this time, but did you forget the other times you tried doing that?! What was that supposed to accomplish?!"
"It ended the fight fast, didn't it? And no one got hurt?"
"Yes, but-"
"Then I don't care." His voice was filled with conviction even through the clearly tired tone he used. "The majority of the White Fang and Grimm had to be gathered here, so that means that from this point things should be easier to protect or even clear out altogether. Mission accomplished."
"…You're still a complete idiot."
"If it means everyone is safe, then I'll take that any day."
"Okay, so this moment is sweet and all, but can we move on to the bigger problem. Like what we do next now that we're here?" Emerald's voice came from the top of the crater as she looked down at the two of them. "Or do you two need another few moments?"
"Oh, haha. Very funny Emerald." Frost groaned out as he slowly climbed out of the crater. "You wish you could have a moment like that with somebody. Maybe it would help your ego a bit."
"Couldn't care less, never been interested." The shot response she gave, accompanied by the dismissive wave of her hand showed that she was done with that part of the conversation. As she strolled back towards the main building that had been the target of the White Fang and the Grimm, she stopped for a moment to look back at the two with a softer look on her face. "It's…good to know you're alright, though. Can't go doing those attacks all the time after all."
"Huh." Frost stared wide-eyed after the departing green-haired girl. "Emerald being nice. This has been a weird day. Wonder what's next."
"For our sakes, hopefully nothing."
"GET AWAY FROM THEM!" A shrill voice that was rapidly increasing in volume came from a street nearby…however it wasn't the street that they had just been defending.
Heads turned to face the direction of the voice that had yelled, the majority of the crowd carrying looks of confusion. A few pairs of eyes, specifically belonging to those of Yang, Neo, Emerald, and Frost, all widened in shock at the oncoming storm. Still confused however, they all stood rooted to the ground until one of them figured out what direction the approaching object seemed to be headed. A body quickly started sprinting into place as they braced themselves for the impact with their weapon drawn.
Seconds later, and massive collision went off and a large plume of dust was created as a red cloud made impact, obscuring the four of them within and leaving the Faunus that bore witness concerned for what had just arrived. Neo's body immediately went sailing out of the cloud before colliding roughly with a lamppost just of the side of the street, her Aura failing soon after due to the severity of the hit and the remainder it had after their battles on the island.
As the cloud cleared, Ruby could be seen with her scythe positioned inches away from Emerald's chest as the other three stared at her with wide eyes before turning to face Neo as she lay gasping for breath on the side of the road.
"Neo!" Frost moved as quickly as his body would allow to reach the girl as Ruby looked over with wide eyes, now realizing what it was that she had hit upon her arrival.
"Umm…oops?"
I promised to deliver on something more action-y this chapter, so I hope it was satisfactory. I don't feel completely satisfied with some of the writing for this one, but I didn't really have time to adjust anything too much or really change things dramatically due to parts of this chapter being required for events yet to unfold.
So for now, this is where we leave things until the next update on November 23. I will see those of you reading RWBY then. For those reading my other story, I will see you in a week.This summer scientists published the first study that comprehensively explored the effect of climate change on wind speeds in the U.S. The report was not encouraging. Three decades’ worth of data seemed to point to a future where global warming lowers wind speeds enough to handicap the nascent wind industry. But the real story, like so much in climate science, is far more complex.
The study of decreased wind speeds came from a team led by Sara Pryor, professor and chair of the atmospheric science program at Indiana University. It examined wind speed data from hundreds of locations across the U.S. The team attempted to correct for any change in instrument position (such as what would happen if an airport places its anemometer atop a new control tower) and calculated for each site the average annual wind speed. Pryor and her colleagues found that in most of the U.S. wind speeds appear to be waning, in many locations by more than 1 percent a year.
The decline has the potential to be especially pernicious because turbines are exponentially sensitive to changes in wind speed.* If the wind blows just 15 percent faster, a turbine will produce 50 percent more power. Conversely, a drop in average wind speed will significantly reduce the power output. Most of the locations that showed the most prominent decreases in wind speeds are strung along a corridor stretching from Texas to the Great Lakes that is home to 60 percent of the nation’s installed wind power.
Yet the situation may not be as dire as the data imply. Direct observations of wind speeds are inherently problematic. Anemometers are far less accurate and consistent than thermometers, Pryor says. In addition, almost all the locations used in the study are close to fast-growing urban areas that can alter wind patterns in unpredictable ways. And unlike temperature measurements, which in some locations stretch back 150 years, relatively accurate and widespread wind measurements began only in the 1970s—hardly enough time to pluck a subtle trend out of noisy data.
Because direct measurements of wind speeds are so unruly, Pryor’s team also tracked indirect measurements. These come from surface temperature and pressure records as well as balloon and satellite surveys. Computers crunch the data to produce a rich series of atmospheric portraits—a way to measure wind speeds without measuring the wind. This “reanalysis” data showed no change. Says Pryor: “If you have a mechanism causing your wind speeds to change”—global warming, for instance—“it should be evident in both the observations and in the reanalysis data.” If only one out of the two shows an effect, no one can say for sure what is going on.
For the wind industry, the most important change would be to peak wind speeds, because a turbine delivers most of its power only once the wind blows faster than about 25 miles per hour. Although the conclusions are preliminary, global climate models suggest that in the Northern Hemisphere, storm tracks should migrate northward, bringing more gusty storms to higher latitudes. “The northern part of the U.S. into Canada may see an increase” in peak wind speeds, Pryor says, “whereas the southern regions may see a decline.”
Yet any decline should still leave wind farms with plenty to work with. A recent study by Xi Lu of Harvard University calculates that wind power in the U.S. could potentially generate 16 times the nation’s current electricity production. The study limits potential wind farm locations to rural, nonforested sites (both on land and offshore) with high wind speeds. Worldwide, wind energy under the same constraints could supply at least 40 times the current electricity consumption.
According to Ryan Wiser, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and author of an upcoming special report on renewable energy and climate change by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Lu’s study simply confirms that “there is absolutely no resource constraint for wind in the U.S.” Or, as Pryor puts it, “there may be regional winners and losers, but the winds are going to continue to blow.”
Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "The Way the Wind Blows."
*Clarification (11/24/09): This expression was not intended literally. Turbine power generation is proportional to the cube of wind speed.Police are asking nicely, for now: If you scooped up any of the money that fell out of an armored truck in Baltimore, please return it.
In what must be the best tunnel commute ever, thousands of dollars flew out of a Brink's armored truck Wednesday night in the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.
Police say the truck's door security malfunctioned.
And, as people will do, drivers stopped in both lanes and began picking the money up. That caused a jamup in the tunnel that lasted eight hours.
Police aren't sure how much money spilled. But, they say, some drivers on the scene did cooperate with police.
Maryland Transportation Authority Police say anyone who took some of the cash and hasn't given it back can return it without being prosecuted for theft.
They've set a deadline of 5 p.m. Saturday to turn the money in.Standing in front of a car that had just led him and eight fellow cops on a chase up and down Interstate 95, Boynton Beach police officer Patrick Monteith said he kept his rifle trained on the passenger, watching his hands to make sure he wasn’t reaching for a gun.
If the passenger, identified as Jeffrey Braswell, showed any sign he was going for a weapon, "I would have killed him," Monteith matter-of-factly told a federal jury on Tuesday. Peering into the car, Monteith said he quickly concluded Braswell posed no threat.
"He was blocking blows from the officers on the right side of the vehicle who were trying to get him out," Monteith said. Stepping closer, Monteith said he realized why the 28-year-old Boynton Beach man wasn’t getting out of the car. He couldn’t.
"Take off the (expletive) seat belt," Monteith said he told the officers who were pummeling Braswell and violently shoving him back and forth.
Monteith’s damning account of the August 2014 arrest — testimony that he acknowledged made him uncomfortable to offer — came on the first day of a trial of three of his once-fellow officers who are accused of violating Braswell’s constitutional rights during the chase that ended on South A Street in Lake Worth.The three also are charged with fabricating reports to cover up their misdeeds. If convicted, they could spend as long as 20 years in prison.
Of the three, only officer Michael Brown still works for the agency, although he is on paid leave. The two others, Justin Harris and Ronald Ryan, have since left the department. Harris resigned about two years ago to open a gym. Ryan was fired in 2016 after higher-ups deemed him unfit for duty.
In opening statements, attorneys representing the three men dismissed the charges as little more than "Monday morning quarterbacking" by federal prosecutors and FBI agents.
With years to review the officers’ actions, it’s easy for agents and prosecutors to second-guess decisions the cops had to make in a split-second in a chaotic situation, said attorney Bruce Reinhart, who represents Brown. Attorneys Jonathan Wasserman and M. Caroline McCrae, who represent former officers Harris and Ryan, respectively, agreed.
"Police work is tough. Police work is stressful," said Wasserman. "Police work is important. Police work is dangerous."
However, both Boynton Beach Police Chief Jeffrey Katz and Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Musto testified police also have to follow rules.
Both testified that they came to the same conclusion about the officers’ actions after reviewing a videotape Musto shot from a PBSO helicopter as he was helping the Boynton officers with the arrest. The officers’ conduct, both said, "looked bad."
Further, Katz said, the video didn’t jibe with the officers’ accounts. In their reports, none of the roughly nine officers involved in the arrest said they hit or kicked Braswell, car driver Byron Harris or Ashley Hill, another passenger in the car.
Unable to reconcile what the video showed and what Brown, Harris, Ryan and other officers wrote in their reports, Katz said he asked both the FBI and the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office to investigate.
Quickly taken over by the FBI, the investigation initially seemed to focus on how officers’ dealt with Harris, whose bruised and bloodied face was widely publicized after the incident. However, when the indictment was handed up in June, it focused solely on the three officers who dealt with Braswell. Sgt. Philip Antico was also indicted. Accused of helping his three subordinates fabricate their reports, Antico will be tried separately.
Musto testified that he turned over the videotape to his supervisors because he was concerned about what it showed. "It looks bad to a normal person or to the media — the kicking, the punching, that kind of stuff," the pilot, who supervises the sheriff’s aviation unit, told the jury.
However, under questioning by McCrae, Musto acknowledged that the actions he described involved officers who were dealing with what appears to have been Byron Harris, not Braswell. The focus of the infared camera on board the chopper shifted away as the officers dealt with Braswell.
Further, all three defense attorneys said it was unfair to claim that their clients intentionally fabricated their reports. All three had a long, grueling, stressful night, they said.
They were on edge after chasing the car from Gateway Boulevard in Boynton Beach to Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach and back to Lake Worth, the attorneys said.
At the start of the chase that began at about 2 a.m., a bag containing white powder, presumably drugs, was thrown from the car, a signal they were dealing with dangerous drug dealers, Reinhart told jurors. Before the car got on the highway, it clipped officer Jeffery Williams, who was putting out stop sticks in hopes of keeping the car off I-95. A police cruiser following the suspects then ran over Williams, leaving him critically injured, he said.
By the time the officers returned to the station at about 5 a.m., they were exhausted, their attorneys said. The officers weren’t thinking straight. The lapses in the reports were simple omissions, they said.
"You can’t be guilty of crimes because you made a mistake," Reinhart said. "You have to have intent."
Further, the attorneys pointed out, the officers checked boxes on "use-of-force" forms, indicating they had hit or punched Braswell.
Still, Katz said, that isn’t enough. The officers should have detailed what they did in their reports not just checked boxes on the use-of-force forms, that are only used for record-keeping purposes.
While all three later amended their reports, Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Osborne said they did so only to cover their tracks after learning of the PBSO video, she said. "This video depicts a beatdown," she said.
The trial, which is expected to wrap up next week, continues Wednesday.If you have found a wildlife baby of ANY kind, first assess the baby’s well being with the following questions:
Does Baby feel cold and lethargic?
Is Baby covered with parasites (fleas, fly strike or ticks)?
Has Baby been in a dog or cat’s mouth?
Does Baby have a broken limb or other obvious injury?
Does Baby have abrasions?
Is Baby having difficulty breathing (gasping, gurgling)?
Is Baby’s coat matted and/or patchy?
Does Baby have a head tilt and cannot hold its head straight?
Is Baby exhibiting odd behavior (circling, falling over, etc.)?
Is Baby bleeding?
Did you find what you believe to be Mom dead?
If you answered YES to any of the above questions, reuniting babies with Mom is no longer an option and baby needs to get to a rehabber immediately. Please call the Wildlife Hotline @ 1-855-WILD-HELP for assistance and read the following protocol on how best to house and secure babies until you can get them to a rehabber.
*Regardless of species or time of year, ALWAYS make sure that babies are WARM to the touch before attempting to reunite. A water bottle with hot water with a sock over it will work to warm babies, or a heating pad will do as well. You can make your own heat source for babies by taking a clean tube sock, filling it with uncooked rice, tie the end of the sock so it won’t spill and microwave for 1-2 minutes. Place the warm sock in with the babies and let them decide if they want to be on it or away from it. If you decide to use a water bottle, make absolutely sure that you do not not let that bottle get cold! Once the bottle is cold it will suck heat away from babies instead of warming them. NEVER feed or give water without instruction from a rehabber! We are available 24-Hours, 7 days a week – If you think baby needs food or water, call us first PLEASE!
After you have assessed that the bunny or bunnies are uninjured follow the steps below to best assist baby bunnies.
Step 1. Determine age of rabbits
The simplest way to determine age is to answer the following questions:
Are baby’s ear standing up, or attached to the back of the baby?
Is baby bigger than a golf ball when cupped in your hand?
Is baby bigger than an extra large egg when cupped in your hand?
Is baby 4-5 inches or more in length?
Size alone will not tell you if this baby is okay on its own. Healthy, releasable bunnies should be sitting up, making it easy for you to compare their size to a golf ball or egg. If you are not holding the bunny, this comparison won’t work.
Signs that bunny is NOT old enough or large enough to be on its own:
Is bunny BLACK in color or dark grey?
Is bunny screaming?
Can bunnies be flipped over and so you can SEE through the abdomen’s skin? Look for a ‘milk line’ where you can see the milk inside the baby’s belly.
Are the bunnies lying down with feet out behind them, not tucked under? Bunny should ‘ball’ up easily, especially when picked up.
Please visit our bunny gallery to see the visual difference between bunnies that are old enough to be on their own, and bunnies that still need Mom’s help.
Step 2. Find the den site.
The ONLY way to reunite baby bunnies with Mom is to get the bunnies back in the ORIGINAL den. You CANNOT move the den to a more ‘suitable’ area. Mother rabbits have been known to not return to babies when the den is moved even 2 inches from the original location! Yes, we know that Mom sometimes picks really awful places to put her kids.
Examples of Some of the Places a You Might Find a Cottontail Nest:
Shallow depression in the middle of a yard
Patch of grass or even plain dirt
Potted plants
Flower boxes
Parking lots that have been broken up by grass growth – in tiny patch of grass
Doghouses with dirt bottoms
Under a piece of wood (long forgotten in the yard) or door, piece of siding, etc.
Pile of leaves or grass clippings
Manure piles
Basically anywhere that Mom could have squatted for ten seconds to have her kids!
Regardless of where the den site is, PLEASE put the bunnies back in the den. It’s okay if the nesting material is now all over the yard. Place as much of the den materials (leaves, grass, some of Mom’s chest hair) back in the nest over the |
Germans was a surprise to me.
To win, a team has to have both a viable launch and a viable lander. At the moment it doesn’t appear to me that any team has both. Some, like Moon Express, actually have neither. Their ride to space isn’t tested and if they have a lander nobody I know has actually seen it. The Indian and Japanese teams seem to have a viable launch but no finished rovers to carry on that launch. And poor SpaceIL, which had both a lander and a launcher in SpaceX, seems to have recently lost their launch through no fault of theirs. It is possible the Israelis will find another launch in time but far from guaranteed.
What’s happening with SpaceIL is their Falcon 9 launch slot was reclaimed by Spaceflight, the company that aggregates and resells excess launch capacity, so this doesn’t directly have anything to do with SpaceX, itself. One explanation is that Spaceflight found more lucrative passengers for that launch but I don’t know if that’s the real reason. SpaceIL required a large fraction of the mission’s launch capacity, not because they are so large, but rather because they required the F9 upper stage to inject them into a high elliptical orbit (thus limiting mass available for payloads into Low Earth Orbit). Spaceflight has told at least one person that they were just not confident that the SpaceIl lander design could tolerate the launch. It sounds weird but that’s one story. It makes SpaceIL unhappy, but I don’t think that they have too many options, though Spaceflight says they are still looking for SpaceIL another 2017 launch.
These secondary launch contracts are pretty vague, giving Spaceflight lots of flexibility in how to satisfy the launch contract in other ways. At some point if Spaceflight does not provide the launch by then, it would have to return the payment, but that is a while away,
So I’m predicting nobody makes it to the Moon this year. And Google, which is sick and embarrassed by this whole mess, has made it clear that at the end of 2017 the GLXP will disappear forever, so get over it.
Of course this reads nothing like this week’s many GLXP news stories on the subject. Alternative facts? Nope, Im just trying to be a realistic prognosticator.4th President of the United States
James Madison Jr. (March 16. 1751[1] – June 28, 1836) was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth President of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution and the United States Bill of Rights. He also co-wrote The Federalist Papers, co-founded the Democratic-Republican Party, and served as the fifth United States Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809.
Born into a prominent Virginia planting family, Madison served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and the Continental Congress during and after the American Revolutionary War. He became dissatisfied with the weak national government established by the Articles of Confederation and helped organize the Constitutional Convention, which produced a new constitution to supplant the Articles of Confederation. Madison's Virginia Plan served as the basis for the Constitutional Convention's deliberations, and he was one of the most influential individuals at the convention. Madison became one of the leaders in the movement to ratify the Constitution, and he joined with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay in writing The Federalist Papers, a series of pro-ratification essays that is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of political science in American history.
After the ratification of the Constitution, Madison emerged as an important leader in the United States House of Representatives and served as a close adviser to President George Washington. He was the main force behind the ratification of the United States Bill of Rights, which enshrines guarantees of personal freedoms and rights within the Constitution. During the early 1790s, Madison came to oppose the economic program and accompanying centralization of power favored by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton. Along with Thomas Jefferson, Madison organized the Democratic-Republican Party, which was, alongside Hamilton's Federalist Party, one of the nation's first major political parties. After Jefferson won the 1800 presidential election, Madison served as Secretary of State from 1801 to 1809. In that position, he supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the size of the United States.
Madison succeeded Jefferson with a victory in the 1808 presidential election. After diplomatic protests and a trade embargo failed to end British attacks against American shipping, he led the United States into the War of 1812. The war was an administrative morass and ended inconclusively, but many Americans saw it as a successful "second war of independence" against Britain. The war convinced Madison of the necessity of a stronger federal government, and he presided over the creation of the Second Bank of the United States and the enactment of the protective Tariff of 1816. He retired from public office in 1817 and died in 1836. He is generally considered to be one of the most important Founding Fathers of the United States, and historians have generally ranked Madison as an above-average president.
Early life and education
James Madison Jr. was born on March 16, 1751, (March 5, 1751, Old Style, Julian calendar) at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia, to James Madison Sr. and Nelly Conway Madison. He grew up as the oldest of twelve children,[2] with seven brothers and four sisters, though only six of his siblings would live to adulthood.[3] His father was a tobacco planter who grew up on a plantation, then called Mount Pleasant, which he had inherited upon reaching adulthood. With numerous slaves and a 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) plantation, Madison's father was the largest landowner and a leading citizen in the Piedmont. Madison's maternal grandfather was a prominent planter and tobacco merchant.[4] In the early 1760s, the Madison family moved into a newly built house, which they named Montpelier.[3]
From age 11 to 16, Madison was sent to study under Donald Robertson, a Scottish instructor who served as a tutor for a number of prominent planter families in the South. Madison learned mathematics, geography, and modern and classical languages—he became especially proficient in Latin.[5][6] At age 16, Madison returned to Montpelier, where he began a two-year course of study under the Reverend Thomas Martin in preparation for college. Unlike most college-bound Virginians of his day, Madison did not attend the College of William and Mary, where the lowland Williamsburg climate - thought to be more likely to harbor infectious disease - might have strained his delicate health. Instead, in 1769, he enrolled at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University).[7]
His studies at Princeton included Latin, Greek, theology, and the works of the Enlightenment.[8] Great emphasis was placed on both speech and debate; Madison helped found the American Whig Society, in direct competition to fellow student Aaron Burr's Cliosophic Society.[citation needed] Along with another classmate, Madison undertook an intense program of study and completed Princeton's three-year bachelor of arts degree in just two years, graduating in 1771.[9] He remained at Princeton to study Hebrew and political philosophy under President John Witherspoon before returning home to Montpelier in early 1772.[10] His ideas on philosophy and morality were strongly shaped by Witherspoon, who converted Madison to the philosophy, values, and modes of thinking of the Age of Enlightenment. Biographer Terence Ball says that at Princeton:
He was immersed in the liberalism of the Enlightenment, and converted to eighteenth-century political radicalism. From then on James Madison's theories would advance the rights of happiness of man, and his most active efforts would serve devotedly the cause of civil and political liberty.[11]
Early political career
After returning to Montpelier, Madison, who had not yet decided on a specific career, served as a tutor to his younger siblings.[12] In the early 1770s the relationship between the American colonies and Britain deteriorated over the issue of British taxation, culminating in the American Revolutionary War, which began in 1775. Madison believed that the British Parliament had overstepped its bounds by imposing taxation on the American colonies, and he sympathized with those who resisted British rule.[13] He also favored de-establishing the Anglican Church in Virginia; Madison believed that an established religion was detrimental not only for restricting freedom of religion, but also because it encouraged closed-mindedness and unquestioning obedience to the authority of the state.[14]
In 1774, Madison took a seat on the local Committee of Safety, a pro-revolution group that oversaw the local militia.[15] In October 1775, he was commissioned as the colonel of the Orange County militia, serving as his father's second-in-command until his election as a delegate to the Fifth Virginia Convention, which was charged with producing Virginia's first constitution.[16] Of short stature and frequently in poor health, Madison never saw battle in the Revolutionary War, but he rose to prominence in Virginia politics as a wartime leader.[17] At the Virginia constitutional convention, he convinced delegates to alter the Virginia Declaration of Rights to provide for "equal entitlement," rather than mere "tolerance," in the exercise of religion.[18] With the enactment of the Virginia constitution, Madison became part of the Virginia House of Delegates, and he was subsequently elected to the Virginia governor's Council of State.[19] In that role, he became a close ally of Governor Thomas Jefferson.[20]
Madison served on the Council of State from 1777 to 1779, when he was elected to the Second Continental Congress, the governing body of the United States.[b] The country faced a difficult war against Great Britain, as well as runaway inflation, financial troubles, and lack of cooperation between the different levels of government. Madison worked to make himself an expert on financial issues, becoming a legislative workhorse and a master of parliamentary coalition building.[15] Frustrated by the failure of the states to supply needed requisitions, Madison proposed to amend the Articles of Confederation to grant Congress the power to independently raise revenue through tariffs on foreign imports.[22] Though General George Washington, Congressman Alexander Hamilton, and other influential leaders also favored the amendment, it was defeated because it failed to win the ratification of all thirteen states.[23] After serving Congress from 1780 to 1783, Madison won election to the Virginia House of Delegates in 1784.[24]
Father of the Constitution
Calling a convention
As a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Madison continued to advocate for religious freedom, and, along with Jefferson, drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. That amendment, which guaranteed freedom of religion and disestablished the Church of England, was passed in 1786.[25] Madison also became a land speculator, purchasing land along the Mohawk River in a partnership with another Jefferson protege, James Monroe.[26]
Throughout the 1780s, Madison advocated for reform of the Articles of Confederation. He became increasingly worried about the disunity of the states and the weakness of the central government after the end of the Revolutionary War in 1783.[27] He believed that "excessive democracy" caused social decay, and was particularly troubled by laws that legalized paper money and denied diplomatic immunity to ambassadors from other countries.[28] He was also deeply concerned about the inability of Congress to capably conduct foreign policy, protect American trade, and foster the settlement of the lands between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.[29] As Madison wrote, "a crisis had arrived which was to decide whether the American experiment was to be a blessing to the world, or to blast for ever the hopes which the republican cause had inspired."[30] He committed to an intense study of law and political theory, and was heavily influenced by Enlightenment texts sent by Jefferson from France.[31] He especially sought out works on international law and the constitutions of "ancient and modern confederacies" like the Dutch Republic, the Swiss Confederation, and the Achaean League.[32] He came to believe that the United States could improve upon past republican experiments by virtue of its size; with so many distinct interests competing against each other, Madison hoped to minimize the abuses of majority rule.[33]
Madison helped arrange the 1785 Mount Vernon Conference, which settled disputes regarding navigation rights on the Potomac River and also served as a model for future interstate conferences.[34] At the 1786 Annapolis Convention, he joined with Alexander Hamilton and other delegates in calling of another convention to consider amending the Articles.[35] After winning election to another term in Congress, Madison helped convince the other Congressmen to authorize the Philadelphia Convention for the purposes of proposing new amendments.[36] Though many members of Congress were wary of the changes the convention might bring, nearly all agreed that the existing government needed some sort of reform.[37] Madison ensured that George Washington, who was popular throughout the country, and Robert Morris, who was influential in the critical state of Pennsylvania, would both broadly support Madison's plan to implement a new constitution.[38] The outbreak of Shays' Rebellion in 1786 reinforced the necessity for constitutional reform in the eyes of Washington and other American leaders.[39]
Philadelphia Convention
of the Page one of the original copyof the U.S. Constitution
Before a quorum was reached at the Philadelphia Convention on May 25, 1787,[40] Madison worked with other members of the Virginia delegation, especially Edmund Randolph and George Mason, to create and present the Virginia Plan.[41] The Virginia Plan was an outline for a new federal constitution; it called for three branches of government (legislative, executive, and judicial), a bicameral Congress (consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives) apportioned by population, and a federal Council of Revision that would have the right to veto laws passed by Congress. Reflecting the centralization of power envisioned by Madison, the Virginia Plan granted the U.S. Senate the power to overturn any law passed by state governments.[42] The Virginia Plan did not explicitly lay out the structure of the executive branch, but Madison himself favored a single executive.[43] Many delegates were surprised to learn that the plan called for the abrogation of the Articles and the creation of a new constitution, to be ratified by special conventions in each state rather than by the state legislatures. Nonetheless, with the assent of prominent attendees such as Washington and Benjamin Franklin, the delegates went into a secret session to consider a new constitution.[44]
Though the Virginia Plan was an outline rather than a draft of a possible constitution, and though it was extensively changed during the debate, its use at the convention has led many to call Madison the "Father of the Constitution."[45] During the course of the convention, Madison spoke over two hundred times, and his fellow delegates rated him highly. Delegate William Pierce wrote that "in the management of every great question he evidently took the lead in the Convention... he always comes forward as the best informed man of any point in debate."[46] Madison believed that the constitution produced by the convention "would decide for ever the fate of republican government" throughout the world, and he kept copious notes to serve as an historical record of the convention.[47]
Madison had hoped that a coalition of Southern states and populous Northern states would ensure the approval of a constitution largely similar to the one proposed in the Virginia Plan. However, delegates from small states successfully argued for more power for state governments and presented the New Jersey Plan as an alternative. In response, Roger Sherman proposed the Connecticut Compromise, which sought to balance the interests of small and large states. During the course of the convention, Madison's Council of Revision was jettisoned, each state was given equal representation in the Senate, and the state legislatures, rather than the House of Representatives, were given the power to elect members of the Senate. Madison was able to convince his fellow delegates to have the Constitution ratified by ratifying conventions rather than state legislatures, which he distrusted. He also helped ensure that the President of the United States would have the ability to veto federal laws and would be elected independently of Congress through the Electoral College. By the end of the convention, Madison believed that the new constitution failed to give enough power to the federal government compared to the state governments, but he still viewed the document as an improvement on the Articles of Confederation.[48]
The ultimate question before the convention, Wood notes, was not how to design a government but whether the states should remain sovereign, whether sovereignty should be transferred to the national government, or whether the constitution should settle somewhere in between.[49] Most of the delegates at the Philadelphia Convention wanted to empower the federal government to raise revenue and protect property rights.[50] Those, like Madison, who thought democracy in the state legislatures was excessive and insufficiently "disinterested", wanted sovereignty transferred to the national government, while those who did not think this a problem, wanted to fix the Articles of Confederation. Even many delegates who shared Madison's goal of strengthening the central government reacted strongly against the extreme change to the status quo envisioned in the Virginia Plan. Though Madison lost most of his battles over how to amend the Virginia Plan, in the process he increasingly shifted the debate away from a position of pure state sovereignty. Since most disagreements over what to include in the constitution were ultimately disputes over the balance of sovereignty between the states and national government, Madison's influence was critical. Wood notes that Madison's ultimate contribution was not in designing any particular constitutional framework, but in shifting the debate toward a compromise of "shared sovereignty" between the national and state governments.[49][51]
The Federalist Papers and ratification debates
After the Philadelphia Convention ended in September 1787, Madison convinced his fellow Congressmen to remain neutral in the ratification debate and allow each state to vote upon the Constitution.[52] Throughout the United States, opponents of the Constitution, known as Anti-Federalists, began a public campaign against ratification. In response, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay began publishing a series of pro-ratification newspaper articles in New York.[53] After Jay dropped out from the project, Hamilton approached Madison, who was in New York on congressional business, to write some of the essays.[54] Altogether, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote the 85 essays of what became known as The Federalist Papers in the span of six months, with Madison writing 29 of the essays. The articles were also published in book form and became a virtual debater's handbook for the supporters of the Constitution in the ratifying conventions. Historian Clinton Rossiter called The Federalist Papers "the most important work in political science that ever has been written, or is likely ever to be written, in the United States."[55] Federalist No. 10, Madison's first contribution to The Federalist Papers, became highly regarded in the 20th century for its advocacy of representative democracy.[56] In Federalist No. 51, Madison explained how the separation of powers between three branches of the federal government, as well as between state governments and the federal government, established a system of checks and balances that ensured that no one institution would become too powerful.[57]
While Madison and Hamilton continued to write The Federalist Papers, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and several smaller states voted to ratify the Constitution.[58] After finishing his last contributions to The Federalist Papers, Madison returned to Virginia.[59] Initially, Madison did not want to stand for election to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, but he was persuaded to do so by the strength of the Anti-Federalists.[60] Virginians were divided into three main camps: Washington and Madison led the faction in favor of ratification of the Constitution, Edmund Randolph and George Mason headed a faction that wanted ratification but also sought amendments to the Constitution, and Patrick Henry was the most prominent member of the faction opposed to the ratification of the Constitution.[61] When the Virginia Ratifying Convention began on June 2, 1788, the Constitution had been ratified by the eight of the required nine states. New York, the second largest state and a bastion of anti-federalism, would likely not ratify it without Virginia, and Virginia's exclusion from the new government would disqualify George Washington from being the first president.[60]
At the start of the convention, Madison knew that most delegates had already made up their mind about how to vote, and he focused his efforts on winning the support of the relatively small number of undecided delegates.[62] His long correspondence with Edmund Randolph paid off at the convention as Randolph announced that he would support unconditional ratification of the Constitution, with amendments to be proposed after ratification.[63] Though Henry gave several effective speeches arguing ratification, Madison's expertise on the subject he had long argued for allowed him to respond with rational arguments to Henry's emotional appeals.[64] In his final speech to the ratifying convention, Madison implored his fellow delegates to ratify the Constitution as it had been written, arguing that the failure to do so would lead to the collapse of the entire ratification effort as each state would seek favorable amendments.[65] On June 25, 1788, the convention voted 89–79 to ratify the Constitution, making it the tenth state to do so.[66] New York ratified the constitution the following month, and Washington won the country's first presidential election.
Congressman and party leader (1789–1801)
Election to Congress
After Virginia ratified the constitution, Madison returned to New York to resume his duties in the Congress of the Confederation. At the request of Washington, Madison sought a seat in the U.S. Senate, but the state legislature instead elected two Anti-Federalist allies of Patrick Henry.[67] Now deeply concerned both for his own political career and over the possibility that Henry and his allies would arrange for a second constitutional convention, Madison ran for the U.S. House of Representatives.[68] At Henry's behest, the Virginia legislature created congressional districts designed to deny Madison a seat, and Henry recruited a strong challenger to Madison in the person of James Monroe. Locked in a difficult race against Monroe, Madison promised to support a series of constitutional amendments to protect individual liberties.[67] In an open letter, Madison wrote that, while he had opposed requiring alterations to the Constitution prior to ratification, he now believed that "amendments, if pursued with a proper moderation and in a proper mode... may serve the double purpose of satisfying the minds of well-meaning opponents, and of providing additional guards in favor of liberty."[69] Madison's promise paid off, as he won election to Congress with 57 percent of the vote.[70]
Madison became a key adviser to President Washington, who looked to Madison as the person who best understood the constitution.[67] Madison helped Washington write his first inaugural address, and also prepared the official House response to Washington's address. He played a major role in establishing and staffing the three Cabinet departments, and his influence helped Thomas Jefferson become the inaugural Secretary of State.[71] At the start of the 1st Congress, he introduced a tariff bill similar to the one he had advocated for under the Articles of the Confederation,[72] and Congress established a federal tariff on foreign imports through the Tariff of 1789.[73] The following year, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton introduced an ambitious economic program that called for the federal assumption of state debts and the funding of that debt through the issuance of federal securities. Hamilton's plan favored Northern speculators and was disadvantageous to states such as Virginia that had already paid off most of their debt, and Madison emerged as one of the principal congressional opponents of the plan.[74] After prolonged legislative deadlock, Madison, Jefferson, and Hamilton agreed to the Compromise of 1790, which provided for the enactment of Hamilton's assumption plan through the Funding Act of 1790. In return, Congress passed the Residence Act, which established the federal capital district of Washington, D.C. on the Potomac River.[75]
Bill of Rights
During the 1st Congress, Madison took the lead in pressing for the passage of several constitutional amendments that would form the United States Bill of Rights.[76] His primary goals were to fulfill his 1789 campaign pledge and to prevent the calling of a second constitutional convention, but he also hoped to protect individual liberties against the actions of the federal government and state legislatures. He believed that the enumeration of specific rights would fix those rights in the public mind and encourage judges to protect them.[77] After studying over two hundred amendments that had been proposed at the state ratifying conventions,[78] Madison introduced the Bill of Rights on June 8, 1789. His amendments contained numerous restrictions on the federal government and would protect, among other things, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the right to peaceful assembly.[79] While most of his proposed amendments were drawn from the ratifying conventions, Madison was largely responsible for proposals to guarantee freedom of the press, protect property from government seizure, and ensure jury trials.[78] He also proposed an amendment to prevent states from abridging "equal rights of conscience, or freedom of the press, or the trial by jury in criminal cases."[80]
Madison's Bill of Rights faced little opposition, as he managed to co-opt the Anti-Federalist position calling for amendments without alienating supporters of the Constitution.[81] Madison's proposed amendments were largely adopted by the House of Representatives, but the Senate made several changes.[82] Madison's proposal to apply parts of the Bill of Rights to the states was eliminated, as was his final proposed change to the Constitution's preamble.[83] Madison was disappointed that the Bill of Rights did not include protections against actions by state governments,[c] but passage of the document mollified some critics of the original constitution and shored up Madison's support in Virginia.[78] Of the twelve amendments formally proposed by Congress to the states, ten amendments were ratified as additions to the Constitution on December 15, 1791, becoming known as the Bill of Rights.[84][d]
Founding the Democratic-Republican Party
After 1790, the Washington administration became polarized among two main factions. One faction was led by Jefferson and Madison, broadly represented Southern interests, and sought close relations with France. The other faction was led by Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton, broadly represented Northern financial interests, and favored close relations with Britain.[86] In 1791, Hamilton introduced a plan that called for the establishment of a national bank to provide loans to emerging industries and oversee the money supply.[87] Madison believed that, by empowering financial interests, the bank posed a threat to the republican nature of the U.S. government, and he argued that the Constitution did not grant the federal government the authority to create such an institution.[88] Despite Madison's opposition, Congress passed a bill to create the First Bank of the United States; after a period of consideration, Washington signed the banking bill into law in February 1791.[87] As Hamilton implemented his economic program and Washington continued to enjoy immense prestige as president, Madison became increasingly concerned that Hamilton would seek to abolish the federal republic in favor of a centralized monarchy.[89]
When Hamilton submitted his Report on Manufactures, which called for federal action to stimulate the development of a diversified economy, Madison once again challenged Hamilton's proposal on constitutional grounds. He sought to mobilize public opinion by forming a political party based on opposition to Hamilton's policies.[90] Along with Jefferson, Madison helped Philip Freneau establish the National Gazette, a Philadelphia newspaper that attacked Hamilton's proposals.[91] In an essay published in the National Gazette in September 1792, Madison wrote that the country had divided into two factions: his own faction, which believed in "the doctrine that mankind are capable of governing themselves," and Hamilton's faction, which allegedly sought the establishment of aristocratic monarchy and was biased towards the wealthy.[92] Those who opposed to Hamilton's economic policies, including many former Anti-Federalists, coalesced into Democratic-Republican Party,[e] while those who supported the administration's policies coalesced into the Federalist Party.[93] In the 1792 United States presidential election, both major parties supported Washington's successful bid for re-election, but the Democratic-Republicans sought to unseat Vice President John Adams. Because the Constitution's rules essentially precluded Jefferson from challenging Adams,[f] the party backed New York Governor George Clinton for the vice presidency, but Adams won re-election by a comfortable electoral vote margin.[95]
With Jefferson out of office after 1793, Madison became the de facto leader of the Democratic-Republican Party.[96] When Britain and France went to war in 1793, the U.S. was caught in the middle.[97] While the differences between the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists had previously centered on economic matters, foreign policy became an increasingly important issue as Madison and Jefferson favored France and Hamilton favored Britain.[98] War with Britain became imminent in 1794 after the British seized hundreds of American ships that were trading with French colonies. Madison believed that a trade war with Britain would probably succeed, and would allow Americans to assert their independence fully. The British West Indies, Madison maintained, could not live without American foodstuffs, but Americans could easily do without British manufactures.[99] Washington avoided a trade war and instead secured friendly trade relations with Britain through the Jay Treaty of 1794.[100] Madison and his Democratic-Republican allies were outraged by the treaty; one Democratic-Republican wrote that the treaty "sacrifices every essential interest and prostrates the honor of our country."[101] Madison's strong opposition to the treaty led to a permanent break with Washington, ending a long friendship.[100]
Adams presidency
Washington chose to retire after serving two terms and, in advance of the 1796 presidential election, Madison helped convince Jefferson to run for the presidency.[96] Despite Madison's efforts, Federalist candidate John Adams defeated Jefferson, taking a narrow majority of the electoral vote.[102] Under the rules of the Electoral College then in place, Jefferson became vice president because he finished with the second-most electoral votes.[103] Madison, meanwhile, had declined to seek re-election, and he returned to his home at Montpelier.[104] On Jefferson's advice, President Adams considered appointing Madison to an American delegation charged with ending French attacks on American shipping, but Adams's Cabinet members strongly opposed the idea. After a diplomatic incident between France and the United States known as the XYZ Affair took place, the two countries engaged in an undeclared naval war known as the Quasi-War.[105]
Though he was out of office, Madison remained a prominent Democratic-Republican leader in opposition to the Adams administration.[106] During the Quasi-War, the Federalists created a standing army and passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were directed at French refugees engaged in American politics and against Republican editors.[107] Madison and Jefferson believed that the Federalists were using the war to justify the violation of constitutional rights, and they increasingly came to view Adams as a monarchist.[108] In response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson wrote the Kentucky Resolutions, which argued that the states had the power to nullify federal law on the basis that the Constitution was a compact among the states. Madison rejected this view of a compact among the states, and his Virginia Resolutions instead urged states to respond to unjust federal laws through interposition, a process in which a state legislature declared a law to be unconstitutional but did not take steps to actively prevent its enforcement. Jefferson's doctrine of nullification was widely rejected, and the incident damaged the Democratic-Republican Party as attention was shifted from the Alien and Sedition Acts to the unpopular nullification doctrine.[109]
In 1799, after Patrick Henry announced that he would return to politics as a member of the Federalist Party, Madison won election to the Virginia legislature. At the same time, he and Jefferson planned for Jefferson's campaign in the 1800 presidential election.[110] Madison issued the Report of 1800, which attacked the Alien and Sedition Acts as unconstitutional but disregarded Jefferson's theory of nullification. The Report of 1800 held that Congress was limited to legislating on its enumerated powers, and that punishment for sedition violated freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Jefferson embraced the report, and it became the unofficial Democratic-Republican platform for the 1800 election.[111] With the Federalists badly divided between supporters of Hamilton and Adams, and with news of the end of the Quasi-War not reaching the United States until after the election, Jefferson and his ostensible running mate, Aaron Burr, defeated Adams. Because Jefferson and Burr tied in the electoral vote, the Federalist-controlled House of Representatives held a contingent election to choose between the two candidates.[112] After the House conducted dozens of inconclusive ballots, Hamilton, who despised Burr even more than he did Adams, convinced several Federalist congressmen to cast blank ballots, giving Jefferson the victory.[113]
Marriage and family
On September 15, 1794, Madison married Dolley Payne Todd, a 26-year-old widow.[114] They had met through a mutual friend, Aaron Burr, while both lived in Philadelphia.[115] Madison never had children, but he adopted Dolley's one surviving son, John Payne Todd (known as Payne), after the marriage.[104] Madison enjoyed a strong relationship with his wife, and she became his political partner.[116] She was widely popular in the capital of Washington, and she excelled at dinners and other important political occasions.[117] Her actions helped establish the First Lady of the United States as an important social host in Washington.[118]
Madison's father died in 1801. At age 50, Madison inherited the large plantation of Montpelier and other possessions, including his father's numerous slaves.[119]
Secretary of State (1801–1809)
Despite lacking foreign policy experience, Madison was appointed as Secretary of State by Jefferson.[120] Along with Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin, Madison became one of the two major influences in Jefferson's Cabinet.[121] As the ascent of Napoleon in France had dulled Democratic-Republican enthusiasm for the French cause, Madison sought a neutral position in the ongoing Coalition Wars between France and Britain.[122] Domestically, the Jefferson administration and the Democratic-Republican Congress rolled back many Federalist policies; Congress quickly repealed the Alien and Sedition Act, abolished internal taxes, and reduced the size of the army and navy.[123] Gallatin did, however, convince Jefferson to retain the First Bank of the United States.[124] Though the Federalists were rapidly fading away at the national level, Chief Justice John Marshall ensured that Federalist ideology retained an important presence in the judiciary. In the case of Marbury v. Madison, Marshall simultaneously ruled that Madison had unjustly refused to deliver federal commissions to individuals who had been appointed to federal positions by President Adams but who had not yet taken office, but that the Supreme Court did not have jurisdiction over the case. Most importantly, Marshall's opinion established the principle of judicial review.[125]
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase totaled 827,987 square miles (2,144,480 square kilometers), doubling the size of the United States.
By the time Jefferson took office, Americans had settled as far west as the Mississippi River, though vast pockets of American land remained vacant or inhabited only by Native Americans. Jefferson believed that western expansion played an important role in furthering his vision of a republic of yeoman farmers, and he hoped to acquire the Spanish territory of Louisiana, which was located to the west of the Mississippi River.[126] Early in Jefferson's presidency, the administration learned that Spain planned to retrocede the Louisiana to France, raising fears of French encroachment on U.S. territory.[127] In 1802, Jefferson and Madison dispatched James Monroe to France to negotiate the purchase of New Orleans, which controlled access to the Mississippi River and thus was immensely important to the farmers of the American frontier. Rather than selling merely New Orleans, Napoleon's government, having already given up on plans to establish a new French empire in the Americas, offered to sell the entire Territory of Louisiana. Despite lacking explicit authorization from Jefferson, Monroe and ambassador Robert R. Livingston negotiated the Louisiana Purchase, in which France sold over 800,000 square miles (2,100,000 square kilometers) of land in exchange for $15 million.[128]
Despite the time-sensitive nature of negotiations with the French, Jefferson was concerned about the constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase, and he privately favored introducing a constitutional amendment explicitly authorizing Congress to acquire new territories. Madison convinced Jefferson to refrain from proposing the amendment, and the administration ultimately submitted the Louisiana Purchase without an accompanying constitutional amendment.[129] Many contemporaries and later historians, such as Ron Chernow, noted that Madison and President Jefferson ignored their "strict construction" of the Constitution to take advantage of the purchase opportunity.[citation needed] The Senate quickly ratified the treaty providing for the purchase, and the House, with equal alacrity, passed enabling legislation.[130] The Jefferson administration argued that the purchase had included the Spanish territory of West Florida, but France and Spain both held that West Florida was not included in the purchase.[131] Monroe attempted to purchase clear title to West Florida and East Florida from Spain, but the Spanish, outraged by Jefferson's claims to West Florida, refused to negotiate.[132]
Early in his tenure, Jefferson was able to maintain cordial relations with both France and Britain, but relations with Britain deteriorated after 1805.[133] The British ended their policy of tolerance towards American shipping and began seizing American goods headed for French ports.[134] They also impressed American sailors, some of whom had originally defected from the British navy, and some of whom had never been British subjects.[135] In response to the attacks, Congress passed the Non-importation Act, which restricted many, but not all, British imports.[134] Tensions with Britain heightened due to the Chesapeake–Leopard affair, a June 1807 naval confrontation between American and British naval forces, while the French also began attacking American shipping.[136] Madison believed that economic pressure could force the British to end attacks on American shipping, and he and Jefferson convinced Congress to pass the Embargo Act of 1807, which totally banned all exports to foreign nations.[137] The embargo proved ineffective, unpopular, and difficult to enforce, especially in New England.[138] In March 1809, Congress replaced the embargo with the Non-Intercourse Act, which allowed trade with nations other than Britain and France.[139]
Presidential election of 1808
1808 electoral vote results
Speculation regarding Madison's potential succession of Jefferson commenced early in Jefferson's first term. Madison's status in the party was damaged by his association with the embargo, which was unpopular throughout the country and especially in the Northeast.[140] With the Federalists collapsing as a national party after 1800, the chief opposition to Madison's candidacy came from other members of the Democratic-Republican Party.[141] Madison became the target of attacks from Congressman John Randolph, a leader of a faction of the party known as the tertium quids.[142] Randolph recruited James Monroe, who had felt betrayed by the administration's rejection of the proposed Monroe–Pinkney Treaty with Britain, to challenge Madison for leadership of the party.[143] Many Northerners, meanwhile, hoped that Vice President George Clinton |
the league rules are currently set up – teams aren’t required to disclose injuries like in other sports, so all you really see are players tagged with injury updates or international duties.
That being said, fantasy players who manage to stay on top of the MLS news cycle are able to put themselves at a huge advantage over the competition. I personally have found the most efficient way of doing this is to utilize Twitter; by creating a List on Twitter that tracks a combination of local beat writers, supporters’ news sites, fantasy accounts and so on, you will have a considerable amount of fantasy-relevant information at your disposal (especially when you factor in Twitter’s Advanced Search function. )
Below, I’ve compiled a list of MLS-related Twitter accounts that are solid resources for MLS Fantasy players. This list is a work in progress, of course; if there are any community members out there who have any additional accounts they believe should be followed, drop us a line or let us know in the comments below!
Additionally, we also highly recommend you check out the /r/FantasyMLS community over at Reddit. It’s a growing and very well-run subreddit filled with plenty of fellow MLS Fantasy enthusiasts, definitely worth a look as well!
General MLS, US & Canadian Soccer News
• @MLSFantasy (Official MLS Fantasy Account)
• @TotalMLS
• @InsideMLS
• @TaylorTwellman
• @KyleJMcCarthy
• @MLSTransfers
• @SoccerMusings
• @Backheeldotcom
• @SISoccer
• @GrantWahl
• @BrianStraus
• @KidWeil
• @ShinGuardian
• @DougMacESPN
• @SBNationSoccer
• @TheMLG
• @BenJata
• @BrianSciaretta
• @ESPNFC
• @AlexiLalas
• @24thminute
• @KevLaramee
• @BadMLSComics
MLS Statistics/Analytics
• @MLSAnalyst
• @AnalysisEvolved
• @PCarrESPN
• @TomPayneftbl
Fantasy MLS Resources
• @SoccerCaptains
• @MLSFantasyBoss
• @crollaa
• @MLSFI
• @JayMLSFI
• @SimonMLSFI
• @TravisLuscombe
• @GuyMSanchez
• @MikeDatTiger
• @MLSInjuryNews
• @oldergoaler
• @MLSCheatsheet
Team-Specific News
Atlanta United
• @DirtySouthSoc
• @Longshoe
• @RobUsry
• @SHWrites
• @EricGQuintana
Chicago Fire
• @SMurrayMedia
• @HotTimeOldTown
• @FireConf
• @OTFSoccer
Colorado Rapids
• @RapidsNews
• @BurgundyWave
• @DanielBoniface
• @RapidsRabbi
• @MarceloBalboa17
• @FlemingSport
• @CurrentOfCO
Columbus Crew
• @AndrewKingMLS
• @MassiveReport
• @Espnino74
DC United
• @MLSist
• @SoccerInsider
• @BlackAndRedU
FC Dallas
• @SteveDavis90
• @3rdDegreeNet
• @BigDSoccer
Houston Dynamo
• @DynamoTheory
• @DartMLS
• @keepernotes
LA Galaxy
• @LAGConfidential
• @LAGalaxyInsider
• @GalaxyPodcast
• @LWOSMattPollard
Minnesota United
• @epluribusloonum
• @andygreder
• @FiftyFiveOne
• @jeffrueter
• @TheOtherMegRyan
Montreal Impact
• @OliTremblay
• @MtRoyalSoccer
• @NickSabetti
New England Revolution
• @TheBentMusket
• @JeffLemieux
• @SethMan31
NYCFC
• @HudsonRiverBlue
• @NYCFCNation
• @NYCFCBlues
• @NYCFCTactics
• @EmpireOfSoccer
• @hailcheaters
New York Red Bulls
• @SeeingRedNY
• @OnceAMetro
• @EmpireOfSoccer
• @RussMcKenzie
• @MarkFishkin
Orlando City SC
• @PaulTenorio
• @TheManeLand
• @OSIliana
• @OSAliciaD
• @OrlCity
Philadelphia Union
• @BrotherlyGame
• @TheGoalKeeper
• @kevin_kinkead
• @phillysoccerpg
Portland Timbers
• @JamieBGoldberg
• @StumptownFooty
• @WilliamConwell
• @ChrisRifer
Real Salt Lake
• @ChrisKamrani
• @RSLSoapBox
• @TheCrossbarRSL
• @TylerHGray
• @RSLTotalMLS
San Jose Earthquakes
• @QuakesBeat
• @CtrLineSoccer
• @RobertJonas
• @johnprostsoccer
Seattle Sounders FC
• @SounderAtHeart
• @spenserdavis
• @JeremiahOshan
Sporting KC
• @SamMcDowell11
• @BlueTestamentKC
• @SteveBrisendine
• @AndyEdMLS
• @TheFull90
Toronto FC
• @WakingTheRed
• @KurtLarSUN
• @grawsee
Vancouver Whitecaps FC
• @86Forever
• @PeteSchaad
• @TylerGreenFC
One last note: we've omitted the Official Twitter accounts for each of the MLS clubs. While there is a decent amount of fantasy-relevant information coming from those accounts, there are dozens of posts that may not have any fantasy relevance whatsoever. Considering the amount of noise to sift through for fantasy information, we instead opt for tracking the accounts above list; they will often post the same relevant information that the clubs do, but we won't have to worry about all of the additional clutter that the official club accounts put out there.The Ultimate Exam Paper
This would be an example of any student's nightmare of a paper: FINAL EXAMINATION Instructions: Read each question carefully. Answer all questions. Time Limit: 4 hours. Begin immediately. 1) H I S T O R Y Describe the history of the papacy from its origins to the present day, concentrating especially, but not exclusively, on its social, political, economic, religious, and philosophical impact on Europe, Asia, America, and Africa. Be brief, concise, and specific. 2) M E D I C I N E You have been provided with a razor blade, a piece of gauze, and a bottle of Scotch. Remove your appendix. Do not suture until your work has been inspected. You have 15 minutes. 3) P U B L I C S P E A K I N G Twenty-five hundred riot-crazed aborigines are storming the classroom. Calm them. You may use any ancient language except Latin or Greek. 4) B I O L O G Y Create life. Estimate the differences in subsequent human culture if this form of life had developed 500 million years earlier, with special attention to its probable effect on the English parliamentary system. Prove your thesis. 5) M U S I C Write a piano concerto. Orchestrate and perform it with flute and drum. You will find a piano under your seat. 6) P S Y C H O L O G Y Based on your degree of knowledge of their works, evaluate the emotional stability, degree of adjustment, and repressed frustrations of each of the following: Alexander of Aphrodisias, Rameses II, Gregory of Nicea, Hammurabi. Support your evaluations with quotations from each man's work, making appropriate references. It is not necessary to translate. 7) S O C I O L O G Y Estimate the sociological problems which might accompany the end of the world. Construct an experiment to test your theory. 8) M A N A G E M E N T S C I E N C E Define management. Define science. How do they relate? Why? Create a generalized algorithm to optimize all managerial decisions. Assuming an 1130 CPU supporting 50 terminals, each terminal to activate your algorithm; design the communications interface and all necessary control programs. 9) E N G I N E E R I N G The disassembled parts of a high-powered rifle have been placed in a box onyour desk. You will also find an instruction manual, printed in Swahili. In ten minutes a hungry Bengal tiger will be admitted to the room. Take whatever action you feel is appropriate. Be prepared to justify your decision. 10) E C O N O M I C S Develop a realistic plan for refinancing the national debt. Trace the possible effects of your plan in the following areas: Cubism, the Donatist controversy, the wave theory of light. Outline a method for preventing these effects. Criticize this method from all possible points of view. Point out the deficiencies in your point of view, as demonstrated in your answer to the last question. 11) P O L I T I C A L S C I E N C E There is a red telephone on the desk beside you. Start World War III. Report at length on its socio-political effects, if any. 12) E P I S T E M O L O G Y Take a position for or against truth. Prove the validity of your position. 13) P H Y S I C S Explain the nature of matter. Include in your answer an evaluation of the impact of the development of mathematics on science. 14) P H I L O S O P H Y Sketch the development of human thought; estimate its significance. Compare with the development of any other kind of thought. 15) G E N E R A L K N O W L E D G E Describe in detail. Be objective and specific. * * E X T R A C R E D I T * * Define the universe; give three examples.
This message was sent on 11 Oct 1996What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is an employment, recruiting and job searching social networking business site. It works through app and website around the globe. Its formation was done in 2002 by a team ran by Mr. Reid Hoffman. LinkedIn is emerging as the best business network with more than a half billion connections individually around the world
Foundation
The social networking site origination was complete in 28th December,2002 and was later launch on 5th May 2003. The sites main focus is on recruitment for the employees and job seekers. The employees post the jobs whereas the job seekers post there CV’s. Mostly, its revenue in 2005 was coming from the selling the info of its recruiters and sales professional. Third of the people in UK are connecting to LinkedIn by having profiles hence makes London the most connecting country of the world.
Upward inclined sales.
According to the Jo Swann, the Managing Director of Chocolate PR. He says that it is a magnificent for those who are focused on sales. One can find the potential buyers from the site if the individual is connected and publishing. He adds that,
“Spam invites are not well received, and why should they be? It’s no better than cold calling. But combine targeted connecting with blog post publishing and effective use of personal and corporate updates and you can build an audience interested in your knowledge and insights as you can then demonstrate the value you can add as a connection.”
Spamming:
Mr. Keith White who is responsible for search engine optimization at Dobell Menswear says that the site was an easy business contact making and finding website. But now many users are reporting about the frustration of being bombarded of recruiters. HE thinks that the concentration has been now less focused and measured he adds that,
“A quick scroll through received messages will often result in maybe one or two per cent of useful messages and the rest spammy sales pitch – which is shame. It used to be the case that you’d read every message you received, but now it’s a case of selecting and deleting all, as there is little chance any are worthwhile.”
Concentrated searches:
According to the director at The TypeFace Group Ms. Natalie Weaving that the site is a gift to those who are time ppoor and looking to sell the product by focusing on their target. “By being clever with searches and looking at who is beneficial at your target business, you can often get the contact details for the decision maker you are looking for,” she adds.
Premium Subscriptions:
The premium subscription values each penny says President of The Creative Communication Group. He says that, “LinkedIn makes it easy for our recruitment team to identify and connect with top talent. It’s save us a fortune in head hunter recruitment fees. It also makes it simple to stay in touch with friends, associates, clients and prospects.”
Brand Aawareness
It is an instrument of communication, it is a very effective way for building brand awareness and involve with customers, suppliers and employees. He finds the platform very beneficial for celebrating the success and disseminating the about the critical issues among the followers. Exclaimed by the communication manager at Alphabet.
Trend
The user statistics at LinkedIn depicts that the UK is most efficient country around the world. After the UK comes the UAE with average connections of 211, Netherland is 88 and Singapore is 152. Still London is ahead of every other city, with an average of 307 connections, 288,241,225,221 respectively for Amsterdam, San Francisco, Jakarta and Milan are on top five after London.
Excluding the spams and FB type posts still LinkedIn manages to cross the 500million users that really make a difference.The Spokane City Council unanimously agreed Monday that marijuana should be able to be possessed legally by people who have a legitimate medical need for the drug.
The council approved a nonbinding resolution endorsing a letter that Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee sent to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in November requesting that marijuana be reclassified from being a "Schedule 1" drug to become a "Schedule 2" drug.
Schedule 1 drugs, such as heroin, are illegal. Schedule 2 drugs can be legal with a prescription.
Last year, dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries shut down, voluntarily or by force, in Spokane County after federal authorities warned that they were violating federal law.
"We have a lot of citizens who are caught in the legal limbo by this situation," said Councilman Jon Snyder, who sponsored the resolution. "The reclassification to Schedule 2 would simply allow medical uses of marijuana to be acknowledged and put the drug in a situation where it could be regulated and researched and used in a way that is more along the desires of the citizens of Washington State."
Councilman Steve Salvatori said he's become more supportive of changing laws to allow the use of medical marijuana after his wife's sister died from brain cancer last year.
"If you've ever seen someone who is suffering and going through the side effects of trying to be treated, there's a reason why the American Medical Association supports this move," he said.[Watch tackling drill at Tuesday morning practice]
[Richt’s full press conference video, with notes]
[Even before HS, Shaq Quarterman was a ‘beast’]
[Source: Coley ‘all clear’ for 2016]
[Florida A&M-week depth chart]
[Kaaya has plenty of faith in Hurricanes’ defense]
A note regarding the most explosive of Miami’s receivers, Stacy Coley:
A source with knowledge of the matter told The Post that barring any new information surfacing in the luxury rental car situation that led to the dismissal of three teammates, Coley will not be suspended and will remain with the team.
Coley was not mentioned Saturday in the UM press release announcing the dismissal of Al-Quadin Muhammad and Jermaine Grace. UM said in that statement it deemed the matter closed.
Coley has been unavailable to speak to reporters since May, when The Post interviewed him for this story.
Coach Mark Richt has spoken positively about Coley, who is expected to be Miami’s No. 1 receiver. He was listed as a starter on Miami’s opening-week depth chart.
He finished second on the team last year with 47 catches for 689 yards and four touchdowns, nearly double the production of the next-best returning player (tight end David Njoku, 21 catches for 362 yards and a touchdown). The only healthy returning wide receivers from last year, Braxton Berrios and Malcolm Lewis, combined for 17 catches and 133 yards.Judges at the highest U.N. court ordered Japan to halt its whaling in the Antarctic, rejecting Japan's argument that its whaling was for scientific purposes, not for human consumption. (Reuters)
The International Court of Justice on Monday ordered a temporary halt to Japan’s Antarctic whaling program.
The long-awaited ruling said that the practice is not for scientific purposes as the Japanese had claimed.
Australia had sued Japan at the United Nations’ highest court for resolving disputes between nations in hopes of ending whaling in the icy Southern Ocean.
Reading a 12-4 decision by the court’s 16-judge panel, Presiding Judge Peter Tomka of Slovakia said Japan’s program failed to justify the large number of minke whales it takes under its current Antarctic program, while failing to meet much smaller targets for fin and humpback whales.
The ruling is here.
The decision is a major victory for Australia and environmental groups that oppose whaling on ethical grounds, though it will not mean the end of whaling, said the Associated Press.
Japan has a second, smaller program in the northern Pacific. Meanwhile, Norway and Iceland reject a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling imposed by the International Whaling Commission and conduct for-profit whaling.
Japan had argued that Australia’s suit was an attempt to force its cultural norms on Japan, equivalent to Hindus demanding an international ban on killing cows.
The finding by a 16-judge panel at the ICJ upheld Australia’s argument that Japan’s whaling program is carried out for commercial purposes rather than scientific research, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Japan has been able to kill unlimited numbers of whales in the Antarctic under the treaty, arguing that its does so for scientific purposes.
“In light of the fact the [research program] has been going on since 2005, and has involved the killing of about 3,600 minke whales, the scientific output to date appears limited,” said presiding judge Tomka.Cook Named Independent Player of the Week by College Sports Madness
Privateer Continues to Etch Name in Record Book as 2012-13 Campaign Continues
NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans senior forwardwas named 'Independent Player of the Week' by College Sports Madness on Monday morning.This past week, Cook averaged 19.5 points, six rebounds and two steals per game as the Privateers split a pair of contests. A product of Warren Easton, Cook continued his exemplary shooting by connecting on 14 of 22 shots from the field and making 10 of 13 attempts at the charity stripe.In UNO's first contest of the week against San Jose State, Cook scored a game-high 20 points while narrowly missing his first collegiate double-double by pulling down nine rebounds. The nine rebounds matched a career mark for Cook, accomplished three times prior.A few days later in the Privateers' first game at Lakefront Arena in a month, Cook needed just 22 minutes to rack up a team-high 19 points and a career-high four steals against Champion Baptist. The forward topped 60 percent from the field in the game by shooting 8 of 13 against CBC.In addition, the four steals was part of a 22-steal effort by a UNO squad, which came one short of establishing the school-record, established with 13 in a game against Southwestern (Kan.) in 1985.This season, Cook is averaging 14 points, 2.9 rebounds and shooting at a 58.4 percent clip from the field, ranking as one of the nation's top 30 shooters in Division I this season.If the 2012-13 season ended today, Cook would rank in tied for eighth place with UNO great Ervin Johnson (1991-92) for eighth place in single-season field goal percentage at 58.4 percent. For his career, Cook is shooting 53.2 percent to rank seventh, behind Wade Blundell (54.3) and ahead of Oscar Taylor (52.7).College Sports Madness identifies the highest impact players nationally and one from each conference in their weekly feature. The site's coverage also includes a Top 25 ranking, tournament bracketology and team pages for each conference and school.The UNO men's basketball team is scheduled to face Rice at 7 p.m. on Saturday night in Houston. The team will play NJIT on Monday, Jan. 21 at 7 p.m. in the team's next contest at Lakefront Arena. Both games and the remainder of the Privateers' basketball schedule can be heard on WGSO 990 AM.Single-Season Field-Goal Percentage (min. 200 attempts or 100 made)No. Player Season Yr. FG FGA Pct.1. Ervin Johnson 1992-93 Sr. 208 336.6192. Terrence Breaux 1983-84 So. 130 213.6103. DeWaune Wesley 1996-97 Jr. 126 207.6094. Mark Petteway 1982-83 Sr. 184 303.6075. Tank Collins 1989-90 Jr. 117 199.5886. Curtis Wilson 1998-99 Jr. 122 208.5877. Mark Petteway 1981-82 Jr. 163 278.5868. Ervin Johnson 1991-92 Jr. 185 317.5849. Claude Butler 1982-83 Sr. 144 249.57810. Wade Blundell 1982-83 Sr. 148 256.578Career Field Goal PercentageNo. Player Seasons FG FGA Pct.1. Ervin Johnson 4 (1989-93) 639 1,081.5912. Mark Petteway 3 (1980-83) 474 834.5683. DeWaune Wesley2 (1996-98) 301 531.5674. Tank Collins 2 (1989-91) 337 599.5635. Tony Harris 2 (1988-90) 369 674.5476. Wade Blundell 3 (1980-83) 353 650.5437. Oscar Taylor 3 (1980-83) 522 991.5278. John Harris 4 (1981-85) 517 994.5209. Ronnie Grandison2 (1985-87) 365 702.52010. Louweegi Dyer 3 (1989-92) 342 662.517I’m betting you’ve heard of the “First World Problems” memes that float around online, as well as the derivations of them. I looked around, and do you know what? I didn’t see any “Knife Addict Problems” anywhere. I thought it would be interesting (and entertaining) to do a post on the problems knife addicts face, so take a look and add to the problems listed below. These are meant to have truth to them, but to be humorous as well. What problems do you encounter as a knife addict?
Knife Addict Problems:
All I have for food is Ramen because of my new knife
This knife is perfect, but the pocket clip has the wrong orientation
, but the pocket clip has the wrong orientation I only have room for a phone or a second knife in my other pocket
(Internal Conflict) I’m excited about my new knife, but I’m scared my wife will find out about it. I want to use it, but I also want to hide it…
I’m bored with all the knife reviews because I’ve already seen them all
I had to tape together a receipt I needed because I already did a sharpness test on it
They keep making more knives… so I have to buy more…
I can’t use the lanyard hole on my tip-down carry
Some guy asked if I got my 250-dollar knife from Walmart
It’s not socially acceptable to open and close your knife repeatedly at work
I have more knives than I have places to put them
Saying, “Oh, I thought you said you did want me to buy more knives,” isn’t flying anymore
want me to buy more knives,” isn’t flying anymore I’m running out of arm hair. And paper.
I can’t express my affinity for knife culture without getting concerned looks
Every knife is in stock except the one I want
So tell us; what problems have you encountered because of your knife addiction?
For further help in coping with your knife addiction, follow our three step guide.
From all of us here at Blade HQ, have a great weekend and enjoy your blades!Zoologist Kevin Richardson takes a few videographers into the field with him to meet his lion buddies — and a few hyena friends as well — in Pretoria, South Africa, in this collaboration with GoPro for the Hero3+ Adventure Series. While the videographers stay safely in the car or in a cage, Richardson wears a couple of GoPro cameras so we can see what it's like to be him while he is hugged and loved on by these big cats. The bond he shares with them will melt your heart, and will hammer home the devastating consequences habitat loss and poaching has on lions and many other African animal species.
Thanks to GoPro and the company's famously tiny and hardy cameras, we can get close enough to really understand the passion the conservationist feels for the species he is trying to save. Learn more about Kevin Richardson and his conservation efforts.
Zoologist with a GoPro gets cuddled by lions
The adoration zoologist Kevin Richardson feels for these big cats — and their obvious feelings for him — will make your heart swell.Middletown, N. J. – An often used phrase in sports that can be used to describe a team on the rise to relevancy is ‘you need to learn how to lose before you can know how to win’. That could not be more true on this somber Sunday morning after the New York Islanders were eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 in overtime, closing out their best of seven Eastern conference quarter-final series.
The Penguins are moving on by virtue of their 4 games to 2 edge in the series but it was not at all easy. The pesky, gritty and gutty Islanders gave them all they could handle and in a strange twist of events could have possibly spurned the Pens to a Stanley Cup run.
How is that? I am glad you asked.
The Penguins now realize they can not win on talent alone, that they can be outworked and that their number one priority when they get back to practice is in their defensive zone. The Isles forechecked and caused many turnovers in addition to employing a 1-2-2 forecheck that proved to be very effective in slowing the transition through the neutral zone. A series that many predicted would end in a sweep with the Isles standing no chance (especially after a 5-0 Pens win in game one) actually ended up being one where New York outplayed Pittsburgh realistically in 4 of the 6 games. Lady luck would not smile however on Long Island, only give us a glimpse of what lies ahead.
Every Islanders fan should be proud of how far this club has come and what they accomplished this season. It has put them back on the map of NHL relevancy and make so many in the hockey world stand up and take notice. We got a brief glimpse of that future last night as head coach Jack Capuano dressed Brock Nelson and he did not look out-of-place being thrust into such an important game on the biggest stage. Playing 7:44, Brock was a physical force and showed tremendous skating ability and stride. He looked responsible defensively and kept up with the speed and pace.
When you also factor in Ryan Strome, Griffin Reinhart, Matt Donovan and dare I say, Calvin DeHaan you can see why the Islanders are going to remain annual playoff challengers and possibly even more in the upcoming seasons. The excitement of the move to Barclays Center looms on the horizon as well as free agent opportunities that they might not have had in the past.
But it doesn’t stop there. An MVP candidate, an absolute work horse in the corners, a smooth transitional defenseman and one of the fastest skaters in the league also litter this roster of lunch pail, bring it every night hockey players. The Islanders team speed was truly all the Pens could handle in this series and at times made the number one seed in the East look rather ordinary and slow.
So, let it sink in….the sting from the series result is not a positive one for the players but once the hangover fades (and they all do) it is very easy to see the path that lies before this team. A path to relevance, winning hockey and a culmination of years of rebuilding. For we are no longer the doormat for other teams as they march to the playoffs and give themselves a chance to hoist the most famous trophy in sports. We are right there beside them earning our own chance.
Links
From Around The Twitter-Sphere
Ugh, I have #Isles hockey hangover…I feel like Charlie Brown after Lucy pulls the football away and he lands on his back. Is it Oct. yet? — Steve Alu (@SA3886) May 12, 2013
It will fade Steve…Shock was more the feeling I had last night and this morning. Watched the entire second, third and OT periods standing up in my living room and when Orpik scored, stared at the TV for five minutes.
But, I don’t want to shave off my beard today.#isles — Kevin Hartmann (@KevinH_NYI) May 12, 2013
I have to admit, I kind of liked the way mine came in towards the end there and after reading a poll online that women find men with facial hair to be more attractive, I have decided to keep it. HeeHee
As an islander fan, so excited for this team moving forward, what a season, only positives! #islanders #isles #NYI #beLIeve — Nicholas Niceforo (@NickNice100293) May 12, 2013
Well said Nick and drives home the tone of my opener above. There is nothing to feel down about. This team will show the resiliency that it had on the ice off as well with some good hockey moves this summer to continue building to the ultimate goal.
#isles did themselves proud on playoff run.Showed incredible growth and will be a fun team to watch in future. — Steve Kee (@steve_kee) May 12, 2013
Everyone who was at the game and cheering at home should have stood and applauded what the Islanders provided us with this season. The only thing that annoyed me was that there were empty seats when the Isles were taking their last lap around the Coliseum ice. If that is the kind of fan you want to be, maybe you shouldn’t come back.
Ive not been a big #cappy fan, but this #isles team was ready to play. Out played the # pens 4 of 6 game. Skill/experience > heart and will — MIchael Wilson (@MikeW1lson) May 12, 2013
I think you are not nearly alone Michael in that feeling. A lot of people were calling for him to be fired at the end of February and some of the lineup changes made us really stand by that thinking. But you are correct he had this team, for the most part, ready to play most nights in these playoffs. Further establishing consistency will be key to moving the ship forward.
#Isles theme song for next year: Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping. — Neil R (@IslesPunkFan) May 12, 2013
Outstanding Neil. A perfect choice and the lyrics match up perfectly with how everyone should feel entering the off-season.
Around The NHL
Isles-Pens was the only game on the ledger last night for the NHL, but as we look ahead to Sunday’s mother’s day action, there are several important games that could decide the fates of others.
Washington will travel to Madison Square Garden and try to eliminate the New York Rangers at 4:30 EST
Boston tries to put pesky Toronto to sleep at 7:00 EST
Detroit and Anaheim will play what should be an epic game seven at 10:00 EST
We here at EyesOnIsles would like to give a huge stick tap to YOU! The loyal reader who keeps us doing what we do. It is very much appreciated. Our growth has been tremendous over the past month and we are looking forward to increasing it even more.
But we need your help! Please share us when you can, give us a follow on twitter and a like on Facebook. Our growth on the ‘Zuckerberg express’ has exploded from 17 to 605 in just two weeks since we assumed control of the page. Absolutely outstanding and it just bolsters us even more to write quality Islanders material for you to enjoy.
There is no off-season here at Fansided and EyesOnIsles.com – we will continue to bring you breaking opinion and editorials starting with our season recap, individual player report cards, stay or go features, draft and free agency coverage and so much more! So don’t tune us out just because the weather turns gorgeous and the team is on vacation! Keep it locked in as we fly with you directly to September training camp. I promise the ride will be much smoother as we seem to have found a nice pocket of air. 🙂
-AGWhen David Beaty announced the signing of running back Octavius Matthews this past February, the Kansas football coach envisioned Matthews, a junior college standout, becoming a versatile weapon in KU’s Air Raid offense.
The Jayhawks won’t get to see Matthews reach that on-field potential, though. Beaty divulged Monday night during his first Hawk Talk radio show of the season the 6-foot-1, 200-pound junior running back, who had been held out of preseason practices, won’t play for Kansas this fall — or ever.
The running back has a heart condition and was deemed unfit to continue his career. Matthews’ mother, Kristy Bradford, died due to heart complications this past May, a few weeks removed from attending the Kansas spring game at Memorial Stadium, with her son.
Although Beaty didn’t give specific details on his show, he said Matthews, freshman receiver Kenyon Tabor, sophomore offensive lineman Cam Durley and senior running back Denzell Evans will miss the coming season due to injuries.
KU’s third-year head coach thought upon signing Matthews, rated by Rivals as a three-star juco prospect at Itawamba Community College (Miss.), he possessed the “top-end speed,” ball skills and play-making ability to be an immediate difference-maker for KU. Beaty pictured Matthews lining up in the backfield or the slot and considered signing the back from Stevenson, Ala., “one of the biggest victories” of KU’s 2017 recruiting haul.
“The thing that's going to be great for him is how many different ways we get him the ball,” Beaty predicted at his February Signing Day press conference. “That's what we're most excited about with that guy. If he's better running the football, we'll hand it to him. If he's better catching it, we'll throw it to him. If he's better at both, we'll use him doing both.”
KU running backs coach Tony Hull, too, projected a promising future for Matthews.
“This summer he was tearing it up. He looked really, really good,” Hull related earlier this month.
While not being able to participate at preseason camp qualified as a bummer for Matthews, Hull said before news of the running back’s condition came out the junior was handling his time as an observer well.
“We’re family in that room,” Hull said, “and everybody is just there for him.”
Jayhawks junior quarterback Peyton Bender, who both handed the ball off and passed to Matthews in 2016 for ICC, witnessed the big back average 7.2 yards per carry and and 14.7 yards per reception while scoring eight total touchdowns in nine games.
“He’s just a really good play-maker,” Bender said of his teammate earlier this year. “Explosive player. Really fast. He’s a versatile player, as well. He can move around and play different positions, not just play running back.”
Matthews de-committed from Auburn, and his final three schools included Tennessee and Purdue before he became a surprise signing day addition for KU.
While Matthews never will suit up for the Jayhawks, Beaty said “he will certainly be a part of our program as we move forward.”
The head coach said Matthews, Tabor, Durley and Evans are "great kids," but unfortunately the "injury bug" hit them.
Beaty described Tabor, a 6-4 true freshman from Derby, as “promising,” and said the receiver will redshirt this fall.
“We think he’ll be back full-speed and ready to go by next year, and I think it’ll do wonders to help him, because he’s already a big dude,” Beaty said, “and in a year I could see him being a giant.”
A 6-6 sophomore O-lineman, Durley, also has a “bright future,” according to Beaty.
A senior who began his college career at Arkansas and played sparingly in 2016 for KU, Evans suffered at a preseason practice what Beaty described as a “horrific injury.” Two weeks back, Evans was seen using crutches, watching practice from the sideline.Top 14
Biarritz hooker slammed with 20-week suspension
ESPN Staff
Biarritz hooker Arnaud Heguy has been hit with a 20-week suspension after being found guilty of threatening a referee.
The body in charge of the Top 14 - Ligue Nationale de Rugby - announced on Thursday Heguy will be out of action until February for his "menacing behaviour towards an official" following Biarritz's 24-13 loss to Toulon in August. The Top 14 side's forwards coach Laurent Rodriguez has copped a 12-week ban for "threatening language" while club president and former French legend Serge Blanco has been suspended from all rugby activity for four weeks due to his "indiscipline", according to AFP.
Biarritz have refr |
but thousands of configurations and products. The supply chain management of what we do is huge. It’s this head, matched with this media, which is matched with this lube, which is matched with this motor. These are really integrated machines.
Q: How many SKUs?
A: Thousands. We have one customer that we sell 500 SKUs. I wish it was more of a commodity, because my manufacturing would be a lot easier. It would be way better for us. The problem we fight is, you start to building a bunch of drives and the customer says, oh, wait a second, I didn’t really mean I wanted 1,000 oranges, I wanted 1,000 lemons. But we didn’t build lemons, we built oranges. And then you have to figure out how to re-jigger everything.
Q: As demand grows into the zettabytes, what happens technologically? Are there ways to see leaps in performance or capacity?
A: That’s the heart of the issue. Storage demand growth right now is over 50% in the cloud, in other businesses its 25%. Overall call it 40%. Areal density growth is right now under 25%. So you’re going to say, well, wait a second. If this is growing at 40, and this is growing at 25, how are you going to fill that gap. The only way we can do it is more heads and disks. Or more units. Which means more capital. And not just more capital from the drive guy that’s doing final assembly and test, that’s actually relatively cheap capital. It’s more capital upstream in heads and disks which is relatively expensive capital, and it is long lead time capital.
Q: That sounds like trouble.
A: One way the world has changed since 2008 is that people aren’t going to make capital decisions leaning into the wind. They’re going to wait, they’re going to say, I’m not making that commitment until I know that when that factory opens, it’s full. When money was easier, and everything was growing, and you felt like you weren’t taking any big macro risk, you’d say, ok, I’m going to plan in advance. If I’m here today, and here’s where I think the market is going, and I know right here I’m going to have to have a new factory, and the lead time on that factory is 12 months, then I’m going to start investing then. No way are people doing that now.
Q: Too much risk.
A: People are waiting until they are way within lead time to make sure they’re really down that curve, because they don’t want to have all of sudden a slowdown, and then think oh my God, what am I going to do with all this excess capacity. That’s the change that people don’t get. Now, I think as investors actually see that playing out, then they get more confidence and maybe P/E’s change, right. So where the problem lies for the drive industry, is that with areal density growth rates for the next couple of years being sub-25%, data growth rates over 40%, then what’s going happen is it is going to be more heads and disks. And how does that play out?
Q: How?
A: It probably plays out that on the client you start by going to more a single disk solution. Right now we’re doing a single disk 500 GB drive. Do people need 750s and one terrabytes, yes, but 500 is a lot, and then it go to 640, and then 750. So you probably start seeing a reduction in heads and disks for clients, but then you start seeing an increase for cloud. But overall somehow you’ve got to solve this problem. When you look out at 2016-2017, then you have a next generation technology called HAMR – heat-assisted magnetic recording – which accelerates the areal density curve, and you can start to catch up a little bit then.
Q: How much with HAMR help?
A: It probably gets you back to areal density growth rates back in the 40%-50% range. And there are some technologies in between that are media-related, or software-related that maybe boosts it a little bit. But my point is, I think you are in a perpetual shortage. So the only way you can solve the whole exabyte storage is with more heads and disks, which means you’ve got to put more capital to work, and no one is doing that. And they are not going to do it until they’re sure. The next shortage will be in media. Sometime in the next two years, there’s going to be a media shortage, because there’s just not enough capital being put to work.
Q: How many players are there in magnetic media?
A: There’s still a few. Fuji, Showa, Seagate, WD; Hoya is big in substrates, they make them and sell them to other guys who make media, like us, or Showa or Fuji. But it’s consolidated, that’s the point.
Q: Could we get new players?
A: The technology is too hard, on all of it. No.
Q: What does that mean for investors in drive stocks?
A: If you were a really big, smart technology company that saw all the trends in cloud and mobility; all that says is storage, storage, storage – you’d probably see a reason why owning these critical technologies is important. But you’d run into so much flack from someone saying, oh, you should do software and services only.
Q: So are you saying something could try to buy you or WD?
A: I think if someone were thinking about it from a pure technology perspective, they’d be all over it.
Q: But who would it be?
A: Any big technology company, you can fill in the blank. IBM, EMC, HP. Anyone that’s big. But they won’t, because that’s not what the market wants them to do. The market does not want them to be in the hardware business. Although Todd Bradley [who runs the PC business at HP] just wrote a great article on why hardware is important. And the end of the day, all this stuff has to be delivered on hardware. If I’m in the business of selling in the cloud, and all the cloud is is a disk drive with some bandwidth, I need access to drive technology. At the end of the day, all I’m doing is taking disk-drives and integrating them. It depends how big is my cloud business going to be.
Q: I’m curious when you think about all of these companies that want you to store your stuff in the cloud, DropBox, or Carbonite, there’s a bunch of them. Is there an opportunity for you to play in that market?
A: We have a service provider business. It’s small, $100 million. For small- and medium businesses. You’re on the right point. One question is what happens to the market (DAS is an acronym for direct attached storage – basically local storage rather networked storage.) Let’s just take the Bay Area market. It goes to NAS (network attached storage, which allow you to access information over the network.) At the end of the day, why would you have a DAS device if you could have a NAS device in your home that you could access with your phone or your notebook, that you could access when you’re traveling. It makes no sense to have multiple DAS devices.
Q: But that’s like a half step.
A: That’s a half step. Then the question is do I also want stuff in the cloud or not. And it depends how much data I have. And then there’s a security issue. Do I want my kids pictures in the cloud? Personally, I don’t. [Steve has two small kids and a third on the way.] I don’t care what anyone tells me about security, I’m not going to wake up one day and find out, oh, sorry, our thing got broken into, like what’s happened to really amazing companies like Sony, and find my home movies on the Internet.
Q: So, are you going to get into the cloud storage market, Steve?
A: Would we offer something like that? Maybe, it depends, if we can do it cheaply - and we have some ideas on why we can do it cheaply - but right now what we do is sell to all those other guys who do that. And that’s fine, too. If they’re successful, then they’re going to be need more disk drives. The investment community is obsessed on software and services, but the barriers to entry on software and services are actually a lot lower than then are on the hardware side.
Q: But what if when you went and bought a back-up drive, you turned it on, and there was an offer to give you a bunch of cloud storage for $10 a month, or something like that. Seem like a no-brainer.
A: It is a no-brainer, as long as you can make it easy. Do we think there’s a business like that for the consumer? In the developed markets, I think there is. And then the question is can we built that architecture cheaply, because at the end of the day’s it’s not like we’re going to rent Amazon’s infrastructure. And we think the answer to that is yeah.
Q: But not yet.
A: No.
Q: Another business opportunity is data recovery for crashed drives.
A: Seagate Recovery Services is a really good business we have that we haven’t reall probably run right or marketed right. You can send us a crashed drive and 9.5 times out of 10 we can recover your data. It could be a $100 million business for us easy.
Q: Does it scale?
A: We’re really good at it. Imagine you had a window that popped up when you bought a new drive that said you could pay $2.50 a month for the right to send a drive into Seagate to have it recovered, would you do that? If you got into a room with 1,000 people, and said how many would say yes for $2.50, you’d probably get 900 people raising their hands.
Q: Yeah, because when it does happen, you’d pay $1,000 to recover your stuff.
A: That’s the thing. Which gets into the question of how do we price it when a person does call. And I think we make that mistake, of over-pricing. Not to be gougers, but because you don’t have the scale that you should have, you tend to charge more on average than you generally need to. I’ve had people calling me in tears, is there anything you can do to save my data. And I’m particularly vulnerable to grandmas calling. All my kids pictures are on here, blah, blah, blah. I’m like, I’ll do it for free. How much would she pay? Well maybe she’d pay $1,000 if she had it. But how much would we charge? This is their life. There is a balance there somewhere. It should be a great business.
Q: How much of the consumer population has a NAS drive right now?
A: Small, but growing. The DAS population is like 20%. So I would say somewhere between 2% and 5%. Again, what market are you looking at - in Palo Alto it might be 20%. I have friends who have more sophisticated networks than we have.
Q: So what’s the driver to get the penetration rate into the double digits?
A: Better marketing, better solutions, more integrated solutions. What are lessons we learn from Apple: one is integrating in hardware and software seems like a pretty good play if you do it well. I would say that for most DAS and NAS solutions to date, no one has really integrated hardware and software, they’ve tended to kludge something together that is not a great user experience. The industry just hasn’t invested a lot of money in that. I think for us, we’re on the front end of doing a fair amount of reorganization to position the company better to execute into some of these opportunities: cloud, consumer, mobility, and those can be hardware plays, software plays and systems plays. The answer is you need better solutions, and you need better marketing support for them.
Q Two last questions. One, what’s with the red string around your wrist?
A: This is a Buddhist thing. A friend of mine who’s a monk gave it to me. It means long life. You wear them as long as you can. I always wear it.
Q: And then, you have a tattoo on your left ring finger. What’s with that?
A: It’s my wife’s name. I got it because I don’t like things on my hands. Her name’s Agatha. She’s Croatian, and her real name’s Agata, without the H, and my hand’s so small that that’s all they could get on here anyhow. So it worked out really well.
Q: Thanks, Steve.Less than a year after Dana White tweeted that Karo Parisyan would never fight again in the UFC, "The Heat" has been welcomed back to the organization and offered a fight against Dennis Hallman at UFC 123 in Auburn Hills, Mich.MMA Fighting confirmed the news with two sources close to the situation, as well as Parisyan himself Thursday afternoon.Both Parisyan and Hallman have yet to sign the bout agreements, which have been issued to both fighters, but both fighters have verbally agreed to the welterweight bout.Parisyan (19-5-0, 1 NC) only competed once outside the organization since he was unceremoniously fired two days before UFC 106 last November when he pulled out of a fight against Dustin Hazelett. He submitted Ben Mortimer at Impact FC 1 in July.Parisyan told MMA Fighting he "worked hard" over the past few months to get back in the good graces of White and the UFC, until he was finally offered another shot. He said he agreed to a new three-fight deal with the organization.The 28-year-old has experienced a rough two-year stretch. He first pulled out of a UFC 88 bout against Yoshiyuki Yoshida due to what he described then as a " last-minute back injury."Shortly thereafter, he publicly discussed dealing with frequent panic attacks, which he said were affecting his training and also affected his performance in a loss to Thiago Alves at UFN 13.The Armenian fighter briefly enjoyed a successful return to the Octagon when defeated Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 94, but that result was overturned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission when he was suspended for nine months due to testing positive for the painkillers oxymorphone and hydromorphone. As a result, his win was then changed to a no-contest Since returning to the UFC, Hallman (42-13-2, 1 NC) is 1-1. He most recently defeated Ben Saunders via unanimous decision at UFC 117 in August.UFC 123, headlined by Quinton "Rampage" Jackson vs. Lyoto Machida, takes place Nov. 20, and will mark the UFC's first event in Michigan since 1996.“It was obviously a brutal night for Democrats,” said Mr. Van Hollen, who is stepping down after two election cycles at the committee responsible for electing Democrats to the House. “There is no sugarcoating the fact that it was bad.”
But after having had to fight this year to hold seats in dozens of districts carried by President George W. Bush in 2004 and Senator John McCain in 2008, Democrats say the situation could be reversed in 2012.
They count more than 60 House districts that will be held by a Republican in the 112th Congress that were carried by President Obama in 2008. Though Mr. Obama might not have won many of them by much, the fact that he won them at all is evidence of a Democratic presence that, if not enough to help them this time around, Democrats believe they can capitalize on in two years.
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Republicans conceded that the Democratic campaign team probably saved some seats that Republicans nearly grabbed. But Republicans also say that Democrats might not have realized the peril some of their candidates faced in states like Illinois, Idaho and New York and did not respond aggressively enough. In the end, Republicans said, Democratic operatives were done in by factors beyond their control.
“Democrats found out that campaign tactics cannot overcome an extremely toxic political environment created by unpopular politicians and their grossly out-of-touch policies,” said Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Mr. Van Hollen said one of his most difficult jobs was to decide to cut spending in some races and to withdraw almost entirely from the campaigns of nine Democrats who had been in line for substantial infusions of committee money but were shown by polls to have little or no chance of winning. At the same time, Republicans, with the help of deep-pocketed outside groups, were expanding the playing field and stretching Democrats’ resources.
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By pulling out of races like those of Representatives Betsy Markey of Colorado, Suzanne M. Kosmas of Florida, Debbie Halvorson of Illinois and Harry Teague of New Mexico, the party estimates it saved about $12 million. (Republicans ended up winning each of those seats.)
The Democratic campaign committee then turned around and put more than $10 million into television advertising and ground game efforts in 27 races that had tightened but were deemed winnable. Among the beneficiaries were Representatives Bruce Braley of Iowa, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Ben Chandler of Kentucky, Gerald E. Connolly of Virginia and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico — all of whom ended up winning close races.
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In some cases, the diverted money was added to what the party was already spending, and in others it was new spending altogether in districts where Democrats had hoped to avoid making any investments but found their incumbents suddenly in trouble.
“It required shifting resources that would have been spent in places where, unfortunately, we didn’t think we could win,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “Just on the triage side, we believe we saved 15-20 seats.”
In the end, Republicans said they ended up spending about $54 million in 90 districts. Mr. Spain said the party won back the majority of suburban districts it had lost in the last election cycles and reclaimed all but 10 districts carried by Mr. McCain.
On the Democratic side, the party said it spent $63 million on television, mail and radio in 74 districts. But its financial edge was erased by the outside groups, which Democrats said spent $74 million in 64 districts.
“There is no doubt,” Mr. Van Hollen said, “that all the outside money put a lot of these seats in play and helped Republicans win.”Week 15 brings a major shakeup in the top 10. No less than eight teams are on the move -- either up or down -- starting at the top.
The Houston Texans' four-week reign in the No. 1 spot is over. After that debacle in New England, the Texans had to cede the throne, despite the fact that they still have one less loss than the Patriots. Forget the records; Houston was dismantled on Monday night. Entering that contest, I considered keeping Houston at No. 1 no matter the outcome. That line of thinking quickly changed as the game played out.
It was ugly at Foxborough, which prompted this exchange...
@harrison_nfl I like the punt with the punt being a close second â Jake McBee (@JakeMcBee_) December 11, 2012
The Texans certainly deserve a drop, as do the Baltimore Ravens and Chicago Bears, who are both dangerously close to falling out of the top 10 for the first time all season. The upstart Indianapolis Colts are nipping at Chicago's heels, and if not for a 20-point loss at Soldier Field in Week 1, Andrew Luck and Co. would hold the Bears' 10 spot.
And then there's the middle of the rankings, where several clubs are climbing the rungs while fighting for a playoff spot.
As always, we eagerly await your complaints and wacked-out diatribes -- @Harrison_NFL is the dropbox.
Now, let the dissension commence...
(Note: Arrows reflect change in standings from last week's Power Rankings.)
RANK 1 10-3 PATRIOTS 2 Tell me the New England Patriots didn't look like the best team in pro football Monday night. The 10-3 record might not say it -- two other teams sit at 11-2 -- but I've seen enough. How about you?
RANK 2 11-2 TEXANS 1 Quick, how many sports writers started their Monday Night Football reax column with, "Houston, we have a problem?" That line never gets old. (Except it does.) What also gets tiresome is seeing an elite quarterback laser in on man-coverage mismatches against the Houston Texans and exploit them all freaking night. Obviously, there is no shame in losing to Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. But when the two combine for more than 600 yards passing and 10 touchdowns, despite tapping (or slamming) the brakes in the fourth quarter, well...
RANK 3 11-2 FALCONS 1 The Atlanta Falcons didn't get to 11-1 by mistake, that's for sure, but the club's second loss -- a 30-20 result in Carolina -- was ugly. I sat in the Green Room at NFL Network watching the games with former Bears wideout Tom Waddle.
"Why do the Falcons always mess around in their division games?" Waddle asked, with a puzzled look on his face.
It's a valid question. Atlanta is now 3-2 in the NFC South and 8-0 everywhere else. In those five divisional contests, they've actually been outscored, 125-124. Pretty surprising, considering the Panthers, Saints and Buccaneers are all playing sub-.500 ball. With the 49ers still a game-and-a-half back, facing road trips to New England and Seattle in the next two weeks, Atlanta should get home field. Yet, I'm sure Falcons Nation is concerned.
RANK 6 9-4 PACKERS 1 If the Green Bay Packers' running game (140 yards) and secondary can replicate what we saw on Sunday night in Lambeau, then look out, National Football League. No Cedric Benson or James Starks in the backfield, and no Charles Woodson in the defensive backfield. Less players, even less excuses for a team that's 9-4 and in control of its NFC North destiny. Oh, and let's not forget Green Bay's best pass rusher, Clay Matthews, has been on the shelf for more than a month.
RANK 7 8-5 SEAHAWKS 3 The Seattle Seahawks' defense just scored another touchdown. Come back later.
RANK 8 9-4 RAVENS 2 The Baltimore Ravens' road woes could be a major factor come playoff time. The loss at Washington puts an injury-riddled defense in danger of having to stop somebody on foreign turf in January. That hasn't been easy to do, as evidenced by Sunday's result. Baltimore came into Week 14 ranked 30th in the NFL in time of possession, holding the football only 27 minutes per game. Once again, the Ravens lost the possession battle against the Redskins -- by nearly five minutes -- and ultimately lost the game. The defense must be able to get off the field. Will the dismissal of offensive coordinator Cam Cameron lead to more use of the running game, and inherently, increased time of possession? We'll see.
RANK 9 8-5 GIANTS 3 So, who thinks David Wilson is out of Tom Coughlin's dog house?
RANK 14 7-6 REDSKINS Everyone in Washington is holding their breath with the injury to Robert Griffin III, and with his uncertain status for Sunday, this club stays parked at 14th. We wondered aloud in this space how long it would be until the rookie phenom got hurt. Well, it happened. Even if RG3 has to miss some time, though, there might be some hope in Kirk Cousins, who sure has looked alright when given the opportunity to play.
RANK 15 7-6 COWBOYS 1 This defense played most of the second half without its starting nose tackle, defensive end, inside linebacker, other inside linebacker, right cornerback, slot cornerback and strong safety. Yet Rob Ryan's unit held a team averaging 25.2 points per game under 20. Considering everything else this organization was dealing with, you have to tip your cap to the Dallas Cowboys.
Unfortunately, there is no respite for this organization. Dez Bryant, who came up a finger long against the Giants two months ago, might be a finger short of finishing the 2012 season.
RANK 19 5-8 SAINTS Tough to get behind that New Orleans Saints defense right about now. While all the bounty nonsense presses on, the New Orleans defense pressures its own offense... into scoring points. Think about it: Every time Drew Brees steps on the field, he knows he has to put up 30 points for his team to win. That's no joke; the Saints allow over 29 points per game, the highest average in the NFC. People can point to Brees' high interception total (18) all they want, but you simply must take riskier shots down the field to put up 30. #HOFer
RANK 21 5-8 BROWNS 2 Would you believe the Cleveland Browns are still alive in the playoff race? The Brownies have a decent shot if they win out: vs. Washington, at Denver, at Pittsburgh. Yep, it probably won't happen. OK, OK, it won't happen. Still, taking into account the early rash of injuries, as well as Joe Haden's suspension, Pat Shurmur has done a nice job keeping this team competitive and relevant. The Browns might get a break this weekend, too, with RG3's status in limbo.
RANK 23 6-7 JETS 2 Thanks to the Revis-less defense, the New York Jets have won two straight games to remain in playoff contention. They've also managed just two touchdown drives over 50 yards in those wins. Outscored by 61 points this season -- with the 34th-rated quarterback in the NFL -- the Jets are soaring toward the postseason.
RANK 24 5-8 DOLPHINS 2 Offensive struggles are the story of this football team through 13 games. The Miami Dolphins are near the bottom of the league in red-zone drives, 10-play drives, yards per game, plays of 10-plus yards, passer rating... shall I go on? The Dolphins were 28th or worst in each of those categories entering Sunday's game versus San Francisco, and then promptly laid an egg on the Candlestick turf: 227 total yards, no wideouts over 50 and an absolutely awful 3.8 yards per pass play. Sorry, Fin fans, but you can't shine a turd.
RANK 25 4-9 PANTHERS 2 Cam Newton's numbers the past two weeks: 275 passing yards per game, 7:0 TD-to-INT ratio and a 118.1 passer rating. Oh, don't forget 246 rushing yards with three touchdowns. Goooood night.
RANK 26 4-9 LIONS 5 The Detroit Lions can't seem to pull out a close contest in 2012. Sunday night, however, was a bit different in that the defense was completely bullied on the Packers' go-ahead possession in the fourth quarter; seven Green Bay runs for 59 yards, with the Lions' defense merely catching blocks the entire drive.
RANK 28 4-9 TITANS Jake Locker, I know you know this, but you just can't make that decision from your own end zone. You have to locate that corner. He didn't. Pick-six on a quick throw in the right flat. From 20-14 and having a chance at an upset to 20-21 and ultimately an L.
RANK 30 4-9 CARDINALS 4 Scoreless in Seattle. Worst loss in NFL history by a team that started 4-0: 58-0, Seahawks over Cardinals. Hell, one of the worst losses in NFL history, period. Ken Whisenhunt is coaching out the season. That should warm the hearts of Cards fans. Bring back Max Hall.
RANK 31 2-11 CHIEFS One week after the huge emotional win came the inevitable letdown in Cleveland. While Jamaal Charles is producing, hardly anyone else is. Charles accounted for 165 of the Chiefs' 310 yards of offense. Going 1-for-12 on third and fourth down was the brightest -- or not-so-brightest? -- beacon of the offensive ineptitude that's prevailed in Kansas City this season. It also spelled another loss for the 2-11 Chiefs.
RANK 32 3-10 RAIDERS What's next for this team? Darren McFadden came back, then promptly got hurt again. (Although he did score a touchdown!!) The defense got scorched (again). So, at 3-10, is it safe to say there's not much downside to giving Terrelle Pryor a shot? We're not suggesting Carson Palmer is the problem with this football team, but unless the club is so concerned about the development of its young receiving corps that it doesn't want to take a veteran like Palmer out of the lineup, there's no reason not to put Pryor in it.
Elliot Harrison is an analyst on NFL Network's NFL Fantasy Live show, weekdays at 1 p.m. ET and Sundays at 11:30 a.m. ET. Follow him on Twitter @Harrison_NFL.Ten major threats are facing the dollar in 2009.
1) Foreign central banks selling US assets
Most of the nations which have been financing the US's massive current account deficits in recent years have either begun to sell their dollar reserves last year or are planning on selling them this year in order to support their currencies. These nations generally fall into three categories:
A) Oil Producing Nations
Oil producing nations have built up lavish spending habits and large dollar reserve in recent years as a result of profits from rising oil prices. Now that commodity prices have crashed, those profits are gone, and those Oil producing nations will have to bankroll their spending by selling their accumulated dollar assets. Saudi Arabia, for example, is projecting a 2009 Budget Deficit, which it intends to finance by selling off its US holdings. Russia, meanwhile, has already sold over 20% of its $598.1 billion reserves, and it can be expected to continue doing so this year.
B) Emerging markets that have been relying on capital flows to fund their trade deficits
Many emerging markets around the world have been running trade deficits in recent years financed by capital flows. The most prominent example from this group is India.
India's strong capital flows from tourism, software services, and remittances not only financed its trade deficit, but also increased its foreign reserves to an all-time high of 316.2 billion in May of 2008. However, due to the global slowdown and selloff in emerging markets, those capital flows have now reversed. India's central bank, for example, has been forced to sell off its US holdings to curb its currency's decline, and its total reserves have decreased by $62.2 billion. The central bank's dollar sales in October alone exceeded purchases by a record $18.7 billion. India now has $254 billion foreign reserves left, the majority of which will be sold this year to protect its currency.
C) "Developed" Nations
The US isn't the only "developed" nation in trouble. Other "developed" nations (ie: nations that have chosen to outsource the polluting and labor-intensive parts of their economies) are also collapsing. Japan, for instance, has seen a disastrous drop in demand for its goods.
Japan's Industrial production fell 8.1% in November from the previous month (the biggest drop in the measure since the government started releasing comparable figures in 1953). Demand for Japanese exports is vanishing: November shipments of automobiles plunged 31.9 percent and shipments of microchips and other electronics components fell 29.0 percent. Due to this disappearing demand, Japan has incurred a trade deficit for two straight months for the first time since October-November of 1980.
With their own economic problems to deal with, it will not be other "developed" nations like Japan which will fund the US trade deficit in 2009. In fact, should the dollar begin to collapse, these nations could even be forced to sell their dollar reserves to protect their own currencies.
The dollar implications of this should be clear
After years of bankrolling US consumption with the purchase of dollar assets, most nations are going to be net sellers of dollars in 2009. Just Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, and Japan alone have around $2 trillion in US holdings, and, if the current trade trends continue, America can expect foreign central banks to sell at least 1 trillion dollars this year. This begs the question: who exactly is going to be buying all these assets?
2) The worsening US Trade deficit
The US Trade deficit is worsening because, while imports to the US are falling, exports are falling even faster. Demand for the big ticket durable and capital goods produced by "developed" nations is plummeting much faster than demand for cheap consumer imports, causing widening trade deficits with nations like China. The US's increasing trade and current account deficits means that America needs to attract over 700 billion dollars this year to keep the dollar from weakening.
3) Treasuries
It is extremely important to understand that treasuries are the modern day equivalent of money under the mattress, and that, when a crisis confidence hits the dollar, treasuries will be redeemed for printed cash from the fed. This is due to the fact that the US can't allow treasury prices to crash, for fear of having the world's financial system break down and global trade collapse. So a sustained selloff in treasuries would therefore force the fed to expand its balance sheet by trillions to monetize much of the outstanding federal debt.
Why the government can't let treasuries collapse
Even if the government does not step in to support treasury prices amid a selloff, the end result will be the same. Allowing a crash in treasury market would make the financial system insolvent and cause runs on the bank. The fed would then have to print money to make good on the 6.5 trillion insured deposits around the country, the 1.5 trillion insured senior bank debt, etc... Since trillions of printed dollars would be hitting the marketplace in either case, the fed will choose the least disruptive option of putting a floor under treasury prices with printed money.
Selling treasuries is equivalent to printing money
It is deceptive to think that, because the government is borrowing to fund its deficits and bailouts, it isn't printing money. This is false. Treasuries should be seen for what they really are: "promises to print money".
4) Gold
Rising demand for physical gold is a threat to the dollar because it signals a growing loss of confidence in the paper currency. It is also key to understand that gold prices aren't rising because of the changing fundamentals of gold, but because of the changing fundamentals of the dollar. In other words, gold isn't rallying, THE DOLLAR IS FALLING.
Gold is history's oldest and most stable currency. Its utility is simply that it is rare, and for 5,000 years people have used it to store value for the future. All the gold that has ever been produced would fit in a solid cube of about 19 meters on each side, and this cube is only expanding by about 12 centimeters a year (2%). Since the value and supply of gold itself are fairly constant over long periods of time, the main driver of gold price fluctuations is the ebb and flow of confidence in paper currencies. Rising gold prices are, therefore, a signal of a weakening currency, which is why governments hate them and try to suppress them.
Right now, there is unprecedented worldwide demand for physical precious metals. As a result of this surging demand, gold futures have experiencing backwardation, a rare market condition where gold futures trade under spot prices. It is a signal that gold prices are headed higher and that confidence in our currency is fading quickly. When gold prices break above 1,000 again, the event should be recognized for what it is: the herald of a dollar collapse.
5) China and the yuan
China is in a different situation that most other nations as it has a growing trade surplus, which stood at $40 billion as of November. As a result of disappearing Asian demand for luxury items and commodity prices plunging, imports to China crashed 17.9 percent in November while its exports only fell 2.2 percent. This leaves China with a problem the US could only dream of: huge, unsustainable upward pressure on its undervalued currency.
In order to maintain the dollar peg, China would need to fund not only a large part of the US's gigantic trade deficits, but also the trade deficits of those nations around the world which are selling their dollar reserves. If imports keep falling at their current pace, China will have to buy close to 1 trillion dollars this year alone, which leads to yet another problem: right now, China is not interested In any kind of risky US assets, and what "safe" assets does the US have to sell? (Please don't say treasuries. All dollar denominated assets are inheritably unsafe due to the currency's horrible fundamentals.)
Trying to prop up the dollar would end up destroying its currency without benefiting its economy, and China knows this, which is why you have Chinese central bankers on record as saying that, "The US dollar is unlikely to be stable next year". Even more ominous for the dollar, China stealthily announced its plan to make the yuan an international currency on Christmas Eve last year. Whether intentional or not, by allowing Chinese exporters to settle their trades in yuan, China is taking a major step towards supplanting the dollar with the yuan as the world's reserve currency.
6) Never ending bailouts
Although many Americans such as myself are growing tired of America's never ending bailouts, it is important to brace yourself because there are a lot more on the way. Here are a few of the bailouts |
are the banks doing this? Because they’re mad. One of the provisions of the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act would limit the fees they can charge merchants for processing a debit card transaction to 12 cents a swipe. Merchants say that this well let them pass on savings to consumers in the form of lower prices. Banks say it will cut into their $15 billion they make a year off these transactions by 70%. They say they have to make up for it somehow. So what’s the cost-saving move here? Does it really cost that much more to process 3 zeros instead of 2? No. While they haven’t come out and said it, this move would push more people towards credit, which they can charge 2-5% of the total cost in transaction fees, as well as make money in interest off of. Or people will use cash, which, while meaning they don’t collect transaction fees, they also don’t incur the operational cost for processing.
They might do it. But they probably won’t because of the inevitable backlash. Right now it’s just a threat to scare legislators from enacting already passed reforms. If they can hold the American consumer hostage and raise enough of a bogeyman that the end result of the pro-consumer legislation is that consumers actually end up getting hurt, legislators might back off. More likely banks will just add on more fees to checking and debit accounts.Â
You never know. Many large banks have already killed off free checking, either getting rid of it outright or introducing requirements to maintain it, like maintaining a minimum balance or having your paycheck direct deposited. Otherwise, pay a fee. The entire debit system could be next on their list. At least that’s what they want you to think. It’s their revenge for us daring to pass regulatory reform.
On Saturday I ordered a cup of coffee and realized that I didn’t have any cash. I told the guy, sorry, I have to go get money. He tapped the swiper and said, no problem. I said, but you have to pay so much to the banks it’s not even worth it to sell me the coffee. He smiled and said, but it’s a service we provide! I said, I’d hate to see you pay them any more money than you have to. He nodded and nd I went to go withdraw cash. Of course I got charged a $1.80 withdrawal fee. My bank, USAA, happens to refund my ATM fees, so I then was able to sip from my cup of caffeinated justice. But most people don’t have that luxury, and will get skinned one way or another, or, as the banks would prefer, both.
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JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup Might Limit Debit Card PurchasesA view of netting and signs behind home plate.
A piece of a splintered bat cleared the newly extended safety netting at Fenway Park Wednesday night, slightly injuring a man who was seated near several children.
As Dylan Santos sat along the third base line in the 15th row, Tampa Bay Rays right fielder Steven Souza Jr. shattered his bat hitting an inside fastball.
The barrel of the bat popped over the protective netting that was installed before the start of the season to increase fan safety.
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Santos said the piece of wood “headed right for me. There was no hiding from it.”
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He put his arm up to protect himself, Santos said, and the bat fragment bruised his right thumb.
A security guard gave him an ice pack, and his hand does not hurt anymore, he said Thursday.
A spokeswoman for the Red Sox confirmed that a piece of a broken bat went into the stands but did not seriously injure anyone.
The team’s principal owner is John Henry, who also owns the Globe.
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Several children were seated around Santos, he said.
“I remember a parent in the row in front of me leaning over his daughter to protect her. Luckily it came towards me and then I just thought about protecting myself,” he said. “It was a mixed emotion of, ‘Nice, this bat is coming towards me,’ and, ‘Oh no, this bat is coming towards me!’ ”
Santos said he did not expect to get hit because of the new netting.
“But I remember thinking when I first got there that it looked a little lower than I thought it would be,” he said, adding that it’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“Better chance of me getting a foul ball or something,” he said.
J.D. Capelouto can be reached at jd.capelouto@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jdcapeloutoIf you ever wonder what angry atheists think about you and your faith, then feast your eyes on these billboards they’re planning to put up in Charlotte during the Democratic National Convention. By directly slamming “Mormonism” and “Christianity” in the most inflammatory terms possible, atheists aren’t trying to persuade – they’re trying to shame.
Unfortunately, and as I’ve said before, in the battle of ideas stigma often beats dogma. In other words, vicious stigmatizing attacks often defeat sincere expressions of belief, and with the nonreligious now the fastest growing “religious” segment in America, it appears that shame works.
At the ACLJ we fight atheist attempts to rewrite history and suppress religious liberty in court, but it’s just as vital that we engage atheists in the court of public opinion. Let’s start by appropriately and civilly pointing out their hate and intolerance while at the same time proclaiming eternal truths. The message from those billboards is bleak and angry. The Christian message is full of life and hope.
There is a better way.1 : Pipboy : 2012/02/08 0:45:38 Report this This portal prop is definitely worth the price. I bet it's going to a sold-out very fast, and in 6 months you'll see people selling it at ebay for $600. 2 : jaker : 2012/02/16 9:30:47 Report this i am wondering since this is made by NECA will it be released in stores??? i sure hope so i also want portal turrets made by NECA as well.
PLEASE RELEASE THE PORTAL GUN IN STORES!! PLEASE 3 : GLaDOSliedaboutcake : 2012/02/19 3:50:57 Report this if it's being shipped from japan, how much does shipping cost? 4 : Pipboy : 2012/02/28 6:11:01 Report this It has to be shipped by SAL because of its larger size. It appears the shipping is around JPY 4,500- (about USD 60). It's still cheaper than buying those bootleg being sold at ebay. 5 : Pipboy : 2012/05/08 3:54:30 Report this My prediction made in 3 months ago has turned to be true. People are bidding at ebay
for over $700 + ridiculously expensive shipping charge. So everyone who has placed
pre-order at Hobby Search must be a very happy person to make the right decision!
Three cheers to Hobby Search!!!AI is in a weird spot these days. New developments of technology are incorporating better AI to make our lives better like autonomous cars, though some are worried if it will become too smart and overtake the human race one day. However, in the gaming industry, AI has been a core feature right from the start but has getting less push, you can see and hear so many complaints of games with too stupid AI.
Ubisoft is stepping up to help develop AI for games and for everyday use with its new research unit, dubbed “La Forge”. According to Techcrunch, the new unit will not only have AI programmers, but also academic researches to help the advance the field. The research here gets to be used in games, making them better (which will essentially drive more sales), while the academics get access to all the resources within the studio for research and publish the work and spread the knowledge gained.
“Games drive innovation, and innovation drives games. We started working with academics a while ago, as early as 2011, on how to combine AI with game ecosystem,” said Yves Jacquier, head of the La Forge project at Ubisoft Montreal.
One example of the kind of work that Ubisoft has done that would benefit outside of games is their AI for the traffic in Watch Dogs 2. The open world can be used for researches to play around with how the AI cars behave, as a safe place to test out autonomous cars. Another example is physics-based movement, where researchers and programmers have access to tons of motion capture data to figure out how to make better automated animations, and having this feature well-developed will also help designing better prosthetics. The last example that would benefit from this initiative is to manage toxic communities.
La Forge has started one and a half years ago, according to Jacquier. Papers on their research efforts have yet to materialise, but they are on their way. “Obviously we want to make sure that when someone is publishing something, we don’t want our unannounced games and stuff like that being publicized but we do think that being open, publishing, is a way to help us bring in leaders in the field,” he said.
Ubisoft is allocating $200,000 USD a year for the next five years to help this initiative. In another report by Gamesindustry.biz, Jacquier stated that the next generation of consoles will see AI be the key feature for quality games instead of just sheer graphics prowess.
“We think that the next generation of consoles won’t have these limits any more, ” he said.
“Games might have more realistic graphics and more on-screen, but what’s the value of making something more realistic and better animated if you have poor AI?”
Source: Techcrunch, Gamesindustry.bizAndrea Pirlo will be 36 years old by the time the Champions League final is played in June. He could be directing proceedings that night from the base of midfield, a position that is increasingly in vogue for football’s elder statesmen
A few weeks ago there was a sudden frisson of enthusiasm surrounding Michael Carrick. Having played for Manchester United for nearly a decade and having been capped by England intermittently since 2001, the quiet, unassuming Geordie was subject to a level of interest that belied his having played for years under the radar. The reason for such focus was partly down to his form, but also had a lot to do with his position.
At 33, Carrick recently signed a one-year contract extension with his club before starting for England in their friendly away to Italy in Turin. It’s regrettable that it has taken so long, but he finally has managers at both club and international level who appreciate his talents. Louis van Gaal has made Carrick an integral part of his new system, pulling the strings behind the hard-working Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini. Roy Hodgson’s decision to give Carrick a starting place may have been pre-meditated by Jack Wilshere’s injury, but clearly there was recognition that, as far as the base of England’s midfield goes, Carrick is a genuine contender.
Although in vogue now, Carrick’s career has been filled with fluctuation. His deep-lying playmaker position has at times seemed tenuous. Not blessed with pace and not a particularly imposing figure to play in front of defence, he didn’t fit the typical English mould of the dynamic box-to-box central midfielder that so many of his contemporaries were, and nor was he a ball-winner extraordinaire. His talents have often been ignored, even maligned, but now, well into his thirties, England’s only natural regista is receiving the requisite plaudits.
As far as football positions are concerned, the regista is viewed as a relatively contemporary phenomenon. Generally speaking, throughout history the defensive midfield area has been preserved for players who perform defensive duties, with creativity encouraged further up the pitch.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Michael Carrick celebrates as Manchester United trounce Manchester City at Old Trafford. Photograph: John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images
However, the first signs of a player with regista-like responsibilities emanated from Vittorio Pozzo’s Metodo in the early 20th century. Pozzo coached the Italy team in various spells of vastly divergent significance, but it was his time in charge in the 1930s that saw him tweak a formation and define an era.
Having spent time in England, studying and working, Pozzo grew to admire the way Manchester United centre-half Charlie Roberts played. Roberts was a skilled player capable of starting attacks, which was something Pozzo wanted from centre-half by the time he was in management. At this point, centre-halves were only just being accommodated as part of a three-man defensive line, having initially been seen as the centre of a three-man midfield in a 2-3-5 formation. Pozzo adapted the 2-3-5 in his own way, refusing to incorporate a third back. Instead he wanted his centre-half to be able to distribute the ball; he wanted a director, or in Italian, a regista.
Luis Monti had played for Argentina in the 1930 World Cup, helping them through to the final where they were defeated by Uruguay, but by 1931 he was playing in Italy, having joined Juventus from San Lorenzo. With Italian heritage he was soon called up by Pozzo to be his regista, his centre-half in the 2-3-2-3 Metodo system. Monti was in his thirties, overweight and lacked pace, but he was just what Pozzo wanted. He would drop deep when Italy did not have possession before assuming the mantle of creator when they won the ball. With a 33-year-old Monti at the heart of his team, Pozzo’s Italy won the 1934 World Cup.
Arrigo Sacchi and Italian football's ethical dilemma about foreign players Read more
The continued development of football tactics eventually gave rise to a back four, while the area in front of the defence was generally designated to a defensive midfielder who, while occupying the same space as the regista, came with a completely different style and set of responsibilities. While registi float; defensive midfielders sit. Where registi orchestrate; defensive midfielders allocate. The former is a creator; the latter a destroyer. There grew an acceptance that the two roles could co-operate at the base of midfield, but if there was to be only one player in front of the defence it was preferably a ball-winner with an eye for the efficient but not necessarily the extraordinary.
The use of the destroyer became useful in offering a layer of protection in front of the defence and behind more attack-minded midfielders. Claude Makélélé is the most prominent recent example of this; his departure from Real Madrid upset the balance of the team, while his joining Chelsea bolstered the nouveau riche London club’s spine during José Mourinho’s first tenure.
Remembering Florentino Pérez's Pavones, the players Real Madrid forgot Read more
Of late there has been a resurgence of creators at the base of midfield, however. Furthermore, many of these creators shine brightest in advanced age, just as Monti did.
Last summer, as Toni Kroos bade farewell to Bayern Munich and set off for Real Madrid, the German champions had already made moves regarding his replacement. Pep Guardiola had identified the player he needed and signing him was merely a case of following Kroos to Madrid and bringing back someone else. That someone was Xabi Alonso.
At 32, Alonso began a new chapter in a remarkable career, leaving Madrid behind in favour of learning under Guardiola’s tutelage. It must be said that, at the time Alonso joined, Bayern were without Thiago Alcântara and Bastian Schweinsteiger through injury. This, along with Kroos’ departure, suggested Alonso was a mere stopgap: a quality stand-in to be used when appropriate. Within months Alonso had turned 33, but other numbers were more revealing. He had broken a Bundesliga record with 204 touches in a 2-0 win over Köln and his passing statistics were, and have continued to be, incredible.
When Alonso had arrived Guardiola described him as “the perfect solution” and handed him a regular spot in his system. Intent on innovating, Guardiola’s tactics with Bayern have seen him in some ways imitate Pozzo’s Metodo, and Alonso has been his Monti.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Xabi Alonso conducts the crowd as Bayern Munich hammer Porto in the Champions League quarter-finals. Photograph: BPI/Rex
Alonso, so used to playing in a double pivot, has a slightly altered role with Bayern. Nowadays he has greater freedom, dropping significantly deeper, sometimes even between and behind the centre-backs, to receive the ball and begin attacking moves. A pure regista if ever there was one, Alonso is currently enjoying what some might describe as an Indian Summer in his newfound home, but age is no barrier. “The older you get, you try to run less and think more,” Alonso said this earlier this season. “With more age, you need to have more composure. You need to read the game better and understand it better.”
If there is a player in the world who knows about combating age and its effects, it is Andrea Pirlo. The nonchalant Italian began his career as a playmaker of another sort and, having signed for Internazionale following a breakthrough at Brescia, he was utilised behind the strikers. He struggled in this space and was eventually sent back to Brescia on loan in 2001, where Carlo Mazzone began to play him in a more withdrawn role.
Pirlo thrived, showing signs of the footballer he would go on to be. Perhaps most tellingly, it was he who laid on the pass for Roberto Baggio’s wonder strike against Juventus that year. With time on the ball in midfield, Pirlo lofted a perfectly crafted long-range pass over the top of the Juve defence for Baggio to run on to. Baggio’s control and finish was sublime; some of the last great touches of a fading genius. It was a young Pirlo’s intuition and incision that set it up.
Milan v Internazionale: is the friendly Derby Della Madoninna at a crossroads? Read more
From there Pirlo swapped Nerazurri for Rossoneri, changing teams but remaining in the same city, at the same stadium, as he crossed the divide to join Carlo Ancelotti’s Milan. Intriguingly, Brescia would temporarily replace Pirlo with Guardiola, a legendary regista whose playing time with Barcelona had come to an end. Ancelotti not only continued to play Pirlo in his favoured deep-lying position, but built his midfield around him. With the snarling Gennaro Gattuso and the steely Massimo Ambrosini in front of him, Pirlo was given creative licence to dictate.
Ancelotti’s departure in 2009 eventually culminated with Massimiliano Allegri taking the reins; a change that signalled the end of Pirlo’s time in Milan. Allegri brought in Mark van Bommel and rotated the Dutch hatchet-man with Ambrosini in front of the defence, favouring their solidity over Pirlo’s technique. Pirlo subsequently left on a free transfer for Juventus but, aged 32 and with his game time having diminished in his final season at San Siro, few felt the move to be substantially harmful to Milan’s fortunes.
Nearly four seasons on and Juventus have won every Scudetto since Pirlo joined and are well on course for another. When Allegri was appointed Antonio Conte’s successor as Juventus coach at the beginning of this season he had no choice but to show respect for Pirlo, something he did by continuing to afford him space in the Juventus team as the regista in a 4-1-3-2 formation.
What Pirlo has done in the last two decades has transmogrified the way Italian football treats deep-lying playmakers. Previously, perhaps fuelled by famed journalist Gianni Brera’s beliefs that Italians were naturally a physically weak race and should thus focus on defending, Italian coaches have found fitting grace into their systems a struggle and, as such, have found limited value in playmakers. Traditionally the idea that the playmaker could sit in front of the defence, a la Pirlo, was thought of as inherently risky, for his type were considered foppish when what was needed in this area was brute strength and unflinching tenacity.
One example of this perspective in action came when Fabio Capello took over at Real Madrid and considered Fernando Redondo to be too elegant a player to play in front of the defence. Capello had always preferred a strongman in the position; he used Marcel Desailly at the base of midfield while at Milan, and felt Redondo’s skill set was better suited to a role further up the pitch.
Capello left Madrid a convert with a much better understanding of Redondo as a player and his usefulness as a deep-lying playmaker. This perception seems to have permanently changed in modern Italian football, for there is now plenty of room for the likes of David Pizarro and Mirko Valdifiori. Enforcement remains a valued commodity when it comes to sitting in front of Serie A defences, but those who prefer having the ball to chasing it have found opportunity too, and Pirlo continues to lead the way in that struggle at the age of 35.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Steven Gerrard congratulates Andrea Pirlo as Milan win the Champions League in 2007. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian
And so to Carrick. When Sir Alex Ferguson signed him from Tottenham Hotspur for £18.6m he became Manchester United’s sixth most expensive signing of all time. He was also given the No16 jersey previously adorned by box-to-box dominator Roy Keane. Some saw the jersey as Carrick being announced as Keane’s direct replacement but the notion couldn’t have been further from the truth. Yes, Keane left a hole in the club’s midfield, but Ferguson didn’t intend to fill that hole; rather he was preparing for a complete change in shape.
Understanding the need for layers in midfield as opposed to a flat four, Ferguson brought in Carrick to operate as a ball-playing central midfielder. The signing heralded a definitive step away from 4-4-2 for Manchester United as they adapted to the changing environment around them. Over the coming years they would win the Champions League using a mixture of 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 systems with Carrick very much involved.
Carrick has never quite made it to the elite level with Pirlo and Alonso, primarily because he lacks their metronomic consistency and passing range. Nonetheless, he was ignored for far too long as English football, historically difficult to proselytise when it comes to new ideas, failed to appreciate what he brought to the table. While squabbling over whether Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard should play in a 4-4-2 formation, England completely missed the opportunity to play Carrick behind one or both of them, scrap the 4-4-2 altogether and achieve balance in midfield. Only since Hodgson took over has the English national team began to fully see the benefits of a diamond midfield with someone such as Carrick at its base.
As he approaches 34, Carrick has the opportunity to be the fulcrum of both his club side and national team in the coming years. People are beginning to wonder how viable this is, asking how long he could play on given his age but, as shown by the world’s best, age is no problem for the regista.
Given the proliferation of ageing registi it seems fair to suggest that advanced age correlates with the role itself. One reason for this is that, in a game becoming evermore dynamic with its focus on pressing, counter-pressing, high tempo and quick transitions, some older midfielders are unable to keep up and must therefore adapt to playing in a deeper area of the pitch. In this way their lack of pace and athleticism can be covered by the midfielders and defenders surrounding them. The hard yards are no longer their problem and they can instead use the increased intelligence and awareness that comes with experience to control a game.
The regista rages against the dying of the light, fighting to prove that there remains a place for pause, poise and unhurried, rhythmic passing in the modern game. In this fight they are given solace by some coaches who see the benefits in having them. Guardiola knows these benefits more than most because he was once one of them. Now more than ever, with the advanced playmaker becoming crowded out by double pivots and defensive midfielders, there is a strong case to be made for their retreat.
For some the case is not strong enough, however. Gerrard is an example of a player who was moved back out of necessity but failed to totally adapt to the new role. This is an indication that the regista isn’t some utopian fantasy concocted by the believers to add aesthetic beauty in a sport increasingly conquered by the tall and forceful, but is in fact a role with its own genuine subset of specific skills. It isn’t a mere excuse to include ageing greats; if they lack the required attributes, they will fail in the role. Consequently, although the best registi in the world are, generally speaking, in their thirties, advanced age is not a prerequisite but a coincidence.
What is more likely is that the regista role allows for those that undertake it to play on beyond most others due to the aforementioned specific traits required to perform the role successfully. Progressive teams are now attacking from the back and defending from the front, hence it makes sense that playmaking duties are becoming inverted. Louis van Gaal mentioned this idea in the 1990s during his time as Ajax manager, saying: “In modern football the players in the middle of the back four… have really become playmakers.” That this acknowledgement comes from the man who has made Carrick a vital part of his defensive base is no trivial matter.
We remain in what Arrigo Sacchi saw to be an era of specialism in the sense that the regista must still be helped out by those around them. Sure, playmakers are sitting deeper now, but they must still be balanced out by more destructive players. The only difference is that while advanced playmakers required a destroyer in behind them, registi require those players in front of them.
We have not yet reached an epoch in which every defensive player is technically assured. Nonetheless, while historically the attitude towards defending and attacking has been “clear it” and “score goals”, that attitude is modifying. Now, at least at elite level, the lines are far more blurred, with attackers expected to do their fair share of defensive work and defenders needing greater sophistication.
Naturally in such circumstances, the regista becomes more important. Their calmness on the ball and ability to play out of tight situations is more of a necessity when attackers are more willing to pressurise and harangue and more organised in doing so. The evolution of the game therefore calls for specialists in the regista role, not simply the adaptation of other midfielders to it. While the role is still seen as a retirement home for ageing icons, the trend seems to indicate that; in future, players like Carrick won’t have to wait until they are in their thirties to enjoy the adulation their unique talents deserve.
• This article appeared first on These Football Times
• Follow These Football Times and Blair Newman on TwitterThe stoning deaths, along with similarly brazen attacks in northern Afghanistan, were also a sign of growing Taliban strength in parts of the country where, until recently, they had been weak or absent. In their home regions in southern Afghanistan, Mr. Nadery said, the Taliban have already been cracking down.
“We’ve seen a big increase in intimidation of women and more strict rules on women,” he said.
Perhaps most worrisome were signs of support for the action from mainstream religious authorities in Afghanistan. The head of the Ulema Council in Kunduz Province, Mawlawi Abdul Yaqub, interviewed by telephone, said Monday that stoning to death was the appropriate punishment for an illegal sexual relationship, although he declined to give his view on this particular case. An Ulema Council is a body of Islamic clerics with religious authority in a region.
And less than a week earlier, the national Ulema Council brought together 350 religious scholars in a meeting with government religious officials, who issued a joint statement on Aug. 10 calling for more punishment under Shariah law, apparently referring to stoning, amputations and lashings.
Failure to carry out such “Islamic provisions,” the council statement said, was hindering the peace process and encouraging crime.
The controversy could have implications for efforts by Afghan officials to reconcile with Taliban leaders and draw them into power-sharing talks.
Afghan officials, supported by Western countries, have insisted that Taliban leaders would have to accept the Afghan Constitution, which guarantees women’s rights, and not expect a return to Shariah law.
The stoning deaths were confirmed by Afghan officials in the area on Monday. Mahbubullah Sayedi, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor’s office, condemned the executions, and said there was ample provision in Afghan law for prosecuting someone if they were accused of adultery or other social crimes.
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“We have courts here, and we can solve such cases through our judicial organizations,” he said. “This act is against human rights and against our national Constitution.”
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The couple eloped when the man was unable to persuade family members to allow him to marry the young woman. She was engaged to marry a relative of her lover, but was unwilling to do so, according to Mr. Khan.
Mohammed Ayub, the governor of nearby Imam Sahib district, also confirmed the stoning deaths, which took place in the local bazaar in Mullah Quli village, in Archi district, a remote corner of Kunduz Province close to Tajikistan.
The couple eloped to Kunar Province, in eastern Afghanistan, staying with distant relatives, but family members persuaded them to return to their village, promising to allow them to marry. (Afghan men are legally allowed to marry up to four wives). Once back in Kunduz, however, they were seized by the Taliban, who convened local mullahs from surrounding villages for a religious court.
After the Taliban proclaimed the sentence, Siddiqa, dressed in the head-to-toe Afghan burqa, and Khayyam, who had a wife and two young children, were encircled by the male-only crowd in the bazaar. Taliban activists began stoning them first, then villagers joined in until they killed first Siddiqa and then Khayyam, Mr. Khan said. No women were allowed to attend, he said.
Mr. Khan estimated that about 200 villagers participated in the executions, including Khayyam’s father and brother, and Siddiqa’s brother, as well as other relatives, with a larger crowd of onlookers who did not take part.
“People were very happy seeing this,” Mr. Khan maintained, saying the crowd was festive and cheered during the stoning. The couple, he said, “did a bad thing.”
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, praised the action. “We have heard about this report,” he said, interviewed by cellphone. “But let me tell you that according to Shariah law, if someone commits a crime like that, we have our courts and we deal with such crimes based on Islamic law.”
Mr. Nadery, from the human rights commission, pointed to a string of recent such cases of summary justice by the Taliban. In northwestern Badghis Province on Aug. 8, a 41-year-old widow, who was made pregnant by a man she said promised to marry her, was convicted of fornication by a Taliban court. She was given 200 lashes with a whip and then shot to death, according to Col. Abdul Jabar, a provincial police official, who said the killing was ordered by the local Taliban commander, Mullah Yousef, in Qadis district.
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President Hamid Karzai’s spokesman, Waheed Omer, said: ““President Karzai was deeply saddened and grieved when he heard that news. Nine years ago and we still see the Taliban doing events like that in Badghis.”
Time magazine focused widespread indignation on Afghanistan recently by putting on its cover a picture of an 18-year-old woman from Oruzgan Province whose nose and ears were cut off by her Taliban husband after she had fled her child marriage to him.
Amnesty International condemned the latest stonings, calling them the first such executions since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. “The Taliban and other insurgent groups are growing increasingly brutal in their abuses against Afghans,” said Sam Zarifi, an Amnesty International official.The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card depicts the Pittsburgh Pirates' Honus Wagner, a dead-ball era baseball player who is widely considered to be one of the best players of all time.[1] The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company (ATC) from 1909 to 1911 as part of its T206 series. Wagner refused to allow production of his baseball card to continue, either because he did not want children to buy cigarette packs to get his card, or because he wanted more compensation from the ATC. The ATC ended production of the Wagner card and a total of only 50 to 200 cards were ever distributed to the public (exact number unknown), as compared to the "tens or hundreds of thousands" of T206 cards, over three years in sixteen brands of cigarettes, for any other player.[2] In 1933, the card was first listed at a price value of US$50 in Jefferson Burdick's The American Card Catalog, making it the most expensive baseball card in the world at the time.
The most famous T206 Honus Wagner is the "Gretzky T206 Honus Wagner" card. The card's odd texture and shape led to speculation that it was altered. The Gretzky T206 Wagner was first sold by Alan Ray to a baseball memorabilia collector named Bill Mastro, who sold the card two years later to Jim Copeland for nearly four times the price he had originally paid. Copeland's sizable transaction revitalized interest in the sports memorabilia collection market. In 1991, Copeland sold the card to ice hockey figures Wayne Gretzky and Bruce McNall for $451,000. Gretzky resold the card four years later to Wal-Mart and Treat Entertainment for $500,000 for use as the top prize in a promotional contest.
The next year, a Florida postal worker won the card and auctioned it at Christie's for $640,000 to collector Michael Gidwitz. In 2000, the card was sold via Robert Edward Auctions to card collector Brian Seigel for $1.27 million. In February 2007, Seigel sold the card privately to an anonymous collector for $2.35 million. Less than six months later, the card was sold to another anonymous collector for $2.8 million. In April 2011, that anonymous purchaser was revealed to be Ken Kendrick, owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks.[3] A different card, named the "Jumbo Wagner" was sold at auction again in 2016 for a record $3.12 million.[4] These transactions have made the Wagner card the most valuable baseball card in history.
In October 2013, Bill Mastro, CEO of Mastro Auctions (the owner of Robert Edward Auctions) pleaded guilty to mail fraud in U.S. District Court and later admitted to the court that he had trimmed the "Gretzky" Wagner card to sharply increase its value.[5]
Other T206 Wagners, both legitimate and fake, have surfaced in recent years. Some of the real cards have fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars in auctions. One particular T206 Honus Wagner owned by John Cobb and Ray Edwards has attracted media controversy over its authenticity, with many leading hobby experts regarding it as a fake.
Background [ edit ]
Cabinet Photo c. 1902 used for the Wagner T206 image
The American Tobacco Company was formed as a result of an 1889 merger of five major cigarette manufacturers: W. Duke & Sons & Company, Allen & Ginter, Goodwin & Company, F. S. Kinney Company and William S. Kimball & Company. Because the company came to monopolize the tobacco industry, ATC did not have to conduct advertising or promotions for its products. Since baseball cards were primarily used as a sales promotion, ATC removed them from its tobacco packs, almost driving the cards into obsolescence.[6] During the presidency of "trust-buster" Theodore Roosevelt, the ATC was subjected to legal action from the government, in hopes of shutting down the monopoly in the industry.[6]
Thereafter, the ATC was back in competition with other tobacco companies, so it reinserted baseball cards into cigarette packs. In 1909, the company introduced the T206 series – also known as the "white border set" – of baseball cards of 524 players into its cigarette packs. The cards were printed at seven factories in New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.[7] Two years later, the ATC was broken up into several major companies as part of the United States Supreme Court ruling in United States v. American Tobacco Company, 221 U.S. 106 (1911).[8][9]
Physical attributes and production [ edit ]
The typical card in the T206 series had a width of 1 7⁄ 16 inches (3.65 cm) and a height of 2 5⁄ 8 inches (6.67 cm).[7] Some cards were awkwardly shaped or irregularly sized, which prompted a belief that many of the cards in the series had been altered at one point or another. In his work Inside T206: A Collector Guide to the Classic Baseball Card Set, Scot A. Reader wrote that "[i]t is not at all uncommon to find T206 examples that have been altered at some point during their near-century of existence."[10] These discrepancies were taken advantage of by "card doctors" who trimmed |
and the corruption and nepotism of its new political leadership have resulted in widespread impoverishment and generalized violence.
For women’s rights activists in Iraq, the proliferation of child marriage is a consequence of the generalized impoverishment, insecurity and the absence of functioning state’s institutions. The proposed reform would just legitimate this already widespread practice.
Since 2003, Iraqi women’s rights activists have been caught between fighting to preserve their existing rights — under threat from conservative social forces — and for their essential rights to security and dignity — under siege from the violent social, political and ethno-sectarian crisis provoked by the invasion and occupation.
Changing the personal status code in this way would bring Iraq’s legal environment back to the period when the country was still colonized by the British Empire, during which no law governed Iraqis in personal matters other than religious and tribal courts. That would break the legacy of the progressive political forces that established the personal status code — and above all — the legacy of the women’s movement that fought for these rights for all Iraqis, regardless of religious sect.
Zahra Ali is an assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers University. Her book “Women and Gender in Iraq: between Nation-building and Fragmentation” will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2018.Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Education should be a joyful experience, says the NUT
Too much focus on exams is damaging pupils' mental health and self-esteem in England's schools, a report says.
The National Union of Teachers' report says pupils are developing stress-related conditions linked to testing.
Based on a survey of 8,000 teachers and a review of research, the report says drilling for tests has narrowed what children are learning.
The government said it is determined to ensure every child is able to realise their potential.
The report, Exam Factories? The Impact of Accountability Measures on Children and Young People, by Prof Merryn Hutchings of London Metropolitan University, says pupils' emotional health and wellbeing is suffering because of "high-stakes testing".
'Complete meltdown'
These are the national tests, exams and progress measures which the government uses to hold schools to account.
Most teachers surveyed for the report agreed pupils became "very stressed/anxious in the time leading up to Sats/public examinations".
One teacher said: "You just see them sat there, a 10- or 11-year-old kid in complete meltdown."
Another said: "I have just had a child off school for three days because he was so worried about his recent test result and didn't want to take any more tests."
Lucie Russell, director of campaigns at mental health charity Young Minds, which backed the report, said: "Both pupils and teachers are under a lot of pressure to achieve results in a pressure cooker, exam factory environment.
"Many of the young people Young Minds works with say that they feel completely defined by their grades and that this is very detrimental to their wellbeing and self-esteem."
According to the report, the tests affect both able and less able pupils similarly.
'High expectations'
One secondary school special-needs co-ordinator said: "The higher ability [pupils], and the ones with the very supportive or pushy parents, are receiving higher levels of stress because of how much is being expected of them.
"I think the lower end or those with maybe less supportive parents as well are suffering from the fact that they are not being given a curriculum that suits them."
The report also argued the focus on testing was harming pupil-teacher relationships, with teachers less able to view pupils in the round.
One junior school teacher said: "I am in danger of seeing them more in terms of what colour they are in my pupils' list eg are they red (below expectation), green (above expectation) or purples (Pupil Premium) - rather than as individuals."
'New curriculum'
Kevin Courtney, deputy general-secretary of the NUT, said: "Teachers at the sharp end are saying this loud and clear, 'If it isn't relevant to a test then it is not seen as a priority.'
"The whole culture of a school has become geared towards meeting government targets and Ofsted expectations. As this report shows, schools are on the verge of becoming 'exam factories'."
He argued the accountability agenda was "damaging children's experience of education", which should be joyful and leave them with "a thirst for knowledge for the rest of their lives".
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Part of our commitment to social justice is the determination to ensure every child is given an education that allows them realise their potential.
"That's why we are raising standards with a rigorous new curriculum, world class exams and new accountability system that rewards those schools which help every child to achieve their best."Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
SCOTLAND could benefit from welshing on our share of the UK’s huge national debt, a top economist said yesterday.
Paul Johnson, the director of the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies, dropped the pre-referendum
bombshell as a host of experts gave evidence at Holyrood.
Alex Salmond has threatened we could walk away from our £150billion share of the £1.4trillion debt after a Yes vote if the rest of the UK refuse a formal deal to share the pound.
The UK Treasury and a long list of academics warned this would destroy Scotland’s credit rating and add thousands of pounds to mortgages and borrowing costs.
But Johnson, who previously worked at the Treasury, said walking away from the debt could be a good idea for a go-it-alone Scotland.
He told Holyrood’s economic committee: “In one sense, it would clearly be very positive.
“For an independent country to start off with no debt is rather a good place to be, relative to starting off with debt at around 70 per cent of national income.
“I think there would be significant benefits to walking away with no debt.”
However, he admitted there could be drawbacks to the plan, adding: “How that came about, I suspect, would be the thing that would determine if there would be any additional negative consequences in terms of credibility.”
His comments were echoed by Professor Jo Armstrong, from Glasgow University’s Centre for Public Policy for Regions.
She said: “Having no debt as your opening would be a very good position to be in. You then don’t need to go to the markets to borrow money to pay off your debt. You can build up a track record and get decent interest rates.”
The interventions will give a boost to Salmond’s stance as both economists have previously been quoted as experts by the pro-Union Better Together campaign.
Chancellor George Osborne has already moved to calm money markets by saying the rest of the UK would stand behind all the debt.
Dr Angus Armstrong, of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, disagreed with his fellow experts when he addressed the MSPs.
He ruled out Scotland not paying its share and suggested that the country should negotiate its oil wealth away to the UK in exchange for a lower debt.
He said: “Most people would expect to pay a reasonable and fair share of debt. To walk away would set a
precedent for the rest of Europe that would be extraordinary.
“It means many places in Europe could have a referendum and have no debt.
“If I’m going to lend you money, I would like to know there is a good chance of being repaid.”
A Better Together spokesman agreed, saying: “People know what happens when you don’t pay debts. Your chances of credit are virtually gone and you are left going to lenders who charge eye-watering interest. Is that what we want for Scotland?”
Meanwhile, members of Salmond’s fiscal commission working group again refused to outline a Plan B on currency.
Crawford Beveridge, the chairman of the fiscal commission, and Professor Andrew Hughes Hallett insisted Osborne was bluffing when he said the UK would not agree to share the pound.
But other experts said Scotland should start its own currency.
Angus Armstrong said: “Based on the aspiration in the White Paper to build a Scotland which reflects the values and aspirations of Scottish people, I think you want to have something that allows you the policy levers to be able to do that.
“There is, in my view, only one option which allows you that full range and that would be your own currency.”
Professor Jo Armstrong added: “If I’m truly independent … I would want to try and make my own currency work. That has got lots and lots of risks but it allows me to have absolutely full control of the fiscal levers.”
The comments on a new currency were welcomed by the pro-independence Scottish Green Party.
Green MSP Alison Johnstone said: “It is increasingly clear that a Yes vote opens up opportunities that a No vote is extremely unlikely to.
“The need to create a fairer and simpler system of taxes has never been greater and if we want to make different economic choices from Westminster, we will need flexibility on currency in the longer term.”
The fiscal commission are due to meet in Edinburgh again today to discuss the currency issue further.WASHINGTON – The White House is downplaying talk of a U.S. trade war with Canada, with President Donald Trump’s spokesman brushing off the notion when asked about it Monday.
”No,” Sean Spicer said when asked whether he sees a north-south trade war escalating.
He said regular trade remedy procedures are simply doing their job. The U.S. has slapped tariffs as high as 24 per cent on Canadian lumber, as part of its long-standing view that Canadian logging companies get unfair subsidies.
The Canadian government is now considering retaliation in two areas: one is a possible ban on exports of U.S. coal from B.C., and government sources say the other is a study of potential duties against products from Oregon.
The targeting of Oregon is related to the fact that Canadian officials see that state’s Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden as a particularly obstinate opponent of a softwood lumber settlement.
Sources tell The Canadian Press that federal officials are poring through examples from Oregon state of subsidies for businesses, and exploring grounds for an investigation that could result in duties on Oregon plywood, flooring, wood chips, packing and wine.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said over the weekend that he won’t be pressured into making a lumber deal.
The president’s spokesman said Monday that the U.S. is merely following its legal, legitimate trade-dispute practices. Domestic law allows U.S. lumber producers to seek an investigation and punitive duties if they feel unfairly undercut; the U.S. government agrees with them that Canadian rivals’ low-fee access to public land comprises a subsidy.
”That’s why we have dispute-settlement mechanisms to do this in a responsible way,” Spicer said. ”Let’s let it play out. But I think secretary Ross took appropriate action to protect the U.S. industry and we’re going to let the process play out.”
He was also asked when NAFTA renegotiations might start.
The earliest it could happen is August, if the Trump administration immediately sent a 90-day notice to the U.S. Congress. But that letter has not been sent. Lawmakers have been slow to approve the contents of the letter and have not yet confirmed Trump’s trade czar.
The confirmation of that trade representative, Robert Lighthizer, could happen soon. Yet negotiators could be pressed for time, if they want to get a deal before the Mexican election enters full swing next spring.
Spicer said there would be updates, but not right away: ”Right now there’s nothing to share.”Since their first appearances in comics in the '60s, black superheroes have provided a mirror to many generations of children who have ever wanted to have superpowers. Early versions of superheroes like Black Panther, Luke Cage and Storm have paved the way for their contemporaries as well as modern incarnations of black superheroes.
RELATED: Black Heroes Matter: 17 Black Defenders Of The MCU
After appearing on the pages of Marvel and DC Comics, these heroes also inspired black creators like Dwayne McDuffie and Roy Okupe to make their own heroes, filling a void by the sporadic appearances in mainstream superhero comics. Today, black superheroes can be found on the page and on the screen in films, television shows and animated series. To commemorate Black History Month and the influence of black superheroes, here are 15 black superheroes that have helped make comic book continuity more inclusive.
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15 STORM
One of the most famous members of the X-Men, Ororo Monroe was created by Lein Wein and David Cockcrum and first appeared in May 1975. As a mutant, she has the ability to control the weather and fly; she is also an expert thief and skilled in hand-to-hand combat. She has led the X-Men herself a few times, notably after the events of the “Dark Phoenix Saga” and when the main X-Men team split into the gold and blue teams.
She has also been a member of The Avengers and the Fantastic Four, and even served as the Queen of Wakanda when she briefly married her long-time lover T’Challa, the Black Panther. On top of that, she is descended from a long-line of witch-priestesses; her mother was a princess of a Kenyan tribe, and Ororo herself was worshipped as a goddess before being recruited by Professor Xavier for the X-Men. Currently, she is the leader of the Extraordinary X-Men.
14 LUKE CAGE
Luke Cage is the first black comic book character to star in his own series. Making his first appearance in 1972, he was created by Archie Goodwin, John Romita Sr and George Tuska. After being imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, he is involuntarily subjected to an experimental procedure that gives him bulletproof skin and super strength. Once he is freed, he teams up with Iron Fist to form the duo Power Man and Iron Fist and becomes a hero for hire.
As Powerman and part of the original Heroes For Hire team, he would work with not only Iron Fist, but also Misty Knight and Jessica Jones. He would also become a member of The Defenders and The Mighty Avengers, as well as the Thunderbolts. In 2015, Luke Cage made his first onscreen appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Netflix original series “Jessica Jones.” The following year, he would star in his own Netflix spin-off series “Luke Cage,” which was recently renewed for a second season.
13 MISTY KNIGHT
Created by Tony Isabella and Arvell Jones, Misty Knight leapt into comics in January 1975, debuting just a few months before Storm to become one of Marvel’s first black female superheroes. She was an NYPD officer until a bomb attack caused her arm to be amputated. After quitting, she was given a bionic arm by Tony Stark that gave her super strength. Suitably "armed," she met Colleen Wing and together they formed their own private investigation agency, becoming the crime fighting duo, Daughters of The Dragon.
The two would have their own adventures and provide assistance to Power Man and Iron Fist, the aforementioned Heroes For Hire. Misty would also reform Heroes For Hire with a new team during the events of Marvel’s Civil War, leading the team and revamping it again after the immediate end of tensions. She would also form and lead the team known as The Fearless Defenders alongside Valkyrie. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she can be seen in a prominent role on the Netflix series "Luke Cage" and is portrayed by Simone Missick.
12 STATIC
Originally a part of Milestone Comics, Static was created by Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Derek Dingle and Michael Davis. Named after the first black person to attend the law school at University of Florida, Virgil Hawkins gains the ability to manipulate electro-magnetic energy after unwittingly being caught up in a big showdown between Dakota’s gang wars and doused with an experimental chemical. The event would become known as “The Big Bang” and would not only affect Virgil but those who would become Virgil’s future archenemies.
Virgil became Static after finding other “Big Babies” that got powers and chose to cause problems in Dakota. After Milestone Comics closed in 1997, Static was reintroduced in the animated series “Static Shock,” which aired from 2000 to 2004. The show gave Static an entry point into the DC Comics Universe, where he would eventually become a member of the Teen Titans. Static would also make appearances in the animated shows “Justice League: Unlimited” and “Young Justice.”
11 MONICA RAMBEAU
Monica Rambeau was created by Roger Stern and John Romita Jr. Since her 1982 debut, she has been known by several superhero names. She first went by Captain Marvel, after being exposed to extra-dimensional energy and gaining the ability to convert her body to light. Once she joined The Avengers, she learned to control her powers and eventually became their leader. Later on, she would change her name to Photon after teaming up with the son of the original Captain Marvel and realizing he wanted to use the name for himself.
After a while, he changed his name to Photon and Monica changed her named to Pulsar. Eventually, Monica would become the leader of the team Nextwave, but didn’t use any code-name in the field. During Marvel’s “Infinity” storyline, she took up her current superhero alias, Spectrum, and became field leader of Luke Cage’s Mighty Avengers team. Currently, she is a prominent member of the The Ultimates, fighting cosmic threats to the Earth and the very universe itself.
10 VIXEN
Vixen, aka Mari McCabe, would’ve been DC’s first African female DC superhero to have her own series had it not been cancelled. Nonetheless, she has managed to have a decent run in comics after her 1981 debut. Created by Gerry Conway and Bob Oskner, Vixen can use the abilities of any animal by focusing on them with the Tantu totem given to her ancestors by the African trickster god Anansi. After a brief time as a solo hero, Vixen became a member of the Justice League, as well as Suicide Squad, with the majority of her work having been in the former.
In addition to making modern-day appearances in the comic series “Justice League of America,” Vixen also starred in the limited series “Return of The Lion.” Recently, Vixen’s origins were told in a DC Rebirth one-shot. Vixen has also made appearances in many television series, including “Justice League Unlimited,” “Batman: The Brave and The Bold,” “Arrow” and her own CW seed animated series, appropriately titled “Vixen.”
9 JOHN STEWART
A member of the Green Lantern Corps, John Stewart debuted in 1971, making history as the first African American character in DC Comics. Created by Dennis O’Neal and Neal Adams, he was originally chosen as a backup Green Lantern to then-current Green Lantern Hal Jordan. After Hal Jordan relinquished the title in the 1980s, he became Green Lantern full-time. Using the ring worn by all Green Lanterns, he can create anything that his imagination can drum up as well as the powers of flight and invulnerability.
During and after his time in the Green Lantern Corps, he has become the first mortal Guardian of The Universe, leader of the peacekeeping troop the Darkstars, as well as a member of The Justice League. Off the page, his character has become well known due to his appearances in animated series, including “Justice League,” “Justice League Unlimited,” “Static Shock” and “Young Justice.” He is set to appear as a main character in the upcoming film “Green Lantern Corps.”
8 STRIKE GUARD
Strike Guard is a character and comic book series created by Ayodele Elegba and published by the Nigerian based company, Vortex Comics. A superhero inspired by Yoruba spiritual traditions, Strike Guard’s main protagonist is a college kid named Abolaji Coker. After Abolaji’s love interest Chi Chi gets involved with the leader of a cult, Abolaji and his best friend Peter Antai are murdered.
After being thrown into the grave of an ancient warrior named Ajabeja, Abolaji’s soul makes contact with Ajabeja’s while in limbo. Abolaji strikes a deal to share his body with Ajabeja in exchange for returning to life. Gaining an open consciousness of the spirit realm and the opportunity to avenge his friend’s death, Abolaji becomes Strike Guard to protect people from spirits lingering in the real world. In this way, Strike Guard is a mythical superhero akin to Marvel’s Thor, providing a refreshing take on mythological superheroes through its creative use of the Orisha thunder god Sango.
7 CYBORG
Created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, Cyborg is one of the most iconic members of the Teen Titans, as well as the Justice League. In his first iteration, Cyborg was a normal teenager named Victor Stone until his scientist parents conducted an experiment with an inter-dimensional portal that went wrong. A monster comes through, killing Victor’s mother and severely mauling Victor before his dad forces it back into the portal. In order to save his life, Victor’s dad inserts experimental prosthetics on part of his face and body.
Afterwards, Victor struggles to adjust to his cybernetic parts due to the fearful reactions from others and the fact that he can no longer participate in athletic hobbies. Once he stops a former friend from conducting terrorist acts, his sense of purpose is renewed and he decides to join the Teen Titans. Later on, when a new incarnation of the Teen Titans came together, he served as a mentor to them. Later still, in the New 52 reboot of DC Comics, his origins include the coming of Darkseid. In this version of the character, he was established as a founding member of the Justice League. Currently, he stars in his own ongoing series that has been published since 2015.
6 WALE WILLIAMS
Hailing from YouNeek Studios and created by Roye Okupe, Wale Williams’s story is set in a futuristic society known as Lagoon City, which is inspired by the real island of Lagos. Wale is a twenty-something young man who returns home to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his father, an inventor. He discovers that his home has changed drastically after the poorest areas have been overrun by corrupt leaders and robotic drones called DREDS.
At the center of this corruption is the masked leader Oniku, whose goal is to “cleanse” Lagoon City while manipulating the lower class. In order to combat this threat, Wale Williams dons an exo suit designed by his father and becomes the superhero EXO to protect his city. As a character, Wale Williams is a wealthy kid with integrity, defending the poorest of his community and his remaining family while searching for his father. Likened to DC’s Cyborg and Marvel’s Iron Man, Wale Williams is a Nigerian superhero for a modern and futuristic age.
5 MILES MORALES
The creation of Miles Morales by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli was inspired by Barack Obama and Donald Glover. Originally becoming Spider-Man in the Ultimate Marvel universe, the black-Puerto Rican teenager would come into the role after being bitten by a spider containing the experimental formula that gave Peter Parker his spidey powers. At first, he is unhappy with his powers, wanting to be a normal kid, until he witnesses the death of Peter Parker.
Realizing that he could’ve helped Peter, he decides to take up the mantle of Spider-Man and later dons a new black-and-red costume given to him by S.H.I.E.L.D. After the Ultimate Marvel Universe is destroyed, Miles takes over Peter Parker’s patrol of New York in the mainstream Marvel Universe when Peter decides to take a global approach to his Spider-Man duties. Miles would also become an Avenger in Marvel’s “All New All Different Avengers” series and a founding member of Marvel’s newest team, The Champions.
4 THE MANTIMAJI
Elijah Alexander is a rising district attorney who has been dealing with cases involving a mysterious group of criminals known as the New World Knights. When his work collides with the agenda of the New World Knights and a personal speaker named Brother Hope, he discovers that he is the descendant of a race of mystical knights called The Mantimaji. After suffering a tragic loss, Elijah trains to become a Mantimaji in order to get revenge.
As he strikes out against Brother Hope, Elijah learns more about his legacy as a Mantimaji and his potential to become a hero and save the world from Brother Hope’s twisted plans. Although he starts off as an entitled person, Elijah Alexander’s love and appreciation for his family causes him to be a great hero in the making. Using a magical ankh that can change into armor and any weapon imaginable, as well as the aid of women warriors known as The Sanctuants, Elijah Alexander comes into his role as a superhero legacy that has protected the world for generations.
3 BLACK LIGHTNING
One of the first black superheroes to appear in DC Comics, Black Lightning debuted in 1977 by Tony Isabella and Trevor Von Eeden. With the power of electro-magnetism, he can generate and manipulate electricity using a variety of methods. In addition to working as a solo hero, Black Lightning has been a member of Batman’s group, The Outsiders, as well as a member of the Justice League. He has also been shown to have some serious martial arts skills.
RELATED: Black Lightning: 15 Powers You Didn’t Know He Had
When he isn’t performing acts of superheroism, he is known as Jefferson Pierce and has been an Olympic decathlete and a high school principal, not to mention a father. Black Lightning’s daughters, Jessica and Anissa, have also become heroes themselves. Anissa took the name “Lightning” and became a member of Outsiders like her father, while Jessica became “Thunder” and a member of the Justice League. Last year, it was announced that Black Lightning and his daughters will appear in a new Black Lightning television series currently in development.
2 THE FALCON
Featured in Marvel Comics, Sam Wilson is the first African American superhero in mainstream comics. Debuting in 1969, he was created by Stan Lee and Gene Golban and introduced in "Captain American" #117. After becoming friends and partners-in-crime(fighting), Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson would eventually come up with the persona The Falcon after the Nazi villain Red Skull fuses Sam with a falcon named Redwing in order to manipulate him.
As The Falcon, Sam Wilson has a physic link with Redwing that can be used to literally get a bird’s eye view of things. He also has a cybernetic uniform designed by Black Panther that allows him to fly, be resistant to small firearms and see things via infrared lenses. While working as The Falcon, he managed to become an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. In his most recent comic book appearance, Sam Wilson became the newest Captain America and leader of the Avengers after an aged Steve Rogers passed the mantle onto him.
1 BLACK PANTHER
Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee for Marvel Comics, Black Panther premiered in 1966 and is the first African superhero in American comics. The Black Panther is the title given to the chief of the technologically-advanced African nation of Wakanda. By establishing a connection with the Panther God, the Black Panther gains abilities that include heightened senses and reflexes, enhanced strength, speed, durability and healing. The current Black Panther is T’Challa, who has served not only as king of Wakanda, but also represented the country during times of crisis and peace.
In addition to his superhuman abilities, T’Challa is one of the smartest people in the world, having an advanced degree in physics and technology and great knowledge of Wakanda’s metallic ore vibranium. In certain comics, he has cleverly used the portable supercomputer Kimiko to solve problems and escape sticky situations. Besides being a solo hero, T’Challa has been a member of the Defenders, a temporary member of the Fantastic Four (alongside his former wife Storm), and is currently a member of The Ultimates.
Obviously, we couldn't fit every black hero on this list, so we want to hear your favorites! Sound off in the comments!
Next Comics You Need To Read This Week - February 27th, 2019Netflix is prepping its entry into Japan on September 2 and in the process deepening its ties to local players. Following a deal for original content with Fuji Television, Netflix has now partnered with leading mobile provider SoftBank to offer a “fully-integrated Netflix experience.” Part of that will include SoftBank selling Netflix subscriptions, while a content partnership is also being considered.
Netflix is setting up shop in a market where it will compete with Hulu, which is owned locally by Nippon TV, and streaming services offered by NTT Docomo and SoftBank’s own Uula. SoftBank President Ken Miyauchi said Uula will continue, but the focus will be on Netflix, according to the Japan Times.
Miyauchi also told the paper that the partners may jointly create content, but details are as-yet unclear. Netflix Chief Streaming and Partnerships Officer, Greg Peters stressed that the company is focused on spreading stories and unique consumer experiences globally. He said that SoftBank and Netflix have a “shared dream” to find “amazing stories around the world, create incredible new experiences and to deliver them to consumers around the globe and here in Japan,” the JT reported.
SoftBank customers will be able to sign up for Netflix at SoftBank Shops, major electronics retailers, via the SoftBank website and SoftBank call centers. It will also begin pre-installing the Netflix app on its smartphones for sale after October this year.
SoftBank has been on a drive to expand its entertainment interests and become a global internet power. In late 2014, it invested $250M in Legendary Entertainment as they formed a joint venture to exploit the latter’s intellectual property rights worldwide. That move came after talks to acquire DreamWorks Animation cooled. SoftBank also owns U.S.-based wireless provider Sprint and premium web video service DramaFever.
Netflix, which now has over 65M subscribers in over 50 countries, today also said it has set the pricing for Japan. At pre-tax rates, a Basic Plan will be 650 yen ($5.40) with a Standard Plan for 950 yen ($7.90) and a Premium Plan will go for 1,450 yen ($12).
It is expected that Fuji will premiere a new version of popular reality series Terrace House on Netflix from launch. It is also prepping workplace coming-of-age drama Atelier (Underwear) which is set inside the lingerie business.Assembly
State Assembly Speaker Vincent Preto (D-Hudson) looks at the Assembly's vote board at the Statehouse in Trenton on Monday.
(Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
TRENTON -- New Jerseyans could soon see New Jersey's gas tax rise and sales tax drop under a surprise plan the state Assembly approved Monday.
The lower house of the state Legislature voted 53-23 on the plan, which would hike the gas tax by 23 cents a gallon to replenish the nearly broke Transportation Trust Fund in exchange for the sales tax dropping from 7 percent to 6 percent by 2018.
Assembly Speaker Vincent Preto (D-Hudson), who crafted the deal with Gov. Chris Christie, said lowering the sales tax will affect all of the Garden State's 9 million residents and put "money in the pockets of the working poor."
But Assembly Transportation Committee Chair John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) opposed the plan, saying it would blow a hole of more than $1 billion in the state budget "at a time when we're already having trouble paying the bills that we all recognize we have not been able to pay."
The state Senate still needs to pass the proposal and Christie needs to sign it for it to take effect.
Here is a look at how each member of the Assembly voted:
Bob Andrzejczak (D-Cape May): No
Robert Auth (R-Bergen): No
Arthur Barclay (D-Camden): Yes
Dan Benson (D-Mercer): Yes
Jon Bramnick (R-Union): Yes
Chris A. Brown (R-Atlantic): Yes
Anthony M. Bucco (R-Morris): No
John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester): Yes
Ralph Caputo (D-Essex): Yes
Marlene Caride (D-Bergen): Yes
Michael Patrick Carroll (R-Morris): No
Annette Chaparro (D-Hudson): Yes
Nicholas Chiaravalloti (D-Hudson): Yes
Jack Ciattarelli (R-Somerset): No
Rob Clifton (R-Monmouth): Yes
Herb Conaway (D-Burlingon): Yes
Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex): Yes
Ronald Dancer (R-Ocean): No
Joe Danielsen (D-Somerset): Yes
Wayne DeAngelo (D-Mercer): Yes
BettyLou DeCroce (R-Morris): Yes
John DiMaio (R-Warren): No
Joann Downey (D-Monmouth): No
Joseph Egan (D-Middlesex): Yes
Tim Eustace (D-Bergen): Yes
Thomas Giblin (D-Essex): Ye
DiAnne Gove (R-Ocean): No
Jerry Green (D-Union): Yes
Louis Greenwald (D-Camden): Yes
Reed Gusciora (D-Mercer): Yes
Amy Handlin (R-Monmouth): No
Jamel Holley (D-Union): Yes
Eric Houghtaling (D-Monmouth): No
Joe Howarth (R-Burlington): Yes
Mila Jasey (D-Essex): Yes
Angelica Jimenez (D-Hudson): Yes
Gordon Johnson (D-Bergen): Yes
Patricia Egan Jones (D-Camden): Yes
Robert Karabinchak (D-Middlesex): Yes
Sean Kean (R-Monmouth): Yes
James Kennedy (D-Union): Yes
Joseph Lagana (D-Bergen):Yes
Pamela R. Lampitt (D-Camden): Yes
R. Bruce Land (D-Cape May): No
Vincent Mazzeo (D-Atlantic): No
Gregory McGuckin (R-Ocean): No
John McKeon (D-Essex): Yes
Angela McKnight (D-Hudson): Yes
Paul Moriarty (D-Gloucester): Yes
Gabriela Mosquera (D-Camden): Yes
Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson): Yes
Nancy Munoz (R-Union): Yes
Elizabeth Maher Muoio (D-Mercer): Yes
Sheila Oliver (D-Essex): Yes
Declan O'Scanlon (R-Monmouth): Didn't vote
Erik Peterson (R-Hunterdon): No
Gail Phoebus (R-Sussex): No
Nancy Pinkin (D-Middlesex): Yes
Eliana Pintor Marin (D-Essex): Yes
Vincent Prieto (D-Hudson): Yes
Annette Quijano (D-Hudson): Yes
David Rible (R-Monmouth): Yes
Maria Rodriguez-Gregg (R-Burlington): Yes
Scott Rumana (R-Passaic): Yes
Brian Rumpf (R-Ocean): Didn't vote
David Russo (R-Bergen): No
Gary Schaer (D-Passaic): Yes
Holly Schepisi (R-Bergen): No
Troy Singleton (D-Burlington): Yes
Parker Space (R-Sussex): No
L. Grace Spencer (D-Essex): Yes
Shavonda Sumter (D-Passaic): Yes
Adam Taliaferro (D-Salem): Didn't vote
Cleopatra Tucker (D-Essex): Didn't vote
Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen): Yes
Jay Webber (R-Morris): No
Benjie Wimberly (D-Passaic): Yes
John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex): No
David Wolfe (R-Ocean): No
Andrew Zwicker (D-Mercer): No
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Jose DelReal and David Fahrenthold at The Washington Post:
Trump’s latest assertion that he had not spoken to Bondi about Trump University revived questions about why the New York real estate developer would have donated to the Florida attorney general. Asked on Monday what he was “hoping to get out of that donation,” Trump responded: “I’ve just known Pam Bondi for years. I have a lot of respect for her. Never spoke to her about that at all. And just have a lot of respect for her as a person. And she has done an amazing job as the attorney general of Florida. She is very popular.” Trump has bragged about making political donations to politicians to curry favor with them and benefit his businesses, regularly using such statements to undermine his critics in both parties.
Over at TPM, Josh Marshall dives more into the Bondi story and highlights reporting by Sopan Deb on Trump’s lies:
Trump: "I never spoke to her"... "Never spoke to her about that at all." Legit? Who knows? But according to multiple reports, well before this became a big story and never denied by Trump, Pam Bondi personally solicited the contribution from Trump.
Here’s an interesting analysis by Will Weaton:
Whether that was through deliberate intent or incompetence is immaterial, because this is an actual, real, meaningful scandal with two — two! — smoking guns. This is exactly the sort of thing that the New York Times, CNN, and all the biggest names in journalism are looking for as they relentlessly go after the Clinton Foundation, as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton. There is nothing to be uncovered there, because there is no “there” there. … but there is almost complete and utter silence about Trump’s two successful efforts to buy off politicians — and not just politicians, but the Attorneys General of two different states! [...] The story the media wants to write about the Clintons exists, but it looks more and more like it won’t be written, because it’s about Trump. I don’t think this is because the media is in the tank for either candidate, but is because there is a narrative: Trump’s a buffoon and dog bites man, while Clintons are just so damn suspicious and there’s a cloud over everything they do and whether it’s actually questionable or not, it sure has the appearance of being unethical.
Margaret Hartmann at New York magazine makes a good point:
During the primary debates, Donald Trump repeatedly boasted that he knows how to get politicians to do his bidding, explaining that he donated to both Republicans and Democrats, just in case he needed a favor. “You |
. Of course most clubs have junior programs as a feeder, but they usually don’t feed. I’ve written extensively about how age segregation is part of the problem - it creates a broad chasm between young skilled, eager sailors, and the older, tiring base of a club. Consider these observations, excerpted from the book:
“In most sailing clubs today, the kids show up in the morning, and leave in the late afternoon, just about the time the adults are arriving”
“...the decline in participation in sailing is better explained as a decline in devotion to intergenerational free-time pursuits.”
It is hard to explain why it seems we’ve gone to such lengths to create this gap -- separating the generations unnecessarily -- accept to suggest that:
1.) it is a passive response to a general trend towards youth-sports and away from intergenerational activities everywhere, because youth-sports are easier to market, coordinate and scale, or...
2.) we’ve come to depend on active, age-specific marketing for everything, and we’re lacking the pop culture hero willing to twitter to inspire both 11 year olds and their moms to try sailing. After all, marketing to parents means marketing to their kids, right?
And then some new data hit my desk, suggesting that it has nothing to do with marketing at all. We have it backwards.
Last month I was planning a Saving Sailing presentation at a 110 year old club, and working with a smart, relatively young (40’s) member of the club’s board of directors to ensure a relevant talk. He suggested that in advance he would survey members to understand age, tenure, interests and value delivered. As with most club surveys, his drew an adequate sample of his members, and it confirmed some common findings: average age, 60-ish; average time of service, 20-ish years; outgoing members outpacing incoming members. It is easy to predict that this pace will quicken, and see tough times ahead. Thus the talk. On a hunch, I suggested, and he agreed, that instead of concentrating on turnover trends, we should find the mean age of club newcomers at the time of entry and chart it over the years.
And the cause of the age segregation gap popped into view, as did this club’s chief challenge and some suggested solutions, which may be useful elsewhere. For me, these data suggest a clear, new path to sustainability.
Notice that in 1960, the average age of a new club member was 32 years old. By 1993, the average newcomer was over 60, and the age has hovered around 55 ever since. So during the heyday, when sailing was growing, its advocates were right in the middle of the years of active parenting. They were bringing their kids. And they were recruiting their friends who were often about the same age. And they were bringing their kids.
Over the years, as the core group aged, the same advocates no longer had kids at home and their good efforts to introduce new friends resulted in newcomers of about the same age (and also without kids.) So clubs (and sailing) began to shrink when the typical club newcomer became an empty-nester or a retiree, and now sailing is no longer a sport enjoyed by families.
It’s also telling that at this specific club, where today there is a strong commitment to a junior sailing program, there is only one member child in it. The rest of the kids who participate arrive via schools or other youth clubs, or their non-member, non-sailing parents drop them off.
While there is no overall market statistical significance to these data, since this club’s age demographics and member make-up are similar to those found in all of sailing in the US, it is safe to use the data anecdotally to make a point.
What’s wrong with Yacht Clubs? Members aged, and as they did, they seemed to forget that they were once young. One of the keys to Saving Sailing is that Yacht (cough) Sailing Clubs must re-open their doors to people in the active parenting years. Of course, this has much broader implications and creates a new set of needs. Most families don’t have sailboats. Often kids take to sailing earlier and more naturally than parents. Families often have less disposable time than they had 40 years ago, or at least, their schedules are more complex. It’ll be hard to break the youth-sports habit. Most clubs plan parties for adults, and day care for kids (some just say no to kids altogether.) The Sailing Club of the future will have found great solutions to these challenges. And then it will be younger, and more vibrant, and more fun for everyone.
Data source: 2010 Survey of Members, An anonymous US yacht club, N=46.
back to topImage caption Elaine Riddick was not told she was sterilised after giving birth
Victims of forced sterilisation in the US state of North Carolina will not get compensation, after a payout plan failed in the state Senate.
A plan to give $50,000 (£31,800) to each victim passed the House but was rejected in the Senate. Republicans said the state did not have the funds.
Democratic Governor Beverly Purdue set aside $10m for the plan in her budget.
It is thought about 7,600 people were sterilised in North Carolina from 1929 to 1974. Many were poor black women.
While many states had sterilisation plans targeted at "feeble-minded" people, North Carolina stands out for widening its programme after World War II.
'Lost all hope'
The measure was also supported by Republican House Speaker Thom Tillis, who has said that he sees the Senate's exclusion of the measure from the state budget as a personal failure.
Earlier, the plan was approved by the House.
Another lawmaker who supported the bill said the decision made her ashamed to be part of the General Assembly.
"I'm appalled that the North Carolina Senate today took no action to compensate the victims that we as a state robbed of their rights to reproduce and to have children," Democratic lawmaker Earline Parmon said.
"At this point, I have lost all hope."
But Republican senators said the state could not afford to include the money in the state budget.
"The state has no money anyway and the teachers would like to have a pay raise, and state employees would like to have a pay raise and you're dealing with a $250 million shortfall in Medicaid," Senator Austin Allran said.
He added that passage of the measure might encourage other groups who say they have been victimised in the past to seek compensation.
Both chambers of the North Carolina government must now approve the final version of the budget.
One of the most vocal victims of sterilisation, Elaine Riddick, from Atlanta, Georgia, says she was raped and then sterilised after giving birth to a son when she was 14.
"I have given North Carolina a chance to justify what they had wronged," Ms Riddick said.
"These people here don't care about these victims. I will die before I let them get away with this."More than four in 10 cancers could be avoided if people made changes to their lifestyle, according to Cancer Research UK.
Smoking accounted for more than 314,000 cases in the past five years, the charity said.
A further 145,000 cancers might have been averted if more people ate a balanced diet low in red and processed meat and salt, and high in vegetables, fruit, and fibre.
Maintaining a healthy weight could have prevented around 88,000 cases, while tens of thousands of cancers were linked to excess alcohol, failing to protect the skin from sun, and lack of exercise.
Max Parkin of Cancer Research and a professor at London’s Queen Mary University said: “There’s now little doubt that certain lifestyle choices can have a big impact on cancer risk, with research around the world all pointing to the same key risk factors.
“Of course everyone enjoys some extra treats during the Christmas holidays, so we don’t want to ban mince pies and wine. But it’s a good time to think about taking up some healthy habits for 2015.”About
More As revealed to God’s Messenger
Marshall Vian Summers
on April 4, 1992
in Boulder, Colorado About this Text What you are reading in this text is the transcription of the original voice of the Angelic Assembly as it spoke through the Messenger Marshall Vian Summers. Here, the original communication of God, which exists beyond words, is translated into human language and understanding by the Angelic Assembly who watch over the world. The Assembly then delivers God’s Message through the Messenger, whereafter it is transcribed and made available to you and to all people. In this remarkable process, the Voice of Revelation is speaking anew. The Word and the Sound are in the world. May you be the recipient of this gift of Revelation and may you be open to receive its unique Message for you and for your life. Order the book Volume 5 > Wisdom from the Greater Community, Volume 2 > Chapter 8
Solving problems and learning to engage with Knowledge is a major component of learning The Greater Community Way of Knowledge and realizing its total application in your life. So complete is Knowledge and its application that as you progress, you realize that Knowledge is with you at all times. It is just very still and you are very noisy. To experience this Spiritual Presence abiding with you in its stillness begins to give you confidence that if all is quiet with Knowledge, then it is time for you to be quiet too, while you take care of the mundane activities of your life and meet your normal range of responsibilities.
Problems large and small emerge, and here Knowledge plays a very important part. It is confusing to the recipient because Knowledge works very differently from the personal mind. It is quiet a good deal of the time. It must be activated by something beyond itself in order to fully reveal itself. How different this is from the way you think—always pondering, comparing, wondering, creating little scenarios, recalling former ones, working away at certain troublesome issues and reacting negatively against things that are taking your time and energy. Work, work, work. Busy, busy, busy. It is like a meeting that never ends.
Your personal mind always has the engine running. It is only when you go somewhere else while it’s running that you begin to realize that there is something else within you. There is a very different kind of mind there. This is an important discovery, and it will come slowly because to go from living in your personal mind to living in the mind of Knowledge is such a complete and total transition that it will require a completely different perspective and approach to life, a different sense of identity and a different foundation for relationships and activities in the world.
So, how do you solve problems? To begin with, let’s talk about the kind of problems you are trying to solve. Now, there is the big problem, there are intermediate problems and there are little problems. Occasionally, Knowledge will help you with little problems, but often it won’t, so you must simply work them out. This is usually easier than people realize, but because they often don’t accept that the problem exists or they have some sort of complaint about its appearance, to them a little problem can seem very big. So, instead of simply fixing the situation or discerning how the situation can be improved, there is often confusion with a great deal of upset and lots of conversation with the personal mind charging along, working overtime. This is a big reaction to a little problem.
Here is the problem with problems: little problem, big reaction; big problem, little reaction. This is the problem. This is the big problem. If you lose your car keys, or if your tires are flat, or if you made some kind of mistake or if you neglected something or if you forgot something or if some mechanical thing that you own breaks down, or if somebody else’s mechanical thing breaks down—all these are little problems, but often they incite big reactions. The fact that they incite a big reaction is part of the bigger problem. So, rather than just charging into solving problems, right and left, big and small, let us delineate the problems that Knowledge is working on and the different problems that you are working on.
Trying to make more money, whether it is a necessity or a preference, is always a little problem. Asking “How can I make more money?” might take ninety-eight percent of your energy, but it is still a little problem. Even if the solution requires time and effort, it is a little problem.
Little problems comprise most of the problems that people are engaged in trying to either solve or avoid. Actually, there are only three possible responses you can have to a problem, big or small. You can avoid it, and there are many avenues for doing that, for human beings are very clever at avoidance. You can complain about it, which means you cannot avoid it, but you are not yet committed to resolving it either, so you complain about it. Or, you can solve it. In the first two, there is a great deal of response to a little problem. There is a great deal of effort extended in avoiding problems and in complaining about them.
Now, a little problem becomes a bigger problem, or let us say it becomes an intermediate problem, if it is neglected. Then the consequences of avoiding it or not solving it become more troublesome, more difficult and perhaps more expensive. A little problem usually can only become an intermediate problem. A big problem is something else.
If a problem is neglected for too long, it can become a bigger problem, but in and of itself, it is not a big problem. The bigger problem is that the little problem was not solved, or there was too much energy expended. That is a bigger problem. If a little problem over time becomes a bigger problem, it in itself is not a big problem. It is a problem, but the bigger problem is that it was not recognized in the first place.
The big problem is that people do not respond to Knowledge. Knowledge is waving flags, giving indicators, doing everything to warn the person, but the person is not aware or is avoiding something. That is the big problem. The way people respond to life—by not participating with life, by not being in relationship with life, by forging ahead for their own ambitions, trying to live out their own ideas and ideals—this is a big problem, and it gives birth to most little problems as well.
So, let me talk about problems in general a little more, and then we shall explore solving little problems, intermediate problems and then the big problem. First of all, do not try to not have problems. That is not intelligent. Because you are dealing with the physical world, there are many practical problems to solve. Because you have a personal mind that is disassociated from life, it has lots of problems. Because you are not fully engaged with Knowledge, you have problems. So, we have lots of problems. Trying not to have problems or trying to have fun instead of solving problems creates bigger problems or, should I say, emphasizes the big problem. Knowledge is solving problems all the time, but it solves only intermediate problems and the big problem. Why? Because the other problems are meant to be solved with your personal mind.
Many people say, “I can solve this problem. I’ll use common sense.” For instance, if you don’t brush your teeth, they rot away and that becomes a big nuisance. This is common sense. Common sense is like kindergarten Knowledge. It is like Knowledge at a very rudimentary level. That’s when something is obvious and it keeps bumping into you. If you don’t pay your bills, you will lose things. If you lie to people, trouble will come after you. This is all common sense, or kindergarten Knowledge. In other words, most people know these things, but they choose not to pay attention because it is not expedient in the moment to do so, or perhaps it will cost some money, or they will have to deal with some kind of discomfort in regard to it, or it will just be more effort in the daily living of life.
So, you are going to have problems, and they are going to be at all three levels because they already exist at all three levels. Little problems are problematic because you live in a physical universe. Intermediate problems are little problems that are not taken care of. And the big problem is that you are disassociated from Knowledge and from other living things as a result. This is everyone’s condition, so obviously learning to solve problems is very important.
Most little problems can be solved with your personal mind. That doesn’t mean they are all simple. It just means they can be figured out. In other words, if you started to turn on your car and the motor wouldn’t start, that is not a big problem. It may be a big nuisance, but it is not a big problem. Very rarely is it life threatening. So, should you go meditate on what to do? Perhaps. But it is common sense that will help you. Sometimes if you lose your keys, it will come to you where they are, but other times you may have to search the whole house. It is a little problem. You become more effective, more competent and more able in the physical world by solving these little problems, over and over and over again.
Most education is learning how to solve problems. So, why are people trying to get rid of their problems in order to be comfortable? That is like saying you don’t want to be educated. Now, if little problems are attended to without so much avoidance, denial and complaint, they don’t take up much of your life, and they enable you to become more aware, more conscientious and more capable in practical ways. This frees you to take on the big problem of life.
The big problem poses these questions: Who are you? Why are you here? What are you here to accomplish? How do you re-engage yourself with your deeper mind? This requires asking the same questions in different ways. It requires examining the big problem from many different angles. In fact, the problem is so big that people observe it in different ways and have very different interpretations. It is like looking at a huge thing, but you can’t see all of it. You can only see part of it. So, someone over here is looking at this part, and someone over there is looking at that part. And if they happen to communicate, they have entirely different stories about what they are experiencing. In this case, you may say the big problem is trying to become spiritually aware or the big problem is trying to become really honest with yourself or the big problem is discernment in relationships. This is all the same problem, but you are experiencing and observing it from different vantage points. This is the big problem. Even if you solve all of the little ones and have made yourself very comfortable in life, if the big problem is not attended to, you will not feel any relief and the little ones will still preoccupy you.
In an ideal or pure state living in the world, there are no intermediate problems. There are only little problems and the big problem, and most little problems can be solved by common sense. If they are neglected or avoided or if you are not aware of them, they become intermediate problems, and then Knowledge will help you. For instance, if you feel the need to go to the doctor because you have an ache and you don’t get the message and say to yourself, “Oh, I can’t afford it. I will deal with it some other way,” or something like this, eventually it becomes an intermediate problem, and Knowledge will start to prompt you to do something. You will start to feel that you must do something. You will feel the inner prompting of Knowledge. Why isn’t Knowledge more concerned with day-to-day kinds of problems, even the aggravating ones? Why? Because Knowledge is engaged in solving the big problem. The big problem is very big and affects every aspect of your life. If you are moving towards a resolution there, you are entering a new life. Here little problems continue, but they stay little.
What takes the place of problems? Freedom. If your little problems remain large and contentious and absorb all of your energy, you cannot attain freedom. What is freedom? Freedom is responding to the truth within yourself and following it. Your freedom is to be able to do this. This solves the big problem and enables you to experience your worth and purpose in the world. When that is happening, self-love is natural. When self-love is happening, your relationships fall into the right order. This is freedom. People think freedom is being able to do anything they want with a minimum of hindrances or obstructions. That is not freedom. Lack of hindrance is necessary up to a point, but it is not freedom. Think of someone living in a country where there is very little political freedom and take someone living in a country where there is a great deal of political freedom. The person in the latter case would have more advantages and opportunities, but it does not mean that they are solving the big problem in life any more effectively than the other person. It just means that their little problems are different.
Remember that Knowledge is involved in solving the big problem and in keeping little problems little by enabling you to solve them at the level at which they occur. Because everyone has the big problem, it generates a lot of little ones that wouldn’t be there otherwise. For example, consider the idea of solving problems at the level at which they happen. This makes sense, but very few people can do it. Let me give you an example. If you lose your keys and go searching all over the house madly and you think, “This must have some spiritual significance for me,” or “This must represent some aspect of my psychology,” and you start getting involved in various kinds of speculation, then your little problem begins to represent something much bigger, and you get all caught up in the significance of this. Meanwhile, your keys are not found. They are waiting there somewhere for you to find them, but you are off in your mind doing something else.
When people get involved in their own personal development in a conscious and active way, often they inflate things tremendously. Everything that happens is significant to them. Everything they feel must be significant. All of their problems represent greater truths or greater disabilities in life. Losing your keys is normal. It will happen to you regardless of who you are. Even the man and woman of Knowledge will lose their keys. The man and woman of Knowledge will get sick and die. The difference is in their experience of Knowledge and where they are devoting their energy. Most of the things in the world that are engaging people and overtaking them are little problems that have become bigger. Either they have been neglected or given too much significance.
Knowledge is engaged in the big things, but it keeps track of everything else. So, you lose your keys and you go to Knowledge and you say, “Where are my keys? I will meditate.” Sometimes it comes to you to look in a certain place, and you say, “Ah, wonderful! Knowledge is so good!” Other times you try to focus and there is nothing there and you end up having to look all over the house anyway. And then you think, “Well, maybe Knowledge doesn’t work.” Knowledge is involved in something much bigger than these kinds of things.
Often when people are beginning to learn The Greater Community Way of Knowledge, they pester themselves incessantly with questions about what they should do about this and what they should do about that and how they can earn more money and how they can find true love and how they can get rid of aches and pains and on and on and on. There is no inner response and they say, “Either I am too stupid to get Knowledge, or maybe Knowledge doesn’t exist.” Knowledge is involved in something much bigger than these questions. It is like a scientist working on an important discovery.
You must solve ninety percent of your problems. Be resourceful. Seek help. Learn things. This is your education in being a human being. This is how you mature as a human being: by accepting these problems, by learning to become resourceful and by solving them. But you do not want intermediate problems, for they will rob you of your time, energy and focus in life.
Now let us talk about the big problem. The big problem is so big that you can’t put it all into a single definition. If you have learned to solve little problems sufficiently or can keep track of them as they arise, then perhaps you will cross another threshold and enter a greater dimension of your life. Here there is a greater problem, and here there are rewards that wouldn’t be available to you unless you had sought this greater resolution in your life. Not only is there resolution, there is accomplishment and with it all of the things that you have come into the world to serve. Knowledge is here. Meaning is here—the underlying meaning of how you do things and who you are. Here the emphasis is not so much on little problems but on the whole environment in which they exist. Alter this environment, and everything changes with it. Problems don’t go away. They are just minimized and become more interesting. Very few people enter this level of problem solving. This is advancement.
In the Greater Community, much of the competition is for intelligence. Intelligence is developed both within the context of an individual’s life and over the span of generations in his or her particular race by solving problems—little ones and in some cases, the big one itself. Knowledge is there. Knowledge is working on the big problem. Knowledge is guiding you to solve the intermediate ones. And for the little ones Knowledge is saying to you, “Work it out. Work it out. Work it out.” You can see here why people cannot comprehend Knowledge—its presence, its reality or its Wisdom. They have little problems which have become big to them. They are asking Knowledge to solve them and Knowledge is saying, “Work it out. Work it out.” They say, “I can’t work it out! It is too big! It is too difficult!” Knowledge says, “Work it out.” Knowledge is not understood here because people think little problems are enormously huge.
When you solve problems and you get most of them out of the way, what do you have left? You have emptiness. This is the invitation to go into the mystery of your life, but many people do not realize this. With no problems to solve, they become frustrated, anxiety sets in and then emptiness.
In the realm of the big problem, you work with Knowledge, you follow Knowledge and Knowledge teaches you how to address all the practical dilemmas involved. It teaches you how to address the adjustments you need to make in your own thinking and in your emotional life. When you work with Knowledge, you receive the greatness of Knowledge, the silence of Knowledge, the mystery of Knowledge, the discernment of Knowledge and the peace of Knowledge.
It is true that the wiser a person becomes, the fewer little problems they have and the more they treasure emptiness so that they can engage with Knowledge in a big way. At the outset, a person is overtaken by little problems and intermediate problems, so often the first thing that happens in following The Way of Knowledge is learning how to resolve these things so that you are free to go on to something greater. And the funny thing is, you have to do it yourself. You can get help, but you have to do it. It is when you cross that threshold and you enter the mystery of your life and you take on bigger problems without neglecting the little ones that you enter the realm of the big problem. That is when Knowledge becomes something very real. Over time, if you persist, you will feel its greatness, and you will begin to understand its intention. Before this, Knowledge is just a strange and intriguing idea but hardly useful in solving little problems, which are usually thought to be big problems.
Another way of saying this is when you learn to solve little problems efficiently so that you have very few of them with you at any given time, and you are able to deal with them as expediently as possible, then you graduate into a different kind of problem solving in life and a different kind of life altogether. Here you can begin to see the problem for beginning students of Knowledge. This includes almost everyone in the world, since advanced students of Knowledge generally are not even on the physical plane here. So, be happy to be a beginner. You can see the problem for beginning students of Knowledge. They think their little problems are big; they think their big problem is little or they don’t think of it at all. And they seek divine intervention or divine counsel on their behalf. They seek Wisdom, but their whole approach is wrong. Their whole evaluation is incorrect. So, what happens? Misunderstanding, confusion, anxiety and resentment. They don’t understand. Knowledge was supposed to come and help them out and reveal itself! Often even common sense is beyond the reach of people. They can’t even engage with that, so what is the point of seeking something greater?
There are many issues here. For instance, when people are getting engaged in exploring the possibility that they have a spiritual life, they often think that if they are doing the right thing, everything works out great. Doors open for you. Nothing is that difficult. If something is difficult, well, then something must be wrong in your approach, or something like this. This is completely wrong! When you are doing the right thing, sometimes things happen very easily and wonderfully. Sometimes when you are doing the right thing, things are very difficult with lots of obstacles and you have to work very hard to overcome them. Sometimes when you are doing the wrong thing, everything seems to work out and is easy until you realize how wrong it is. Sometimes when you are doing the wrong thing, it is very difficult and there are tons of obstacles to overcome, except that here you cannot overcome them. So, do not be fooled by the appearance of things. Because something is hard or problematic doesn’t necessarily mean it is incorrect for you to be engaged with it. The true way in life for you will be wonderfully easy at times, and at other times it will be very difficult. The wrong way will sometimes look easy but will always be difficult.
Therefore, the approach to building Wisdom is to learn to solve little problems at the level at which they occur and to keep them from becoming intermediate problems or chronic problems. Keep them small, but don’t neglect them, and then begin to engage with the real problem in your life, which is following a path towards realization and contribution. Both are necessary, not one without the other. If you go off towards a spiritual life and you forget about paying your bills or keeping track of your keys or maintaining your physical health, you will be in for many kinds of difficulties and you will not go very far. So, you must do both. Your little problems will lessen as you learn not to avoid them but to attend to them as soon as you are aware of them. Then you are free to save part of your time, focus and concentration for the big problem.
As you approach the big problem, you will realize that you cannot define it and your definitions will have to change. This will lead you to adhere to a Greater Power within you and within the world. You are called on to be cooperative with the Greater Power rather than be a recipient of it only. The big problem is not something you just solve and it’s over with. It is something you live with, and as you learn to live with the problem in a conscious and effective way, you learn to live the resolution. You cannot escape the big problem. You either live it in its unsolved state or you live the resolution, but you are always with it. It is always there for you.
As you proceed along the way, many of your former conclusions, assumptions and beliefs fall away, and what takes their place is openness. Real openness, not a pretend openness. Real openness. This means you can be empty and open to a situation, carefully observant of it and responsible to what you know. Problems can be avoided if this is your approach. You will want to minimize your complaints about life because complaints disable you from resolving things that are within your grasp to resolve. What you can resolve alone are the little problems. What you cannot resolve alone is the big problem. For the little problems you need help from Knowledge periodically. For the big problem you will need Knowledge completely. Not only will you need Knowledge, you must join with Knowledge. You must unite with Knowledge. You must let Knowledge overtake you, teach you and prepare you. This is where your mental life and your spiritual life become joined, married and united. This completely transforms you as a person so that you can begin to live the big problem and to live its resolution.
To a casual observer perhaps you will not look any different. You will still have to find your keys; you will still have to fix your car; you will still have to get your physical aches attended to, and you will still have to make enough money to live. But here the similarities end, for we are dealing with a person living in a different universe, a different life with a different mind—so different that there is no comparison.
This is possible for you. Begin today to accept the presence of all the little problems in your life and accept that it is given to you, with the assistance of others, to resolve them and to minimize them so that you can take on the big problem that is calling for you, that is awaiting you, whose resolution is awaiting you with rewards that are beyond human estimation. Here you learn to support yourself. You learn about your nature, which is how you do things, your thinking and behavior. You learn about the nature of others and their similarities and differences from your own nature. You realize your inner strength. Your priorities begin to change and you seek greater things. To reach these greater things you will seek a Greater Power, for greater things can only be acquired or received with a Greater Power. Take on the big problem of your life, do not neglect the little ones and you will open doors that are waiting for you, for they are open already.Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 6/3/2014 (1818 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers added two more pieces today and said farewell to another with the release of receiver Mike Sims-Walker.
Coming aboard are defensive back Maurice Leggett and defensive end Stafford Gatling, both imports.
Leggett (5-11, 188; Valdosta State) spent the past two seasons in the Arena Football League with Utah and Philadelphia after stints with Kansas City and Detroit in the NFL. Signed by the Chiefs in 2008, Leggett won the Mack Lee Hill Award as the team’s top rookie – becoming the first undrafted rookie to win the award. He started eight games that season, but was injured in 2009 and 2010. He then attended Lions’ training camp in 2011 before heading to the AFL.
During his college days, Leggett played in 45 games at Valdosta, starting 28, and helped guide the school to a pair of Division II National Championships.After a remarkable Jeremy Lin-led run that made them the toast of the NBA, the Knicks have lost 8 of their past 10 games. There's plenty of blame to go around, but while some within the organization are questioning superstar Carmelo Anthony, most of the fingers are being pointed at coach Mike D'Antoni, according to several sources close to the situation.
D'Antoni, hailed as an offensive genius during his successful tenure in Phoenix, has lost the Knicks' locker room, the sources say.
"The players like Mike as a person," one source said. "They think he's a good guy. But he doesn't have the respect of the team anymore."
D'Antoni is in the last year of a four-year deal and all indications are that he will not be brought back after this season -- assuming he survives the rest of this season. The Knicks are expected to make a run at Phil Jackson, who retired from the Lakers last year with 11 NBA titles.
But the Knicks, losers of six straight, still have 24 games left to get through this year, and according to numerous sources close to the team, the reeling club is as dysfunctional in the locker room as it is on the court.
In addition to questioning D'Antoni, players are complaining about playing time, and confused about the offensive and defensive schemes.
It is lost on no one that the Knicks' free-fall coincides precisely with the return of Anthony. While Anthony was out with a groin injury, the Knicks won 6 of 7 games, including victories over the Los Angeles Lakers and defending champion Dallas Mavericks. With Lin leading D'Antoni's offense, the Knicks played fast and free, spacing the floor, hitting the open man, and even improving defensively.
But the day Anthony returned, the Knicks lost to the struggling New Jersey Nets, starting a sorry stretch that has washed away all the feel-good emotions of Lin's emergence and left them on the verge of missing the playoffs.
Management, the coaching staff and the players know Anthony is hurting the offense and in turn, the defensive morale, according to the sources. While D'Antoni's offense calls for Anthony to plant himself on the wing at the 3-point line, he often creeps in to his favorite spot in the floor -- the area between the elbow, the arc and the post. That kills the Knicks' ability to run the high pick-and-roll and ruins the spacing that is so critical to D'Antoni's offense.
"That's at the very core of our problem," one person close to the situation said. "That messes up the fluidity of the offense. Melo could do it, but he's got to trust the offense."
When Anthony first returned -- and it still appears to be the case -- Lin would bring the ball upcourt and try to run D'Antoni's system. When Anthony would abandon the offense, Lin would not pass him the ball, which irritated Anthony, sources said. So when Lin tried to talk to Anthony on the court, Anthony would turn his back to the point guard and tune him out. The two never had heated exchanges, though, and the players tried to come to a compromise, agreeing to run D'Antoni's system while also mixing in post-ups for Anthony.
"But it's just a mess because D'Antoni's system is not designed for that," one source said.
Despite his often poor body language, many of the players believe Anthony is trying to adjust and sincerely wants to win. He has told people close to him that he is being asked to do things he's never done, saying that throughout his career he has always had plenty of post-up opportunities and that he is uncomfortable standing on the wing spacing the floor.
"Half the team is trying to do what coach says and the other half is doing something different," one source said. "Then it spills over to the defensive end because players are (ticked) off about somebody taking a bad shot."
With Anthony sapping the energy from the offense, the players often lose their incentive to play defense. But even when he's trying to play defense, Amare Stoudemire struggles. Having spent almost his entire career in D'Antoni's non-defensive system, Stoudemire has trouble making defensive reads and rotations. Anthony knows what to do defensively, but simply refuses to do it consistently, the sources said.
Some players believe D'Antoni had the leverage to force Anthony to adjust to his system when |
really long process, but in reality, doesn’t take more than a few moments). This way, you are mindful. You aren’t pushing the craving for food away, but are observing it and yourself. You have chosen to observe yourself instead of reaching out for the food. In a way, you have already altered your response. More so, you have bought yourself some ‘space’. When you feel a little calmer internally, check with yourself, ‘do you really want to do this?’ Chances are, the intensity of the pangs or cravings might have reduced. Now, you are at a better space to decide what you will do. You can then take a conscious decision about whether you will go order a pizza, or wait…for a healthier meal! 🙂
To sum it up, if you create a little mindful space between your craving and your response, it will help you choose your response with more awareness…
Hope this has helped. Do share your thoughts and ideas with us through your comments. Also, if you know anybody who would benefit from reading this article, please do share it with them
Image Credit: joo0ey
About the Author: Malini Krishnan is part of the team of psychologists at Inner Space – A center for counseling and psychological assessment. Sadia Raval is the Founder & Chief Psychologist.
You can follow Inner Space on Google+, Facebook and twitter for regular updates of their articles and share with them what you feel about this post.Othello Plaza, an affordable, transit-oriented development (TOD) by Mercy Housing Northwest (MHNW) and Sound Transit, officially opened its doors over the weekend.
The public-private partnership is across the street from the Othello light rail station, and provides 108 energy-efficient units for households earning from $18,000 to $55,000 per year.
Sixty percent have more than one bedroom so they have enough room for families: 53 two-bedroom units and 10 elusive three-bedroom units.
The building is also the brand-new home for MHNW with 7,500 square feet of office space, plus a 2,000-square-foot community center.
Multiple studies show that property values increase around transit—and it’s been especially true of Seattle’s light rail. On the other hand, a Pew Research study in 2014 found that people who are lower-income, black or Hispanic, immigrants, or under 50 are more likely to regularly ride transit.
Developments like Othello Plaza help walk that difficult balance: How do we make sure that transit serves people who need it without driving them out?
“Mercy Othello Plaza shows how we can leverage the opportunity of affordable, high-capacity transit by building affordable housing near Link light rail stations,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine at Othello Plaza’s dedication.
Sound Transit 3, approved by voters in November, created the Regional Equitable Development Initiative (REDI), which commits $21 million to low-interest loans for affordable developments sited within one-half mile of a light rail station or one-quarter mile of a frequent-service bus stop.
The first round of REDI financing is expected to build 500 to 700 affordable units—not even half of the 2,100 lottery entries for a spot at Othello Plaza. Still, it’s a dent.
REDI isn’t the only way Sound Transit is building affordable housing; Othello Plaza is the third TOD on land acquired by Sound Transit for affordable housing. Their first is a development for seniors near the Federal Way Transit Center in 2010; the second, Artspace’s Mt. Baker Lofts near the Mt. Baker station, opened in 2014.
An upcoming big project for Mercy is also close to light rail. A seven-story building with space for 95 homeless and low-income families will be located just a couple of blocks from the Mt. Baker station in partnership with the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the City of Seattle.A mobile euthanasia clinic will begin operating in the Netherlands on Thursday, to assist patients' whose own doctors refuse to carry out the procedure.
According to the AFP news agency, the the Levenseindekliniek (Life-end clinic) has prepared several teams made up of a specially-trained doctor and nurse to attend to patients in their homes.
"People who think they comply with the criteria for euthanasia can register," the Right To Die Netherlands (NVVE) spokeswoman Walburg de Jong is quoted as saying.
"If they comply, the teams will carry out the euthanasia at patients' homes should their normal doctors refuse to help them."
The Netherlands became the first country in the world to legalize euthanasia, when it approved the Termination of Life on Request and Assisted Suicide Act in 2002. The Act outlines strict criteria, including that the patient must be mentally alert when making the request to die and be in a state of "unbearable and hopeless suffering".
More from GlobalPost: Europe's growing euthanasia debate
More from GlobalPost: India - Euthanasia allowed in extreme cases
In 2010, the number of reported euthanasia cases in the Netherlands rose 19 per cent to 3,136, the Guardian reported.
THE NVVE says it expects to receive around 1,000 assisted suicides requests per year, and has already been contacted by 70 potential patients since the plan was approved in early February.
The Federation of Dutch Physicians has expressed concerns about the units and says it fears the teams may end the lives of people who could be treated.
‘In the worst cases, people could die who perhaps could have received some other help,’ a spokesman is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.
More from GlobalPost: Xerox series: Your body parts, made to orderTrio picked up after coastguard receives alert over vessel in peril, with RNLI lifeboat also deployed to help the men
Three Iranian men have been rescued off the coast of the Channel after their small boat got into trouble.
The trio were picked up by the border force vessel HMC Seeker near Hastings in East Sussex after it was alerted by the coastguard at 9.30am on Saturday
They were held two weeks after 18 Albanians had to be rescued from an inflatable boat after it sank off the Kent coast, prompting immigration union officials to say Britain’s coast faces one of its greatest ever breaches from small boats and dinghies carrying refugees.
A border force spokesman said: “HMC Seeker was deployed immediately and has picked up the individuals onboard who are believed to be Iranian nationals. The group will now be processed.”
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said its helicopter from Lydd in Kent and the RNLI lifeboat from Hastings had also been deployed to aid the men.In the post-lockout, salary cap era of the NHL the art of the trade has been slightly diminished by the pressures of economics. You still see some big names move once in a while, but it most cases it comes with a hefty cost for all teams involved. It’s enough to make cranky NHL fans longing for big blockbusters reminisce about the days when their team pulled off a heist for the ages. So with another NHL Trade Deadline upon us, we decided to revisit 15 of the most lopsided trades of all-time.
15) J.S. Giguere Trade – June 9, 2000
Calgary Ships Giguere To Anaheim For a 2nd Round Pick
The late 90s and early part of this past decade were not kind to the Calgary Flames, and neither was the team’s management for that matter. After appearing in 22 games in parts of two seasons with Calgary, future Conn Smythe winner and Stanley Cup champion Jean Sebastian Giguere was sent packing for California for a second-round draft pick (Matt Pettinger). The Flames felt more comfortable with Fred Brathwaite and an aging Mike Vernon in goal. The move was one of then general manager Craig Button’s first, and possibly his worst. Giguere’s resume from Anaheim speaks for itself.
14) Jaromir Jagr Trade – July 11, 2001
Pens Trade Jagr to Caps For a Few Bodies
Despite the return of Mario Lemieux to the Penguins, the mercurial Jagr felt his best interests were elsewhere. Coming off of a 121-point season, Jagr and Frantisek Kucera were sent packing to Washington for Kris Beech, Ross Lupaschuk, and Michal Sivek. The trio that the Penguins netted in return managed a combined total of 13 NHL goals, 10 of which belonged to Beech in 2001-2002. Jagr put up another 520 points between Washington and the New York Rangers. It was a small consolation to Pittsburgh that the Capitals eventually traded Jagr to New York for Anson Carter, although that fire sale helped Washington nab Alex Ovechkin in the draft.
13) Roberto Luongo Trade – June 23, 2006
Canucks Acquire Luongo For Big Bert
When Dave Nonis inherited the Vancouver Canucks from Brian Burke the team had a gaping hole in net. Nonis would turn the franchise’s fate around after sending a washed-up and struggling Todd Bertuzzi to Florida along with Alex Auld and defenseman Bryan Allen in exchange for Roberto Luongo, Lukas Krajicek, and a sixth-round pick (Sergei Shirokov). Luongo became the face of the franchise and an Olympic gold medalist, while Bertuzzi has traded jerseys five times since the trade. Luongo carried the Canucks’ hopes for much of the past decade and the jury is still out on the skilled Shirokov.
12) Adam Oates Trade – June 15, 1989
Wings Move Budding Superstar Oates to St. Louis
Although he would only spend two and a half season in St. Louis, Adam Oates left his mark by helping propel Brett Hull to NHL elite status. Hull eclipsed the 70-goal mark three times while skating with Oates, a milestone he’d never reach again after Oates moved to Boston. What stung the Red Wings most particularly with this transaction was that the return for Oates was an aging Bernie Federko and Tony McKegney. Federko played one season in Detroit before retiring and McKegney saw just over a dozen games before departing Motor City. Veteran winger Paul MacLean was also shipped along with Oates, and I netted a better return than the Wings when I sold my Oates rookie card.
11) Alexei Yashin Trade – June 23, 2001
Milbury Covets Yashin, is an Idiot
Honestly, you could take your pick from a dozen or so awful moves on the part of ‘Mad’ Mike Milbury. This one is probably his most baffling. What Milbury saw in the enigmatic former 2nd overall pick Alexei Yashin is beyond logic. Yashin was coming off of an 88-point season with the Ottawa Senators, so Milbury jumped at the chance to sell the Islanders’ future for the notoriously moody center. The deal for Yashin included winger Bill Muckalt, a young giant of a defenseman named Zdeno Chara, and the team’s 2nd overall pick in the 2001 draft. The draft pick would unsurprisingly become Jason Spezza, and the aforementioned Chara would enjoy several season in Ottawa before becoming a Norris Trophy winner in Boston. Milbury would sign Yashin to one of the worst contracts in NHL history with a 10-year $87.5 millon deal, of which he was eventually bought out of. Yashin, now playing in the KHL will continue to be paid by the Islanders through the 2014-15 season.
10) Mark Messier Trade – October 4, 1991
Oilers Complete Dynasty Dismantling By Trading Messier
Mark Messier won four Stanley Cups with the Gretzky Oilers, and led the team to another one year after Gretzky was sold to the Kings. In a move dictated by “financial” reasons, Messier and Jeff Beukeboom were shipped to New York prior to the ’91 season for Bernie Nicholls, and prospects Steven Rice, and Louie DeBrusk. Nicholls would spend a couple of lousy season in Edmonton while both Rice and to a lesser extent DeBrusk never panned out. Messier, who was coming off of an injury plagued ’90-91 season, returned to form in the Big Apple recording 107 points in his first season to capture the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player. In 1993-94, Messier would win his sixth Stanley Cup notching 30-points in 23 playoff games.
9) Joe Thornton Trade – November 30, ’05
Bruins Send Joe Thornton to San Jose
The Boston Bruins sent their captain and face of the franchise to the San Jose Sharks just a couple of months into the post-lockout era for next to nothing. Joe Thornton went on to lead the NHL in scoring in 2005-06, capturing the Art Ross and Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player. What did the Bruins get back for the then 26-year old star? How’s Wayne Primeau, Brad Stuart, and Marco Sturm for a return. Sturm is the only player still in a Bruins jersey, and despite being a perennial 20-goal scorer, he’s hardly a consolation for the loss of Joe Thornton.
8) Phil Esposito Trade – May 15, 1967
Boston Robs Chicago of Phil Esposito
It makes you wonder if the Thornton deal was karma coming back for the Bruins for this 1967 heist. The Bruins absolutely robbed the Blackhawks when the sent them Pit Martin, Gille Marotte, and Jack Norris in exchange for Phil Esposito, Ken Hodge, and Fred Stanfield. Granted, Martin had a decent career in the Windy City, but Esposito solidified himself as one of the greats while playing Boston. Hodge, too, had an excellent NHL career posting 105 points with Boston on two occasions. Fred Stanfield was even a near point-per-game player while in Boston. Esposito led the NHL in scoring five times in eight full seasons as a Boston Bruin.
7) Doug Gilmour Trade – January 2, 1992
Calgary Sends Gilmour to Toronto
January 2, 1992 was the day that Cliff Fletcher effectively changed the fortunes of his Toronto Maple Leafs while robbing the once proud Flames of theirs. Fletcher acquired Doug Gilmour, Jamie Macoun, Ric Nattress, Rick Wamsley, and Kent Manderville in exchange for Gary Leeman, Jeff Reese, Michel Petit, Alexander Godynyuk, and Craig Berube. Gilmour was the centerpiece of the trade for Toronto, and he would vault himself into super stardom while donning the blue and white. Instrumental in a couple of gutsy deep playoff runs, Gilmour also set a Maple Leafs franchise record for points with a 127-point effort in 1992-93 while capturing the Selke Trophy as the league’s best defensive forward. Leeman, a one time 50-goal scorer in Toronto, floundered in Calgary.
6) Brett Hull Trade – March 7, 1988
Brett Hull Departs Calgary for St. Louis
Yet another blundering trade by the Calgary Flames, a young and cocky Brett Hull is shipped to St. Louis for veterans Rob Ramage and Rick Wamsley. The Flames would win the Stanley Cup in 1989, but the effects of this trade would be felt for more than a decade after it took place. Hull’s scoring prowess was apparent in Calgary, but the veteran-laden team was not the best fit for soon-to-be superstar son of Bobby Hull. The 41 goals scored by Hull the next season would be his lowest total in seven years until the strike shortened ’94-95 season. Hull’s goal totals in ten full seasons as a Blue: 41, 72, 86, 70, 54, 57, 29, 43, 42, and 27.
5) Marcel Dionne Trade – 1975
Detroit Sends Disgruntled Dionne to Lotus Land
With his contract having expired with the Detroit Red Wings and coming off a breakout 121-point season, Marcel Dionne was looking for more money than the Wings were willing to offer him. A deal was reached with the L.A. Kings to trade Dionne and Bart Crashley for Terry Harper, Dan Maloney, and Los Angeles’ 2nd Round Pick in 1976. Dionne scored in bunches in California, and still stands today as the team’s all-time scoring leader and the league’s 5th all-time scorer. All this while standing at 5’8″, tiny by NHL standards.
4) The Great One Trade – August 9, 1988
The Unthinkable: Edmonton Trades Wayne Gretzky to L.A.
August 9, 1988 is a day that lives with infamy in Canada. Some call it Canada’s Pearl Harbor, the country’s biggest star and arguably the greatest professional athlete of his day, Wayne Gretzky was sold traded to the Los Angeles Kings. The fateful blow was only lessened by a gutsy 1990 Oilers team that managed to win a Cup without the Great One, but the day lives on as one that most Canadians wish never took place. Gretzky took his good buddies Marty McSorely and Mike Krushelnyski to the Kings in exchange for Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, three first-round picks, and $15 million for Peter Pocklington’s pockets. Edmonton would see another Stanley Cup, but Gretzky failed to win another after his departure. Hear much more about this trade and the book “Gretzky’s Tears” in our Podcast interview with author Stephen Brunt.
3) Tom Kurvers Trade – October 16, 198
Toronto Swaps a 1st Round Pick for Tom Kurvers
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a long history of terrible draft decisions, and a number of bad trades to match. This one might be the one that stings the most. After a terrible start to the 1989-90 season, Cliff Fletcher felt the team needed more depth on defense and sent the team’s first-round pick in the 1991 draft to New Jersey for Tom Kurvers. Kurvers was coming off of a career year having notched 66 points from the blueline, and followed that performance up with another strong season in Toronto with 52 points. Toronto’s pick in 1991 ended up being the 3rd overall choice, and New Jersey used it to select Scott Niedermayer. Kurvers was later traded to Vancouver for Brian Bradley, and Niedermayer went on to win four Stanley Cups and two Olympic gold medals. In typical Leafs’ fashion, Brian Bradley was lost to Tampa Bay in the expansion draft and scored 42 goals in his first season with the Lightning. It’s hard to say if Toronto would have selected Niedermayer had they hung onto the pick, and given their history it’s more likely they would have taken Brent Bilodeau. Still, an awful trade.
2) Cam Neely Trade – June 6, 1986
Canucks Send Cam Neely and a Pick to Boston
Cam Neely was a British Columbia product and had the makings of a premier power forward early on. So what did the Vancouver Canucks do with their young specimen of ferocity? They shipped him and their first-round pick to Boston for Barry Pederson. To his credit, Pederson was a shifty center with a nice scoring touch, but he was no Cam Neely. To make matters worse, that first-round choice ended up being Glen Wesley. Pederson’s scoring started to drop of rapidly in Vancouver, to the point of almost vanishing. Neely went on to pile up goals and PIMs in Boston and had it not been for injuries, Neely’s Hall of Fame career would have been even more accomplished.
1) Eric Lindros Trade – June 30, 1992
Philly Trades Six Players, a Pick, and Cash for Eric Lindros
To be fair, Eric Lindros was by no means a bust. Injuries derailed his career, and for a brief time he may have been the most dominant player in the world. When Lindros refused to play for the Quebec Nordiques after being selected first overall in 1991 it may have indirectly signaled the end of the team’s time in Quebec, but it also ushered in an opportunity to rebuild the entire roster with just one move. The Flyers moved to acquire Lindros by sending their own ’91 first-round choice Peter Forsberg, Mike Ricci, Kerry Huffman, Ron Hextall, Steve Duchesne, Chris Simon, a draft pick, and $15 million to Quebec for the Big E. Lindros enjoyed several great seasons in Philadelphia before it was realized that his head was made from pumpkin. Those players acquired in the Lindros deal helped the newly relocated Colorado Avalanche to Stanley Cup victories in 1996, and 2001. Further swinging the deal in Quebec/Colorado’s favor was that the draft pick from Philadelphia became Jocelyn Thibault, who was later sent to Montreal as part of the deal for Patrick Roy.With funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, several researchers are making progress toward more humanlike prosthetic hands—ones that give users a sense of control and touch.
The fingertips on this prosthetic hand are covered with a new form of artificial skin that can pick up slight pressure gradients.
Scientists from Stanford announced a new type of pressure sensor in the form of a flat, flexible material that might eventually serve as an artificial skin that could go over prosthetics, allowing users not just to manipulate objects but also feel them. The sensors send pulses that the brain interprets in order to determine a certain sense of touch. “It’s directly mimicking the biological system,” says lead researcher Zhenan Bao.
The “skin” is made from plastic which is printed with a waffle pattern to make it compressible. Embedded inside are carbon nanotubes—tiny cylinders of pure carbon that conduct electricity. Squeezing the material brings the rods closer together, creating more rapid pulses as the pressure increases.
In a paper in this week’s issue of Science, Bao and colleagues claim the sensors can pick up gradations in pressure that are equivalent to the difference between a firm handshake and a limp one. This is just one component of touch, and it wasn’t tested in humans. Instead, Bao and her colleagues sent the signals to slices of mouse brain in vitro—just to show they could get the sensor to communicate with neurons.
Still, it’s a promising step in the quest to make prosthetic limbs more real. “It’s impossible to do much of anything with a prosthetic hand if you can’t feel,” says Sliman Bensmaia, a biologist and computational neuroscientist who works on artificial limbs at the University of Chicago. Touch, he says, is hard to re-create because it’s a surprisingly complex sense. We can not only tell silk from satin, but also distinguish cheap silk from good silk. We do this because our skin can sense textures down to 10s of nanometers.
Eventually the researchers are hoping to channel information from artificial sensors into the peripheral nerves that were once connected to the lost hand. Already they’ve created interfaces that give users the ability to open and close their hands (see “An Artificial Hand With Real Feeling”). What they’d like next is the fine coӧrdination that allows us to move each finger separately.
And that will require electrical pulses to travel both ways—signals from a patient’s muscles and nerves moving the prosthesis, and sensors giving natural-seeming feedback to the patient. It’s a translation task, in part, as they try to get the sensors to speak the language of the nervous system, says Dustin Tyler, a professor of biomedical engineering at Case Western Reserve University.
The hard part is in creating an interface between the prosthetic and the patient that allows this language to be transmitted in all its complexity. “We’re not at the point where we can reproduce natural touch, but we are at the point where we can convey useful touch sensation,” says Bensmaia.“He-gassen” (1846 or 1864, late Edo period), ink on paper (via Wikipedia). Scroll to see the whole thing, beginning on the right and moving left.
Because there’s a snowstorm bearing down on us in New York, and because last night I sat through Matthew Barney’s new six-hour film, which deals heavily in bodily secretions, today seems like a good day to alert readers to the existence of something wondrous and wonderful: an illustrated scroll from Japan’s Edo period (1603–1867) depicting a fart battle.
‘What is a fart battle?’ you may be wondering. Well, the term for it in Japanese is he-gassen (hehe, also the name of the scroll), which, according to the Daily Mail, translates to “fart battle” or “fart competition.” And yes, the images in the artwork show people bending all the way over, pulling down their pants, and unleashing powerful, monumental farts as a weapon — shaded cones of gas aimed against buildings, other people, cats, and even part of a tree trunk. Made by an unknown artist or artists, the scroll is quite amazing, cartoonlike and silly yet also finely, carefully rendered.
And it turns out the he-gassen does have a deeper meaning beyond the eternal comicality of flatulence: it represents the Japanese reaction to intruding Westerners during the Edo period. “Apparently, similar drawings were used to ridicule westerners towards the end of the Edo period, with images depicting the westerners blown away by Japanese farts,” writes a blogger at Naruhodo, drawing on a book called A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower. Which means there are other fart battle artworks! Several prints in the same vein sold at Christie’s London for £935 ($1,580) in 1992.
But thanks to Waseda University Library, the entirety of this one, epic he-gassen scroll is viewable online. We’ve embedded it above; just keep scrolling to see the whole thing — although, like Japanese writing, the story actually begins on the far right, with five picnickers sitting and enjoying a healthy pre–fart battle laugh (as you do). Enjoy the scroll today, and every day, because there’s never not a good time to be gassin’.
h/t @bhsuttonEpisode six of Oil Change closes season four of Aquila Production’s award-winning documentary series about the Edmonton Oilers.
The final episode begins in the aftermath of the NHL tradeline on March 5th and follows the Oilers through the final five weeks of the 2013-14 season.
With the schedule winding down and the Oilers doing their best to play a spoiler’s role, the team find themselves challenged by a sudden rash of injuries. Ryan Jones, Jesse Joensuu, Anton Belov, Andrew Ference and Nail Yakupov are all knocked out of the line-up. That means calling up reinforcements from Oklahoma City. Anton Lander, Tyler Pitlick and Will Acton get return trips to Edmonton, while rookie defenceman Oscar Klefbom makes his long-awaited NHL debut. But this kind of help for the Oilers comes at the expense of the OKC Barons, currently locked in a tough battle to secure one of the final AHL playoff spots.
Other highlights of the episode include a behind-the-scenes tour of the memory-filled trophy room in Ryan Smyth’s home. There are some candid and insightful final reflections on this season and next from team star and scoring leader Taylor Hall, captain Andrew Ference, several other key players and G.M. MacTavish, and there is a retrospective look back at all those who’ve donned an Oilers jersey in the past four seasons of Oil Change.
Episode six of Oil Change premieres on Sportsnet’s national and regional stations beginning April 20, 2014. Stay tuned for exact broadcast dates and times in your area.Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) got as unsolicited words of advocacy last night from Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money. Cramer has never been a Tesla fan but he says he got a wake-up call on the need to tone down negativity on the firm. Cramer’s wake-up call was delivered by Jay Leno while speaking on the state of business in America.
Cramer is not particularly fond of Tesla and he seems to have a leaning towards bearish tendencies on the stock. In May, he accused Elon Musk of committing financial murder; earlier in April, he sided with the shorts on the stock. Two months ago, the same Cramer shaded the mass market Model 3 and he said he’d rather buy shares of Estee Lauder than buy the shares of the Elon Musk’s company. Hence, it is quite surprising that Cramer had reasons to sing Tesla’s praises last night.
Here’s what flipped the switch for Cramer
Jim Cramer reconsidered his stance on Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) after hearing Jay Leno speak about the EV maker. Cramer says, “Every once in a while you get a wake-up call about how gloomy things actually are out there. They come in all shapes and sizes. Today’s came in the form of Jay Leno”. He noted that he still finds it hard to value the EV maker but he agrees that Leno raised some valid points on why investors should be more optimistic and less pessimistic about the stock.
To see a list of high yielding CDs go here
To see a list of high yielding CDs go here.
During his commentary, Leno noted that Elon Musk is doing the unthinkable against all odds in the same spirit as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. Leno says “I don’t understand why people attack this car. It is made in America, by Americans. It is built local. You know we are becoming like the British — we like noble failures more than we reward success.” He also noted that Americans should celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship in Elon Musk and the successes that his firm has recorded.
In case you are still skeptical, Cramer notes that Tesla has a secret sauce for success and it wouldn’t make much sense to stand against the bullishness of the stock. In his words, “We often forget that there is such thing as progress, and progress can create a better world. Progress is also the secret propellant of stocks”.
Chinese billionaires back Tesla rivals
The success that Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA)has recorded in the automobile market has triggered the emergence of many startups that want to build EVs. One of such startups is Atieva, and the firm has the makings of a potentially fierce rival for Elon Musk’s company. CNN reports that Atieva has set up shop very close to Tesla’s Palo Alto headquarters in Silicon Valley and that Chinese investors with very deep pockets are backing the startup.
Former Tesla and Oracle executives started Atieva and the startup has poached key talent such as its CTO, Peter Rawlinson. Atieva plans to have a premium EV sedan (think Model S) in the market by 2018. The startup also plans to unleash a pair of luxury crossovers (think Model X) by 2020 or 2021. Of course, Tesla is way ahead of its rivals but the emergence of serious-minded startups in the EV scene might erode some of Elon Musk’s market leadership.
An interesting point to note is that Chinese investors are keen on breaking the monopoly that Tesla enjoys in the EV market. For instance, the same Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting backing Atieva is also backing Faraday Future and LeEco. Atieva, Faraday Future and LeEco all have a presence in Silicon Valley where Tesla has its base of operations.
(Visited 1,544 times, 1 visits today)A committee of the Philippine parliament on Monday found an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte was "insufficient in substance," rejecting it and effectively putting an end to the case.
The complaint, filed in March, alleged that Duterte had adopted a state policy of extrajudicial killings during his war on drugs, leading to the death of more than 8,000 people in the first eight months of his presidency. It also accused him of involvement in mass murder, and of widespread corruption during a previous term as mayor fo the southern city of Davao.
The Justice Committee of the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Duterte allies, noted that the filer of the complaint, opposition lawmaker Gary Alejano, had no personal knowledge of the alleged offenses.
"The complaint filed was frivolous. How can you proceed if the complaint has no basis?" said committee chairman Reynaldo Umali, a member of Duterte's ruling party.
Read: Why Duterte won't be prosecuted for crimes against humanity
Watch video 12:02 Share Philippines: Last chance: cold turkey Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2Z3WM Philippines: Last chance: cold turkey
'It will be a dictatorship'
Although the committee's decision, taken after 42 of 49 members voted against the complaint, still needs the endorsement of the lower house, there is almost no chance that it will be overturned in view of Duterte's commanding majority there as well.
The dismissal means that any new impeachment complaint can now not be filed until next March.
Alejano warned that the decision would allow Duterte to continue with what he called a dictatorial form of leadership.
"I assure you, if we allow the president that kind of power in violation of the constitution, if we allow it further, it will be a dictatorship," he told reporters after the vote.
Read: Duterte slams 'idiotic' EU proposal to treat drug addicts
Bloody campaign against drugs
Duterte won presidential elections last year pledging to carry out a massive crackdown on crime in which tens of thousands of people would die.
The president himself has admitted killing crime suspects while mayor of Davao, but has denied any involvement in killings of more than a thousand drug users and petty criminals in the city between 1998 and May 2016 that human rights groups allege were carried out by death squads.
Since Duterte took office as president at the end of June, police have reported killing some 2,700 people, with Duterte calling for addicts to be slaughtered and promising to pardon police if they are found guilty of murder in the course of his drug war.
Although many Filipinos support Duterte's war on drugs, there have been protests
International criticism
Human rights groups, however, put the number of suspected drug dealers and addicts killed much higher, at 7,000-9,000.
The United Nations, the European Union and the United States have all criticized Duterte's methods, but surveys show that he remains a popular president at home.
Last month, a Philippine lawyer also filed a complaint at the International Criminal Court (ICC) allegedly that Duterte had been responsible for mass murder. However, the ICC has so far not said whether it will follow up on the complaint, and its rules demand that all legal remedies must first be exhausted in the Philippines.
tj/jm (AP, AFP, dpa)Friends eating a Thanksgivings dinner together (Shutterstock)
Fewer Americans may be asking for God’s blessing of their Thanksgiving meal this year.
Religious participation is declining among Americans even though religion is still very popular. According to the latest Religious Landscape Study by the Pew Research Forum, the percentage of Americans who believe in God, attend religious services and pray daily has declined significantly during the last eight years, especially among adolescents. The drop in religious participation is larger among whites, and less among blacks. One group bucking the trend is political conservatives, who show no decline.
The Pew surveys document the rise in secularism but don’t attempt to explain it.
Psychologist Jean Twenge and her colleagues have cited a rise in narcissism and self-centeredness among young people, but in truth there is no hard data scientifically linking narcissism to the decline in religious participation.
Could something else be behind this important shift?
As a researcher who has spent 30 years studying human motivation, I believe we embrace or reject religion based on our values. I see four possible psychological reasons for the recent rise in secularism in America based on decades of studying what makes people tick.
Surveying 100,000 people
Decades ago, we began by creating a list of every possible goal or motive we could think of. We then asked people to rate the extent to which each goal motivated them.
The respondents indicated how much they love to learn, for example, play sports or do things their way. We have surveyed about 100,000 people from many cultures in North America, Europe and Asia.
As described in my book Who Am I?: The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Behavior and Define Our Personality, we discovered that humans share 16 basic desires.
They are: acceptance, curiosity, eating, family, honor, idealism, independence, order, physical activity, power, romance, saving, social contact, status, tranquility and vengeance.
My colleagues and I now believe that everything that moves us – all human motives – express one or more of these 16 basic desires.
For the past 10 years, we have been learning how these desires play out in religion and spirituality. In my latest
book, The 16 Strivings for God: The New Psychology of Religious Experience, I suggest that virtually every religious belief and practice expresses one of the 16 basic desires, or two or more of them acting together. Your most important desires may be curiosity and social contact, for example, but your partner’s most important needs may be acceptance and order.
We have a choice of satisfying our desires through religion and spirituality or through secular institutions. The believer may satisfy his or her need for acceptance by embracing God-as-savior, whereas the nonbeliever might embrace, say, positive psychology. The believer may satisfy a need for status by embracing the idea of having been created by God, whereas the nonbeliever might pursue wealth and materialism to feel important.
Religion rises and falls in popularity depending on how well it satisfies our needs versus the secular alternatives. Viewed in this light, four major shifts in secular culture may be behind the decline in religious affiliation.
1. Organized religion versus spirituality
Philosopher William James, whom some consider the “Father of American psychology,” and psychiatrist Carl Jung, who developed the idea of the extrovert and introvert, were among those who embraced mysticism, or a sense of the Absolute, but had little use for organized religion. James taught us to search for the mystical, personal God that meets our needs as individuals. Jung wrote that organized religion gets in the way of the true religious encounter.
Historically, mysticism – or what some call “spirituality” – has been associated with disinterest in organized religion.
More Americans than ever are saying that they are “spiritual, but not religious.” In the 2012 survey by the Pew Religion and Public Life Project, nearly a fifth of those polled said that they were not religiously affiliated. That number has increased to 23% in the latest study.
People seem to be shifting their search for meaning by looking within rather than to the |
new dog owners had clocked about 89 minutes of weekly walking, but dog ownership boosted that number to 130 minutes a week.
A study of 41,500 California residents also looked at walking among dog and cat owners as well as those who didn’t have pets. Dog owners were about 60 percent more likely to walk for leisure than people who owned a cat or no pet at all. That translated to an extra 19 minutes a week of walking compared with people without dogs.
A study last year from the University of Missouri showed that for getting exercise, dogs are better walking companions than humans. In a 12-week study of 54 older adults at an assisted-living home, some people selected a friend or spouse as a walking companion, while others took a bus daily to a local animal shelter, where they were assigned a dog to walk.
To the surprise of the researchers, the dog walkers showed a much greater improvement in fitness. Walking speed among the dog walkers increased by 28 percent, compared with just 4 percent among the human walkers.
Dr. Johnson, the study’s lead author, said that human walkers often complained about the heat and talked each other out of exercise, but that people who were paired with dogs didn’t make those excuses.
“They help themselves by helping the dog,” said Dr. Johnson, co-author of the new book “Walk a Hound, Lose a Pound,” to be published in May by Purdue University Press. “If we’re committed to a dog, it enables us to commit to physical activity ourselves.”
A version of this article appeared in print on March 15, 2011 on page D6.A "super excited" Jessica Mauboy will sing at the Eurovision song contest in May in what could be her biggest break yet, given a global television audience of many tens of millions will see her perform.
But hang on. If you just did a double-take and wondered 'why?' when Australia is not by any reasonable definition a part of Europe, it appears to be a reward for our ongoing love of pop music's most celebrated and self-conscious cheese-fest.
Indigenous performer Jessica Mauboy to perform at Eurovision, which is hosted by Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang.
According to SBS, which has screened Eurovision for more than 30 years, 2.93 million Australians watched last year's contest, which was won by Danish singer Emmelie Charlotte-Victoria de Forest for a barefoot performance in which she was accompanied by hunky drummers in military-style outfits. As you do.
SBS says Mauboy's guest starring role in Copenhagen will be the first time a solo artist from a non-European country has been invited to perform by the key networks, the European broadcasting Union and the host broadcaster, in this case Denmark's DR.For several hours, millions of people around the world thought it was a real golden eagle swooping down and snatching a tot from a Montreal park before dropping the baby unharmed.
A YouTube video titled “The Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” went viral, leaving many to ask: Could this be a hoax or did this happen?
Well, the truth came out Wednesday afternoon when a Montreal animation school admitted that the hoax was hatched by third-year students.
Both the eagle and the child were created in 3D animation and integrated into the real shooting, the school, Centre NAD, said.
Normand Archambault, Antoine Seigle, Loïc Mireault and Félix Marquis-Poulin, who were taking part in the simulation workshop class, had brain-stormed with each other about making a video with wide appeal.
And they decided on their subject because everyone loves babies and animals.
But how to combine the two?
The idea took flight about five or six weeks ago. Once the project was approved, they made a deal with their teacher that if the video surpassed 100,000 views on YouTube, they would get 100 per cent on the assignment.
It did much better than that, wildly growing past 5 million views by Wednesday afternoon, which made the 400 hours they put into the project well worth it.
The video was picked up by dozens of media outlets across Canada, the United States and Europe.
“We were also surprised by the events,” Claude Arsenault, spokesperson for the school, told the Star.
“We’ve done some hoaxes in that class before, but they never reached such proportions. We were the first ones this morning to see the numbers going up,” she said. “We’re very proud of our students. This was definitely great quality work. Needless to say the students will get a full mark on that assignment.”
Other hoaxes performed at the school involved a penguin that had apparently escaped from a zoo in Montreal, and another about controlled quantum levitation on a wipeout track.
None achieved anywhere near the numbers of the eagle hoax.
This video was so good that bird experts contacted by the Star were fooled — at least partly.
Although none believed this was a golden eagle, or even a North American bird, their analysis was that the bird was real, perhaps an osprey.
Having fooled the world that an eagle would pluck a child from a public park, however, has left a bitter taste in the mouth of bird experts.
David Bird, 63, professor of wildlife biology at McGill University, said he’s all for a “good joke” and he thought the video was at first “amusing.”
Later, however, he said the bird-expert community felt that the students “did a disservice” to birds of prey with this hoax.
“We’re trying to educate people to show that these birds play a role in the food chain, but they don’t attack people,” Bird told the Star.
However, Arsenault said the students were sensitive to that issue and that’s why they came clean a little more than 12 hours after the video was released.
“With the reach that it got, it made no sense for us to wait any longer,” the school spokesperson said.
“Our goal was never meant to make people believe that a child had been attacked by an eagle. It was simply to showcase the talent. The goal of that class is really to take 3D to its limits and show how realistic something can look.”
These are students who are going to be looking for opportunities to perform special effects for movie studios once they graduate.
The goal was never to “harm the reputation of the bird,” Arsenault stressed. “That’s why we went ahead and took ownership of the hoax as fast as we did.”
The one-minute, undated clip shows what is being described as a golden eagle swoop down to pick up a baby, only to drop the child a few moments later to horrified comments from the cameraman as he drops the camera and runs to the scene.
But critics quickly speculated that this was hoax.
None of the bird experts who viewed this video thought this was any kind of North American bird and certainly not a golden eagle.
One bird expert in the United States was so upset that he called the video “garbage.”
Kenn Kaufman, who is on the board of directors at the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Oak Harbor, Ohio, posted his feelings on the group’s Facebook page when he saw this at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“With all the ignorance about nature that’s out there already, the last thing we need is this kind of stupid garbage,” he wrote.
Kaufman’s anger had subsided when the Star talked to him Wednesday afternoon, but he still maintained this video undermined the understanding of birds of prey.
Kaufman, author of many birding books including the Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding, said that, while he salutes the creativity behind this video, he thinks it created unnecessary fear of eagles.
“Some of the morning news shows in the U.S. played the clip as if it were real,” Kaufman complained. “We’re trying to get people to like birds and appreciate birds. You’re making people afraid they can’t let their kids outside and they have to go out and shoot eagles to protect their kids.”NEW YORK -- He calls himself "Jimmy Justice," a self-styled "cop-arazzi," armed only with a video camera as he prowls the streets of New York looking for law enforcement officers who are breaking the law. His targets are illegally parked city government vehicles -- particularly cars of traffic cops blocking bus stops, sitting in "no parking" zones or double-parked.
Cop cars blocking fire hydrants make him particularly incensed.
"Something like that is just despicable," Jimmy fumed, pointing to a police enforcement vehicle parked next to a fire hydrant on 33rd Street on Manhattan's West Side on a muggy July afternoon. "They're never allowed to block a fire hydrant -- but they do it."
He posts his best videos on YouTube and sends regular e-mail to the union representing the city's traffic enforcement agents, pointing out the most egregious parking offenses. And he has gotten results, he said, with some parking enforcers being fined because of his videos.
"I'm using a video camera as a weapon," he said. "I believe a video does not lie."
He is a fairly big, stocky guy, and with his brusque and hectoring manner, he has been described as obnoxious, self-righteous and worse.
"He acts like an adolescent," said James Huntley, the president of the traffic enforcers union. "I believe he's a big kid, or he wouldn't go around intimidating people who are just doing their job."
But in the digital age, Jimmy Justice represents a new kind of citizen vigilante at a time, particularly in New York, when amateur videos are increasingly being used to hold law enforcers to account and shine a public spotlight on their excesses.
Within the past week, two videos have surfaced showing what appears to be police misconduct in New York. In one video, viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube, a police officer is seen charging a bicyclist and knocking him to the ground during a July 25 group bicycle ride through Times Square -- despite the officer's sworn complaint that the cyclist tried to run him down.
A few days later, a separate video appeared, showing another police officer apparently swinging a baton and beating a handcuffed suspect lying on the ground during a July 4 arrest.
The police department has been stung by the incidents, and the officers involved have had their badges and guns taken away while the department investigates. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said there will soon be a way for people with videos of crimes -- and incidents of police misconduct -- to send them directly to the police through 911.
In the eyes of civil libertarians and others who have long complained about police excesses under New York's "zero tolerance" policy, the increasingly common use of video by ordinary citizens has started to shift the balance away from law enforcement officials in questions of official misconduct.The 7 Most Important Things I Learned From 1 Year Pedaling The World On My Own
Thomas Despin Blocked Unblock Follow Following Apr 15, 2016
April 15th 2015 was definitely one of the most important day in my whole life. It was a Wednesday. I was 23 years old.
I had a bike, I had some bags, and a lot of equipment. I was ready. I couldn’t say that I was really well prepared though. But for sure I was gone. First step achieved.
During the past year, I cycled 10,500km from Bordeaux, France to NYC, USA from where I am writing this article today.
I crossed 16 countries, took 20 ferries, met 100 startup CEOs, met thousands of people and slept in places you couldn’t even imagine you can sleep in (for the best and the worst).
All of this started one year ago. And if I’m celebrating my first birthday on the road from New York City today, I can’t realize that this was only one year ago.
I lived 5 times more during the past 12 month than ever before.
I spent 5 times less money than when I lived in France in my small studio.
I wrote this article to connect the dots and share with you the 7 most important things I learned from this experience.
I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it :)
1. Letting Go
When you’re traveling on your own, by bike, and when you’re as few prepared as I was, you have to build the ability of letting things go.
I was the kind of guy who was easily obsessed with pointless things. I was obsessed with planning, having everything clean, and I was depreciating surprises and unexpected things.
I can’t help laughing today when I thing to my younger self being stuck in this mindset.
When you’re traveling this way, letting go is not an option.
Plans change all the time, rain can ruin your days and your nights, you never know who you’re gonna meet, you never know where you’re gonna sleep, and you never know what’s gonna happen on the road.
By the way, I didn’t learn how to let things go in purpose. It happened automatically after the first few days immersed in my new life.The Philadelphia Eagles are now 1-1 in the 2017 NFL preseason after defeating the Buffalo Bills by a final score of 20 to 16. Like last week, this game featured some ugly football at times, but there were a number of positive signs as well. Here’s a look at 11 things we learned.
1 - Seemingly no major injuries
The fact that the Eagles escaped this game without a single player leaving early makes the night a big success. Philadelphia only has one more preseason game to get through where the starters will play. Staying healthy is the most important thing when meaningless football is being played.
2 - Carson Wentz still has something to work on
Wentz didn’t look bad on Thursday night by any means. He didn’t look great, either. One of the issues he’s had in the past showed up where he overthrows targets near the sideline. This happened with Alshon Jeffery early in the game. Wentz’s tendency to overthrow his targets in those situations are harmless since the ball goes out of bounds. But it’s dangerous when those throws happen over the middle. That didn’t happen last night, though, and I’m nit-picking here. It would be nice to see him clean that accuracy up. Maybe a cleaner pocket would help out. I still think Wentz has had a pretty encouraging summer, all told.
3 - Ronald Darby looks like the real deal
In the span of a week, the Eagles went from having no real inspiring players at cornerback to having a very inspiring player at cornerback. Darby looked very good in his Eagles but. He almost came up with a pick-six early in the game before notching an actual interception later in the first quarter. Darby didn’t exactly face the most challenging competition, but it was still a pretty encouraging performance by him. Couple it with the fact he’s looked good in practice since arriving in Philadelphia and there’s ample reason to feel good about Darby. Having a good cornerback improves the secondary, and when the secondary plays well (Jalen Mills looked solid again and Rodney McLeod tipped a pass that led to a pick) it buys more time for the Eagles’ defensive line. Speaking of …
4 - The Eagles’ defensive line is no joke
I’ve been very, very bullish on the Eagles’ defensive line. The early returns are good; this unit has been flat out dominant through two preseason games. Brandon Graham had a great tackle for loss on LeSean McCoy. Fletcher Cox pushed the Bills’ guard back into Tyrod Taylor to force an incompletion. Derek Barnett continues to shine and deserves to get playing time with the starters. He’s been awesome. Chris Long has been getting pressure regularly and also defends the run well. The Eagles have a lot of talent and depth on the defensive line.
In fact, they have so much depth that the battle for the fifth defensive end spot could be a tough cut. Maybe the Eagles will keep both Steven Means and Alex McCalister, but if it’s just one, it could be a tough call. McCalister is younger and long. Means turns 27 soon, so he’s no young prospect, but he’s been really productive. Ultimately, this is a good problem for the Eagles to have.
5 - The Eagles’ offensive line needs to be better
Philadelphia’s offensive line isn’t playing so well right now. In fairness, they’ve been missing some of their starters in the past two games. Brandon Brooks was out against Green Bay. Jason Peters and top swing tackle Halapoulivaati Vaitai did not suit up against the Bills. With that said, offensive line depth is supposed to be a strength of this team. The players and coaching staff don’t seem to be too worried; they’ve insisted the offense will look better once the team starts actually game-planning for their opponents. Maybe that’s the case. In the meantime, it’s a concern worth keeping an eye on. The offensive line is critical to this team’s success.
6 - It’s going to be interesting how the running back situation plays out
I have no idea how the Eagles’ running back situation is going to play out.
LeGarrette Blount, who figures to be the starter, hasn’t looked very effective. He has 17 rushing yards on nine carries through two games. I know a lot of people will complain about Doug Pederson running him to the outside, but guess what? Blount isn’t actually a bad outside runner, statistically speaking. The 250-pound rusher ranks 10th out of 59 running backs on runs to the outside over the last three years.
I’m not too worried about Blount. It’s not like he’s looked great but I think he’ll be fine if/when the offensive line gets it together.
Outside of Darren Sproles, an obvious lock, who else fits into the running back picture? Wendell Smallwood might be the team’s best runner but he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. Byron Marshall looked decent but he was playing against third and fourth stringers.
Corey Clement could be pushing for a roster spot. He rushed for 34 yards (4.3 average) and a touchdown on Thursday evening. I don’t have anything against Clement, but I’m wary of preseason running back performances based on recent Eagles history. Remember when everyone thought Henry Josey and Raheem Mostert were studs? They didn’t amount to anything in the NFL.
A number of people have pointed out Clement was more productive than those players in college. That’s certainly true in the case of Mostert, but Josey’s college stats aren’t all that far off from Clement. And Josey only played three seasons while Clement played four.
We’ll see what Clement can do in the final two preseason games. I still think he’s a practice squad guy, unless …
… unless the Eagles stash Donnel Pumphrey away on the injured reserve list this season. I’m trying not to overreact to two two preseason games, but I haven’t been very encouraged by what I’ve seen out of Pump. He doesn’t have the kind of explosion one would expect from a smaller player. I don’t think he looks ready to contribute right away. Even Dave Spadaro suggested Clement is ahead of Pumphrey.
So maybe the Eagles will try to roll with Blount, Sproles, Smallwood, and Clement. Or maybe Pumphrey will look better when the Eagles put together an actual game-plan for him. For now, I’m skeptical of what the Eagles have at running back. It really stinks that this year was a great running back draft class and they didn’t come away with a full-time answer at the position.
7 - Mychal Kendricks is the MVP of the preseason so far
I never thought I’d be writing that, but here we are. Kendricks has looked pretty good through two games. He had an interception and a sack against the Bills.
Kendricks’ performance has caused people to say that the Eagles should keep him instead of trying to trade him. There’s some merit to that argument since the Eagles are light on linebacker depth.
The problem is that the coaching staff clearly doesn’t love Kendricks. They only played him 27% of the snaps last year for a reason. Maybe his playing time would go up if he stays for this season, but I still maintain it’s more realistic he gets traded. Kendricks requested a trade earlier this offseason and I think the Eagles will get a deal done now that he’s boosting his value.
Whether he stays or goes, it’s good for the Eagles that Kendricks is playing well.
8 - Philadelphia’s wide receivers didn’t look bad
Alshon Jeffery didn’t do anything exceptional in his Eagles debut but he looked good.
The same was true for a number of Eagles receivers on Thursday. Nelson Agholor showed good shiftiness while lining up in the slot. And he didn’t drop any passes! Encouraging sign. Marcus Johnson showed off what the Eagles like about him on a 38-yard catch-and-run opportunity over the middle. He’s fast. Greg Ward, who’s working in the slot, made a tough contested catch over the middle of the field and held on despite taking hits. I know I say it a lot but it’s remarkable how quickly he’s transitioned from quarterback to receiver. Shelton Gibson didn’t have a catch against Buffalo but he did draw a defensive pass interference penalty to set up a rushing touchdown late in the game, so that’s a positive sign.
The showing from these Eagles receivers is a reminder why the team felt comfortable trading Jordan Matthews. A number of them might not be as good as JMatt, but they’ve flashed enough to show they can contribute in some fashion. It’s not like they’ve sucked like 2016’s group of receivers did.
9 - Caleb Sturgis is looking a little shaky
Sturgis is 3/5 this preseason with misses from 45 and 46 yards out. That’s not the end of the world, but it’s not super inspiring. At least he did make a 48-yard kick. We’ll see if the Eagles bring anyone in to challenge Sturgis. After the game, Doug Pederson suggested that he’s not worried about the Eagles kicker.
“None whatsoever,” said Pederson when asked about his level of concern. “[I have a] lot of confidence with him going forward. [It’s] something he's working on every day, and [he’s] got a couple weeks to get it straightened out.”
10 - Matt McGloin should never throw a pass for the Eagles again
I think I speak for everyone when I say there’s been enough of Matt McGloin for one preseason. The game just hasn’t been very enjoyable when he’s been in. Hopefully Nick Foles will return to action next week to be the main backup to Wentz. (I can’t believe I just said that.) I’d also like to see Dane Evans, who looked decent against Buffalo, get playing time before McGloin does. It looks like the undrafted free agent quarterback from Tulsa could make the Eagles’ practice squad.
11 - The week ahead should be interesting
The Eagles will hold joint training camp practices against the Dolphins this week before playing Miami on Thursday. The third preseason game is the dress rehearsal so the starters should get some significant playing time. This will be Philadelphia’s last chance to work out the kinks before their regular season begins on Sunday, Sept. 10.
...
Watch Doug Pederson’s post-game press conference via the Bleeding Green Nation Facebook page (click here or view below).
EAGLES WIN - Head coach Doug Pederson talking now Posted by Bleeding Green Nation: For Philadelphia Eagles Fans on Thursday, August 17, 2017
Watch Carson Wentz’s post-game press conference via the Bleeding Green Nation Facebook page (click here or view below).'Giant loopholes' in Treasury's deal with Swiss authorities mean HMRC will see only small fraction of expected £3.2bn
The Treasury's attempt to tax wealthy individuals who hide their assets in Switzerland was declared an embarrassing failure by experts on Friday after the Swiss authorities said it would generate only a small fraction of the expected £3.2bn haul.
The Tax Justice Network campaign group said "giant loopholes" in the deal struck by the Treasury minister David Gauke and former HMRC chief David Hartnett had undermined the UK's attempt to trawl the Swiss banking system for untaxed funds.
According to the Swiss Bankers Association (SBA), the deal does not apply to most UK nationals who keep their cash in Swiss banks because they are not domiciled in the UK.
The SBA said the UK may get little more than a CHF500m (£347m) minimum levy agreed with the UK after individual banks found only small sums from UK citizens were caught by the deal.
The Swiss declaration is not only embarrassing for the Treasury, it also This knocks a sizeable hole in public finances as the Office for National Statistics controversially included the £3.2bn in May's public accounts.
The levy contributed to a narrowing of government borrowing from £15.6bn in May 2012 to £12.7bn.
According to the Treasury's red book, which forecasts tax revenues over the next five years, a one-off levy on Swiss assets owned by UK residents, ranging from 21% to 41%, was due to raise £3.2bn in this tax year.
A withholding tax on future gains and income of up to 43% was expected to rake in £610m in 2014-15 and £920m in the following year. Much of that income must now be in doubt, the Tax Justice Network said.
Coming only a year after the government cut the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p, the campaign group said the deal was a huge giveaway to wealthy UK nationals able to hide their assets in tax havens.
"The Swiss withholding tax model is now dead. Dave Hartnett, David Gauke and the government that sanctioned this deal must now hang their heads in shame," it said.
A spokesman for the SBA, which lobbies on behalf of all the major Swiss banks, said the deal was proceeding and it was too early to predict how much money would be declared to the Swiss and UK tax authorities, though it was already clear fewer untaxed assets than expected had come to light.
"This is mainly due to the fact that many clients have resident non-domiciled status. These clients are not liable to taxation in the UK and thus do not fall under the agreement," it said.
The SBA said numerous UK clients had chosen to make voluntary disclosures to the tax authorities, which the association said was not surprising given Switzerland's announced adoption of a global standard for the automatic exchange of information.
It is not clear how much the Treasury has received directly from UK citizens who opted to make a voluntary disclosure of their tax position, but tax experts said it was unlikely to make a material difference to the shortfall.
But a Treasury spokeswoman said there was no reason to revise the estimated revenue from the deal.
She said: "As the SBA has said, more people have chosen to disclose their tax affairs to HMRC than expected so the yield from this route is likely to be higher than anticipated."The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 (c. 13) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It transfers the control of police forces from police authorities to elected Police and Crime Commissioners. The first police commissioner elections were held in November 2012. The next elections took place in May 2016 and will subsequently take place every four years.
The Act repeals the provisions in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which prohibit protests near Parliament Square, and instead restricts certain "prohibited activities" in Parliament Square garden and the adjoining footways. The police have used these powers to confiscate pizza boxes, tarpaulin and umbrellas from protesters in Parliament Square.[1]
The Act removed the statutory requirement for the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to include scientists. The move follows the sacking of David Nutt from the council in 2009.[2]
Section 153 of the Act amends section 1 of Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 so that an arrest warrant for an offence of universal jurisdiction cannot be issued without the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions, unless applied for by a Crown Prosecutor.
References [ edit ]WASHINGTON -- A pair of national liberal groups are launching a draft campaign to encourage Rep. Donna Edwards to enter the race to replace U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, who is retiring next year.
Democracy for America, the group founded by former Vermont governor Howard Dean, and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee have sent emails to members asking them to support the five-term congresswoman from Prince George's County.
"She's a bold progressive who steps up for big fights and doesn't back down in the face of Republicans or under pressure from Democratic leadership," an email to DFA supporters sent Thursday read.
"Donna Edwards has a vision for a progressive America and the backbone to fight for it," the email read.
Edwards, 56, a rising star in her party who defeated 15-year incumbent Al Wynn in the 2008 Democratic primary, has said she is seriously considering the race. Edwards represents the state's 4th Congressional District.
The groups sent emails to supporters a day after Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Montgomery County Democrat, became the first to enter the race. Some on the party's left have criticized statements Van Hollen made as the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee.
Another liberal advocacy group, MoveOn.Org, voiced concerns Wednesday about Van Hollen's supportive statements about the Bowles-Simpson deficit reduction panel which suggested changes to Social Security, such as raising the retirement age.
"As he enters the race, we request that he clarify his position on Social Security,” MoveOn said in a statement. "It was deeply disappointing when Rep. Van Hollen said in 2012 that the Bowles-Simpson plan that would have cut Social Security benefits was 'the right way to go.'"
Van Hollen did not endorse the Bowles-Simpson recommendations -- and has not included the report's provisions on Social Security in his own budget proposals -- but said they could be used as a framework for a comprehensive deficit reduction plan of the kind that both House Republicans and the Obama White House were pressing for at the time.
Supporters note Van Hollen led push-back on the Obama administration's move toward the so-called chained CPI for Social Security as part of deficit reduction talks and that he frequently noted "serious" and "substantive" concerns with that idea, which would have slowed cost of living adjustments for seniors.
Van Hollen also has a perfect score from the Washington-based Alliance for Retired Americans, a group that advocates for seniors.
"From day one, Chris Van Hollen has fought for retirement security for all Americans," a campaign aide said. "During budget negotiations, he stood up to Republican efforts to dismantle the program and erode its benefits with the damaging chained CPI calculation… And he will continue to fight any effort to cut benefits or raise the retirement age."Is Facebook Down? Why yes it is. [Update: Err, was. As of 1pm PST, service has returned to the US, Germany, and other places after a roughly 20 outage, though some users are still having trouble accessing the service.] Users reported the social network went down on web and mobile in the US as well as the UK, Germany, Thailand, Portugal, and other parts of the world at around 12:40pm PST. With earnings of $2.91 billion in Q2 2014, Facebook theoretically loses about $22,453 for every minute it’s down around the globe. However, since this was pretty prime browsing time for Facebook’s key markets in the West, it was likely losing a lot more. The 20 minute outage could have cost it around a half million dollars.
Downtime trackers showed the outages too. We’ve contacted Facebook for info about how widespread the problem was, and the cause, and when all users worldwide can expect it to work again. Facebook has had an uncharacteristically problematic summer with major outages in May, June, and August.
We’ll have more info when we hear back from Facebook.
Update: Facebook provided this statement.
“Earlier today we encountered an error while making an infrastructure configuration change that briefly made it difficult for people to access Facebook. We immediately discovered the issue and fixed it, and everyone should now be able to connect. We apologize for the inconvenience and will thoroughly investigate this issue so we can learn from it and ensure that Facebook is there when people need it.”
For now, here’s some of the best Internet art criticizing Facebook for sucking away our time (all rights and accolades go to the original artists).
Feel free to take this moment to go outside or have a quiet moment of reflection before the feed starts gushing again.Firefighters rescued 20 dogs from a burning home in Mercer County, New Jersey Monday night.
The fire started just before 8:00 p.m. on the 2300 block of Pennington Road in Hopewell Township.
Police say 49-year-old Ramona Burnett, who rents an apartment inside the house, came home to discover her 13-year-old son outside the building. When she entered her apartment she smelled smoke and found fire in her son's bedroom on the first floor.
Police and firefighters arrived to find heavy fire in the rear of the house. They went inside and found the dogs.
"I was a little concerned at first because the pups were so like non-responsive and stuff like that. We'd give them air and they'd kind of move but these were babies, their eyes weren't even open yet," said James Brundage of the Lawrence Road Fire Company.
The tiniest puppies were brought out clinging to each other piled in a fireman's hat. Volunteers from the nearby Lawrence Road Fire Co. cradled the animals in their arms while using specialized pet oxygen masks donated recently by the Humane Society to help revive the dogs, which ranged in age from about two weeks to two years old.
"One turned into five, turned into 20 and the more dogs they brought out we just kept hooking them up to the oxygen, bringing them back to life and putting them in the cage," said Chris Laird of the Lawrence Road Fire Company.
"As you start to give them oxygen you can feel them start to come back and kick and start to fight," said firefighter James Brundage. "Once they start to kick back and fight you know they're okay."
The masks, donated to 4 area fire companies in January by the Humane Society, come in 3 sizes and can be used on dogs, cats, guinea pigs, even something as small as a bird.
The home's occupants escaped. Unfortunately, one dog perished in the fire and on Tuesday 4 two-week-old puppies had to be euthanized because they were in such bad shape.
Still, firefighters are focusing on how one simple piece of equipment helped to save most of the animals pulled out of the burning house.
"I've got two dogs of my own and I love them so it touched my heart that we could save all those dogs," said firefighter Keith Kent.
With their owner left homeless and nowhere to go after the blaze was put out, a neighbor who runs a towing company generously agreed to keep the dogs and pups that didn't require vet care overnight.
"At first I was asked if I could take three, then it ended up at 13!" said Desiree Brennan. "I didn't know how to say no. I couldn't. After I saw them and I knew they didn't have anywhere to go last night, I just wholeheartedly volunteered."
Hopewell Animal Control officer Bob English picked up the dogs on Tuesday morning and is hoping to find temporary shelter for them. He'll also be looking into why so many dogs were in one house.
Meanwhile, firefighters are thrilled that the simple pet oxygen masks they carry on the Rescue 22 truck were able to help revive so many of the dogs.
"People have all these different pets at their houses nowadays. We're trying to be versatile, not just humans. I mean we save everything possible in the house including objects and people's pets," said Kris Palmer, President of the Lawrence Road Fire Company.We've had a week of sex scandals in schools. Now Terence Kealey, vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, seems intent on stirring things up on the academic front.
Female students, he declares, are a perk of the job for male university lecturers – though they should look, not touch.
In an article for the Times Higher Education magazine on lust, part of a feature on the seven deadly sins of universities, Kealey wrote: "Normal girls – more interested in abs than in labs, more interested in pecs than specs, more interested in triceps than tripos – will abjure their lecturers for the company of their peers, but nonetheless, most male lecturers know that, most years, there will be a girl in class who flashes her admiration and who asks for advice on her essays. What to do?
"Enjoy her! She's a perk."
Flashing a few literary allusions, he continued: "She doesn't yet know that you are only Casaubon to her Dorothea, Howard Kirk to her Felicity Phee, and she will flaunt you her curves. Which you should admire daily to spice up your sex, nightly, with the wife."
Displaying a more surprising familiarity with the etiquette at lapdancing clubs, Kealey added: "As in Stringfellows, you should look but not touch."
The magazine's academic readers were outraged, including otototototoi who wrote: "I'm amazed that Terence K has a position in any university, and I'll be damn sure never to apply for a job at Buckingham. Why did the THE print this awful, ugly nonsense?"
Kealey, who has been vice-chancellor at Buckingham, the country's only independent university, for eight years, said it was a myth that an affair between student and lecturer was an abuse of power, saying accountability has meant that "the days are gone when a scholar could trade sex for upgrades".
But he added that some female students still fantasised about their lecturers.
Kealey's comments were attacked by Olivia Bailey, women's officer at the National Union of Students.
She told the Telegraph: "I am appalled that a university vice-chancellor should display such an astounding lack of respect for women.
"Regardless of whether this was an attempt at humour, it is completely unacceptable for someone in Terence Kealey's position to compare a lecture theatre to a lapdancing club, and I expect that many women studying at Buckingham University will be feeling extremely angry and insulted at these comments."
Should Kealey be allowed to have his fun? Or has he badly misjudged how students and staff feel about this issue?(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) House Select Committee on Benghazi chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., left and House Select Committee on Benghazi ranking member Elijah Cummings, D- Md., talk on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014, before a House Select Committee on Benghazi hearing on the implementation of the Accountability Review Board recommendations.
The Benghazi Select Committee shed the bipartisan cloak it had worn |
of Electricity (ICE). Carlos Manuel Obregón, the executive president of ICE, said improvements to the grid, as well as upgrades to a number of clean energy power plants, have made the monumental achievement possible. “The regulatory reservoirs offer us a guarantee to maximize the use of variable sources, mainly water on the edge and wind, and in parallel to supply the contribution of geothermal energy,” he explained.
With just six weeks left in 2017, it is possible Costa Rica will set another record for the number of days it can run entirely on renewable energy.
While this latest news is laudable, it is important to point out that Costa Rica differs both in size and population when compared to other nations, such as China and the US. The country also has access to more natural resources (specifically, geothermal and hydropower). Furthermore, Costa Rica has no plans to replace the million or so cars that still use internal combustion engines. Because they churn out carbon dioxide, they negatively affect both air quality and the climate.
Of course, unlike these countries, Costa Rica had the foresight to not invest in fossil fuels. Additionally, its government is not easily manipulated by the fossil fuel industry. That alone has propelled the country’s sustainable efforts.
Despite these considerations, Costa Rica’s latest achievement still deserves recognition. The small country has proven several times that it is possible to live in harmony with the Earth while sustaining a healthy economy. Every year, its tourism industry brings in billions of dollars. In 2008, for instance, just over 2 million tourists visited the eco-friendly nation, bringing in over $2.14 billion in revenue.
As Monica Araya, the founder of renewable energy initiative group Costa Rica Limpia, said in a 2016 TED talk,
“It really is time to debunk the myth that a country has to choose between development on the one hand and environmental protection, renewables, quality of life, on the other.”
The country’s example might be most inspiring to small nations, such as those scattered in Africa and South East Asia. With the right tools, education and support system, countries such as Kenya and Bali may become clean energy havens — and it’s all thanks to Costa Rica’s example.
What are your thoughts? Please comment below and share this news!
h/t Science AlertJonesReport
May 5, 2008
CBS anchor Katie Couric told members of We Are Change that she would support a new 9/11 investigation "if there’s enough public support," after first commenting that she’d "have to think about it."
Gary Talis, of We Are Change, also cited the Jersey Girls, who first pressed for the inquiries that became the 9/11 Commission. Couric said she knew them, seeming concerned at the idea their questions had been largely ignored.
"The commission definitely had some issues," Couric admitted.
Couric added that she herself had done a 60 Minutes piece about the respiratory illness that 9/11 rescue workers from the pile now face and was certainly concerned about that aspect of 9/11 truth issues.
Talis also spoke briefly with Jeff Greenfield, also a CBS correspondent, who was dismissive of a new 9/11 investigation and quickly walked away after commenting:
"A lot of people have views like that who are very strange," Greenfield said.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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The US-Canadian border, where hundreds of billions of dollars in goods and services are traded freely between countries each year, is a critical lifeline for the North American economy. But the same porous divide marks the line between life and death for millions of Americans, thanks to drug monopolies holding them hostage to brutally overpriced medicines. Ad Policy
Though Congress has resisted reform for years, public outrage over the industry’s profiteering is rising as volatile drug markets have priced both insured patients and the uninsured poor out of essential medicines. Now that Trumpcare threatens to further deregulate the health-care industry, progressive lawmakers hope to chip away at Big Pharma’s monopoly by turning north.
Senator Bernie Sanders recently introduced a bill that would allow Americans to buy prescription drugs from Canada, provided that they meet US regulatory standards. The bill could start to transform the process by which Americans get their medicine, substantially lowering drug costs for both individuals and insurance providers, including many working poor families and older consumers on Medicaid and Medicare.
Because Canada, like virtually every other wealthy industrialized nation, offers comprehensive universal health-care coverage, Canadians generally pay much lower prices for medicines overall than their southern neighbors. US consumers, who are locked in Big Pharma’s captive market, pay brutally inflated costs through insurance or out of pocket—for drugs that Canadians can buy at a fraction of the price.
The Improving Access To Affordable Prescription Drugs Act (with a companion bill in the House) would give Americans access to Canada’s cheaper drugs by allowing cross-border retail purchase and imports of medicines. The measure could save consumers as much as 35 to 55 percent of the usual US list price. For example, the popular cholesterol drug Lipitor can cost Canadian patients under $50, compared to more than $150 for the same dose sold on the US market.
Though the measure would only curb one source of health-care inflation, and though Canadian market access would still be restricted under the law, granting more consumers access to a rationally priced market (with the possibility of adding more countries’ markets later on), could start to chip away at Big Pharma’s market stranglehold and spur campaigns for more broad-based health-care restructuring. Predictably, the pharmaceutical industry lobby is smearing the measure by painting it as “government interference in prescription drug pricing.”
But the public is frustrated enough with “free market” drug pricing to finally seek government intervention. Runaway drug prices will cost Americans about $328 billion this year, about $50 billion straight from consumers’ pockets, while drug makers enjoy record profits. As individual patients struggle with medical bankruptcy or get forced to choose between rent and their next insulin shot, the drug cost crisis also feeds into wider societal ills, including the epidemic of medical bankruptcy and even opioid abuse.
Under pressure from pharmaceutical industry lobbyists, both Democrats and Republicans have repeatedly squelched efforts to regulate drug prices. But there may be more momentum around drug pricing today, as Republicans seek to shred the Affordable Care Act, and even President Trump has called for drug-price reform (though he favors the dubious pro-business version: deregulating the industry as a solution, rather than tightening market controls).
“Unlike other sectors in health care,” says Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program, “drug spending really doesn’t have to be what it is. It’s fixed by no factor other than our acquiescence to the monopoly pricing power of the drug corporations. It’s not principally about paying for expertise or labor or administrative costs…so this is an area where you can take a real whack at health-care costs.”
The perennial excuse for prohibiting Canadian drug imports is “safety” concerns, based largely on the spurious notion that Canadian drugs are not subject to comparable standards to that used to regulate US drug markets. (In fact, many of them are just resold US-made drugs). A recent analysis by the Senate Committee on Aging acknowledged that typically the standards of Canada and other similarly developed countries “are stringent and comparable to US standards.” The most recent version of the bill also includes safeguards for oversight of drug sourcing by the Food and Drug Administration, and protections against counterfeiting.
Still, health-care advocates warn that the industry’s monopoly power can only be curbed through much stricter corporate regulations, not just by tweaking consumer markets.
The Senate report cited systematic market distortions through patent law loopholes: In recent years lax regulation has allowed the industry to hike the price of specialized drugs like the liver medication Cupramine by several thousand times within five years, with no additional investment in development—in other words, pricing the drug not according to its effectiveness, just by how much patients can pay for survival.
Adding injury to insult, the report found, some companies cloak their predation in charity with special pricing through “exclusive patient assistance programs,” but often these are used to capture the market, tie patients to their brands, and keep out potential competitors, like generic drug makers that could provide cheap unbranded versions.
While Republicans claim to be ideologically opposed to government control of health care, Maybarduk notes, “Government is involved already. It’s the government that confers the monopoly power on companies…that allows the companies to price as they please.” Simply reversing this regulatory manipulation is “going after the legalized corruption at work in certain parts of the system.” Ready to Fight Back? Sign Up For Take Action Now
The Sanders bill does include more expansive reforms, including a fund to promote public financing for clinical research and development of new treatments for bacterial infections—a non-profit-focused pathway toward combating antibiotic resistance. And Canadian market competition would be coupled with stricter standards for issuing patents to drug makers seeking exclusive control over brand markets.
But a long-term overhaul of the system requires going beyond simply opening new consumer markets to shift the entire market’s incentive structure to prioritize public health. Comprehensively reducing costs involves expanding consumer leverage through mass purchasing power—for example, by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices on behalf of beneficiaries nationwide. Ultimately a single-payer structure, in which the government controls all health care financing, is the only system that would really guarantee both equity and access for consumers and providers.
We can’t purchase Canada’s health-care system. But allowing people to fill their prescriptions under a fairer cost structure could help grow the public’s appreciation for the vital role government plays in providing health care as a human right. And maybe people will realize that citizens of the world’s richest nation shouldn’t have to go to another country to get it.Brendan Rodgers is close to his second signing as Liverpool manager after the club activated the £15m release clause in Joe Allen's contract with Swansea City. The move follows an admission by the Liverpool manager that Daniel Agger could be sold but only for a "ridiculous" fee that would enable him to improve the squad.
Liverpool have already turned down a verbal £20m offer from City, informing the Premier League champions they want a £27m package that could potentially involve Adam Johnson going on loan to Anfield for the season. City consider that exorbitant for a 27-year-old, pointing out there would be little resale value, but are still hopeful a deal can be struck. The club want Scott Sinclair, of Swansea City, to take Johnson's place.
Allen has been a target for Rodgers since he left Swansea for Anfield in June, despite Liverpool signing an agreement not to raid their manager's former club for players for 12 months. Liverpool have exploited a technicality in Allen's Swansea contract that allows him to join one of five specified clubs – Liverpool among them – for £15m and, having met the price, the Wales international is free to hold talks over a move to Merseyside.
The 22-year-old midfielder has been the subject of several bids from Liverpool this summer, with Swansea previously rejecting a deal of £12m plus Jonjo Shelvey on a season-long loan. Allen's expected transfer, Rodgers hopes, will address a key part of his plans for Liverpool's midfield this season and precipitate increased activity in the transfer market at Anfield.
Agger's position may change, the Liverpool manager admitted, should City make an offer that finances several signings at Anfield, where only the £10m Fabio Borini has been added to the squad so far. Rodgers is also keen on signing the Real Madrid midfielder and Arsenal target Nuri Sahin on a season-long loan.
"There has been contact [from City] but nowhere near the valuation of what the player is worth," said Rodgers, who makes his Anfield bow against Gomel in the Europa League qualifier second leg today. "You can only consider an offer for a player like that if it is going to benefit you. You don't want to lose a top player but if it benefits you going forward and you can make two or three steps because of it – you may have to consider it.
"But we don't want to sell Daniel so unless someone comes in with a ridiculous offer, that makes you look at it and think you can benefit in one or two other areas, there is no way I want to lose one of my best players."It smells in here. Like wet cardboard. Old shoes. Hot milk. Cat litter. And it’s your fault. That is to say, the reason it’s stinky inside “the MRF,” Waste Pro’s 400,000-square-foot Material Recovery Facility on Fulton Industrial Boulevard, is because most of us put out the wrong stuff for pickup.
Leave a big blob of yogurt in the plastic container? That cup is contaminated, and it’s probably going to the landfill. Did you put your shredded bills into a plastic grocery bag and neatly knot it at the top before putting it in the recycling bin? Landfill. Were you feeling self-righteous by using a glass bottle instead of plastic? Glass goes to the landfill, too.
“It’s a problem of education,” says Roni Page-Dowdy, program manager for Waste Pro. “People don’t know what goes in recycling and what doesn’t. And they definitely don’t understand what happens after that.”
Let’s start with the fact that most people assume a plant like the MRF actually recycles. What the plant does is process about 4,000 tons of potentially recyclable materials every month—or 10 pounds per home, per week—from the greater metro Atlanta area and five counties in and around Athens. The processed materials are baled into tight cubes, like the garbage in Wall-E, and sold to end users that recycle them into products like brown paper napkins, water bottles, and jeans.
“We have contracts with companies like International Paper and Georgia-Pacific, and we have an obligation to bring them a certain amount of material per month,” Page-Dowdy says. “The buyers change depending on the commodity and the market.”
Right now that market is very tough. You may think of recycling as a moral imperative, but in truth it’s a for-profit commodities business. And the prices for commodities like plastics—currently as little as 15 cents per pound—are lower than they’ve been since the recession thanks to falling oil prices, which have made new plastics cheaper to produce than recycled ones; wilting demand from once-hefty buyers like China; and oversupply. Now that there’s a glut of glass in the market, for example, Waste Pro can’t sell the old glass, so for now all of the bottles that Atlanta residents put into their recycling bins are going to the landfill. The company can sell paper and plastic, but for far less money than before the price of oil dropped—and not when the materials are contaminated. Buyers don’t want dirty stuff. And they definitely aren’t interested in garden hoses, toilet seats, straightening irons, baby pools, yard of bridal tulle, and the other random things people toss into recycling bins.
“The unfortunate fact is the money coming in is not covering the cost required to process the recycling,” says Bob ten Haaf, regional vice president for Waste Pro in the Carolinas and Georgia. Some of its competitors have had to shutter plants across the U.S. and have even filed for bankruptcy. “If there’s no buyer,” says ten Haaf, “what can we do?”
Behind the scenes
1 Pickup
Waste Pro’s recycling trucks are inspected every morning before drivers head out on routes. Each is equipped with two steering wheels, so the driver can get out from either side. The vehicles dump everything in together, but nothing is mixed in with regular garbage; that’s a different truck.
2 Dumping
After finishing their routes, trucks are parked until about 7 p.m. (so drivers can avoid traffic headaches), when they’re driven to the Material Recovery Facility for unloading.
3 Sorting
Materials are loaded onto a raised conveyor belt that can move as fast as 300 feet per minute. They are sorted several times: first by workers, who scan and pick out contaminated or forbidden materials; then by machines; then again by workers. Items are directed into chutes; anything recyclable is piled with like materials to be baled, while garbage heads to another pile that will be taken to the dump.
4 Baling
The recyclables are squashed and tied into bundles that are delivered to buyers.
How to recycle better
The best way to help the recycling business? Make it easier for them to operate.
1 If you’re not sure whether something is recyclable, don’t put it in the bin. Plants waste precious resources hauling and sorting what is ultimately trash.
2 Don’t try to recycle plastic bags or put your recycling inside a bag before tossing it in the bin. Bags aren’t recyclable at single-stream facilities, and they gum up the works at the processing plant.
3 If you live in the city of Atlanta, know that your glass is headed to the landfill—at least for now.
4 If your recycling starts to smell after a day or two, it means you haven’t cleaned the materials enough. That means they’re likely to get landfilled—no matter what they’re made of.
5 Don’t put paper inside a bottle inside a bag. Sorters don’t have time to take your garbage apart and look for the good stuff.
6 Be aware that bottles made from biodegradable and compostable plastics are often misidentified by the sorting machinery, which mistakenly directs them to the landfill.
This article originally appeared in our August 2016 issue.Photoshop, Ethnography, and User-centered Design
Almost two years ago, the Photoshop team pivoted to focus its energies and resources on design features and workflows. To be successful, the team needed to understand trends in design and tools, as well as develop connections and empathy to design and designers. Worth noting, the pivot happened not long after Adobe moved to a subscription service and away from big box releases every 1–2 years. The subscription model provided an opportunity for development to be more iterative, but so much had to be re-thought, including research and customer feedback loops. This was the task then: build deeper knowledge and empathy around UI design, as well as develop feedback loops suited to new development cycles. As an anthropologist and ethnographer (the first ever at Adobe!), I was hired as a consultant to help address those gaps.
What is Ethnography, Then?
I am an anthropologist, which means I study present-day culture via ethnographic methods (no, I’m not like Indiana Jones — in so many different ways). This means that I do fieldwork and spend a lot of time with people. Immersion is key, and connections and empathy flow from it, letting me understand what makes folks tick. Then, working from that place of empathy, I become an advocate and help build stuff — whether its needle exchange programs from my time in public health, or software.
Dependent on empathy, emotion, and personal connections, ethnography (ideally) is never one thing, never rigid in its approach. Rather, it should always be informed by the unique perspectives, experiences, and skills, of everybody involved. And I mean everybody — researchers and participants. A good ethnography is inherently collaborative. It is a creative undertaking, drawing on the resources, skills, and personalities involved to create something unique. You are always building research (and ultimately solutions) tailored to the problem at hand.
Keep Calm, I’m an Anthropologist
I joined Adobe in the summer of 2013 and first conducted an ethnography of “young product designers”. The goal was to generate a high-level understanding of the professional norms, values, and lives of an emerging generation of UI designers.
Rickie Sherman killing it on the Game Cube at Collective Ray one July afternoon.
The ethnography was a pretty fantastic experience. I ended up spending most of my time at two small shops in San Francisco — Collective Ray and Pacific Helm. I would spend a few days a week at each — watching, listening, asking questions and participating when appropriate. I also joined for the occasional social event — like Friday afternoons at Collective Ray drinking beer and playing Mario Kart on the GameCube they kept around. Sometimes the ethnographer life can be a hard one, but in moments like this you can gain valuable insight and build valuable relationships.
During that summer ethnography, I met a bunch of awesome folks, including designers like Brian Benitez, Jeff Broderick, Louie Mantia, Brad Ellis, and Shahrouz Tavakoli. They were, and are, part of an energetic, amazing community skirting the edges of establishment design. Maybe routing around or flying right past traditional design institutions and paradigms is the right way to put it. I was new to this design world, but it was clear to me that the epicenter, the energetic core, to web and app design was right there — not in schools or in AIGA.
Immersed in self-organized networks using platforms like Twitter and Dribbble, I documented how designers were building new channels for learning, mentoring, and ultimately, for pushing the relationship between design and technology forward. A lot of designers I met, and have met since, didn’t get to their professional place via traditional design channels and institutions. It was also clear that as designers built new paradigms, values around sharing, openness, and collaboration were important. It was a great space to step into, one I’m still enjoying participating in.
I also found that while the use of Photoshop was ubiquitous, there were a number of places where the workflow fell apart for product design. Naturally, there was frustration around this, and many were flirting with other design tools. Perhaps more importantly — there was also a relationship problem. I heard many different versions of this: “We’ve been asking for a lot of features for years. Adobe just won’t listen.” Frustration and feelings of neglect were apparent, and the perception that Adobe and Photoshop weren’t tuned in to the needs of UI designers was prevalent.
For many designers, there was a profound disconnect. While Photoshop had fantastic feedback loops and relationships with its photography and imaging customers, there was no real conversation happening with designers. The connections were weak. Consequently, one of the central points we pondered was : its not just about building the right tools or features (which needed to happen), but we also need to consider how we build it. Can we be more open, transparent, and connected? Can we understand and align with emerging design practices, communities, and values?
This is where the real fun begins — in both what we did and how. Because really, who at that point knew what the pivot was going to look like. Artboards in PS? No way. A new open-source Design Space front-end running on top of Photoshop? No f’ing way! Partnering to organize a new and awesome design conference called Layers? What!
User-centered Design
The incomparable gents Mike Monteiro and Liam Campbell, welcoming me into Mule Design.
Building on my ethnographic forays into local agencies, I spent time at several more — again for 6–8 weeks at a time. My sites were diverse — from places like Thoughtbot to Mule Design to an array of agencies specializing in branding/ identity spanning print and digital media. We also talked to a massive number of web and app designers either in person or virtually, and visited with a number of product teams in San Francisco. Participatory design sessions exploring “ideal design workflows” were part of the fun as well. This phase of the work was open-ended. We were just listening, exploring, and trying to understand in detail emerging trends in design and tools.
We heard things like: “The limitations of Photoshop aren’t with visual design. It’s with capturing the experience — that’s where the barriers are.” Meaning, it was difficult to work quickly and efficiently on a design meant for multiple devices and/or multiple screens. It wasn’t easy to recycle and repurpose elements, to create a responsive design system.
We also heard statements like: “I want a lightweight, focused design tool that let’s me concentrate on the content.” Or: “I only use 10% of the app — PS doesn’t feel like a concise tool.” This led the team to not just prioritize features that would support systems design (artboards! libraries with linked assets!), but to think about how to develop an entirely different Photoshop-based design experience altogether. That vision is coming to fruition in Design Space.
As we gathered these kinds of insights, we experimented with how to relay them to the team. We shared the feedback, via presentations as well as an internal blog, but did so with as much concrete context as possible. Eschewing personas, which are abstract and often vague, we represented individual designers with their struggles and ambitions to the team. This made them tangible and helped build empathy. Wanting to build even deeper connections, we started bringing designers into 1:1 contact with the Photoshop team, asking a handful to come in individually and share their workflows and chat with us about the good and the bad. Each one of these sessions was incredibly powerful — the team always left understanding design workflows and painpoints more deeply. In fact, it was at one of these gatherings that a designer I met while playing Mario Kart at Collective Ray ended up sparking a Photoshop engineer to take a first and imaginative stab at artboards.
Once the exploratory work settled and the priorities emerged, we turned toward creating user feedback loops. We wanted designers to have a strong voice and influence in what we were doing. This was a high priority with buy-in and support from all parts of the team. Our goal was to facilitate participation and feedback at the earliest stages of design and dev, and place it at the center of an iterative process. The team felt it would help us build the best features and workflows we could.
Loops and Groups
In an early experiment, we created a Google+ group that brought design customers together with Photoshop engineering, design, and management to work on implementing multiple layer styles. It worked OK, not great. Nobody used Google+, and it was a clunky experience for what we wanted. In conversation, the team kept putting Slack on the table, but at this point the platform didn’t offer multiple team functionality. We went for it anyway, hacking our way toward multiple team use. Since a large number of UI designers use Slack for their own work, adopting the platform made sense. For imagers and photographers, who are not using Slack professionally, we have turned to Facebook for user groups. Its incredibly important to meet the users where they are and make it easy for them to talk with you.
Quickly after we adopted it, Slack introduced multi-team support. Since, it has emerged as absolutely central to the user-centered design processes we formed and are still honing. It allows customers, Photoshop design, management, and engineering to work on feature development in a pretty fluid way. We can get valuable feedback on comps, prototypes, and builds and iterate accordingly. Every major feature for the CC 2015 release, including Design Space, was built using these feedback loops. We have over 100 designers we’re working with in this Slack team — which has turned into a fantastic little community.
A quick note on team structure and process. The Photoshop team is organized by “molecules” — small teams of design, engineering, and management that work on a particular feature. So for example, one molecule, called Cyan (real name), developed artboards. Via a private group in Slack, which turns out to be easiest way to keep conversations focused and tight, we matched up around 20 designers with members of the Cyan team. As ethnographer, I helped facilitate the implementation of the group, carefully considering who might be a good fit. But once formed, Bradee Evans, lead designer on Photoshop, and Joel Baer, product manager, led the conversation and fashioned unique feedback loops and learning sprints within artboards development. Each molecule engaged with their groups a little differently — flexibility is key.
My role as ethnographer then, included preparing the ground for the feedback loops, but once established the team involved handles the interactions and its own feature-specific validation research. Some researchers feel differently, but I don’t feel it necessary for research to mediate every customer/ team interaction and shape the learnings. Direct connections are super valuable, facilitate organic relationships, and almost always benefit everyone involved.
warm analog tones by Photoshop’s own @bradee
This is where we are now then. We use exploratory ethnography to understand trends, context, and opportunities, which then feeds into planning and priorities. This informs preliminary design, which undergoes iteration based on user feedback (relationship with users emerges from out of ethnography), until we release and measure impact quantitatively and gauge experience qualitatively.
Conclusion
Ethnography deeply informed the Photoshop team’s focus on design. We used it to not only understand trends in design and tools — which shaped development priorities — but ethnography was (and is) also integral to building empathy and connections. These connections resulted in rich feedback loops and user-centered development processes which are continuing to grow and mature.
Iterative development grounded in ethnography and user feedback is an ongoing initiative though. We’re extending what we learned in the design pivot to other workflows and users of Photoshop (as well as new products). Ethnography was called in to help with a specific objective, but ended up influencing the team’s larger processes and development strategies.
… Like I mentioned, ethnography is a collaborative, creative undertaking, so the project wouldn’t have been possible without everybody who took the time to engage and provide feedback over the last two years. You influenced Photoshop in a positive and wonderful way — the team is VERY appreciative. Hugs and a 🍪 to all. THANK YOU! …. (and thank you to @bradee, @zedgy, @jbaercat, and Pam Clark for reading early drafts).
_________
Charles Pearson is a PhD anthropologist currently consulting for Adobe Photoshop. I don’t have a pith helmet, and I suck at Mario Kart (most video games really).Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, California. He is the author of Living the Secular Life, Faith No More, and Society Without God. He has also edited several volumes, including Atheism and Secularity, Sex and Religion, and The Social Theory of W.E.B. Du Bois. Zuckerman writes a regular blog for Psychology Today titled “The Secular Life.” His work has also been published in academic journals, such as Sociology Compass, Sociology of Religion, Deviant Behavior, and Religion, Brain, and Behavior. In 2011, Zuckerman founded the first Secular Studies department in the nation. He earned his PhD in sociology from the University of Oregon in 1998. He currently lives in Claremont, California, with his wife, Stacy, and their three children.
* * *
Harris: Your most recent book is Living the Secular Life, and you founded the secular studies program at Pitzer College. Perhaps we should begin by clarifying what “secularism” is, because many people use it as a synonym for “atheism,” which it isn’t.
Zuckerman: I’m going to resist the urge to whip out all my lecture notes, because this stuff is central to what I teach, and I’ve got a lot to say here. But I’ll try to be as brief and concise as I can.
We’ve got three terms that are closely related, but also distinct.
First off, let’s start with “secular.” To me, that simply means “non-religious.” In a nutshell, I’d say someone is secular if 1) he or she does not hold any supernatural beliefs about deities, spirits, or netherworlds 2) he or she does not engage in any religious rituals or rites, and 3) he or she does not identify or affiliate with a religious group, denomination, or tradition.
Next comes “secularization.” This term refers to a historical process whereby a given society becomes less religious over time: Fewer people hold religious beliefs, fewer people place importance on religious rituals or rites, fewer people identify as religious, fewer institutions exist under the auspices of religious authorities, and so on.
Finally, what you asked about: “secularism.” For me, the “ism” is key here. It implies ideology. Social movement. Political agenda. How things “ought” to be.
On this front, we’ve primarily got good, old-fashioned Jeffersonian secularism, which at root is nothing more than the ideology or political position that church and state ought to be separate and that government ought to be as neutral as possible when it comes to religion in the public square. This version of secularism is basically anti-theocracy-ism (or what used to be called disestablishmentarianism). It is an ideology that is often embraced by both religious and secular people. And it most definitely is not the same thing as “atheism.” In this instance, “secularism” is a political or ideological position concerning the relationship between government and religion (keep them separate!), whereas “atheism” is a personal absence of belief in gods.
Harris: Yes, it was the Jeffersonian sense of the term I had in mind, and I think that’s the meaning worth emphasizing. Secularism in this sense does not require unbelief. It merely demands a commitment to keeping religion out of politics and public policy. Secularism is the only viable response to religious pluralism—otherwise incompatible religions will vie for political dominance. Secularism, essentially, is a condition of permanent truce.
Zuckerman: I totally agree. But there is definitely another popular form or manifestation of secularism—one that is much less focused on the separation of church and state. This form is about people and groups actively trying to disabuse other people of their religious beliefs or involvement. It is a secularism that actively seeks to combat and critique religion. It is predicated upon the view that religion ought to go away, that religious beliefs ought not to be believed in anymore, that religion is a harmful thing and society would be generally better off if it just went away. Think of the 1980s hit “Dear God,” by XTC. That song wasn’t advocating for the separation of church and state. Rather, it was trying to get its listeners to agree that believing in God is silly or absurd. Or think of your first book, The End of Faith, which is not a detailed defense of the separation of church and state but primarily about exposing the irrational, malevolent, and harmful aspects of religion. This form of secularism—as exemplified by XTC’s song and your first book—is definitely not the same thing as “atheism,” per se, but it comes fairly close: Most secularists who actively seek to make religion go away and want to disabuse other people of their supernatural beliefs are atheists.
Harris: Can you summarize the current commitment to secularism in the West? Is it increasing?
Zuckerman: In certain parts of the West—particularly Europe, Australia, and Canada—secularism is going strong. However, in other places, including the USA, the situation is much less clear-cut.
In terms of political secularism, we see many instances in which the realms of religion and government are becoming more clearly and strongly divided. For example, Sweden officially disestablished religion from government in 2000. And in Britain, challenges to religious involvement in the public schools are growing. In Israel, there is increasing opposition to the governmental support of religious institutions and to the ability of religious fundamentalists to opt out of compulsory military service. In France, the separation of church and state is widely celebrated, and restrictions on religion in the public sphere are increasing.
However, here in the United States, the wall of separation between church and state is becoming less secure, especially in light of recent court decisions. I’m thinking specifically of some cases decided in 2014: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that closely held, for-profit corporations can claim exemption from laws that go against their owners’ religious beliefs. It also decided that kicking off city council meetings with explicitly sectarian Christian prayers is constitutional. Even the Massachusetts Supreme Court declared that the teacher-led, God-centric language of the Pledge of Allegiance doesn’t discriminate against the children of non-theists.
In other ways, however, the kind of secularism that involves weakening religious faith or lessening the strength, prestige, and pervasiveness of religion in society has been incredibly successful in the West, even here in the USA.
I don’t want to barrage you with endless numbers, but the stats are staggering when it comes to people in the West who are abandoning religion. Consider just these tidbits: A century ago in Canada, only 2% of the population claimed to have no religion, whereas today nearly 30% of Canadians claim as much, and approximately one in five does not believe in God. A century ago in Australia, less than 1% of the population claimed no religious identity, but today approximately 20% of Australians claim as much. A century ago in Holland, about 10% of the population claimed to be religiously unaffiliated; today more than 40% does. In contemporary Great Britain, nearly half the people claim no religious identity at all; the same is true in Sweden.
Furthermore, 61% of Czechs, 49% of Estonians, 45% of Slovenians, 34% of Bulgarians, and 31% of Norwegians do not believe in God. And 33% of the French, 27% of Belgians, and 25% of Germans do not believe in God or any other sort of universal spiritual life force.
In the East, the most recent survey information from Japan illustrates extensive secularization over the course of the past century: Sixty years ago, about 70% of Japanese people claimed to hold personal religious beliefs, but today that figure is down to about 20%. Such levels of atheism, agnosticism, and overall irreligion are simply remarkable—not to mention historically unprecedented.
I just got the latest data on Latin America: 37% of people in Uruguay, 18% in the Dominican Republic, 16% in Chile, 11% in Argentina, and 8% in Brazil are non-religious. These are all unprecedented levels of |
there Earthlings!
Originally published: 09:05This particular version of the Iliad, the story of the siege of Troy, is a translation by Samuel Butler, first published in 1898.
Iliad, (Song of Ilion; Song of Ilium) this epic Homeric poem tells the story of the Trojan War and the battle of Troy (Ilium), one of the most important and well-known events in Greek mythology when the gods still visited mortals. It tells of Achilles, leader of the Achaeans and his great wrath towards King Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks. Narrated by one informed by the Muses, it includes other such important Achaean and Trojan figures as Zeus, Patroclus, Diomed, Ajax, Menelaus, Hector, Hecuba, Helen, Paris, and Aeneas. Iliad is a glorification of war and the bravery of Achilles, demi-god and great military warrior.
A war started over a single fruit. This is where the tale of the Iliad began. It developed over time to become one of the great epics of our society, one that many people all over the world have come to like, sympathizing for each of the characters. Homer's creative use of the Greek language makes it far more interesting, his lengthy descriptions give the mind something to picture. Its as if you were there, standing next to each of the main warriors as these things happened to them. Homeric similes make the picture even more vivid, comparing the Greek and Trojan warriors to everything from deities to boars. Not only is this a tale of war, but the fights that occur between men when their pride gets hurt. How every man has that one thing he will always be mad about. The characters may seem devoid of human emotions, but eventually develop individual personalities. In only a few parts does it seem like only a listing, that the deaths that occur are not actually real people. You can relate to the main characters, sympathize or even hate them as you go through. The Greek gods are an extreme part of this tale. The war started because of gods, and they continued interfering all through the story. Even such things as sleep and ruin are characterized as being actual deities, showing us a side of Greek culture that not many knew of. An overlying theme in this book is based off of the Greek word aritei. This is the one thing every Greek warrior thrived for. It was honor. This honor could be found in battling a more experienced opponent than yourself, even if it did end in your death. Killing a man lower in rank, killing him after promising something to him, or defacing an enemy after his death could all result in the loss of aritei, immediately resulting in the lowering of one's honor. The Iliad is truly entertaining, whether you are reading it for the entertainment or historical value. So please, go, enjoy this amazing story of pride, honor, love, and war.--Submitted by Jessi Kluvich
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Recent Forum Posts on The Iliad
"Liquid gold" source? It is often quoted that Homer called olive oil "liquid gold." Can anyone provide a source for this? Thanks. Posted By Jauchart at Tue 10 Apr 2012, 3:57 PM in The Iliad || 0 Replies
Diomedes of the Loud War Cry I really do not think Diomedes receives enough credit for all that he accomplished within the Iliad, especially in Book V with his glorious battle with Aeneas and the wounding of Aphrodite and Ares. In my opinion the chapters on Diomedes are some of my favorites within the poem itself. Posted By Archaic Smile at Thu 29 Sep 2011, 1:48 AM in The Iliad || 0 Replies
How does Book 24 relate to Book 1 of the Iliad? I have an essay that I have to write that is due next Tuesday, yet our professor still has the class stuck on Book 20. May I please have some help for ideas that I may implement in this essay? Thank You Very Much :D Posted By Dandaman09 at Thu 15 Sep 2011, 6:16 AM in The Iliad || 0 Replies
Achilleus & Patroklos Achilleus & Patroklos; Were they friends or lovers or both? Posted By Mary... at Fri 25 Mar 2011, 6:23 AM in The Iliad || 33 Replies
Questions about Chryseis I just finished re-reading the Iliad. The first time I read it was years ago. In that version I think I read that Chryseis was a priestess of Apollo. In the version that I just read, she is only the daughter of a priest of Apollo. I am curious, does anybody know; Who/what Chryseis was before the Greeks captured her? Was she a priestess of Apollo herself or just the daughter of a priest of Apollo? Could she have been a member of the priest class? (In The Histories, Herodotus refers to a caste system in Egypt during a time when there was considerable contact between the Greeks and Egyptians. The Egyptian caste system had seven different castes including a warrior class at the top and an untouchable class at the bottom) Does her status vary from translation to translation? Did the Greeks ever sack any temple of Apollo anywhere? I am a new member of this forum. I can't wait to hear from you guys. Sincerely, Ainia Posted By Mary... at Wed 9 Mar 2011, 5:56 AM in The Iliad || 2 Replies
Which translation is this? Hi, can anyone help me to identify this translation of The Iliad (It has become something of an obsession for me now): "Sing the wrath, O Goddess, the baleful wrath of Achilles son of Pelus, that laid on the Achaens ten thousand sorrows, and sent away goodly souls of heroes to Hades, and themselves it gave to dogs and all the birds; and the counsel of Zeus was fulfilled, from the day when first Atreides, king of men, and the divine Achilles quarrelled and stood apart. Who among the gods set them twain to fight?" I've taken it from the first chapter of East and West by C. Northcote Parkinson, where the author describes it as "the opening lines of The Iliad". In the bibliography at the end of the book, he has "Homer, The Iliad, translated by E.V.Rieu, Penguinn Classics, 1950. So I got a copy of that exact book, but this it not it. This book begins "The Wrath of Achilles is my theme....". Really it's a much plainer version of that verse, without that kind of "old-world" sound to it (excuse my lame description of how the text sounds to me!) I have googled some phrases from the quote, and the closest I've found is a version by Walter Leaf, Andrew Lang and Ernest Myers, 1873, but it is still significantly different. I am beginning to think Parkinson made this up, i.e. paraphrased from several translations he had read, and then just looked up the most "current" translation for his bibliography, which would have been Rieu's. But there is something about the particular language that I really like, and I'd really like to find if it's an existing translation. Any ideas? Thanks in advance! Posted By divil at Thu 18 Feb 2010, 4:51 AM in The Iliad || 1 Reply
Need help with these topics about the Iliad? I have to choose one of these topics for a paper I am writing on the Iliad and I could not find much information online. Does anyone have any insight on any of these topics? Compare and contrast... ~ The simile in which Paris is compared to a horse and Hector a snake ~ The speech of Andromache with that of Helen ~ Hector's speech to Andromache with Achilles to Patroclus Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Posted By xStarlightx at Sun 7 Feb 2010, 10:28 PM in The Iliad || 0 Replies
Help finding specific examples..? I need help finding specific examples of Violence, Epic simlies/heroic figures, and emotional roller coasters/emotional scenes in this book. Help will be GREATLY appriciated. Posted By GiJerry at Sat 7 Nov 2009, 4:40 AM in The Iliad || 3 Replies
Need Help with Iliad! hey all. i have to find instances of the following things in the iliad. I have read the book, but it has been a while. I am in a bind and any help would be much appreciated. i need to cite the line in the text where the event occurs. If you could even help with the harder ones, i can do the easy ones. Thank you guys i just have so much on my plate right now. Here is the list. 1. Eating & drinking 2. Lovemaking (between man and woman) 3. Lovemaking (between god and goddess) 4. Giving birth 5. Marital discord 6. Marital harmony 7. Spinning or weaving 8. Sending a written message 9. Threshing (not winnowing) grain 10. Sailing 11. Fishing 12. Trading armor 13. Building 14. Playing a musical instrument 15. Forging (metal) 16. Robot maidens 17. Defiling a corpse. 18. Human sacrifice 19. Boxing 20. Chariot racing let me know if you email anything Posted By jarjar90 at Tue 27 Oct 2009, 11:18 PM in The Iliad || 2 RepliesLori Ann Piestewa ( py-ES-tə-wah;[3] December 14, 1979 – March 23, 2003) was a United States Army soldier killed during the Iraq War. A member of the Quartermaster Corps, she died in the same Iraqi attack in which fellow soldiers Shoshana Johnson and Jessica Lynch were injured. A member of the Hopi tribe, Piestewa was the first Native American woman in history to die in combat while serving in the U.S. military and the first woman in the U.S. military killed in the Iraq War.[2] Arizona's Piestewa Peak is named in her honor.
Early life and education [ edit ]
Piestewa was born in Tuba City, Arizona, to Terry Piestewa and Priscilla "Percy" Baca.[4][5][6] Her father is Hopi Native American and her mother is Mexican-American.[7][8] photo The couple first met in 1964 and married in November 1968.[9]
The Piestewa family had a long military tradition; her paternal grandfather served in the U.S. Army in the European Theatre of World War II,[10] and her father Terry Piestewa was drafted in the U.S. Army in September 1965 and served a tour of duty in the Vietnam War before he returned home in March 1967.[9]
The Piestewa family resided in a trailer park in Tuba City, a town located on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Coconino County.[10] As a child, she was given the Hopi name Qötsa-Hon-Mana ( Hopi pronunciation: [ˈḵøt͡sa ˈhon ˈmana], White Bear Girl).[7] Her surname is derived from a Hopi language root meaning "water pooled on the desert by a hard rain"; thus, Piestewa ( Hopi: [piˈɛstɛwa]) translates loosely as "the people who live by the water."
Ambush in Nasiriyah, Iraq [ edit ]
Piestewa was a member of the US Army's 507th Maintenance Company, a support unit of maintenance and repair personnel. Her company was traveling in a convoy through the desert and was meant to bypass Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, during the opening days of the war; but the convoy got lost and ran into an ambush in Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003.
As Piestewa came under "a torrent of fire" (in the words of an Army investigation of the battle) she drove at high speed, evading enemy fire until a rocket-propelled grenade hit her Humvee.[11] The explosion sent her vehicle into the rear of a disabled tractor-trailer.[11] Piestewa, Johnson, and Lynch all survived the crash with injuries, while three other soldiers in the Humvee died. They were taken prisoner along with four others, with Piestewa dying of her wounds soon after. A video of some of the American prisoners of war, including Piestewa (filmed shortly before she died in an Iraqi hospital), was later shown around the world on Al Jazeera television.[12] According to Jessica Lynch's book—I'm a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story—Piestewa was wounded in the head, and it was impossible to perform delicate neurosurgery in an Iraqi civilian hospital in wartime conditions (due to limitations such as intermittent electric power).
The families of soldiers in the 507th heard almost right away of the ambush and fatalities in the unit. The Piestewa family saw people in her unit being interviewed by Iraqi TV, and for more than a week families of the two women waited for news. All around Tuba City signs were hung out telling people: "Put your porch light on, show Lori the way home." They used white stone to spell her name on a 200 foot high mesa just outside the town.[10]
Legacy [ edit ]
Piestewa was awarded the Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal. The U.S. Army posthumously promoted her from private first class to specialist.
Lynch has repeatedly stated that Piestewa was the true heroine of the ambush and named her daughter Dakota Ann in honor of her fallen comrade. In addition, many entities have honored her memory with memorials. Arizona's state government renamed Squaw Peak in the Phoenix Mountains near Phoenix as Piestewa Peak and this was codified by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names on April 10, 2008;[2] the freeway that passes near this mountain was also renamed in her honor. In addition, Senator Tom Daschle honored her, as did Indian Nations across United States. Since her death, the Grand Canyon State Games organizers have held an annual Lori Piestewa National Native American Games, which brings participants from across the country. A plaque bearing her name is also located at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and Fort Bliss, Texas. She has also been memorialized with a plaque and ceremony at Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial in La Jolla, California.[13] On November 10, 2011, American Legion Post No. 80 on the Hopi Reservation was renamed the Lori Piestewa Post # 80.[14] On November 30, 2011, the Directorate of Training Sustainment headquarters at Fort Benning, Georgia was named Piestewa Hall in her honor.[15]
Her death led to a rare joint prayer gathering between members of the Hopi and Navajo tribes, which have had a centuries-old rivalry.[16]
In May 2005, Piestewa's parents and children had a brand-new home built by Ty Pennington and his crew on ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition accompanied by Jessica Lynch. They also built a new veterans' center on the Navajo reservation.
In 2018, Piestewa became one of the inductees in the first induction ceremony held by the National Native American Hall of Fame.[17]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]One of my fondest memories is traveling 40 miles to a theatre that was selected to play the trailer for The Phantom Menace before Meet Joe Black. This was in the days where downloading a good looking trailer the size of a postage stamp took all night, so that 40 minute drive up to the capitol city was no skin off my nose.
They played the trailer before and after Meet Joe Black and the group of people I went with spent the entire time during the film discussing Star Wars and how mind blowing the trailer was. (">You can watch it here. Say whatever you want about The Phantom Menace (quietly, please) this trailer was incredible.)
I know some people were disappointed, both in the trailer and the film, but for me it delivered with flying colors. It continues to do so, as well.
Another film I couldn't care less about will be premiering the trailer for the 3D version of The Phantom Menace and I'll be there to see it. It doesn't hurt that my kids want to see it, but I've spent since Aliens Vs. Predator doing my best to avoid the crap Paul W.S. Anderson directs. In any case, there it is. The Three Musketeers hits theatres October 21st.
We also have this new poster for the film and it highlights all the things we love about the film. And with Darth Maul returning from the dead on The Clone Wars soon after the February release date of this re-release, it makes a lot of sense to get him out in the open.
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Tags: Star Wars, Top, Reviews, News, MoviesRicardo Bordin*
Estudantes de cursos de Humanas são, tradicionalmente, os mais inclinados à Esquerda em qualquer instituição de ensino superior. Frequentar aulas de uma faculdade de Letras, por exemplo – seja em estabelecimento privado ou público –, implica em testemunhar demonstrações diárias e constantes dessa deveras ilógica devoção, por meio da qual os maiores (supostos) interessados no avanço do capitalismo pregam a favor do agigantamento do Estado, sempre em nome do “social”.
Este contrassenso resta evidente a partir de uma análise elementar dos fatores que, conforme demonstra a experiência prática, permitem uma maior participação destes profissionais no mercado de trabalho, e torna-se forçoso concluir, pois, que as políticas públicas amparadas por estes jovens, notadamente em manifestações e protestos recentes, representam, em verdade, graves empecilhos para o desempenho de suas atividades após a graduação.
Senão vejamos: um dado indivíduo precisa escolher entre comprar um livro, matricular-se em uma escola de italiano, adquirir tickets para o teatro ou comprar feijão e arroz para pôr na mesa da família. Não se faz necessária muita elucubração para antecipar como esse sujeito irá proceder – se tiver algum juízo, claro. O ser humano, portanto, necessita, em primeiro lugar, manter-se vivo e respirando; em seguida, ele passa a consumir, na medida do possível, itens de importância secundária – e aqui entra (dentre diversos outros segmentos cujo valor gerado podemos considerar como prescindível) toda a indústria do entretenimento, incluindo teatro, cinema, literatura, televisão, viagens, e por aí vai.
Ou seja, para que as pessoas busquem o produto ofertado por uma infindável gama de atividades econômicas sem as quais é possível subsistir (é o caso de boa parte das Ciências Humanas), faz-se necessário que, primeiramente, elas possam garantir suas provisões mais básicas, pois, aí sim, elas estarão em condições de partir em busca daquilo que nos difere dos demais seres vivos: a possibilidade de fazer de nossas vidas algo mais do que simplesmente sobreviver por mais um dia. Apreciar um quadro ou presenciar uma apresentação da orquestra sinfônica são atos que provocam a denominada “fruição estética”, ou, simplesmente, prazer. Mas sentir prazer sem emprego nem sempre é tarefa das mais fáceis.
Neste contexto, a revolução industrial entrou como um divisor de águas, pois a partir da concepção das linhas de montagem e do emprego de novos métodos de produção mais eficientes pelos agentes privados, foi possível passar a oferecer bens das mais diversas naturezas a preços minorados – de onde se incluem, também, os alimentos e outros itens de primeira necessidade (inclusive construção de moradias). O comércio globalizado (possibilitado, principalmente, pela evolução dos meios de transporte e comunicação) também contribuiu em muito para reduzir períodos de carestia em diversas partes do planeta, e propiciar ao homem médio, destarte, mais recursos remanescentes de sua renda para investimento em recreação.
A contrario sensu, os episódios nos quais a produção de alimentos foi avocada pelos governantes redundou em milhões de mortes por inanição, tal como sucedeu-se na China de Mao Tsé-Tung e na Etiópia de Mengistu Haile Mariam. Dinheiro para lazer nestes infelizes lugares? Façam-me o favor.
A evolução dos meios de transporte e comunicação, aliás, também possibilitou que povos de diferentes partes do globo passassem a compartilhar seus traços culturais, contribuindo, assim, para reduzir o isolamento de vários deles. Se hoje pessoas de todo canto no planeta podem, por exemplo, ouvir músicas de seu artista favorito muito facilmente pelo Itunes ou até mesmo sonhar em viajar e acompanhar sua turnê, é porque investidores da aviação e da telefonia, ávidos por lucros, empreenderam nestas áreas – e seria ainda melhor para os consumidores se as agências reguladoras, com suas barreiras para entrada de novos investidores, não criassem e protegessem verdadeiros cartéis nestas atividades econômicas.
Sólidas evidências dessas constatações revelam-se em momentos de recessão econômica, como o que atravessamos no Brasil desde o estouro da bolha gerada pelo populismo Lulopetista. Diante do endividamento crescente das famílias, é natural que estas abandonem certos hábitos dos tempos de fartura (proporcionada artificialmente com a adoção de métodos Keneysianos¹), que passam a constituir verdadeiros luxos diante do quadro atual. Comprar ingressos para o show daquele artista que tanto bradava contra o “neoliberalismo” em seus tempos de acadêmico torna-se, assim, inviável, bem como muitos outros costumes que precisam ser revistos ou até mesmo cortados da rotina dos cidadãos afetados pela crise financeira.
Pergunte-se, por um instante, quem estaria em melhores condições de frequentar galerias de arte: o faminto povo venezuelano (cuja taxa de mortalidade infantil já superou os números da Síria tomada pela guerra civil há cinco anos), ou os chilenos – que usufruem dos melhores índices de desenvolvimento humano da América do Sul, incluindo mais alta renda per capita, fruto das bases institucionais implantadas e reformas promovidas pelos “Chicago boys” ainda na década de 1980²? E não vale, no caso, comprar obras de arte para lavar dinheiro desviado no Petrolão, hein? Para refletir, pessoal de Humanas…
Constatação similar pode ser feita quando se observa o comportamento da população de países onde a produtividade marginal do trabalho³ é bastante superior à brasileira, como a Alemanha. Como um trabalhador germânico consegue gerar a mesma quantidade de valor que seu congênere brasileiro em muito menos tempo (já que os bens de capital naquele país estão em estágio bem mais avançado), ele dispõe de mais tempo e capital para tomar sua cerveja (em copo de 1 litro) ou para assistir ao jogo do Bayern de Munique. Ou para fazer as duas coisas ao mesmo tempo. Ou para comprar o que ofertam os investidores do ramo de Humanidades, pois não?
Um dos desdobramentos da atual conjuntura nacional é que, diante da dificuldade em arregimentar fãs para suas produções culturais em períodos adversos como o corrente – e, consequentemente, da carência de patrocinadores interessados –, aumenta a fila de pretendentes ao financiamento estatal, positivado por meio de legislações como a Lei Rouanet, Lei do Audiovisual, e outras da espécie. Em 2015, o valor de tributos renunciados pela União para subsidiar apresentações artísticas superou um bilhão de reais, sendo parcela substancial desta verba destinada a obras de gosto duvidoso – pra dizer o mínimo – que jamais seriam eleitas pelo público, com suas escolhas subjetivas, para sobressaírem-se naquele setor. Tal situação prejudica, em muito, o aprimoramento da indústria da cultura em nosso país (precisamente ao contrário do que propõem, em tese, tais iniciativas governamentais).
No mesmo sentido, o Estado, diante da penúria dos cidadãos (causada por ele próprio, em virtude da tributação desmesurada e do endividamento que gera inflação, combinados com juros altos e desemprego), apresenta como medida paliativa a famigerada meia-entrada, concebida para que estudantes e outros beneficiários (e futuros eleitores) escolhidos a dedo possam “adquirir cultura” – ainda que isso signifique integrar a platéia de um show da Valesca Popozuda. O problema é que, para não arcar com o prejuízo (já que não há almoço nem meio ingresso grátis), as empresas do ramo majoram o preço cobrado dos demais clientes não agraciados com descontos legais.
Com essa elevação do patamar do custo médio para ir, por exemplo, ao cinema, é comum que, após perder o direito ao privilégio, muita gente acabe apelando para a confecção de carteiras de estudante falsas ou mesmo pare de ir ao cinema, passando tal expediente longe, assim, de resolver o problema, e criando um ciclo contínuo em que cada vez mais pessoas demandam isenção em eventos culturais.
A regra básica, portanto, é essa: quanto mais riqueza circulando na mão do Estado, menos dinheiro na mão da população, e menos recursos privados para qualquer atração cultural – seja para realizá-la, seja para prestigiá-la. É claro que o Estado, benevolente como sempre, vai se oferecer para, aos poucos, bancar tudo “ele mesmo”, apenas pedindo em troca que jamais valores conservadores ou liberais sejam enaltecidos aos olhos dos expectadores, ouvinte ou leitores. Para que correr o risco de deturpar este processo tão salutar (para meia dúzia de apaniguados), não é mesmo? Anote e não esqueça, camarada de Humanidades: Estado mais enxuto, menos impostos, pessoas com mais dinheiro no bolso para gastar em atividades lúdicas, mais potenciais clientes para o seu trabalho.
Na década de 1980, os Titãs popularizaram uma música cujo refrão afirmava que “A gente não quer só comida, a gente quer comida, diversão e arte”. Ainda bem que eles admitem que comida vem antes de todo o restante. E esse restante só será acessível ao público em geral se ele parar de ser extorquido ostensivamente do fruto de seu trabalho pelos membros dos esquemas perversos do “capitalismo de quadrilhas” que foi implantado no Brasil. A corrupção, diferente do que o senso comum pode induzir a acreditar, não é um problema original, mas sim um sintoma derivado de outro problema muito maior: o Estado paquidérmico que intervém na economia e arroga-se poder (com nossa concordância, inclusive) para interferir em todos os aspectos de nossas vidas, criando dificuldades para vender facilidades – e gerando reservas de mercado formadas somente por aqueles escolhidos para serem ricos. Fernando Cavendish e Sérgio Cabral estão com as orelhas ardendo a esta hora, por certo.
E até mesmo os cursos de Humanidades cujo profissionais oferecem serviços de utilidade mais palpável, como Administração, Relações Internacionais, Direito e Psicologia, também lograriam benefícios se posicionassem-se, da mesma forma, ao lado do livre mercado, pois atividade econômica aquecida significa mais empresas para administrar, mais contratos para celebrar, mais exportações para serem operacionalizadas, mais pessoas preocupadas co m sua saúde mental (já que a subsistência está garantida).
Jornalismo? Bom, aí o buraco é mais embaixo, e este tema foi abordado neste artigo. Em linhas gerais, todavia, é possível concluir que, diferentemente do médico e do engenheiro civil (as pessoas, afinal, sempre precisarão realizar consultas e construir suas casas), o escritor e o ator só sobrevivem se, em primeiro lugar, a sobrevivência dos seus eventuais fregueses estiver assegurada. Por mais que eles gostem de uma boa peça ou ler um bom livro, um teto sobre suas cabeças e um tratamento contra a enfermidade que os assola e às suas famílias vai figurar, inevitavelmente, em posição privilegiada no rol de importância atribuída por estes indivíduos.
Isto é uma realidade inerentemente HUMANA – sem o perdão do trocadilho. Quer que as pessoas desenvolvam o desapego pelo “vil metal”? Ajudemo-las, pois, a superar a mais comezinha das aspirações humanas (continuar vivendo, e com dignidade, se possível), e elas naturalmente passarão a valorar bem mais as atividades prazenteiras das mais diversas naturezas. Neste intuito, em vez de clamar por mais bolsa-família e assistencialismo, contribua para que o Brasil possa vir a melhorar sua vergonhosa 122º posição no ranking da Heritage Foundation, especialmente não votando em candidatos com perfil estatizante. Fiquemos de olho no desempenho dos prefeitos de São Paulo e Porto Alegre nos próximos quatro anos, pois o alinhamento com o ideário liberal deve render bons resultados em suas administrações, e, quem sabe, a partir de 2019, todo o Brasil possa seguir neste rumo.
A liberdade econômica pode ajudar, destarte, as Humanidades a saltarem vários degraus neste índice de primazia dos seres humanos, até mesmo na medida em que a tecnologia barateia e facilita o acesso a livros (e-books), filmes (serviços de streaming) e apresentações artísticas (Youtube). Só que tais inovações não são resultado de inspirações socialistas, companheiros. Muito pelo contrário, aliás. Até mesmo eletricidade para acender uma luz para ler à noite é artigo escasso em certos rincões da Terra com pouco apreço pela autonomia de seus cidadãos…
¹https://bordinburke.wordpress.com/2016/09/22/bndes-keynes-pt-eike-capitalismo-de-lacos-e-cadeia/
² https://www.institutoliberal.org.br/blog/o-chile-e-sua-aula-de-liberdade-economica/
³ https://www.institutoliberal.org.br/blog/o-mito-da-exploracao-i-a-produtividade-marginal/
Sobre o autor: Atua como Auditor-Fiscal do Trabalho, e no exercício da profissão constatou que, ao contrário do que poderia imaginar o senso comum, os verdadeiros exploradores da população humilde NÃO são os empreendedores. Formado na Escola de Especialistas de Aeronáutica (EEAR) como Profissional do Tráfego Aéreo e Bacharel em Letras Português/Inglês pela UFPR. Também publica artigos em seu site:https://bordinburke. wordpress.com/Filament Games is seeking a Unity UX Designer to collaborate with our closely knit team of game development professionals on a variety of new learning games and interactives. As a UX Designer, you will craft playful, highly usable interfaces and interactions that bring clarity to a wide range of subjects. Key responsibilities include designing, testing, and iterating upon comprehensive user flows, wireframes, paper prototypes, and motion proofs, and implementing your design using Unity UI tools.
We’d like to see someone who:
Has demonstrated experience designing usable, engaging interactions for games
Constantly seeks to improve and enrich our users’ experience
Is comfortable iterating upon and polishing designs, art assets, animations, and other deliverables
Thrives in a highly collaborative, cross-disciplinary environment
Include a cover letter, a resume, and a portfolio (preferably web-based) showcasing your very best work. We are looking for comprehensive game-centric digital design solutions, detailed process notes, and strong visual designs.
Responsibilities
Design digital interactions that are easy to learn, a pleasure to interact with, and augment the user’s comprehension of the subject matter
Work iteratively with the game design team to translate pitches and storyboards into wireframes/mockups/prototypes/animatics that explore and communicate the design
Revise work according to critique, changing requirements, and user and stakeholder feedback
Collaborate with Illustration team to generate comprehensive UI asset lists and translate wireframes/mockups into game-ready assets
Effectively utilize motion design principles to amplify input and “juice up” feedback
Use Unity UI tools to build responsive layouts
Required Skills
Familiar with game development pipelines and technical constraints, particularly with respect to UI integration
Demonstrated ability to use visuals and motion to clearly communicate complex interactions
Strong animation skills with a good sense of motion and timing
Technical art experience
Comfortable designing in a wide variety of styles
Experience building games in Unity
Personal Characteristics
Imaginative problem solver
Passionate about games, design, and technology
Driven to create exceptional designs and to constantly improve your craft
Comfortable sharing, inspiring, brainstorming, and communicating ideas and concepts
Empathy, not ego: committed to understanding and empathizing with users, always open to design input and iteration
Desired Skills
Bonus Points
Strong visual literacy: layout, color, visual hierarchy, and typography
Demonstrated ability to build cohesive, visually appealing UI assets
About Filament Games
Filament Games is a game production studio that creates digital learning games and interactives. Our mission is to create playful experiences that improve people's lives. We believe that games are a powerful way to engage and inspire learners, and we approach game design by translating learning objectives directly into meaningful gameplay mechanics and playful curriculum materials.
Benefits: Filament Games is an awesome place to work. Why?
Our team is a creative, interdisciplinary group of people who are making a difference. Through innovative educational games we’re working to modernize education and revolutionize learning!
We believe that the best work – and the best life – comes from a healthy balance between work and play, discipline, and fun. Our office culture reflects this. For example, we have flexible work hours, causal dress everyday, grill outs, sketch comedy classes, Show-n-Tells, and the occasional paintball battle.
Our office is located in the heart of downtown Madison, a lively city with a world-class university, burgeoning tech industry and beautiful state capitol. Downtown Madison is a vibrant, active urban center with fun weekly events like Concert on the Square and the Farmer’s Market, and offers access to a variety of eclectic restaurants, music venues, and the best of Madison’s nightlife.
Filament offers a competitive benefits package, including health/dental/vision care, short & long term disability, a Flexible Spending Account, 401k retirement plan, subsidized bus fare, discounted gym membership, profit sharing, and unlimited paid time off.
Applicants will be considered for positions on the basis of qualifications and ability to perform the job for which they are applying without regard to race, religion, creed, sex, age, residency, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, or physical appearance. Minorities are encouraged to apply.European Commission
A 15-year-old pact that allows the transfer of data between the United States and European Union may be illegal, according to an opinion from the European Court of Justice's top legal counsel. The decision could have far-reaching consequences for Facebook, Google, |
parts with the RotoMAAK can save you time and money, and is a bridge between one off part production and the cost of injection molding.
YOUR SUPPORT
We need your support so that we can purchase larger quantities of parts at a time (thereby bringing down cost), in addition to the creation of assembly instructions, how to videos, and shipping kits and assembled machines.
MACHINE SPECS
Motor speed: variable to 14 rpm
Voltage: 12v dc gear drive motor with planetary gear reduction
All pivot points and axes have 608 bearing for long smooth life
Precision Laser Cut parts
Mold Max size Capacity: 10" x 10" x 10"
VIDEO TESTIMONIALS FROM GLOBALLY KNOWN MAKERS
**SKULL BUSINESS CARD HOLDER REWARD**
The Skull Business Card Holder!
ROTATIONAL MOLDED EXAMPLES
All of the above horse heads were cast from a wood carving.
The WHITE HORSE HEAD is cast SOLID. 22oz of resin. COST = $7.70
The BEIGE and CLEAR HORSE HEAD were hollow cast in the RotoMAAK. 6.4 oz of resin COST = $2.25
A difference of $5.45 and 15.6 oz of resin! Multiply that times 10 copies = savings of $50.45!
Hollow Resin Ornaments
Clear Resin Bottle
Clear Resin Bottle with Yellow Resin Effect
THE PROTOTYPING PROCESS TIMELINE
5-1-13 Initial Laser Cut Design with Squiggle Cuts and temporary motor setup. No control knob
5-20-13 12v DC gear drive motor upgrade with planetary gear reduction. Front PWM Knob Control added. Pulley wheel upgrade
5-25-13 Experimental Knob Control added
8-18-13 Laser Cut Frame Base Upgrade. Pulley wheel upgrade
9-2-13 Laser Cut Frame Upgrade (No Squiggle Cut)
3-15-14 Control Panel Upgrade and Motor Upgrade (More torque and slower rotational ability)
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Glenn Berden
Shane Graber
Jim Spencer
Larry Reising
Eric VanDiepenbos
Alex VanDiepenbos
Thomas Clark
www.themakerhive.com
A BIG THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING BUSINESSES:
__________________________________________________________
Steve Wygant (aka Part Daddy) and John Olafson (Oly) from SeeMeCNC
__________________________________________________________
Mike Faupel and Alumilite
_________________________________________________________
Brian Vandiepenbos from Laser Accents and www.tricklaser.com
_________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________A California Commie in Charlie Kirk’s Court
Aaron Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 24, 2017
Narrative and Analysis from a Socialist’s Infiltration of TPUSA’s 2017 Student Action Summit
Content Warning: Sexual assault and white supremacist rhetoric are briefly discussed in this piece.
Narrative:
It started as a lark. At the tail end of this past November, a fellow DSA-LA member posted a link to the attendee application for Turning Point USA’s 3rd Annual Student Action Summit. The convention for the college conservative non-profit offered “first-class activism and leadership training” and boasted a star-studded roster of right-wing ghouls and careerists as guest speakers.
“ I’d love to see YDSA members crash TPUSA’s Hitler Youth event, get high, and do some Fear and Loathing-style reporting.” my comrade joked. I applied, with a fake bio touting myself as a “classical Liberal and constitutional Conservative”, and lamenting that my alma mater didn’t have an official TPUSA chapter. A few hours after submitting, I found out that my former university actually did have a chapter, but the next day, I saw my application was approved. I was going to West Palm Beach.
The quick approval of my application revealed a lack of vetting on TPUSA’s end, but for the sake of prudence, I confirmed under a fake name, and touched base with the Palm Beach DSA organizing committee to make sure I had allies in the area in case anything went south. There was some surreptitious fundraising for travel, hampered by the short time frame and the need for operational security. My comrades in LA expressed some concerns, some skepticism, but overall were supportive of the idea; pitched not as a stunt to disrupt the convention, but as opposition research for our oganizers. The trip of course, wasn’t officially sponsored or sanctioned by any DSA chapter, officer, or body.
In the intervening weeks, I binged on PragerU videos and Ben Shapiro’s obnoxious podcast to help “get into character”, and on the night of December 18th, I caught my redeye to Palm Beach. I arrived in the early afternoon on the 19th to a crowded hotel lobby, smiling and exchanging pleasantries with kids in MAGA hats. Flashing my credit card was all it took to get into my alias’ comped hotel room, and simply stating my fake name got me my attendee packet and lanyard. While in line for entry, I saw Dennis Prager slumping by, encircled by his entourage of aides and assistants.
The opening session was lead by guest of honor Donald Trump Jr., and TPUSA founder and Executive Director Charlie Kirk. Kirk is the 24-year-old son of a Trump Tower project manager, with a fleshy, shapeless face and oversized gums. Not long into his opening “JUICE-by”, Kirk began playing the hits.
“A couple ground rules” Kirk began, “There will be no Safe Spaces, no Trigger Warnings —!” before being drowned out by cheers and applause. He plowed on, touting the convention as a message to “the media, colleges, and the elites that our generation will not embrace Socialism”, and lauding Trump’s children. Trump Jr. took the stage and credited Kirk, who joined the Trump campaign team barely two months before the general election, for the novel idea to campaign in Michigan. Throughout Trump Jr.’s half-hour, which was intermittently interrupted by his young children crying, the attendees uniformly applauded his list of Trump presidency highlights; the move of the US’s Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, promising that Trump’s border wall will indeed be built, and “Giving law enforcement and the military the respect they deserve”, to which the first to stand and applaud was a diminutive, floppy-armed African American boy. There were “Hard Day’s Night”-esque shrill screams at the name-dropping of Ben Shapiro, boos and hisses at the mention of CNN, and tepid chants of “Lock her up”. Trump Jr. parroted a favorite line of Charlie Kirk’s: “Colleges are creating a world where everyone looks differently, but thinks exactly the same.” Cheers. Applause.
Jet lag sapped the last of my energy, and I dipped out of the convention hall to find a meal and get some sleep, missing the next two uninterrupted hours of Dennis Prager, Dinesh D’Souza, and Ben Shapiro’s talks.
My assigned roommate came to the hotel. He was a soft-spoken North Alabama student going back to school after a stint in the Marines.
“So, you think Trump Jr.’s gonna be running for office?” I asked him.
“Dude, you took the words right out of my mouth!” he gleamed.
The 20th was the first full day of the convention, kicked off by Brian Kilmeade and Joe Walsh. Walsh sprinted out calling on the crowd to “Stand up! Don’t you dare sit down, we’ve got a country to get back!” In the lull between the general sessions and the breakouts, I got a photo with Walsh doing a white man’s approximation of a B-boy squat.
In the bathroom, I overheard two kids commiserating; “Hillary’s a good folk enemy,” one said, “She’s fun to hate, but we should move on to actual policy.”
The first batch of “Breakout Sessions” came that afternoon. I had began my preparatory diet of right-wing videos and podcasts expecting that I’d have to engage in active, round-table discussions at these sessions like I experienced at DSA’s national convention this past August. But TPUSA’s breakouts took no such approach. These were lectures, pure and simple, with light Q&A’s at their tail end.
“How to Build a Viral Image” began with Joshua Feuerstein, the Arizona pastor who became a social media sensation through selfie footage of him hollering in his car about Starbucks holiday cups while wearing a backwards red MLB cap, affecting the visage of a strung-out Fred Durst. He cited his “Dear Mr. Atheist, Allow me to destroy evolution in 3 minutes!” video as a case study in “opposition marketing”. In the algorithmic world of social media, all attention is ripe for monetization, and Feuerstein’s videos gain most of their traction from stoking the outrage and riding the “your friend commented on” trains of liberals trying to debunk his ramblings.
Immediately after came Bill Whittle, a former TV editor and now right-wing blogger with a bio so short on notables he has to pad it by mentioning his amateur aviation hobby. His website is devoted mostly to his various microbudget film projects, eternally searching for a distribution deal like the proverbial Wandering Jew. His main shtick is setting a timer and showing how fast he can have a wordy retort to a common liberal charge against the right. True to this form, his “Socialism is for Suckers” seminar consisted of ten minutes of concern-trolling about Venezuela, saying that Castro was secretly a near-billionaire, and chiding Bernie Sanders for having three houses. The other thirty-five minutes of his slot were devoted to asking attendees to ask him questions “Like a liberal” and watch him retort in less than a minute like he was in an episode of The West Wing penned by current-day Mamet instead of Bush-era Sorkin.
“What about the socialism of countries like Sweden?” one kid asked. “Sweden”, Whittle posited, “Is now the rape capital of the world.” There it is. For the uninitiated, the canard of Sweden’s “sexual assault epidemic” comes from a white supremacist distortion of the facts. Sweden leads developed western countries in rape reporting, but rhetorical gymnastics turn this into a charge that Sweden’s lax, leftist immigration policies have allowed a horde of Muslim migrants to capture their gentle womenfolk. Same as it ever was, the mainstream right exists to launder, professionalize, and render respectable the bugaboos of the reactionary paranoiac. The racist’s mythology of dark-skinned savages gets paired with distorted and misconstrued stats, and the suit-and-tie right wing gets to ask: “How can it be racist, if it’s factually true?” reinforced in Charles Murray-apologist Ben Shapiro’s favorite catchphrase: “Facts don’t care about your feelings”.
I missed the talk by James O’Keefe, of Project Veritas fame. Jane Mayer, writing for the New Yorker tweeted after his seminar on his designs to get campus conservatives spying on their leftist and liberal schoolmates. The tactic emulates right-wing sting operations such as the infamous 2015 videos wherein a purported Planned Parenthood rep discusses the sale of “baby parts”. In November of 2015, a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic was attacked at gunpoint by Robert Lewis Dear Jr. After three deaths and nine injuries, he was taken into custody, during which he muttered “no more baby parts” to the arresting officers.
At about 5:30pm, I returned to my hotel room to offload the photos and video I had collected for the day. Across the hall, I overheard yelling from the facing hotel room. One girl charges her roommate with “Making lies that I’m embarrassing you”. A third accuses one of them with “being a professional victim”, a charge popularized in 2014 by anti-feminists looking to slander the recipients of online abuse during the “Gamergate” debacle.
The summit’s flagship banquet was slated for that evening. A small contingent of local anarchists, Women’s March-affiliated liberals, and a few members from the Palm Beach DSA organizing committee came to protest outside the convention center. “Libs are gunna outnumber the radicals so the consensus was to just blend in.” a PBDSA comrade texted to me, “The vote to even attend was contentious”. Later on, a local DSA member said that the protest out front “felt like a trap”. Their demonstration was quickly and vastly outnumbered by TPUSA attendees. They took photos and videos, hurled nerdy attempts at verbal abuse, and tried to bait the protestors into some kind of debate. At some point, a protestor and a TPUSA attendee had some sort of dialogue, wherein the TPUSA kid dismissed their connection to the alt-right. “They’re small and nobody likes them”. A Kekistan flag was briefly unfurled over the protestors by a Summit attendee.
While I wrapped up uploading my footage and prepped to leave my hotel room, a DSA comrade told me that two people had been struck by a car, “real bad”. Fears of a second Charlottesville sped me out the door. I arrived to the front of the convention center. The protestors had been divided into separate clusters by the Turning Point crowd. One kid held his phone and read off a protestor’s banner.
“‘Make Racists Afraid Again…’” he read to his camera, “So, your message is fear?” he said with mock-skepticism that may as well been paired with the “Thinking Face” emoji.
Two separate Turning Point kids attempted to “infiltrate” the protest. One, a tall lanky boy sporting a red tank-top and a bag branded with FEE, claimed that he had an ‘H’ for Hillary shaved into his chest hair. FEE is a libertarian think tank, and one of the corporate sponsors of TPUSA’s summit. Another was a bleach-blonde girl claiming that her pronouns were “Ze, zir”, and rambled something about misgendering being cruel because it “puts people in a box.” The protestors ignored these “infiltrators” or looked on them with incredulity. They both called their infiltration successful on Snapchat and Instagram.
The protestors left, and the TPUSA kids collected and began chanting “USA! USA!” to themselves. I found a place to change out of my attendee costume, and met with two of the local DSA members and their co-protestors at a local pizza joint. They had been shafted by the mostly-liberal contingent of their demonstration, who were easy prey for the TPUSA kids to bait into pointless “debates”, breaking up and atomizing their contingent and sapping them of the opportunity to display a mass, united front. One of the DSA’ers told me of problems at previous demonstrations; while the liberals have been a good source of numbers, they have been difficult to pull into direct action; a thousand-plus-person march stayed on the sidewalk rather than enter an easily-closable street. They showed me the photo of one of their comrades, the boyfriend of a local Communist, who had also successfully applied and infiltrated the convention.
Gossip around the convention hall the next day would report that the two hit in the car crash were TPUSA attendees, struck by a random accident rather than a Charlottesville-style murder attempt, crossing in a main thoroughfare of West Palm Beach’s downtown district where the traffic is fast and heavy, and the walk signals are mistimed and unreliable.
I returned to my hotel room, somewhat nervous that I’d be recognized by the Turning Point-ers, devising contingency plans in case I was met with my roommate asking why a photo of me with the protesting leftists was spreading around the SAS2017 hashtag. Instead, I came back to see my roommate asleep in his bed, with Fox News playing on the room’s TV.
On the 21st, I arrived at the convention center in time for the talk by Sebastian Gorka. His melodramatic cadence and Bond-villain Received Pronunciation accent earn his inane tautology a lot of credence on the right wing, while making him a memetic figure of note on the radical left.
“This man hates Political Correctness” he declared regarding Trump. “This man understands we are at war. This man wants us to win.”
Gorka continued, calling Steve Bannon “The sharpest strategic mind in America today”, and characterizing liberals as having “been brainwashed for forty years.”
“But”, Gorka said, holding up his fingers in a tight, pincer formation, “the brain-washing is this deep. It’s incredibly shallow.” As had been a recurring theme at the Summit, Gorka rallied the attendees to win the day by dragging their liberal schoolmates into pointless, exhausting debates.
I took a photo with Gorka after his talk, and took the time between his slot and the breakouts to grab food and peruse the convention hall. The exhibitor booths were mostly abandoned, and I saw Larry Schweikert, author of the Howard Zinn-countering “A Patriot’s History of the United States” looking lost, but standing near a table stacked with copies of his phonebook-sized tome. I strolled around the partition between Exhibit Hall B and Exhibit Hall A, and saw that a black fabric wall had been propped up to obscure the third of the hall’s chairs that were left empty.
A Venezuelan kid entered the Q&A line during Charlie Kirk’s half-hour with Greg Gutfeld. He voiced his appreciation for Gutfeld and Kirk, saying that in his flight from Venezuela, he had to leave “my country, my family, my family businesses…” Businesses. Plural. Gutfeld answered a question about the resurgent popularity of Socialism in America with “This is the consequence of a great country; it allows people the leisure time to come up with really bad ideas.” Almost fifty years after the death of the Hippies, the right-wing answer to leftism is still aimed squarely at them.
I grabbed a table in Hall B and began eating an overpriced chicken wrap. A pair of younger attendees sidled up to my table, one saying to the other “I know this is his event, but I’m getting my fill of Charlie Kirk”. They chatted about several speakers, among them Anthony Scaramucci, cancelling on their speaking engagements last-minute, leaving Kirk to fill time. The updated agenda on the convention’s website listed six different slots of “Speaker TBA”.
We shared where we were from. My “Los Angeles” sighed dismissively gained their respect. “You’re in the belly of the beast”, one sympathized. One asked, regarding the rich Venezuelan kid’s story, “How can anyone still defend Socialism?” I tried to paraphrase a left-wing argument from a right-wing voice.
“They’d probably say: ‘Hey, before the Chavez regime, you had multiple businesses, you were wealthy, but what about all your workers who were starving?’” They nodded along, one of them mentioned something about reading the subreddit “r/LateStageCapitalism”.
I made “Suing Your School 101” my final breakout session. There, a rep from the “Alliance Defending Freedom”, listed by the SPLC as an anti-gay hate group, laid out the tactics by which students can wave threats of lawsuits to break through their schools’ attempts to curtail contentious organizing and demonstrating by right-wing actors. The ADF speaker, amid Powerpoint slides set to the sampled hook from DJ Khaled’s “All I Do is Win”, offered the ADF’s pro bono legal services to the crowd, and brought up the kids at the center of some of their star cases, including a girl who fought against a school putting up disclaimer and trigger warning signs on her anti-abortion table.
That afternoon, Jane Mayer’s New Yorker piece on TPUSA went live. It details the internal discrimination problems, campaign finance violations, dark money, and sinister agenda to not just secure a place for conservative speech on campus, but to actively sabotage liberal and leftist campus organizing. Her piece is comprehensive, taking direct information from disillusioned former Turning Point staffers, as well as internal brochures meant for high-end donors. It represents the deeper, internal findings that were far beyond the reach and purview of my trip, and it’s essential reading for those concerned with TPUSA’s growth and activity. Link here. With the release of Mayer’s piece, I considered it unnecessary for me to sit through any more of the convention’s boilerplate reactionary proselytizing.
I returned to the hotel, where my roommate voiced his excitement to go see Tomi Lahren speak. Her timeslot would be characterized by liberal use of the anti-liberal neologism “snowflake”. I packed my bags, taking up my DSA comrades’ invitation to a Winter Solstice party at one of the local anarchist houses, and a ride to the airport the following morning. Before I left, I dropped a few scraps of paper in the convention center detailing “Solidarity Forever” lyrics and scratched-on enclosed A’s and HamSick seals. I made sure to target the meeting rooms that were inaccessible to anybody without an attendee lanyard. Best to keep them humble.
Analysis:
I attended Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit curious to find what the youth wing of the American conservative movement’s core political projects were. I wondered if there were campus anti-bathroom bills or networks to report undocumented students in the works. In that prefiguring, I made the mistake of thinking like an organizer. I thought like somebody who has to do politics. TPUSA are in no such position.
In reporting to my comrades back home, I paraphrased a Christopher Walken line from the mob movie King of New York: “You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street.”
While the contemporary mainstream right loves to adopt the trappings and posturing of an aggrieved class, their core political projects and organizational methods betray them having the laziness and complacency of people who have always been welcome in the window of acceptable discourse. TPUSA’s Student Action Summit bore exceptionally little similarity to a political strategizing convention, but passed well as a Republican Comic-Con. Rather than being a place for the attending students to activate as political operatives in their own right, they served as both consumer and product; there to be marketed to, and to be marketed themselves in-turn. As always, TPUSA’s goals are simply to cultivate and maintain a stock of young bodies to run through their nepotism mill; to keep a generation of children of privilege populating the halls of power in media and government, and maintaining the security and influence of reactionary ideology in American politics.
Meanwhile, they serve to launder and professionalize the ideas and talking points of the less-respectable corners of the far-right. While the rank-and-file of TPUSA swear up and down, and truly do believe that there is a vast gulf of difference between them and the open white nationalists, their policy proposals, their values, and their rhetoric are all Diet Coke versions of the neo-Nazis’; Less flavor, but hardly any better for your health.
While the Obama years, and the growing popular interest in anti-oppression theory have made conservative politics even more uncool among young people, the right still has more than ample access to the mass media and institutions of political power. Their obsession with the culture war is facile and feeble, and amounts to little more than a branding exercise. Ten years ago, Proposition 8 loomed over my home state. Today, conservatives are fighting lawsuits over their right to not bake cakes for gay weddings. They can’t even prevent the weddings anymore.
In the culture war, the right has done nothing but concede territory. They fall back into petty, vindictive subterfuge as they lose each new skirmish and a new oppressed minority gains a higher foothold in their climb to complete enfranchisement. And with the next skirmish, the right will triangulate again. Where they lost on “Marriage is between a man and a woman”, they shifted to a “Freedom of Association” fight over gay wedding cakes. Today, they bandy about “there are only two genders!” as a rallying cry. Tomorrow, there will no doubt be a genderfluid opportunist serving as a corollary to last year’s Milo Yiannopolous.
This failure of the mainstream right to actually win any of these culture war proxy battles is the thundering engine of the Alt-Right’s rage. And unless the Alt-Right gets the reckoning they demand, (the one they pretend is more genteel and sensible than the outright genocide they secretly salivate for) that is the only way these battles will ever end. Freed genies don’t go back into their bottles; Nonbinary kids aren’t going to climb back into the closet. And on the Alt-Right front? Well, this past week saw Richard Spencer trying to stir the pot between defenders of Ta-Nehisi Coates and supporters of Cornel West, either because he’s so honestly deluded that he will find some common cause with the growing Left, or because he’s too afraid of receiving a Black Bloc fist to his face to go outside anymore, and needs to desperately reach out for some degree of relevance from whatever hole he’s crawled into.
While I don’t see how the mission of us on the resurgent Left has changed at all, I do think TPUSA’s convention presents a reification of our priorities.
We must directly engage and organize the working class, and rebuild class-consciousness. Memes shared among the hip, college-educated, middle-class youth can be good and effective propaganda, but their reach and their impact is limited. The Socialist movement must be reunited with the Labor movement, and we must help our fellow proletarians form the language necessary to express their position as workers in an anti-worker regime. We must reunite the analyses of economic oppression, and identity-based oppression. The liberal application of identity politics has been influential in popularizing anti-oppression analysis, but because of liberalism’s refusal to combat capitalism, or to even deny capitalism as a prima facie given, they will never have an effective answer or offense against white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, et al. Meanwhile, the right is more than happy to beat liberals at their own superficial game of “representation”; the TPUSA crowd had a decent smattering of PoC and Jewish attendees, and it is easily conceivable that there were gay conservatives among them, too. Without material analysis, cynical tokenism easily passes for corrective representation.
The false dichotomy between a liberal Identity Politic and a materialist Class-Consciousness as represented by the fight between Clinton-backing liberals and Sanders supporters in 2016 must be summarily collapsed, and their analyses synthesized. This is a tag-team fight. If we, as the opposition to reactionary politics fail to reunite these analytic tendencies, we will be eternally trying to pin one opponent, leaving our backs open to its partner. We must demonstrate and display the vast difference between liberals and actual Leftists. The American working class can smell the hypocrisy of the mainstream neoliberal, who evangelizes anti-oppression and drops occasional hints of pro-worker sympathies, but whose policy proposals always steer back to promoting the interests of the economic elite. Disillusionment with liberalism makes apolitical Americans easy prey for the right’s adoption of shallow populism. Our work is on the ground, among the people, strengthening their communities, building networks of mutual aid, and educating as we go. It is there that we will strengthen our cause and gain the yet-to-be-radicalized to our side. We must be open and transparent about our politics. As the Cold War and its decades of anti-communist propaganda fade into obscurity, we have the opportunity to expose our yet-to-be-radicalized friends and neighbors to the Socialist values of equality and radical democracy. The right has atrophied in their ability to counter Socialist policies, relying on aging, cobwebbed fears of totalitarian regimes and “Big Government”. We have the opportunity to reveal that the capitalist “free market” project is simply Big Government of, and for the bourgeoisie. We can teach Socialist ethics not as an adulation of the State, but a demand for a State that is finally, fully and truly controlled by the people, or else dissolved for an alternative, popular organizational structure. We must support and defend our younger comrades’ ability to organize and assemble on their school campuses. The right has long considered the university to be a site of leftist indoctrination. They may be inaccurate, but they are certainly hell-bent on bringing about the inverse reality; turning the university into a stronghold of capitalist and reactionary hegemony. Jane Mayer’s piece on TPUSA’s internals reveals that in the center of the non-profit’s agenda is a five-point plan that ends with their underlings, once elected to student government associations, destroying anti-hate speech policies and suppressing activism and organizing counter to their ideological bent; including a push to completely ban any and all Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions activity. This is a textbook case study of Karl Popper’s “Paradox of Tolerance” if there ever was one. Where the right starts fights and lawyers up, we will have to respond in kind. And wherever TPUSA collects, we will have to be there, exposing the suppressive end goals behind their Free Speech posturing.
Conclusion:
My thoughts are still fresh and forming from my trip, and I expect them to change and refine upon further reflection and discussion. I hope that this piece proves useful to my comrades and organizers from across every corner of the resurgent American Left. I want to thank the various members of DSA Los Angeles and Palm Beach who made this trip possible, and the unaffiliated comrades who offered support, aid and comfort before and during this excursion. For the sake of their security and privacy, I will withhold their names unless otherwise authorized.
During my final evening in Palm Beach, after abandoning the convention for the anarchists’ Solstice party, I found myself struck by a sense of difficult-to-articulate hope, and as profoundly cliched as it is, I recalled a passage of Marx from The Civil War in France, wherein he contrasts the bourgeois exiles amassed in Versailles, and the revolutionary populace of the Paris Commune.
There it was, this Assembly, the representative of everything dead in France, propped up to the semblance of life by nothing but the swords of the generals of Louis Bonaparte.
Paris all truth,
Versailles all lie; and that lie vented through the mouth of Thiers.
Solidarity forever. Thank you.To observe the general explosion of tweets on Friday was to believe that Donald Trump’s time in office was hurtling toward an inevitable end. That morning, Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor investigating the extent of the president’s ties to the Russian government, announced that Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, had pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Upon observing that, though Mueller was purportedly in possession of enough evidence to charge Flynn and his son, Mike Flynn Jr., with a whole host of crimes, he stopped at a single charge and let Flynn Jr. off scot-free, many surmised that Flynn had cut a plea deal with the special prosecutor. “He is obviously cooperating... If he wasn’t cooperating he would be indicted and I guarantee you there would be more counts than this,” Sol Wisenberg, a criminal defense lawyer on the Whitewater investigation, told my colleague Abby Tracy, an assumption seemingly confirmed by an ABC News report that Flynn stood ready to testify against Trump, members of Trump’s family, and others in the White House.
Denizens of the populist-nationalist world where Flynn was first hailed as a hero also believed the end was near—the end of the Russia distraction, that is. Several prominent sources I spoke to expressed little, if any, concern that Flynn’s indictment would upset their agenda, brushing off Mueller’s probe as a witch hunt that had unearthed zero evidence of underlying crimes. The argument, as populist operative Jack Posobiec put it to me, was that of course Flynn was in contact with Russian ambassadors—that is, after all, what ambassadors are for. “The left is acting like Trump is going to have to leave office because Michael Flynn got a parking ticket,” he said, calling Flynn’s indictment a “process crime” and a technicality. “Talking to diplomats is legal. The much bigger question is how the F.B.I. obtained a transcript of his phone conversation without a warrant.”
If there was concern in the ranks of the right that Mueller’s probe would eventually ensnare their president, it didn’t show. As proof of their utter public confidence that nothing truly bad was happening, the front pages of Infowars and Breitbart, two prominent far-right organs, were free of the normal partisan hyperbole, instead reporting the story under comparatively straight headlines. (CNN reporter Oliver Darcy did note that Fox News, Trump’s biggest booster, barely mentioned the indictment and led straight with a Hillary Clinton story.)
Though its outlook was far from the apocalyptic fervor of even the mainstream press, the majority of which was running around with its hair on fire reading the tea leaves, Steve Bannon’s war machine did supplement its analysis of the indictment with an attack on Ty Cobb, Trump’s lawyer who famously predicted that the Mueller probe would be done by the end of the year. “That is beyond wishful thinking. It is borderline delusion,” wrote Breitbart editor-at-large Joel Pollak in an editorial positioned prominently on the front page. (At the time of publication, Bannon’s spokesperson had not returned a request for comment.)
Over on right-wing Twitter, the news inspired little more than a shrug, punctuated with the barely expressed hope that Jared Kushner, the president’s slender cuck of a son-in-law, would be out next. In the midst of her furious tweets about the Kate Steinle murder trial, which ended with the acquittal of the accused undocumented immigrant, Ann Coulter sent out a few tweets reminding her followers that Ted Kennedy had sent secret letters to the K.G.B. proposing a media strategy to defeat Ronald Reagan in 1984. “Kennedy was writing mash notes to Soviet leaders back when Russia was threatening Americans with nuclear annihilation—liberals loved THAT Russia,” she wrote. “It’s today’s Christian Russia that liberals hate.”
Outside the insurgency, too, conservative outlets like the National Review wondered whether the Flynn indictment was a lot of hot air. “If it were part of the basis for a ‘collusion’ case arising out of Russia’s election meddling, then Flynn would not be pleading guilty to a process crime—he’d be pleading guilty to an espionage conspiracy,” wrote Andrew McCarthy. “For all the furor, we have a small-potatoes plea in Flynn’s case—just as we did in [George] Papadopoulos’s case, despite extensive ‘collusion’ evidence.” In another article, David French contributed his dose of cold water: “We could be looking at less of a criminal conspiracy and more of a festival of lies surrounding a non-conspiracy,” he wrote.
For now, rather than react to a hypothetical outcome, the general tendency on every facet of the right is to brush off the indictment, perhaps forever, but at least until more details are made clear. “We [could] have a scandal about a scandal about nothing,” Ben Shapiro speculated at the Daily Wire. “We don’t know yet, of course. But everyone ought to wait before declaring that there’s no there there, or that there is certainly a bombshell buried in Robert Mueller’s files.”Hey there, everybody. welcome to the second part of the year’s second edition of The Worst Of The Best. Right here is the first part, concentrating on really terrible pitches. And here’s a link to the complete series archive. Now, the big story is Thursday marked the beginning of the 2014 Major League Baseball amateur draft, which is also referred to by other terms.
The draft is one of the most critical events for an organization, and when evaluating drafts, a common measure is whether a given drafted player made it to the major leagues. Keep in mind that all of the players you see below made it to the major leagues — and some of them attempted terrible swings. There are major leaguers and there are successful draft picks, and while there is overlap it’s hardly complete. Drafting is difficult and baseball is difficult.
In this post we entertain ourselves with the wildest swings attempted in May. Featured is going to be a top-five list, and then we’ll also whip through a next-five list just so you know who almost earned several paragraphs of critical commentary. It’s all PITCHf/x and I specifically exclude checked swings and swings on attempted hit-and-runs. This is how it has always been, although in this particular instance there’s something of a gray area. We’ll get to in a while. You’ll look at the swings at the pitches furthest from the center of the strike zone, and that’s the methodology until someone comes up with something better than that. Something that can be researched without watching every swing of every game. I like baseball, but I don’t like that much baseball. I like pepperoni sticks, but I don’t want everything I eat to be a pepperoni stick. I’d die. I’d die in agony. Basically, this is what we’ve got, so let’s just get into this thing.
10
Batter: Grant Green
Pitcher: Shawn Tolleson
Date: May 3
Location: 38 inches from center of zone
9
Batter: Gavin Floyd
Pitcher: Tim Lincecum
Date: May 12
Location: 38.2 inches from center of zone
8
Batter: Wilin Rosario
Pitcher: Corey Kluber
Date: May 30
Location: 39.5 inches from center of zone
7
Batter: Cameron Maybin
Pitcher: Carter Capps
Date: May 10
Location: 40.7 inches from center of zone
6
Batter: Jason Heyward
Pitcher: Jason Hammel
Date: May 9
Location: 41.8 inches from center of zone
—–
Time to get busy writing! Like they say, get busy writing, or get busy being outside comfortable in the sunshine.
5
Batter: Eduardo Nunez
Pitcher: Vidal Nuno
Date: May 30
Location: 43.1 inches from center of zone
It’s easy to miss, because the.gif moves quickly and the video quality is far from hi-def. But this is Eduardo Nunez swinging, and also, this is Eduardo Nunez getting hit by the pitch that he swung at. Now, I don’t know if Nunez was among the May league leaders in the category. I know that Anthony Rizzo swung at pitches that hit him like two or three times, at least. But Nunez hacked at the worst of those pitches, and then he turned around and hopped around and pleaded, seeing if the umpire perhaps didn’t notice that he’d taken a full and exaggerated hack. You’ve heard of the back-foot breaking ball. The back-foot breaking ball can be a quality pitch. You don’t really hear about the front-foot breaking ball, because that pitch is |
Übertretung abhalten, und dazu muss er sie vorher erkennen können.
Hier aber hat man eine Falle gebaut. Und die Funktionsweise einer Falle ist, dass man sie vorher eben nicht erkennt. Ziel einer Falle ist ja gerade, dass Leute reintappen.
Und diese Verunsicherung, dieses am-Besten-gar-nichts-mehr-machen, ist ein sehr deutlicher Beleg dafür, dass es hier nur um Fallen und nicht um Schutz geht. Frauen haben sich effektiv selbst als Köder der Falle ausgelegt.
Das Problem mit einem vergifteten Köder ist aber, dass das irgendwann bekannt wird, und niemand den Köder noch anrührt. Und auch sonst nichts, was wie der Köder aussieht. Und genau das ist eingetreten.
Die jüngste Welle der Sexismus-Vorwürfe hat diese Vorsicht noch deutlich verstärkt. Plötzlich fragen sich auch früher lockere Kollegen, ob sie ihrer Kollegin noch ein Kompliment machen oder sie nach ihrem Wochenende fragen dürfen.
Nein.
Schlimmer: Sie fragen sich nicht mehr, ob sie noch dürfen. Sondern ob sie noch wollen, ob sie noch müssen.
Früher galt man als rüde, unhöflich, schlecht erzogen, wenn man Frauen keine Komplimente gemacht hat. Das war mal eine Selbstverständlichkeit, und Frauen reagierten perplex oder versauert, wenn man das überging. Heute lässt man den Quatsch einfach bleiben, inbesondere weil das Risiko weit höher als der mögliche (nicht der zu erwartende, sondern der mögliche) Nutzen ist. Selbst wenn man noch dürfte: Man(n) will nicht mehr.
So mancher Manager treffe Vorkehrungen, um Situationen zu vermeiden, in denen er alleine mit einer Angestellten wäre, sagt Philippe Weiss vom Rechtsberatungsunternehmen Seyfarth Shaw at Work in Chicago.
Nicht nur Manager. Das sieht man inzwischen in sehr vielen Bereichen, dass Männer von vornherein und organisatorisch vermeiden, mit Frauen alleine zu sein. In der Open-Source-Szene gehen viele Männer nicht mehr alleine zu Konferenzen, dort nicht mal mehr alleine pinkeln, weil sie ständig Verleumdungsüberfälle befürchten. Dass Ärzte bei uns ihre Arzthelferinnen anweisen, ihn auf keinen Fall mit einer Patientin allein zu lassen, ist auch keine Seltenheit mehr. Ich kenne immer mehr scheußliche Bürogebäude, in denen die Zimmer und mitunter sogar die Fahrstühle keine Wände mehr haben, sondern alles nur noch Glasscheiben sind, in denen jeder jeden beobachtet, und das immer. Weniger um sexuelle Zudringlichkeiten zu verhindern. Mehr um Verleumdungen und falsche Vorwürfe zu verhindern. (Unbeobachtet ist man nur noch auf dem Klo, und selbst das wird im Zeitalter der Genderklos hoch riskant. Wäre übrigens ein prima Klagegrund gegen Genderklos. Man kann sich durchaus überlegen, ob Parteien wie SPD, Grüne, Linke deshalb für Genderklos sind, um den letzten unbeobachteten Bereich noch für das Abernten durch Belästigungsvorwürfe zu erschließen.)
Man hat das Bild des Mannes als Bedrohung gemalt.
Damit erreicht hat man, dass die Frau als Bedrohung aufgefasst wird.
Dem Wirtschaftsanwalt Jonathan Segal sind schon Ankündigungen einiger Männer zu Ohren gekommen, dass sie Frauen lieber vor ihren Bürotüren stehen lassen wollten, als das Risiko von Vorwürfen oder Gerüchten einzugehen. „Dieses Thema der Vermeidung ist meine größte Sorge“, betont Segal, „denn die Marginalisierung von Frauen in der Geschäftswelt ist mindestens so ein großes Problem wie die Belästigung.“ Laut einem kürzlich veröffentlichten Bericht über 222 nordamerikanische Unternehmen sinkt der Frauenanteil von 47 Prozent bei der Einstellung auf 20 Prozent, wenn es um das Erreichen der Führungsspitze geht.
Es war ein ganz schwerer, in absehbarer Zeit nicht mehr zu behebender taktischer Fehler, Frauen als Bedrohung aufzubauen. Eine Menge feministischer Idiotinnen fühlte sich damit und durch überlegen und stark. Sie haben aber nicht bedacht, dass sie ihre Leistung, ihren Nutzen, überhaupt nicht erhöht, sondern eher durch die Absenkung der Anforderungen zur Erreichung von Quoten und die Verblödung im Rahmen der Frauenförderung gesenkt haben. Und inzwischen ist eben die Bedrohung, die von Frauen ausgeht, weit höher als der zu erwartende Nutzen. In der Bilanz sind Frauen damit zu einem Negativposten, zu einer Belastung geworden.
Eingeschränkte Kontakte sendeten eine beunruhigende Botschaft, betont Brad Johnson, der Autor eines Buches, das eigentlich Männer zum Mentorat für junge Kolleginnen ermutigt: „Wenn ich wegen Ihres Geschlechts kein Einzelgespräch mit Ihnen führen wollte, würde ich Ihnen vermitteln: „Ich kann mich nicht auf Sie verlassen, Sie sind ein Risiko.“
Genau das galt den radikalen Feministinnen doch immer als Ideal, als erstrebenswert, als „Empowerment”. Als Macht. Es war doch das Ziel, sich als gefährlich, als Risiko zu produzieren. Man hielt sich für so erforderlich, dass man glaubte, sich leisten zu können, als Kotzbrocken anzutreten. Jetzt sind sie überflüssig und Kotzbrocken.
Jessica Proud, Politikberaterin für die Republikaner, erinnert sich, dass sie während eines Wahlkampfs aufgefordert wurde, nicht mit dem Kandidaten zu reisen, weil das womöglich Anlass für Getuschel gäbe. Doch genau das sei verkehrt und in vieler Hinsicht auch beleidigend. „Ich bin ein Profi, er ist ein Profi. Wieso sollte meine Berufserfahrung eingegrenzt werden?“, fragt sie.
Ganz einfach: Weil die Berufserfahrung nicht so groß ist, dass sie das Risiko rechtfertigt.
Der Artikel erschien auch in der Schweiz.
Das Problem ist nicht auf die USA beschränkt. Die Berliner Zeitung beschreibt gerade, wie man die Unschuldsvermutung abgeschafft hat, um auch völlig unberechtigte Vorwürfe als Waffe einsetzen zu können:
Ist die semantische Unterstellung erst einmal auf dem Tisch, scheint eine Entlastung so gut wie unmöglich. […] Wie das bereits hinreichend vorhandelte Beispiel des unter Sexismusverdacht geratenen Gedichts von Eugen Gomringer an der Hausfassade an der Alice-Salomon-Hochschule in Marzahn-Hellersdorf zeigt, wird selbst einer weithin gerühmten lyrischen Instanz keine Unschuldsvermutung gewährt. Und so gehört es zu den eher beklemmenden Erfahrungen des Kampfes gegen Diskriminierung, dass über die Konjunktur des Verdachts die sozialen Ressourcen des Wohlwollens ruiniert worden sind. Erholung ist nicht in Sicht.
„…die sozialen Ressourcen des Wohlwollens ruiniert…”. Das ist schön formuliert.
Es geht eben nicht mehr darum, echte Diskriminierung zu bekämpfen, sondern jede noch so abwegige Gelegenheit zu nutzen, den Vorwurf zu erheben.
Früher mieden Frauen die Dunkelheit, um nicht vergewaltigt zu werden. Heute meiden Männer die Dunkelheit, um nicht der Vergewaltigung bezichtigt zu werden.
Und das heißt, jede Gelegenheit, jede Möglichkeit eines Vorwurfs von vornherein auszuschließen. Und damit Frauen. Denn die sind heute wandelnde Vorwürfsmöglichkeiten.
Der Brüller: Sogar das sozialistische Propagandablatt Neues Deutschland beklagt die Entwicklung. Zwar nicht so sehr im Sinne von „das war schlecht”, aber so im Sinne von „Verdammt, unsere Waffe funktioniert nicht mehr, weil wir’s übertrieben haben”.
Und es wird eingeräumt, dass Frauen sich an den Opferzug einfach drangehängt haben, um ihren „gesellschaftlichen Status” zu erhöhen.
2. Entdifferenzierung Von der verbalen Entgleisung bis zur rohen Gewalt, von der unangemessenen Berührung bis zur Vergewaltigung wird alles in einen Topf geworfen und als Problem konstruiert. Jeder Differenzierungsversuch – in Talkshows und auf Tagungen ist das gut zu beobachten – wird sofort als Verharmlosung, als Verhöhnung der Opfer, als Identifikation mit Tat und Tätern bewertet. Die Grenze wird zwischen Tat und Nichttat gezogen, zwischen Opfern und Tätern, die Art der Tat ist dann zweitrangig.
Es ging eben nie um die Tat. Die Tat spielte nie eine Rolle. Es ging immer nur darum, die Welt in Täter und Opfer einzuteilen.
Die hemmungslose Sexualisierung des Nichtsexuellen, wie sie in den westlichen Industriegesellschaften zu beobachten ist, gilt auch für MeToo. Vieles, was mit Sex nichts zu tun hat – die rüde Bemerkung, die herabwürdigende Haltung, die körperliche Gewalt, die Ungleichbehandlung – wird sexuell konnotiert, und diese Zuschreibung emotionalisiert zusätzlich.
Ja, natürlich. Weil die, die diese Kampagne treiben, nicht intellektuell, sondern allein vegetativ funktionieren. Alles, was außerhalb von Sex und Menstruation liegt, liegt außerhalb deren Horizontes.
Der Sexismus-Diskurs geht mit dem Gewalt-Diskurs einher: Der verletzlichen Frau steht der zu Gewalt und Übergriffen neigende Mann gegenüber. Dieser Standard ist ein Konstrukt. Er hat nichts oder nur wenig mit der Wirklichkeit zu tun.
War erwartet ihr? Das kommt aus dem Soziologentopf. Wo sollte da ein Zusammenhang mit Wirklichkeit bestehen.
Und dieser ganze große Haufen Mist und Schrott, den man angerichtet hat, schlägt nun eben zurück. Die Frau als solche steht als lächerlich da.
Was Frauen da in den letzten 20, 30 Jahren ansteigend, intensivierend abgezogen haben, übersteigt an Dummheit und Lächerlichkeit jede Beschreibung. Leistungen, gar Leistungssteigerungen, waren dabei nicht zu beobachten. Die Frau an sich steht blöd da.
Und die Zeche zahlt sie, und das in der Währung, die alle Frauen verstehen: In Sex.
Ein winziges Beispiel aus meiner deutschlandrepräsentativen Studie »Postmenopause und Sexualität«. Nur (aber immerhin!) ein Prozent der Frauen zwischen 50 und 60 Jahren sagen, ihr Partner würde sie zum Sex zwingen, aber 24 Prozent beklagen, dass sie zu wenig Geschlechtsverkehr hätten.
Bedenke, worum Du bittest. Es könnte Dir gewährt werden.Edie Windsor, the plaintiff in a same-sex marriage case decided by the Supreme Court June 26, 2013. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Andrea Swalec
JACKSON HEIGHTS — Gay rights hero Edith Windsor is heading to Queens to help honor a local LGBT activist.
The Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee's 21st annual fundraising festival, Winter Pride, will honor the group NYC Pride local activist Cathy Renna on Saturday, Jan. 25 at the Astoria World Manor.
Renna, of Middle Village, is a media relations and communications worker who spent over a decade at GLAAD, and has also done public relations for various organizations, including the Matthew Shepard Foundation and ACT-UP.
She'll receive an award from Windsor, who was the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act.
“It is a thrill to be honored by Queens Pride, especially because I was born in Astoria, raised in Whitestone and now live in Middle Village," Renna said.
"It feels great to be a ‘local girl that’s done good.'"
The honor will also be extended to NYC Pride, organizers of Manhattan's famed June parade who have helped guide the Queens branch since it's inception, according to officials.
Organizers of Queens Pride, which started in 1992 and was founded by City Councilman Danny Dromm, said they were excited to have Windsor at the event to celebrate last year's victory for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
"She is the embodiment of the impact one person can have, standing up for what is right and fighting for what you believe in," said Chris Calvert, co-chair of Queens Pride.
"We look forward to celebrating with her.”
The event raises money for the annual Queens Pride Parade and Festival, which will be held on Sunday, June 1 in Jackson Heights.
Tickets are still available and the event is open to the public. For more information or to purchase tickets, please visit www.queenspride.org or contact winterpride@queenspride.org.Skip to comments.
Vegas Employer: Obama WonSo I Fired 22 Employees
KXNT Las Vagas ^ | November 7, 2012 | N/A
Posted on by Freeport
LAS VEGAS (CBS Las Vegas) A Las Vegas business owner with 114 employees fired 22 workers today, apparently as a direct result of President Obamas re-election.
David (he asked to remain anonymous for obvious reasons) told Host Kevin Wall on 100.5 KXNT that elections have consequences and that at the end of the day, I need to survive.
Heres an excerpt from the interview. Click the audio tab below to hear even more from this compelling conversation:... Im just one guy with 114 employees well was 114 employees watch what happens in the next six months. The Dow alone lost 314 points today. Theres a tsunami coming and if you didnt think this election had consequences, just wait.
(Excerpt) Read more at lasvegas.cbslocal.com...
TOPICS:
Business/Economy
Extended News
Government
News/Current Events
US: Nevada
KEYWORDS:
bho2012
bringthepain
ecomony
lasvegas
layoffs
nv2012
Yup.. Here it comes baby!
To: Freeport
Local company closed its doors the day after election. Produced solar glass. Guess nobody saw THAT coming.
by 2 posted onby don-o (He will not share His glory and He will NOT be mocked! Blessed be the name of the Lord forever.)
To: Freeport
Hope-N-Change...
More lifetime government dole voters created.
by 3 posted onby tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
To: Freeport
I expect post-holiday layoffs to be EPIC and that we’ll climb back into the 9% range for unemployment. Oh’ and then there will be calls for another stimulus only this time I’m quitting my job and will sit on my ass for two years if it’s offered.
by 4 posted onby TSgt (...voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.)
To: Freeport
Good. Elections have consequences. Welcome to Obama’s Amerika.
To: Freeport
It’s their sacrifice for the state. It’s the least they can do for the cult. /sarcasm.
To: Freeport
Take a look at how few areas dictate to the Country... http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323894704578105031877259720.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
To: Freeport
by 8 posted onby TSgt (...voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.)
To: TSgt
Big lay offs coming in medical device.
To: SoFloFreeper
Layoffs are coming at my company as well. We have already started the list... won’t be a merry Christmas for many.
To: SoFloFreeper
I truly hope the only people laid off by this guy were Obama voters...I suspect this employer knows who is who.
To: Freeport
Boeing saved their big layoff until after the election, that's in the news today.
To: TSgt
I expect post-holiday layoffs to be EPIC and that well climb back into the 9% range for unemployment. Except that the Obamugabe-run BLS keeps shrinking the 'universe of available jobs vs job seekers' so that the unemployment number doesn't look so bad. If the same size 'universe of available jobs' is used that was in use the day Bush left office, REAL unemployment would be in the 20% range, and THAT just can't be allowed to tarnish his halo............................
by 13 posted onby Red Badger (Lincoln freed the slaves. Obama just got them ALL back......................)
To: Freeport
Link please?
To: TSgt
I expect post-holiday layoffs to be EPIC and that well climb back into the 9% range for unemployment. I expect you're right. My employer announced back in September that layoff's would be likely by end of year unless economic conditions changed. Looks like they're changing alright, and not for the better now that Obummer's been re-elected. I'm guessing they'll do layoff's somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas, just as they did last year. In the last year, my employer has gone from just over 14,000 employees to just under 11,000 employees through layoff's and attrition (people retiring/finding jobs elsewhere.) It's damn' hard to get anything done right now with I.T. being literally gutted and they're threatening more layoff's. Going to be an interesting end of year, Thanks Obama Supporters!
by 15 posted onby usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
To: virgil
Big lay offs coming in medical device. Yeah, I heard that Medicare was going to stop paying for Penis Pumps...................
by 16 posted onby Red Badger (Lincoln freed the slaves. Obama just got them ALL back......................)
To: Freeport
I hope all 22 voted for Obama.
To: SoFloFreeper
Boeing announced a major restructuring of its defense division on Wednesday that will cut 30 percent of management jobs from 2010 levels. Then they added: Boeing said the changes were not a response to the threat of additional, across-the-board U.S. budget cuts due to take effect on Jan. 2, or the outcome of U.S. elections, but represented another step in its continuing drive to be more competitive while investing in technologies and people. LOL..Obamacare is going to cost them, and every other company, a fortune.
by 18 posted onby radioone ( Main Stream Media. The Government built that.)
To: SoFloFreeper
He went to the parking lot and noted whose cars had Obozo bumper stickers........
by 19 posted onby Red Badger (Lincoln freed the slaves. Obama just got them ALL back......................)
To: Freeport
These DUMBASS Obama supports have no clue what they have wrought! May they all get what they so truly deserve!
by 20 posted onby sirchtruth (Freedom is not free.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson- The body of a Bay Area sailor, who died aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, returned home on Thursday.
23-year-old Danyelle Luckey went from being a little girl in braids, to a graduate of cosmetology school, who enlisted in the Navy.
Five months later, her parents never expected the Navy personnel specialist to come home in a flag draped casket.
The military honor guard escorted the white hearse that carried her body from SFO to her hometown in Pittsburg.
"She told me she wasn't feeling so good like she had a little flu. She went to the medics, they told her she was seasick. She said no, I know the difference. She said like the flu chills and all," said her mom Annette Luckey.
Four days later, Danyelle passed away aboard the USS Ronald Reagan in the Philippines Sea.
Her family was told she suffered from cardiac arrest, and according to the Stars and Stripes, a military newspaper, her death is still being investigated.
"She had a lot of courage to sign up for the navy," said her brother Derrick Luckey. "More courage than I did because I would never find myself doing that and I'm so proud of her for taking that step to try to better her life."69 News
EXETER TWP., Pa. - Kayakers found the body of a man in the Schuylkill River in Berks County on Sunday.
The body was recovered just before 2 p.m., about a half-mile east of Gibraltar Road in Exeter Township.
The kayakers were on the river searching for 26-year-old Bradley Verret, who was last seen near Trooper Thorn's restaurant on Morgantown Road in southwest Reading just more than a month ago.
Investigators said the body does not match Verret's description.
The found man is white and in his mid- to late-50s or early-60s, police said.
Police said preliminary findings are leading investigators to strongly consider the possibility of this matter being suicide.
Police are asking anyone with information regarding the circumstances surrounding this man's death to contact the Exeter Township Police Department at 610-779-1490.Facing allegations of sexual assault and intimidation from a junior woman colleague, founder and editor-in-chief of weekly magazine Tehelka, Tarun Tejpal, said Wednesday that he was stepping down from the post for six months to "do the penance that lacerates" him.
Tejpal's decision came after the woman journalist complained to Shoma Chaudhury, managing editor of Tehelka, accusing Tejpal of sexually assaulting her on two occasions during the 'Think fest' event organised by the magazine in Goa earlier this month.
The alleged incident comes close on the heels of the claim of a young woman lawyer that she was sexually harassed last December by a recently-retired Supreme Court judge with whom she was interning, causing the apex court to suo motu launch an inquiry into the allegations.
In an email to Chaudhury, Tejpal claimed "a bad lapse of judgment" and "an awful misreading of the situation" had led to an "unfortunate incident".
"I have already unconditionally apologised for my misconduct to the concerned journalist, but I feel impelled to atone further," he wrote in the mail. He also wrote that he had hurt "our own high principles" and that "atonement cannot be just words".
"I must do the penance that lacerates me. I am therefore offering to recuse myself from the editorship of Tehelka, and from the Tehelka office, for the next six months."
Announcing the decision to Tehelka's employees, Chaudhury said in her email that there had been an "unfortunate incident" and that Tejpal was recusing himself as the editor for the next six months even though he had extended an unconditional apology to the colleague involved.
Reached for comment, Tejpal told The Indian Express: "The matter was taken up internally, and has been addressed and redressed."
Chaudhury told The Indian Express that the woman journalist had not filed a criminal complaint and that she, as well as other staffers, were "satisfied with the action taken".
... contd.
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Tottenham star Jan Vertonghen and his international team-mate Romelu Lukaku aren’t planning on wasting their summer vacation and seem to have found themselves new careers for when they’re finished with football.
The Belgian duo swapped the training pitch for something with an even faster pace as they pulled a shift behind the counter at a branch of McDonalds in Brussels this weekend, where they were also joined by Chelsea forward Eden Hazard and his brother Thorgan.
Posting on Instagram Vertonghen wrote: “When you in McDonalds for the day”, with one commenter joking this was the price Everton striker Lukaku had to pay for missing out on the Golden Boot to Spurs striker Harry Kane.
Vertonghen and Lukaku weren’t just confined to flipping burgers and ventured out to serve a few lucky customers as they took a break from preparations for tonight’s friendly against the Czech Republic.
Belgium boss Roberto Martinez will be without captain Eden Hazard for that match and the following World Cup qualifier in Estonia after the Chelsea star fractured his ankle in training.
Hazard now faces the prospect of missing the start of the season and is likely to need an operation.With TWICE’s latest appearance on “Running Man” coming up fast, the show has been offering fans on social media a little preview of what’s to come.
Among images uploaded to the official “Running Man” Instagram account, the ladies can be seen palling around with the regular cast.
The episode was shot in the coastal city of Busan, where the cast and TWICE girls broke into three teams and competed against each other in a number of challenges. While shooting one such mission, the teams are seen sitting around a table, waiting to eat a meal of traditional street fare.
Find out which team reigns supreme when the episode airs on December 4.
In the meantime, “Running Man” fans can check out last week’s episode, featuring EXO’s D.O. and Jo Jung Suk, by clicking below!
Link to video: www.viki.com/videos/1111816v-running-man-bromance-war-episode-327
Source (1)Jonathan Paye-Layleh, The Associated Press
MONROVIA, Liberia -- A new case of Ebola has been confirmed in Liberia, the World Health Organization said Friday, a setback for the country which had been declared free from Ebola transmissions in January.
Health authorities at the Redemption Hospital in the densely-populated New Kru Town suburbs of Monrovia said a 30-year-old woman died of Ebola.
The woman died Thursday night, said the head of Liberia's Ebola response, Tolbert Nyenswah.
"She died on arrival and a swab was taken, analyzed in the lab and was confirmed," Nyenswah said. "We are investigating the source."
Liberians hoped they were finally clear of Ebola. But this happened "given the tenacity of the Ebola virus," he said.
The West African country was declared free from transmission Jan. 14. Liberia was first declared free of the disease in May, but new cases emerged two times -- forcing officials there to restart the clock each time.
WHO on Twitter Friday reiterated that Ebola is no longer an international health emergency, but said flare-ups, at decreasing frequency, are expected.
Flare-ups have also occurred in Sierra Leone and in Guinea, though health authorities say those are not linked to the original chain of transmission. Guinea's flare-up came months after the outbreak was declared over there and hours after Sierra Leone announced the end of its flare-up.
WHO said there have been eight cases of Ebola and seven deaths in Guinea since late February. The most recent case, an 11-year old girl, is being treated in Nzerekore, and is in stable condition, it said. Six of the deceased are from three generations of the same extended family in Koropara village, it said.
Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of victims or corpses. Traditional funerals, in which mourners touch the body, were a major source of virus transmission during the epidemic in West Africa.
Ebola's symptoms can initially mimic those of other tropical diseases -- high fever and fatigue. In its advanced stages, Ebola can cause severe hemorrhaging.
The world's deadliest Ebola outbreak has killed more than 11,300 people, mostly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, since December 2013.
AP writer Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report.BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A 90-year-old Stalin-era prison commander faced the rest of his life in prison on Wednesday after Romania’s top court dismissed his last appeal against a 20-year jail term for murder and crimes against humanity.
Alexandru Visinescu (2nd R), the commander of the Ramnicu Sarat prison in eastern Romania between 1956 and 1963 while the country was under communist rule, is escorted by the police outside his apartment in Bucharest, Romania, February 10, 2016. REUTERS/Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea
Alexandru Visinescu was convicted in July of direct involvement in the deaths of 12 inmates, the first case of its kind since the collapse of Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorship in 1989.
The pensioner, who did not attend the hearing, was waiting in his downtown Bucharest apartment on Wednesday for police to pick up and take him to jail, witnesses said.
He was accused of subjecting inmates to beatings and starvation, and denying them medical treatment and heating, during his time in charge of the institution from 1956 to 1963.
The last survivor of the jail where Visinescu worked, Valentin Cristea, 85, told Reuters he did not want to comment on the case but added: “I’m now old and sick... What can I say? The justice system has done its duty.”
Cristea said he had spent six years in the jail on the outskirts of the small town of Ramnicu Sarat, 150 km (94 miles) east of Bucharest for disclosing state secrets to an anti-communist group. He said he lost 20 kg (44 pounds) during his detention.
Earlier in the legal proceedings, which stretched over two years, Visinescu had described himself as a victim of the system who only followed orders, stating at one point: “I have no regrets, I have no regrets”.
According to the Institute for Investigation of Communist Crimes (IICCMER), up to 2 million people are estimated were killed, imprisoned, deported, relocated or otherwise victimized between 1945 and 1989.
About half a million people including peasants, politicians, priests, doctors, officers, land owners and merchants were jailed in the early 1960s after hastily assembled trials and a fifth of them perished in prisons such as Ramnicu Sarat.
Visinescu, who has been living on a special military pension, will likely go to the municipal prison, a police source said, adding he would likely become the country’s oldest inmate.
Former IICCMER head Andrei Muraru said: “This is a precedent proving political crimes before 1989 can be punished.”HOPEWELL BOROUGH -- The daily menu appeared on index cards.
The regulars sat at reserved, yet unmarked tables.
And behind the candy counter sat an empty, wooden cigarette dispensary.
Nearby, a tiny woman who went by the name Chubby watched over the luncheonette from an opening in the kitchen.
It has been almost three years since the lights dimmed on Chubby's Luncheonette in Hopewell Borough.
But it was so special to owner Carol "Chubby" Montello that she chose to die in the place she ran for 36 years.
In early October, after just five hours in a local hospital, Montello's loved ones arranged to have her hospital bed wheeled into the eatery on Railroad Place.
Montello spent her final 11 hours at Chubby's. She was 78 years old.
"She was a tough little old lady but with a big heart," said Mike Vecchiarelli, manager of a frame studio in the borough. The 20-year borough resident went to the luncheonette often, though he did not regard himself as a "regular."
Chubby's, to this day, looks much like it did in the 1950s. Chubby wanted it that way, and held sway over the narrow luncheonette with an iron fist and a warm heart.
Joanne Farrugia, a Princeton resident, was raised by Chubby.
She said there were unofficial rules to being anointed a regular.
For starters, Farrugia said, you knew that the "newcomers" sat in the front even if the back tables were empty - the regulars, or "old-timers," would eventually file into their respected seats in the back.
And secondly, you probably arrived at Chubby's before Chubby herself.
"Chubby was not an early riser," Farrugia said. "The luncheonette opened at 5 a.m. but Chubby wouldn't get there until around 9 or 10 a.m."
However, Montello left the door open "24-7," Farrugia said and the regulars would make coffee and heat their muffins on the always-warm stove before she arrived.
The luncheonette was open Monday through Saturday.
With old, framed Trenton Times articles, baseball cards and toys lining the walls, Farrugia said Chubby epitomized Americana.
"And I think the thing we always talk about in today's restaurants are these 'community tables,'" she said. "Chubby's was a community table long before it was called a community table."
Chubby entered Farrugia's life at a young age. Chubby was working as a nanny to single father Tony Farrugia and raised Farrugia and her two sisters Michelle Hamilton and Lyn Farrugia.
The three girls - now women with children of their own - said Chubby was like a "guardian" to them. (Tony Farrugia died five years ago.)
"She took care of her community," long-time friend, customer and Hopewell Borough resident Joe Vaccarino said.
Along with donating food to any community event, Joanne Farrugia and her sisters, and Vaccarino, all spoke of one woman in particular who Chubby looked after.
Her name was "Tiny" and she had no money or home that any of them knew of.
She would come into Chubby's regularly and Montello fed her free of charge. "And she would do that for anybody who needed it," Joanne Farrugia said.
ALSO: Last cut is the deepest: Trenton barber closes shop after 55 years
The luncheonette has since been passed down to the "daughters," but they are unsure of what will become of it yet, Farrugia said.
All three have their own careers.
Joanne Farrugia runs the Princeton toy store JaZams, Lyn Farrugia works out of her Hopewell Borough home as a physician and Hamilton is a third-grade teacher at Hopewell Elementary School. They say they'd be unable to manage the business full time.
Before Montello bought "Chubby's" with her friend Rose Sponholtz - then referred to as "Rose and Chubby's" - the luncheonette was owned by four prior Hopewell Borough residents.
None made any serious changes from the 1950s decor.
Chubby - who worked at the luncheonette before she bought it with Sponholtz in 1979 - ran it with her partner for 12 years.
When Sponholtz decided to leave in 1991, Chubby hired "Buzz" as a waitress who helped her with operations.
Joanne Farrugia and Hamilton said they remember going to Chubby's before it was "Chubby's" for homemade ice cream. Then they helped out once Montello bought it.
"She'd always have me run down to the general store for hard rolls," Hamilton said. "Then I'd run back so she could finish making sandwiches for everyone."
Joanne Farrugia said Chubby used all fresh food items from the Columbus Farmer's Market, where she would spend hours once a week "picking the perfect cantaloupe and the perfect tomato and the perfect pepper."
"She was sourcing, maybe not organic, but local produce long before there was such a thing," she said. "She was known for quality."
Chubby's went out of business three years ago when Montello could not keep up with the day-to-day costs.
Two years ago she started complaining of back pains which led to complications in her chest, but Chubby did not want to be medically treated or diagnosed. She just wanted to ride it out, Hamilton said.
Although closed to the public, Montello often sat inside Chubby's, since she lived above it.
Vaccarino recalled going to the luncheonette on a regular basis after it shut down and having coffee with Montello while she read newspapers and smoked a cigarette.
"The store closed three years ago," Vaccarino said. "There was no heat. She was freezing. I bought her one of those ceramic heaters. She sat in there all the time."
I figured she was sick but it never really dawned on me how bad it was," he said.
In early October, Montello had to go to the hospital.
"She didn't really want to go to |
only service that actually worked to let us save images from across the web. Think back to that time, just getting the utility working. What did you think Pinterest was then?
I didn’t have grand plans. I don’t think Ben did either in the beginning. It was just the tool I used in my job. I was in school for architecture and when you’re in school for a creative discipline, so much of what you produce comes out of inspiration from other people. The more you’re exposed to architecturally, the better you can develop your own language out of that history of architectural thought. So I had thousands of images that I had saved in folders on my computer. But they were all named like databasestrings.jpg and I had no idea what any of them were. So Pinterest was a way for me to create a link: let’s bookmark an image so that when I go look at it later, I go to where it came from. This is this architect’s building. This is what it is. And collections are a natural way of organizing that sort of inspiration.
So for me, it was very much a professional tool in my industry. For Ben, it was slightly different. Ben used it in ways that you see the broader cross-section of people using it. He used it for recipe ideas, products he was in love with, planning travel. He had a kid. He got married. He did all those things on Pinterest.
Every startup person I know, it’s like their startup was revealed to them long after they started working on it. So when did you know that you had something bigger than a bookmarking site?
You build something and it’s like, what can I build on top of that and what can I build on top of that and what can I build on top of that. Great companies, I think, are the ones that see what they’ve built and can build on top of it and iterate their product.WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Wednesday that the family of an American citizen killed during a visit to the West Bank may not sue the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization under a 1991 federal law, the Torture Victim Protection Act.
The law allows civil lawsuits against “an individual” who engages in torture or killings, and the question in the case was whether that term could apply not only to people but also to organizations.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the court, said the answer was no.
“An officer who gives an order to torture or kill is an ‘individual’ in that word’s ordinary usage; an organization is not,” she wrote.
The case was brought by the family of Azzam Rahim, a naturalized American citizen. According to their lawsuit, Mr. Rahim was arrested by intelligence officers of the Palestinian Authority during a 1995 visit to the West Bank. The officers took him to a prison in Jericho, where he was tortured and killed, the lawsuit said.
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Mr. Rahim’s family sued under the 1991 law, which imposes liability on “an individual” who “subjects an individual to torture” or “subjects an individual to extrajudicial killing.”The packaging will tie in with the “Glorious 2012”, celebrating a summer of events including the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, London Olympics and the England football team’s participation in the European Championships.
JDO incorporated a union flag to the background of the front label to “inject national pride”, while the call to action Keep Calm and Celebrate sits on the neck label together with an iconic Spitfire plane.
Paul Drake, JDO’s creative director, said: “With all the excitement this summer and the wave of patriotism sweeping the country, what could be more appropriate than celebrating Spitfire, an authentic British brand.”
Mark Miller, Shepherd Neame marketing manager, added: “With this fantastic new design, JDO have enabled us to celebrate a truly great British ale alongside a year of great British Events.”
Limited edition bottles are being launched in the grocery multiples and will run throughout the summer months while the events are taking place. The campaign will be supported through social media and advertising and point of sale in the ontrade.VANCOUVER — In a first for North America and possibly the world, the Vancouver Aquarium has successfully bred Arctic cod in captivity.
Within weeks an estimated 500 to 600 juvenile cod will be on display for the public, said Danny Kent, the aquarium's curator of B.C. Waters.
"We're super happy about it," said Kent. "The Arctic display is there to educate the public and it's more cost-effective to replace our display animals (ourselves) when they pass on."
Kent said it's also an opportunity for researchers to come to Vancouver to study Arctic cod, who are a keystone species in the Arctic ecosystem,
"Everyone is starting to get more interested in the Arctic because of global warming and oil exploration so their survival is important. Arctic cod is such a key to other species in the Arctic food chain. Arctic char, seals and belugas all depend on Arctic cod for their food."
He said in the last three years biologists from the aquarium have gone to the Arctic four times and collected a couple of dozen Arctic cod adults. It was from these fish marine biologists, over the past six months, were able to breed the cod now in the juvenile stage.
"Rearing Arctic cod is a delicate and intensive process, and the early development stages are critical to the livelihood of the cod," said Kent. "The Arctic cod larvae and eggs are extremely fragile and require meticulous and constant expert care to thrive."
He said under a previous curator the aquarium tried to breed Arctic cod in the late '80s and early '90s but was unsuccessful. Marine biologists resumed their effort in 2009.
Kent said he believes one of the reasons why they were successful this time is the aquarium now has a better water system to hold the fish and get the right quality of food to them when they were in the larvae stage.
"Arctic cod instead of laying eggs in a ball scatter them and they free float in the super cold water. They almost look like an embryo — a ball of yolk with a tail floating around (when hatched). We were able to get them eating well and developing. We're in the clear now. We can truly call them juveniles. The fish look like miniature Arctic cods," he said.
He added opportunities to study Arctic cod are extremely rare because of their remote natural habitats and the extremely challenging water temperature and conditions in the Arctic.
The species lives in northern Canada, including the Beaufort Sea, the Arctic Archipelago, Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay, and along the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland. They spend approximately nine months a year under the ice, making it challenging for scientists to collect information on their life cycle and basic requirements to live.
The aquarium's Arctic Connections exhibit opened in 2009 and is the only North America aquarium to have Arctic cod on display.
kpemberton@vancouversun.comCould we use drugs to become more moral? Should we?
Tom Douglas asks if it could ever be justifiable to use biomedical technologies to improve our morality.
A quick glance at any newspaper is enough to establish that some humans do horribly vicious things to others. Fortunately, grossly immoral conduct is the exception rather than the rule; most of us will never be rapists or murderers or torturers. However, if we stopped to think about it, we could identify various moral failings in ourselves: we could be more attentive friends, we could be moved more by the plight of those in abject poverty, we could be freer from subconscious sexual and racial biases, we could do more to protect the environment for future generations.
We may not think of these rather mundane deficiencies as particularly serious, but they can aggregate with devastating effect. Arguably, our collective moral deficiencies are the driving force behind climate change, global poverty and war. Moreover, in some circumstances, perfectly ordinary moral limitations can lead to truly terrible wrongdoing: it is increasingly recognised that many of history’s greatest atrocities – ranging from the Final Solution to the Cultural Revolution – were perpetrated by ordinary people with ordinary moral limitations.
To combat widespread moral failings, human societies have, to date, relied on childhood discipline, education, persuasion, the sensible design of social institutions (tax-funded welfare systems, regulations on pollution and so on) and the threat of punishment, either in this life or the next. In the relatively near future, we may be able to add further arrows to this quiver.
The scientific study of morality is currently a thriving area. Social psychologists, neuroscientists, geneticists, empirically-minded philosophers and others are beginning to understand some of the psychological, neural and even genetic bases of moral thinking and morally-significant behaviour. This work is already yielding new means for correcting our moral limitations. These include ‘nudge’ techniques which aim to alter morally significant behaviour by harnessing known biases. (An example: some countries are already seeking to encourage altruistic organ donation by instituting opt-out consent systems, which take advantage of the human bias towards preserving the status quo.) In the future, the science of morality may also yield pharmacological means for correcting moral limitations.
Some drugs have already been shown to influence human morality, though not necessarily in a positive direction. A recent study found that Citalopram, an anti-depressant of the same type as Prozac, altered the responses of highly empathetic individuals to hypothetical moral dilemma scenarios: individuals given the drug were less willing to sacrifice an individual to save the lives of several others than were those given placebo. Meanwhile, the hormone oxytocin, when administered via nasal spray, appears to facilitate a ‘tend and defend’ response: it increases trusting and co-operative behaviour within social groups, but also decreases co-operation with those perceived as outsiders.
It’s very doubtful whether taking Citalopram or oxytocin would make one a morally better person: these agents may introduce more moral deficiencies than they correct. But perhaps further work will result in the discovery of agents that would, in certain circumstances, alleviate some of (what we reasonably take to be) our moral limitations.
Members of the Wellcome Trust-funded Oxford Centre for Neuroethics have begun to examine the ethical questions raised by this possibility. Enhancing Human Capacities, edited by Julian Savulescu, Ruud ter Meulen and Guy Kahane, contains some of the preliminary results of this work, and is the first edited collection to examine the ethics of enhancing moral capacities. In one chapter, Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu set out the urgent need for humans to correct their moral limitations. In another, I consider whether it could be morally justifiable for adults to voluntarily use biomedical technologies as a means to moral self-improvement.
A number of concerns have already been raised about moral self-improvement via pharmaceuticals: it might problematically restrict our freedom to be immoral (or, as Milton more evocatively put it, our ‘freedom to fall’); it might make us more vulnerable to exploitation by others; or we may simply be mistaken about what would count as a moral improvement. But it’s not clear that any of these concerns are peculiar to pharmacological attempts to correct our moral limitations. Arguably the very same concerns could be raised about seeking moral improvement through, say, publicly committing to donate half of one’s income to charity. Yet most of us would find such an attempt morally justifiable, indeed admirable.
More troubling are questions about whether governments should support the development of drugs and other techniques for correcting moral limitations. One worry is that the sort of scientific knowledge that would allow us to correct moral deficiencies would almost certainly also allow us to exacerbate them. If drugs could diminish xenophobia or callousness, surely they could also increase it. And many people might prefer to become less moral than more so: consider the case of the aggressively ambitious businessman who finds his scruples are interfering with his career advancement.
Perhaps most difficult of all is the question whether drugs capable of correcting moral limitations should ever be made compulsory. Some jurisdictions already offer chemical castration as an alternative to incarceration for some sex offenders. There are doubts about its effectiveness, concerns about side-effects, and some regard it as a violation of bodily integrity. But incarceration is also ineffective, unsafe, and highly restrictive. If there were safe and effective biomedical means for preventing sexual re-offending there might be a stronger a case for making them compulsory than there is for incarceration.
On the other hand, coercive biomedical interventions to control moral behaviour have a disturbing history. When it comes to medical ‘cures’ for moral ‘ills’, we seem to be chronically over-enthusiastic and misguided, whether it’s frontal lobotomy or leucotomy as a treatment for criminal behaviour, or electronic brain implants to cure homosexuality. Given this history, it might be argued that we should draw a line around compulsory medical interventions for moral limitations, and refrain from crossing it.
References
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107 (40), 17433-8 PMID: Crockett MJ, Clark L, Hauser MD, & Robbins TW (2010). Serotonin selectively influences moral judgment and behavior through effects on harm aversion.(40), 17433-8 PMID: 20876101
Science (New York, N.Y.), 328 (5984), 1408-11 PMID: De Dreu CK, Greer LL, Handgraaf MJ, Shalvi S, Van Kleef GA, Baas M, Ten Velden FS, Van Dijk E, & Feith SW (2010). The neuropeptide oxytocin regulates parochial altruism in intergroup conflict among humans.(5984), 1408-11 PMID: 20538951
Nature, 435 (7042), 673-676 DOI: Kosfeld, M., Heinrichs, M., Zak, P., Fischbacher, U., & Fehr, E. (2005). Oxytocin increases trust in humans(7042), 673-676 DOI: 10.1038/nature03701
Tom Douglas
Tom Douglas is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and Oxford Centre for Neuroethics.
Image credit: tdietmut on FlickrOther literature identifies even more specific health benefits: laughing reduced arterial-wall stiffness (which is associated with cardiovascular disease) [6]. Women undergoing in vitro fertilization were 16 percent more likely to get pregnant when entertained by a clown dressed as a chef [7]. And a regular old clown improved lung function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease [8]. More generally, a mirthful life is likely to be a long one. A study of Norwegians found that having a sense of humor correlated with a high probability of surviving into retirement [9].
Unfortunately, there’s a not-so-funny footnote to all this: the people who are best at telling jokes tend to have more health problems than the people laughing at them. A study of Finnish police officers found that those who were seen as funniest smoked more, weighed more, and were at greater risk of cardiovascular disease than their peers [10]. Entertainers typically die earlier than other famous people [11], and comedians exhibit more “psychotic traits” than others [12]. So just as there’s research to back up the conventional wisdom on laughter’s curative powers, there also seems to be truth to the stereotype that funny people aren’t always having much fun. It might feel good to crack others up now and then, but apparently the audience gets the last laugh.
The Studies:
[1] Shaw, “Does Laughter Therapy Improve Symptoms of Depression Among the Elderly Population?” (PCOM Physician Assistant Studies dissertation, 2013)
[2] Sliter et al., “Is Humor the Best Medicine?” (Journal of Organizational Behavior, Feb. 2014)
[3] Szabo et al., “Experimental Comparison of the Psychological Benefits of Aerobic Exercise, Humor, and Music” (Humor, Sept. 2005)
[4] Dunbar et al., “Social Laughter Is Correlated With an Elevated Pain Threshold” (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, March 2012)
[5] Rotton and Shats, “Effects of State Humor, Expectancies, and Choice on Postsurgical Mood and Self-Medication” (Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Oct. 1996)
[6] Vlachopoulos et al., “Divergent Effects of Laughter and Mental Stress on Arterial Stiffness and Central Hemodynamics” (Psychosomatic Medicine, May 2009)
[7] Friedler et al., “The Effect of Medical Clowning on Pregnancy Rates After In Vitro Fertilization and Embryo Transfer” (Fertility and Sterility, May 2011)
[8] Brutsche et al., “Impact of Laughter on Air Trapping in Severe Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease” (International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, March 2008)
[9] Svebak et al., “A 7-Year Prospective Study of Sense of Humor and Mortality in an Adult County Population” (The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, June 2010)
[10] Kerkkänen et al., “Sense of Humor, Physical Health, and Well-Being at Work” (Humor, March 2004)
[11] Rotton, “Trait Humor and Longevity” (Health Psychology, July 1992)
[12] Ando et al., “Psychotic Traits in Comedians” (The British Journal of Psychiatry, May 2014)
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.The Baltimore Ravens acquired veteran wide receiver Chris Givens in a trade from the St. Louis Rams on Saturday, making a much-needed upgrade to their passing game.
Compensation was announced as a conditional draft pick, but the Rams will receive a seventh-round selection as part of the agreement, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
The move comes as a result of Baltimore's injury and depth concerns at receiver, which have played a significant role in the offense's difficulty in moving the ball.
Rookie first-round pick Breshad Perriman remains out indefinitely after a setback in his recovery from a training camp knee injury, and Steve Smith Sr. was forced to leave Thursday's win over the Pittsburgh Steelers with a back issue.
Wide receiver Michael Campanaro, who also suffered a back injury in Week 4, was placed on injured reserve Saturday.
Givens' ability as a vertical threat should see him step into Perriman's expected role, stretching the field to open up the underneath passing game for the rest of the Ravens' pass catchers.
The 25-year-old appeared in 48 games over his four years in St. Louis, hauling in 88 receptions for an average of 16.3 yards per catch.
With Brian Quick returning to the Rams lineup after sitting out the first three weeks, and Givens not cracking the starting lineup since 2013, the Rams were in a position to use their depth to land a draft pick.(CNN) Authorities in Louisiana are working to connect the possible dots between two killings -- that of Louisiana State Trooper Steven Vincent, and another man, who officials have not yet named.
That second victim was believed to have been sharing a home with Kevin Daigle, 54, who authorities say has been charged in Vincent's death.
The 44-year-old veteran trooper was shot Sunday during the course of a traffic encounter with Daigle, whose pickup was stuck in a ditch by the time Vincent arrived, according to Col. Michael Edmonson, the police force's superintendent. Several people had called to report the suspect had been swerving all over the road. Vincent died of his injuries Monday.
"As an organization, we are heartbroken over this senseless and tragic death," Edmonson said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his surviving wife, Katherine, and his son (9-year-old) Ethan as well as his entire extended family," including two brothers who are also in law enforcement: Terrell Vincent, who's also a trooper, and Keith Vincent, who's chief of police in Iowa, Louisiana.
Kevin Daigle, 54, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, will be charged with murder, police say.
Vincent realized the suspect's vehicle matched the description of a truck whose driver had reportedly been driving recklessly. He started talking to Daigle, who appeared to be impaired and was alone in the truck, Edmonson said.
According to police, Daigle opened the truck's door and came out with the shotgun.
"You could hear him breathing, telling him, 'You're lucky. You're lucky. You're going to die soon.' That's the words that came out of his mouth," said Edmonson, who said he listened to a recording of the interaction.
The suspect tried to flee the scene, but other motorists wrestled a shotgun from him and detained him with the trooper's handcuffs, Edmonson said.
"Thank God for those good Samaritans," he told CNN's Don Lemon. "They are heroes."
Edmonson said a man got Daigle to the ground and later got on the police radio to ask for help.
"Total disregard for his own safety. He did what very few people would do," he said.
Daigle is being held at the Calcasieu Parish Jail.
'This didn't make any sense'
Investigators interviewing Daigle learned about an altercation at a home in Moss Bluff, just north of Interstate 10 in southwestern Louisiana, where deputies were already headed to do a welfare check after a man did not show up for work Monday, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff Tony Mancuso told reporters.
When they arrived, they forced their way inside and found the second victim. Authorities are not yet identifying him because his family has not been notified.
"We do believe foul play is involved, and we are investigating it as a homicide," Mancuso said.
In discussing a possible connection between the two slayings, the sheriff said that investigators are looking into the exact relationship between the second victim and Daigle.
"We do have information to believe that he (Daigle) was a resident at that location, maybe not permanently, but at least staying with him (the second victim)," the sheriff said.
He stressed that authorities were just starting to process the scene and do not have a lot of answers. But he hoped they would have more soon.
Mancuso said he hadn't understood why the situation between Daigle and the trooper escalated like it did.
"This didn't make any sense. This may make a little more sense to us now, as this unfolds," he said.
'An honorable husband, father'
Vincent is the first trooper to be killed in a hostile encounter since Trooper Donald Cleveland was murdered near Lafayette in 1977, police said.
Vincent had a lifelong dream of becoming a trooper and joined the Louisiana State Police in 2003. Previously, he was with the Lake Charles Police Department for a decade.
"During his 12 years of service, he received 13 awards and commendations, including the department's Professional Excellence and Meritorious Service Awards as well as numerous Unit Citations for his dedicated and selfless duty throughout the state. He had also served in the United States Army during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm," a state police statement from Sgt. Nick Manale said.
Vincent will receive the full honors associated with a death in the line of duty, Manale said.
"Trooper Vincent epitomizes all that is great about our organization. He didn't just believe in our core values, he lived them. The citizens of this state were well served by Vincent, and I know they join us in our collective grief," Edmonson said.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal ordered flags at state buildings to be flown at half-staff until Friday.
"Steven was an honorable husband, father and state trooper who courageously served our state for over a decade," the governor said in a statement. "Brave men and women like Steven put their lives in danger every day to protect our families, and we are extremely grateful to them for keeping us safe."Ioana and Nick, from Romania, had two wedding days. They did their legal ceremony in May, on the groom’s birthday, and had a big celebration for all their friends and family in July, on the bride’s birthday!
“We did most of the planning ourselves”, explained the bride. ” We had tons of pictures and ideas, and we changed our mind a million times! There wasn’t really a theme, we blended the ingredients as we felt it would represent us. We added things on the way and gave up others.”
The party was held at Sun Garden Resort in Cluj-Napoca and their biggest expenses, because they were most important to them, we’re the flowers, the band and the DJ. “We spent around €2000 on the entertainment and €3000 on flowers”, said the bride. “One of the reasons why we chose the band we did was because their concert was our first gig together.”
“Another special moment was the magic bubble show from Claudia Stroe. She was one of the finalists on Romania’s Got Talent and I think this was the moment no one expected. I’ve seen her shows on video, but it is amazing to witness them live. As it was my birthday, Nick organised an unbelievable handmade lavender cake to be made for me and he got on stage and surprised me with a song. Another thing we both loved was setting off the sky lanterns. A lot of people said it was the first time they’d seen them and that they were mesmerized.”
“We chose special music for each important part of the celebration too. When I entered the chapel we played Love is Blindness by U2 and we came out to Friday I’m in Love by The Cure. Our entrance in the reception was accompanied by Plainsong, also by The Cure and I threw the bouquet to Lonely Boy by The Black Keys. We cut the cake to Hoppipolla by Sigur Ros and we set of the sky lanterns to Shine on you Crazy Diamond by Pink Floyd!”
The bride’s dress was also very unusual and she helped design it. “The dress was my idea”, she explained. “I bought the materials and the feather butterflies, which had to be dyed black. My friend Carmen, who doesn’t really do this for a living so she doesn’t have a website, made the whole thing possible. I told my bridesmaids they could wear anything they liked, there was no dress code, but I made them each a big, colourful leather ring to wear to tie them all in together. I didn’t like the idea of a ‘uniform’ they had to wear. They are all so different and expressive in their own way.”CENTER TOWNSHIP (KDKA) — A man in his 20s overdosed on drugs Wednesday in Center Township, Beaver County.
Center Township Police Chief Barry Kramer says it was fortunate the man was revived with Narcan, which is a medicine used to reverse an opioid overdose.
In less than a week, Beaver County has witnessed a spike in overdoses; a total of 27 in the last five days, including three deaths.
Beaver County District Attorney David Lozier says the batch of heroin now hitting the streets in the county “is new, it’s bad, and there’s something in it that’s killing people.”
Lozier told KDKA-TV’s Ralph Iannotti, “We don’t want to specifically identify it, because we don’t want addicts to go hunting for it, but people have to know that it’s out there, and it’s mixed with something that’s fatal.”
Lozier says his office is working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh, the FBI and DEA trying to track down users and the sellers.
The district attorney notes that there were 30 opioid deaths in 2014 in the county, 37 last year, and up until last month, there were 29 confirmed fatal opioid overdoes county-wide, with 15 more suspected overdoses still under investigation.
“The drug dealers don’t care about the quality of drugs they sell you,” Chief Kramer says. “In fact, they often put high doses in their drugs, because the higher the dose, the more people overdose, the more people want that drug.”
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When we last heard, the the delayed Batman V Superman followup The Batman is still moving forward with a new director (Matt Reeves of Cloverfield and Planet Of The Apes fame). Ben Affleck will still play the super jacked Batman, and the super jacked Joe Manganiello is presumably still playing Deathstroke. At no point has The Penguin been reliably rumored to be in the script, although the script reportedly went through recent rewrites with additional villains, like Jared Leto’s Joker, possibly showing up. Nonetheless, this Josh Gad rumor strikes us as unexpected and strange.
It boils down to this: Josh Gad (Beauty And The Beast, Daisy Ridley’s interrogator) tweeted a picture of The Penguin, and he was recently followed by DC upper level guys Jon Berg and Geoff Johns. Before Joe Manganiello and Rick Famuyiwa’s involvement in DC projects was announced, they were also followed by upper tier people at DC. Gad’s new followers and this tweet has people speculating if a casting announcement is coming:
I’m probably of the same mind as Vince on this one. I don’t have anything against Josh Gad, per se. Everyone assures me he was great in Book Of Mormon. People who haven’t even seen Book Of Mormon lunge out from behind blind corners to inform me Josh Gad was great in Book Of Mormon. Fair enough, but why is he everywhere? How is he everywhere? Did someone clone Josh Gad? Is it the same person who cloned Chris Hardwick and Ryan Seacrest? We demand answers.
That Jon Berg and Geoff Johns have both followed Gad suggests he might be involved in The Batman, but it still seems sketchy. It could be something more obvious, such as Josh Gad voicing The Penguin in a sequel to The LEGO Batman Movie, since that seems like one of the few famous rogues not in the voice cast yet. Or maybe it’s all just a coincidence. Oh well. He’ll always have Book Of Mormon.
(Via We Got This Covered)Everette Howard Hunt Jr. (October 9, 1918 – January 23, 2007), better known as E. Howard Hunt, was an American intelligence officer and published author of 73 books. From 1949 to 1970, Hunt served as an officer in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Along with G. Gordon Liddy, Frank Sturgis, and others, Hunt was one of the Nixon administration "plumbers", a team of operatives charged with identifying government sources of national security information "leaks" to outside parties. Hunt and Liddy plotted the Watergate burglaries and other clandestine operations for the Nixon administration. In the ensuing Watergate scandal, Hunt was convicted of burglary, conspiracy, and wiretapping, eventually serving 33 months in prison.
Early life and career [ edit ]
Hunt was born in Hamburg, New York,[1] United States, the son of Ethel Jean (Totterdale) and Everette Howard Hunt Sr., an attorney and Republican Party official. He graduated from Hamburg High School in 1936[2] and Brown University in 1940. During World War II, Hunt served in the U.S. Navy on the destroyer USS Mayo, the United States Army Air Corps, and finally, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in China.[3]
Author [ edit ]
Hunt was a prolific author.[4] During and after the war, he wrote several novels under his own name, including East of Farewell (1942), Limit of Darkness (1944), Stranger in Town (1947), Bimini Run (1949), and The Violent Ones (1950). He also wrote, more famously, several spy and hardboiled novels under an array of pseudonyms, including Robert Dietrich, Gordon Davis and David St. John. Hunt won a Guggenheim Fellowship for his writing in 1946. Some of his writings found parallels in his espionage and Watergate experiences.[5]
CIA and anti-Castro efforts [ edit ]
Warner Bros. had just bought rights to Hunt's novel Bimini Run when he joined the CIA's Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) in October 1949 as a covert action officer specializing in political action and influence, in what later came to be called the CIA's Special Activities Division.[6] The CIA was the successor organization of the OSS.
According to David Talbot, "Howard Hunt prided himself on being part of the CIA’s upper tier. But that’s not how he was viewed at the top of the agency. Hunt liked to brag that he had family connections to Wild Bill Donovan himself, who had admitted him into the OSS, the original roundtable of American intelligence. But it turned out that Hunt’s father was a lobbyist in upstate New York to whom Donovan owed a favor, not a fellow Wall Street lawyer. Everyone knew Hunt was a writer, but they also knew he was no Ian Fleming. To the Georgetown set, there would always be something low-rent about men like Hunt—as well as William Harvey and David Morales. The CIA was a cold hierarchy. Men like this would never be invited for lunch with Allen Dulles at the Alibi Club or to play tennis with Dick Helms at the Chevy Chase Club. These men were indispensable—until they became expendable."[7]
Mexico, Guatemala, Japan, Uruguay and Cuba [ edit ]
Hunt became the OPC Station Chief in Mexico City in 1950, and recruited and supervised William F. Buckley Jr., who worked in Hunt's OPC Station in Mexico during the period 1951–1952. Buckley and Hunt remained lifelong friends and Buckley became godfather to Hunt's first three children.[8]
In Mexico, Hunt helped lay the framework for Operation PBFORTUNE, later renamed Operation PBSUCCESS, the successful covert operation to overthrow Jacobo Árbenz, the democratic elected president of Guatemala. Hunt was assigned as Chief of Covert Action in Japan. He afterwards served as Chief of Station in Uruguay, (where he was noted by American diplomatic contemporary Samuel F. Hart for controversial working methods).[9] Hunt was subsequently given the assignment of forging Cuban exile leaders in the United States into a broadly representative government-in-exile that would, after the Bay of Pigs Invasion, form a pro-American Puppet state to take over Cuba.[10] The failure of the invasion temporarily damaged his career.
Hunt was undeniably bitter about what he perceived as President John F. Kennedy's lack of commitment in attacking and overthrowing the government of Cuba.[11] In his semi-fictional autobiography, Give Us This Day, he wrote: "The Kennedy administration yielded Castro all the excuse he needed to gain a tighter grip on the island of José Martí, then moved shamefacedly into the shadows and hoped the Cuban issue would simply melt away."
Executive Assistant to DCI Allen Dulles [ edit ]
After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Hunt was reassigned as Executive Assistant to Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Allen Dulles.[12] While Hunt was working on Brigade 2506, he helped Dulles write The Craft of Intelligence (1959).[13]
Other work and association with G. Gordon Liddy [ edit ]
After President John F. Kennedy fired Dulles in 1961 for the Bay of Pigs failure, Hunt served as the first Chief of Covert Action for the Domestic Operations Division (DODS) from 1962 to 1964.
Hunt told The New York Times in 1974 that he spent about four years working for DODS, beginning shortly after it was set up by the Kennedy administration in 1962, over the "strenuous opposition" of Richard Helms and Thomas H. Karamessines. He said that the division was assembled shortly after the Bay of Pigs operation, and that "many men connected with that failure were shunted into the new domestic unit." He said that some of his projects from 1962 to 1966, which dealt largely with the subsidizing and manipulation of news and publishing organizations in the US, "did seem to violate the intent of the agency's charter."[14] In 1964, DCI John A. McCone directed Hunt to take a special assignment as a Non-Official Cover (NOC) officer in Madrid, Spain, tasked to create the American answer to Ian Fleming's British MI-6 James Bond novel series. While assigned in Spain, Hunt was covered as a recently retired U.S. State Department Foreign Service Officer (FSO) who had moved his family to Spain in order to write the first installment of the 9-novel Peter Ward series, On Hazardous Duty (1965).
After a year and a half in Spain, Hunt returned to his assignment at DODS. Following a brief tenure on the Special Activities Staff of the Western European Division, he became Chief of Covert Action for the region (while remaining based in the Washington metropolitan area) in July 1968. Hunt was lauded for his "sagacity, balance and imagination", and received the second-highest rating of Strong (signifying "performance... characterized by exceptional proficiency") in a performance review from the Division's Chief of Operations in April 1969. However, this was downgraded to the third-highest rating of Adequate in an amendment from the Division's Deputy Chief, who recognized Hunt's "broad experience" but opined that "a series of personal and taxing problems" had "tended to dull his cutting edge."[15] Hunt would later maintain that he "had been stigmatized by the Bay of Pigs", and had come to terms with the fact that he "would not get promoted too much higher."[16]
In these final years of Hunt's CIA service, he began to cultivate new contacts in "society and the business world."[16] While serving as vice president of the Brown University Club of Washington, he befriended and commenced a strong association with the organization's president, former congressional aide Charles Colson, who soon began working on Richard Nixon's presidential campaign.[17] Hunt retired from the CIA at the pay grade of GS-15, Step 8[18] on April 30, 1970.
White House service [ edit ]
He went to work for the Robert R. Mullen Company, which cooperated with the CIA; H. R. Haldeman, White House Chief of Staff to President Nixon, wrote in 1978 that the Mullen Company was in fact a CIA front company, a fact that was apparently unknown to Haldeman while he worked in the White House.[19] Through CIA's Project QKENCHANT, Hunt obtained a Covert Security Approval to handle the firm's affairs during Mullen's absence from Washington.[20][21] The following year, he was hired as a consultant by Charles Colson, now Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon, and |
to do it after,” Sir Howard replied.
However, he insisted the commission was using the opportunity of a “relatively long timetable” to carry out detailed assessments, into environmental consequences and rail and road links, in order speed up the process once a new Government takes a decision.
He stressed, though, that a new Government would have to make an “urgent” decision after the election, as there will be a “significant” aviation capacity problem in the middle of next decade.
The commission believes a new Government could draw up a draft National Planning Statement - the next step in the process - in a “matter of months”.
Sir Howard said he is treating the three main political parties “in the same way” in a bid to “build the basis for an eventual consensus”.
The commission believes the Government would have to buy Heathrow if it decides a new hub airport on the Isle of Grain in the inner Thames Estuary would be the best option.
Despite claims by anti-Heathrow campaigners that a third runway in West London is “politically undeliverable”, Sir Howard said he believed it would be possible by 2026.
He said the noise resulting from an increase in flights at Heathrow would be offset by moving more air traffic movements further to the west. Heathrow has proposed building another air strip to the north-west of its current site.CLOSE Donald Trump's campaign has declared war on the Ohio GOP for not supporting Trump's bid to be the next President of the United States. USA TODAY
Matt Borges, Ohio's chairman of the GOP, speaks at Ohio Governor John Kasich's event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on July 19. (Photo11: The Enquirer/Meg Vogel)
CINCINNATI — Remember that war between the Ohio Republican Party and Donald Trump's campaign? It just went nuclear.
On Saturday, Trump Ohio director Bob Paduchik criticized Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges for not supporting Trump's presidential bid and running a "self-promotional media tour" across the state, according to a letter sent to the party's 66-member governing body. The criticism comes after Borges told The Enquirer he wasn't sure if he would vote for Trump on Nov. 8.
"I have no idea what game he was playing," Paduchik wrote. "Some Ohio Republicans have described it as disgraceful, I find it utterly bizarre."
In an odd move, Paduchik picked a fight with the head of the state party just 24 days before the election — an election that Trump almost certainly needs the Ohio Republican Party to win. The stakes couldn't be higher: No Republican has won the White House without winning Ohio. And the state party has a pretty good track record: GOP candidates won every statewide race by double-digit margins in 2014.
Borges, through a spokeswoman, told The Enquirer: "I won't let a staffer's ego get in the way of us doing all we can to win elections up and down the ballot this year."
The Ohio Republican Party is also paying the salaries of Trump campaign staffers in the Buckeye State. It is not clear whether that would be affected by Paduchik's letter.
"If Chairman Borges refuses to continue meeting that obligation, I respectfully ask the committee to direct the chairman to meet the party's obligations," Paduchik wrote. Asked for additional comment, Trump Ohio campaign spokesman Seth Unger said the letter from Paduchik spoke for itself.
Saturday afternoon, in response to the letter, Borges sent central committee members a list of 10 things the Ohio Republican Party had done for the Trump campaign, including offering to endorse Trump at the group’s September meeting and handling all the campaign’s human resources.
"I speak and meet with Bob Paduchik and Trump team members regularly," Borges wrote. "Interestingly, none of Bob’s concerns were voiced until he shared them publicly today."
Borges, along with many Ohio Republican leaders, was a strong supporter of Gov. John Kasich's failed presidential bid. Kasich helped Borges win the chairman job in 2012, and the Ohio Republican Party endorsed Kasich for president over Trump in the March primary despite some protests.
Still, Borges has worked to help Trump's disorganized campaign in Ohio. He even helped facilitate Paduchik's hire as campaign director. Paduchik ran George W. Bush's successful presidential bids in 2000 and 2004 and Sen. Rob Portman's successful 2010 bid for U.S. Senate. The hire was seen as one way to unify the state party and Trump campaign.
But that didn't pan out.
This isn't the first time Trump's campaign has feuded with Ohio Republicans. During the Republican National Convention in Ohio, Trump's then-campaign manager Paul Manafort criticized Kasich and accused him of "embarrassing his party in Ohio." That didn't sit well with Kasich loyalists — many of whom were delegates to the convention in their home state.
Then in August, the Republican National Committee moved recently appointed RNC Ohio spokesman Ryan Shucard to a role in Pennsylvania after run-ins with Paduchik. Shucard's tenure in the Ohio position lasted all of about two weeks.
Paduchik sent the letter after speaking with Trump on Thursday, when the GOP nominee was campaigning in Columbus and Cincinnati. Trump told Paduchik he was "very disappointed in Matt's duplicity," according to the letter.
"This is why people have lost faith in the establishment and party leaders," Trump told Paduchik.
Some Republicans agreed. Borges was hired for one job: Elect Republicans. Trump is the Republican candidate, so Borges should help elect him, said Ann Becker, president of the Cincinnati Tea Party, who represents Butler County on the central committee.
"I think any Republican who doesn't encourage other Republicans to support Donald Trump by omission is supporting Hillary Clinton," Becker said.
But others condemned the Trump campaign's attack on Borges. A hashtag on Twitter, #ImWithMatt, included multiple endorsements of the job Borges has done in Ohio.
"This has been a difficult and challenging election cycle, unlike any I've ever seen, and Matt has handled it perfectly,” Jim Simon, a central committee member from Summit County, through an Ohio GOP spokeswoman. “Drawing fire away from our candidates and officeholders is the chairman's job, which is something I'm sure Bob doesn't understand."
Hamilton County GOP Chairman Alex Triantafilou didn't want to get between Borges and Paduchik — two men he says he admires. Triantafilou supports Trump for president and said he would work to urge cooperation between the two groups.
Committee member Mary Ann Christie, a former Madeira mayor, had some advice for the chairman.
“I like Matt Borges, and I support him. He’s a good chairman. Just stay quiet on this whole issue, and if you’re asked: Trump’s actions are indefensible in many ways,” she said.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2eEdJw4ZF 24
Ce diferenţe există între reţeaua 4G a RCS&RDS şi cele construite de Orange şi Vodafone
Autor: Adrian Seceleanu 74757
Compania de cablu RCS&RDS nu deţine încă o reţea de comunicaţii mobile prin tehnologia 4G comparabilă cu cele construite de Orange şi Vodafone, în condiţiile în care operatorul are un “portofoliu” de frecvenţe radio restrâns şi cu performanţe mai slabe şi un număr de staţii de bază (antene) de aproximativ trei ori mai mic şi o viteză maximă pentru descărcarea datelor de pe net la jumătate. Frecvenţele radio utilizate de RCS&RDS pentru a furniza servicii de date 4G limitează semnificativ şi plaja de telefoane mobile compatibile şi obligă compania şi la investiţii mai mari în raport cu rivalii pentru a acoperi un teritoriu echivalent.
Spectrul radio - nu au cumpărat în 2012 de la stat când au avut ocazia, aşa că au apelat la firma fratelui lui Sebastian Ghiţă în 2015
Principala problemă a RCS&RDS în raport cu rivalii săi în ceea ce priveşte segmentul de servicii de internet mobil prin tehnologia 4G o reprezintă spectrul radio deţinut, care nu îi permite să concureze de pe baze egale cu jucători precum Orange sau Vodafone.
Istoric, de altfel, compania a avut un “portofoliu” de licenţe de comunicaţii mobile mai slab în raport cu liderii pieţei. Compania de cablu a intrat pe piaţa de telefonie mobilă în octombrie 2007 în Oradea folosind licenţa 3G în banda de 2100 MHz câştigată în 2006 la o licitaţie organizată de statul român. Preţul ridicat al terminalelor 3G şi necesitatea unor investiţii mai mari în echipamente pentru acoperirea teritoriului prin licenţa în 2100 Mhz în raport cu licenţele în 900 MHz ale Orange, Vodafone şi Telekom (Cosmote) nu au permis RCS&RDS să crească puternic pe acest segment.
În anul 2012 însă, când statul român a organizat cea mai mare licitaţie de spectru radio din istorie, şi RCS&RDS ar fi avut şansa să achiziţioneze o cantitate mai mare de spectru radio, compania de cablu s-a mulţumit să achiziţioneze doar “bucata” de spectru care i-a fost “rezervată” de ANCOM, respectiv un bloc de frecvenţă în banda de 900 MHz, pentru care a plătit 40 mil. euro.
Compania de cablu nu a intrat astfel în lupta pentru “licenţe” în frecvenţele de 800 MHz, 1800 MHz sau 2600 MHz.
RCS&RDS a cumpărat cea mai mică “porţiune” de spectru dintre toţi operatorii participanţi la licitaţia din 2012: 10 MHz, faţă de 175 MHz - Orange, 170 MHz - Vodafone, 100 MHz - Cosmote, 30 MHz - 2K Telecom.
Orange a plătit taxe de 227.135.002 euro, Vodafone - 228.520.034 euro iar Telekom (Cosmote) - 179.880.000 euro.
Întrebaţi ulterior despre această decizie, reprezentanţii RCS&RDS au afirmat că au existat alte “priorităţi” în anul 2012.
Rămaşi fără alte opţiuni, în vară reprezentanţii RCS&RDS au ajuns la un acord cu compania 2K Telecom, controlată de fratele deputatului Sebastian Ghiţă, de la care preiau spectrul radio în banda de 2600 MHz cumpărat de la stat în 2012, şi cu care încheie şi un parteneriat.
Limitările spectrului radio deţinut de RCS&RDS
Licenţa preluată de RCS&RDS de la 2K Telecom i-a adus companiei de cablu două blocuri de câte 15 MHz în banda de 2600 MHz TDD pentru care dreptul de utilizare expiră în 2029, şi pentru care firma lui Alexandru Ghiţă a plătit statului 6,6 mil. euro.
Preţul mic al licenţei vine însă şi cu o serie de dezavantaje. Unul dintre cele mai mari este legat de numărul mai mare de antene necesare pentru ca RCS&RDS să acopere teritoriul în raport cu rivalii săi care utilizează licenţe în frecvenţe de 1800 sau 800 MHz.
O staţie de bază în banda de 1800 MHz acoperă un teritoriu de 1,6 ori mai mare decât una în banda de 2600 Mhz, iar una în banda de 800 Mhz un teritoriu de aproape 3 ori mai mare. Un spectru radio cu o capacitate de “propagare” mai redusă se traduce pentru RCS&RDS în costuri mai mari cu acoperirea.
O altă limitare majoră este determinată de numărul încă redus de telefoane care sunt compatibile cu tehnologia 4G TDD în 2600 Mhz. Dacă în cazul celorlalţi operatori de telefonie mobilă un utilizator poate achiziţiona aproape orice smartphone 4G iar acesta va putea accesa reţeaua LTE, în cazul Digi Mobil clienţii trebuie să se asigure că smartphoneul lor este compatibil cu serviciile 4G în banda 38 TDD.
Vodafone, spre exemplu, deţine de asemenea spectru în banda de 2600 MHz (TDD) dar nu îl foloseşte. Vodafone oferă serviciile 4G folosind frecvenţele radio de 800 şi 1.800 MHz. Orange oferă serviciile 4G folosind frecvenţele radio de 800, 1.800 şi 2.600 Mhz (TDD).
Numărul de antene şi acoperirea
La finele acestui an RCS&RDS avea în plan să aibă instalate 600 de antene, odată cu extinderea acoperirii serviciilor 4G la 25 de oraşe plus staţiunile de pe Valea Prahovei şi zona Braşov.
Orange, liderul pieţei locale de telefonie mobilă, a instalat tehnologia 4G în peste 2.000 de site-uri de telefonie mobilă, reţeaua sa LTE fiind disponibilă pentru 70% din populaţia totală a ţării şi 96% din populaţia urbană, în peste 4.200 de localităţi.
În luna septembrie, Vodafone anunţa, de asemenea că acoperirea reţelei sale 4G se dublase în raport cu anul precedent, la aproximativ 65% din populaţie. În aceeaşi perioadă (septembrie) Vodafone acoperea toate oraşele şi peste 2.500 de localităţi.
De notat este că RCS&RDS este cel mai nou jucător în piaţa de telefonie mobilă în timp ce pentru Orange şi Vodafone, care şi-au lansat reţelele GSM în 1997 aceste este businessul de bază. De asemenea, RCS&RDS este pe segmentul de internet fix cel mai puternic jucător de pe piaţă care deţine şi una dintre cele mai extinse şi performante infrastructuri de fibră optică.
Viteza maximă
Tehnologiile utilizate de Orange şi Vodafone permit atingerea unor viteze maxime teoretice la descărcarea datelor de până la 300 Mbps, faţă de 150 Mbps în cazul RCS&RDS.
Cu frecvenţele disponibile în prezent viteza serviciilor mobile de date furnizate de RCS&RDS prin reţeaua 4G poate ajunge la aproximativ 90 Mbps, conform datelor companiei.
Cele mai recente date publicate de platforma netograf a Autorităţii Naţionale de Reglementare în Comunicaţii (ANCOM) indică pentru al treilea trimestru din anul curent următoarele viteze medii pentru serviciile de date mobile (măsurate în exteriorul clădirilor):
Orange - 33,08 Mbps
Vodafone - 27,40 Mbps
Telekom - 14,69 Mbps
Digi Mobil - 2,74 Mbps.
Rezultatele slabe ale RCS&RDS sunt explicabile prin faptul că operatorul a lansat serviciile 4G doar la începutul lui octombrie, prima lună din cel de-al patrulea trimestru, măsurătorile de pe platforma ANCOM fiind realizate doar prin reţeaua 3G a companiei.BATON ROUGE, Louisiana – Despite historic flooding across the southeast region of Louisiana, relief volunteers and organizations still say that donations have not matched the needs of those affected.
Sherry Buresh, the director of the U.S. Disaster Response for All Hands Volunteers out of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts, said her team could certainly use more volunteers in helping to rebuild the area.
“The more volunteers that come in, the quicker we can get people taken care of,” Buresh told USA Today.
Buresh is pleading for not only more volunteers, but for Americans to donate to disaster relief efforts for the state, a gesture that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump gave national attention to when he was taped unloading supplies he donated to flood victims in the region.
Brad Kieserman, the vice president of Disaster Operations and Logistics for the American Red Cross told USA Today that the flooding crisis is the largest natural disaster since Superstorm Sandy.
“It does take the whole community to recover from a disaster like this,’’ said Kieserman.
Though he said more help is needed, he acknowledged that small faith groups across the country are organizing supply collections for victims.
“There’s nothing that those folks are doing that is not needed in Louisiana,’’ Kieserman told USA Today. “This is going to be a multi-month operation. If you can’t go now, maybe you can go after Labor Day.’’
And it’s not just disaster relief organizations who are concerned with the lack of resources following the unprecedented flooding in the state.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate told USA Today he was worried that the need for help in the region had not resonated with Americans across the country like it had in the past with Sandy and Hurricane Katrina.
“People are kind of like tuned out because of, I think, everything from the elections to the Olympics,’’ Fugate said. “I don’t think people across the nation realize how big or how bad this is or how much help the Salvation Army, Red Cross, Catholic Charities — just a whole bunch of volunteer organizations that are down here — are going to need.”
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.£14.99 £12.99
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The discussion and debate is over. It is our absolute pleasure to reveal Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People as our Waterstones Book of the Year 2018.
From a deeply impressive shortlist, our winner emerged as the book without peer. Achingly observed, wry and moving, Normal People confirms Sally Rooney as the guiding light to our modern experience, her second novel unspooling the tale of how one life can forever change another, no matter the years that pass. It is a story that is absolutely universal to us all, and it is brilliant.
Already a firm favourite of Waterstones since the publication in 2017 of her brilliant first novel, Conversations with Friends, Sally Rooney’s Normal People was swiftly championed by our booksellers and received an unprecedented number of bookseller votes.The Iconians have arrived. Their armies are now marching across the Beta Quadrant and what resistance the Starfleet-KDF-Romulan Republic Alliance can muster has only been able to slow them down, not stop them.
It’s been a long time since the Iconians were last in this part of space. Since then, some of the fiercest warriors ever to live have sprung into existence and made a name for themselves on the fields of battle – The Klingon Empire now is the point of our Alliance’s spear. But what good is a fine weapon, if it is not wielded with grace and precision?
House Pegh, “the secret house,” is a small group of elite warriors within the Empire who believe that victory is the ultimate glory and a battle that is won at the cost of your army is no victory at all. And as the mighty Kahless once said, “A well-aimed blade can sometimes achieve more than a fully armed armada.”
On Thursday, May 21, you will be tasked with joining “House Pegh” in a new episode for a covert operation designed to strike at the heart of the Iconian forces. If you are victorious in your attack, House Pegh will no longer be able to remain “the secret house.”
Charles Gray
Lead Content Designer
Star Trek Online
Discuss in the forumsStory highlights Head of Ireland's Football says payout made to "avoid legal action"
Payout followed Thierry Henry's handball that put Ireland out of the 2010 World Cup
FIFA's tangled financial dealings subject to two separate investigations
(CNN) The head of Ireland's Football Association says FIFA gave it a confidential payout to avoid legal action after Ireland's controversial loss to France in a 2009 World Cup playoff.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Football Association of Ireland chief executive John Delaney said the payment related to a handball by Thierry Henry, which came in the final minutes of the match and cost Ireland a place in the 2010 World Cup.
"We felt we had a legal case against FIFA because of how the World Cup play-off hadn't worked out for us with the Henry handball," Delaney said.
He said it was a "very good" and "very legitimate agreement" for the association, and he was bound by a confidentiality agreement not to reveal the amount. The payout was $5 million (4.4 million euros).
"It was a payment to the association to not proceed with a legal case," Delaney said.
Read MoreThe report by Atlantic Council rejects a top-down approach to reconstruction, saying this would “reward those who have helped destroy the country"
Accepting President Bashar Al Assad as a legitimate partner in rebuilding Syria would be “harmful and self-defeating”, a new report argues today.
Published by Atlantic Council, the report rejects a top-down approach to reconstruction, saying this would “leave untouched the causes of Syria’s instability and would reward those who have helped destroy the country and displace its population”.
“The regime should be bypassed,” it states. “[Its] corruption and incompetence are established beyond debate.”
Instead, authors Faysal Itani, senior fellow at Atlantic Council, and independent international security analyst Tobias Schneider, argue that a ground-up international development strategy, led by the US and focused on empowering Syrian communities, is the best option for rebuilding the country after years of devastating civil war.
They also warn that Syria is not likely to see durable, nationwide peace “in the next few years”.
_______________
Read more:
The UN's 12-point Syrian charter is a glimmer of hope after regime snub
Syria peace talks will continue until December 15, UN envoy says
UN allowing Assad regime to lead Aleppo reconstruction
_______________
Absent a political settlement, rebuilding should focus on areas outside government control, the report says.
Immediate rebuilding efforts should focus mostly on northeast Syria (controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces), southern Syria, and the Turkish-dominated ‘Euphrates Shield’ area in Aleppo province.
In order to rebuild in non-regime areas, robust de-escalation agreements are imperative. These should be enforced by the threat of force against the regime, in case of violations.
Drawing attention to the thousands of Syrians who have been displaced internally or made refugees during the conflict, the report urges any rebuilding strategy to place “high priority” on resettling those populations.
It also highlights the importance of enabling local communities to take ownership of the rebuilding efforts.
To achieve that goal, the report outlines ways in which local communities can be revitalised. These include: the provision of essential services such as healthcare, water, power and sanitation; rehabilitation and reconstruction of housing; access to education; access to short-term employment; and the restoration of freedom of movement and trade.
Many Syrians are living without essential services such as healthcare, water, power and sanitation, while countless homes have been destroyed. AP / Hassan Ammar
The main partners for reconstruction, the authors say, are local and provincial councils, nongovernmental organisations, and governments with influence over them.
The ideal outcome, it says, would be a “reconstruction plan that strengthens political legitimacy in Syria by upholding the security and dignity of the Syrian people”.
When planning the reconstruction of Syria, one should not assume a clean “post-war” scenario, the report warns.
“Western countries have set, as a condition for rebuilding, the need for a fair political settlement that is not on the horizon; and failure to plan for a more complex, less clear-cut scenario might be a missed opportunity,” it states.
Nor should the promise of rebuilding be used as a way of securing leverage over Assad.
“It is unlikely that the promise of stabilisation and reconstruction aid would give donors enough leverage over Assad to convince him to make a political deal with his opponents,” the report says. “Rebuilding should not, therefore, proceed on that assumption.”
Even so, the report argues that there is a “a compelling strategic rationale” for the international community to help in rebuilding Syria, given the potential long-term threats to the US and its allies caused by geopolitical instability, terrorism, and large-scale population displacement.
Finally, the report warns the international community against pursuing short-term opportunities to produce quick results.
While these may appear tempting, they could “reinforce Syria’s dysfunctional political economy, thereby laying the foundations for further exploitation of the population and conflict”.Barker’s Performance manufactures exhaust systems with three principles in mind: quality, durability, and performance. Our goal is to create a product that takes your riding experience to the next level. At Barker’s, we don’t make exhaust systems for every machine out there, we aren’t your run-of-the-mill exhaust company. We approach every system we build with one ideology: can we make a difference with this machine? If we cannot see a significant performance increase from our exhaust after extensive trials and testing, we do not produce the system.
This ideology is what leads to our motto, never sacrifice. We refuse to sacrifice on quality, durability, or performance just to have an exhaust system available for every off road vehicle out there. When we see that our system can make an impact on the experience and performance of a machine we take it to market. We pride ourselves on building our exhaust systems right here in the United States with only the highest quality and most durable components.
Currently Barker’s is offering exhaust systems for ATV, UTV, street bikes, dual sport bikes, and snowmobiles. We’ve had great success with the Suzuki 400 ATV engine, the Yamaha Raptors, and the Yamaha Grizzly systems in the ATV family. In the UTV line, our Maverick 1000 and RZR systems are the pinnacle of exhaust systems manufactured for these machines. We are quite proud of the accomplishments we were able to achieve. For street bikes, Barker’s has come out of the gate swinging! Buell 1125R owners rave about our killer system for this machine. We entered the BMW market and have received a lot of love there as well. The BMW exhaust dealers and riding groups continually herald the Barker’s system as a favorite. Our MX bike exhaust systems are a great solution for improving peak horsepower without requiring major engine modifications. The Yamaha, Kawasaki, and Honda systems are among customer favorites. Barker’s has also entered the snowmobile exhaust arena with systems for several Yamaha machines. The power increase from our slip on system is not only impressive, but simple to install.
Want to step up your machine but still aren’t sure if Barker’s is the righty system for you? Don’t take our word for it, see what other’s are saying about their Barker’s Performance exhaust system.THE CABIN MOVIE is a darkly comic look at the nature of desire, the challenge of monogamy, and the definition of sexuality when a group of friends travel to a secluded cabin in an attempt to revitalize their lives through bizarre games of sexual dysfunction. Katherine, an unemployed housewife who hasn't had sex in a year is intent on getting some with or without her repressed husband Mark's involvement. Jason, a happy-go-lucky cool guy, has shown up without his long-term girlfriend, but with Ginny, a bisexual party girl he met the previous weekend. Ken and Maria, a stable common-law couple, are caught in the middle somewhere between discovery and sexual panic as they try to keep things on track while wrestling with issues of their own. By the end of the night, all their relationships will be called into question and pushed to the breaking point. Written by Anonymous'Indecent' lesbian kiss scenes face watershed crackdown
Changes: David Cameron will recommend that sexually suggestive scenes should not be shown until later in the evening
Lesbian kisses could be banned from television screens until late into the night under radical Government plans to stop children being exposed to ‘indecent’ images.
A review launched with the backing of David Cameron is expected to recommend that sexually suggestive scenes currently allowed before the 9pm watershed – such as the famous lesbian embrace on soap opera Brookside – should not be shown until later in the evening. A ban on explicit advertisements on high street billboards is also being considered.
The inquiry is being led by Mothers’ Union chief executive Reg Bailey. It was launched last year after the Prime Minister – himself the father of young children – warned that exposing youngsters to adult themes can ‘take away their innocence’.
Mr Bailey is likely to focus on a toughening-up of the watershed rules. A source close to the inquiry said: ‘It is hard to protect children in the internet and mobile-phone age but we have to do something.
‘For some parents, what has been considered acceptable in the past – such as that Brookside kiss – is not appropriate for children to see early in the evening.’
That scene in 1994 was the first-ever pre-watershed lesbian kiss. After a storm of protest from viewers, it was removed from Brookside’s weekend omnibus edition. However, Coronation Street and EastEnders have since featured similar scenes.
Sources also suggested that raunchy dance routines, such as those by pop stars Christina Aguilera and Rihanna on last year’s X Factor final, could also fall foul of tougher watershed rules.
Currently, all programmes put out between 5.30am and 9pm must be suitable for children aged under 15. Sexual scenes are banned before the watershed unless there is a ‘serious educational purpose’. After 9pm, broadcasters are allowed to screen more adult themes.
Lesbian kisses could be banned from TV screens until late into the night
Calls to beef up the laws, which were originally devised in the Sixties, are likely to be opposed by film-makers, who argue that the threshold is obsolete. And three years ago, MPs warned that the growth of TV channel websites, on which programmes can be seen at any time of day, had already made the 9pm limit unworkable.
Mr Bailey is also understood to be looking at a ban on sexually explicit advertisements in public places. The source added: ‘Some of those huge poster advertisements for bras and knickers leave precious little to the imagination and they are there for all our children to see.
‘It’s not unreasonable to want to take action against them.’
And Mr Bailey is examining a crackdown on internet pornography by
enabling parents to ask web service providers to block obscene websites ‘at source’ rather than relying on parental controls.
The Department for Education, which is overseeing the review, said: ‘We look forward to receiving Reg Bailey’s recommendations.’This week’s ‘tales from the excesses of copyright’ comes from the estate of Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King who continue to put restrictions on the use of the civil rights’ leader words, images and sounds. The speech, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this week, cannot be found legally in the public domain, unless express permission has been granted by King’s estate. The only licensed version of the famous civil rights speech is found in its entirety on the Martin Luther King historical site which hosts almost all of his archives.
"I have a copyright"
His speech “I have a Dream” is considered one of the most important cultural and historical moments of the 20th Century, yet is in incredibly difficult to find, listen to, or watch in its entirety when King addressed several hundred thousand people before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The speech, which won’t be in the public domain until 2038, can only be used if a commercial entity pays the King estate a hefty fee. King failed to register the speech with the Registrar of Copyrights and it was only after his death that his estate’s managers sought to do so. CBS, Inc. learned this the hard way after broadcasting the speech and was subsequently sued by managers of King’s Estate. In Estate of Martin Luther King versus CBS, Inc., the court ruled that the speech was actually a performance and like other exhibitions, is covered by copyright. Although the speech was never registered, his estate received copyright after documenting the work shortly after his death. Owners of copyright in America can claim royalties in the speech for 70 years after the death of its creator, although the idea does not sit well with a lot of people.Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University's School of Law, says she respects the right of King's family to maintain their father's legacy. "[But] EMI Publishing (managers employed by the King estate)—they have a raison d'être, which is to exploit copyrighted works," she says. "And that goal may be somewhat at odds with what King would have wanted people to do with his speech.""Most people have a strong intuitive sense that, particularly with the 50th anniversary coming up, or every year on MLK Day, that any kid, any educator, anybody should be able just to Google it online and watch the speech in its entirety," Jenkins says. "It's a piece of history, and I think most people think that he would have wanted it to be available [for free]—maybe not available for use in a commercial, but certainly available for educational and journalistic purposes or documentaries about the civil rights movement."The idea of increasing the length of protection was rooted in the idea that copyright was the recognition and encouragement of authorship. Its duration should be extended for the benefit of family and descendants who might otherwise suffer for their relative’s art. The King family have enjoyed the financial benefits of copyright granted to their famous father’s works. Arguments for either side have merit. While the law doesn't specifically require that owners ‘extract value’ from the copyright, it does specifically allow for the King estate to do so. It is perfectly legal for the estate to restrict anyone’s use to the limits of ‘fair use’. Wanting something historical or wanting something cultural is not going to get you very far when protected by copyright. Others argue that since Dr King didn't register the speech, nor did he keep any of his accumulated wealth, he would be turning over in his grave to think that his descendants were making a buck off of his speech. Dr King stood for eradicating racism, not for limiting its place in the public domain. If you want to inspire generations of schoolchildren to “dream” of a world without racism, then the estate should allow them to hear it without having to charge them for doing so.CBS, Inc. argued that Dr. King had not complied with the statutes on copyright on the books, and thus, by performing the work, he essentially granted it to the public domain. His estate argued to the contrary that the work had never been published at the time of its initial performance by Dr. King and thus retained common law copyright. From the judgement of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals:"A performance, no matter how broad the audience, is not a publication; to hold otherwise would be to upset a long line of precedent. This conclusion is not altered by the fact that the Speech was broadcast live to a broad radio and television audience and was the subject of extensive contemporaneous news coverage. We follow the above cited case law indicating that release to the news media for contemporary coverage of a newsworthy event is only a limited publication."The ruling that the copyright was in force meant that the case was remanded to the district court and the Estate's lawsuit against CBS could proceed. CBS and the King Estate reached a settlement before proceeding further in the courts.A transgendered woman was arrested last Tuesday after he allegedly exposed himself and attempted to sexually assault a child at his pet salon in Edinburg.
A transgender woman was arrested last Tuesday after he allegedly exposed himself and attempted to sexually assault a child at his pet salon in Edinburg.
On June 14, a child visited Chicky's Pet Salon at 2607 West Freddy Gonzalez Drive to drop off his dog for grooming.
While speaking with the store's co-owner, Vanessa F. Edwards, Edwards allegedly deliberately exposed his breast several times to the boy. Edwards then asked the child if he wanted to go to the back of the store to see the hotel area where the animals are kept for overnight stays.
When the child followed him to the back, Edwards allegedly exposed himself again, grabbed the child by his neck, and attempted to touch his groin area, according to court documents.
Officers responded to the pet store at 11:53 a.m. where they made contact with the child and his mother. The child's mother told officers that she wanted to press charges.
Edwards was arrested and charged with attempted indecency with a child under 17 years old, a third degree felony. He was released last Saturday after posting a $25,000 bond.
*CBS 4 News uses the pronouns he/him according to City of Edinburg Municipal Court documents. CBS 4 News made several attempts over the course of a week to reach out to Edwards for comment, but he could not be reached.This article originally appeared at The Anti Media.
Pocatello, ID — The Idaho woman chose to provide the hungry girl with a lunch, valued at $1.70, but when her |
prompt bond hearings.
The Supreme Court first heard arguments in the case last November, before the arrival of Justice Neil Gorsuch, and decided to order a redo before the full nine-member court. This time around, the question of whether immigrants can be indefinitely detained provoked some animated responses from the justices.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court reheard arguments in Jennings v. Rodriguez, a case that could force the government to give immigrants a bond hearing within a certain number of days after they are detained. The stakes are high: A ruling that preserves the status quo would help the Trump administration accomplish its goal of deporting as many people as possible, while establishing a new protocol would make it slightly easier for a person to fight to stay in the country.
When the average American gets arrested, they can expect that within a few days they’ll appear before a judge for a bond hearing, which determines whether they will stay in jail until they have their day in court. For immigrants, the rules are different. In all but two federal jurisdictions, they can be detained for months — sometimes years — without receiving a shot at freedom.
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When the average American gets arrested, they can expect that within a few days they’ll appear before a judge for a bond hearing, which determines whether they will stay in jail until they have their day in court. For immigrants, the rules are different. In all but two federal jurisdictions, they can be detained for months — sometimes years — without receiving a shot at freedom.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court reheard arguments in Jennings v. Rodriguez, a case that could force the government to give immigrants a bond hearing within a certain number of days after they are detained. The stakes are high: A ruling that preserves the status quo would help the Trump administration accomplish its goal of deporting as many people as possible, while establishing a new protocol would make it slightly easier for a person to fight to stay in the country.
The Supreme Court first heard arguments in the case last November, before the arrival of Justice Neil Gorsuch, and decided to order a redo before the full nine-member court. This time around, the question of whether immigrants can be indefinitely detained provoked some animated responses from the justices.
Assistant Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart, representing the Trump administration, tried to make the case that “aliens at the threshold have no constitutional rights under due process clause,” a reference to a passage from the Fifth Amendment that says the government isn’t allowed to hold people without giving them the chance to defend themselves in court. Justice Stephen Breyer wasn’t buying the argument, and he got worked up, at least by Supreme Court standards, pointing out that even heinous criminals are entitled to receive prompt bond hearings.
“Why is the statute different here? We give triple axe murderers … bail hearings. Are they dangerous? Are they risk of flight?”
“Normally, if you were to detain somebody… you would give them a bail hearing,” Breyer said. “Why is it different here? We give triple axe murderers … bail hearings. Are they dangerous? Are they a risk of flight?”
Breyer then apologized for raising his voice but added that immigrants “are just as much people.”
Stewart later claimed that certain immigrants “have no constitutional right to be admitted into the country,” and said that if they don’t like being indefinitely detained, “that alien always has the option of terminating the detention by accepting a final order of removal and returning home.”
Part of the case against indefinite detention is that it pressures people to accept deportation — aka “voluntary departure” — because people eventually decide they would rather be sent back to their homeland than languish for months behind bars. It also makes it harder for asylum seekers, green card holders, and others with compelling claims to hire an attorney or gather evidence because they’re locked up, often in remote detention centers operated by private prison contractors.
The plaintiff in the Supreme Court case is Alejandro Rodriguez, a lawful permanent resident who came to the U.S. as an infant. He was working as a dental assistant in California when he was detained by the Department of Homeland Security and placed in deportation proceedings because he’d previously been convicted of misdemeanor drug possession and “joyriding.” He was held for more than three years while he fought to stay in the country. During that stretch, his pregnant U.S.-citizen wife was forced to go on welfare, and he missed the birth of their daughter.
Rodriguez’s case became a class-action lawsuit against the government, involving hundreds of other immigrants who were also held for lengthy periods while their cases worked their way through the system. They eventually won a favorable ruling in 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which now requires immigrants detained in California and other Western states receive a bond hearing within six months.
ACLU attorney Ahilan Arulanantham argued Tuesday that the six-month rule isn’t perfect, “but you have to draw the line somewhere.” The ACLU previously noted that immigrants like those in the Rodriguez lawsuit are five times more likely to win their case than the typical detainee because they’re able to gather evidence and hire lawyers while they’re free on bond, which is granted to roughly 70 percent of them.
Outside of California and a handful of states in the Northeast, including New York, decisions about whether to grant temporary freedom to immigrants fighting deportation are left to Homeland Security officials. The ACLU has said this process involves “checking a box on a form that contains no specific explanation and reflects no deliberation,” and notes that “there is no hearing, no record, and no appeal.”
In a previous case, the government told the Supreme Court that the average detention time for immigrants was only about a month and a half “in the vast majority of cases” and five months in cases involving appeals. Upon further review, it turned out that most immigrants in the Rodriguez lawsuit were detained for more than 13 months, with 20 percent held for at least 18 months, and 10 percent for two years or more.
The wait times are growing, too. There’s currently a backlog of more than 632,000 unresolved immigration cases, and the average case has been pending for 681 days, up from 413 days a decade ago. Justice Elena Kagan mentioned the backlog Tuesday, asking Stewart, “And are you suggesting that if the backlog is five years, it’s okay to keep them there for five years without a determination of whether they pose any risk of flight or whether they’re dangerous? ”
That’s essentially the question the Supreme Court will now decide. A ruling is expected later this year.Video Game Company Hires Economist To Study Virtual Worlds
toggle caption Valve /YouTube
Say you've spent years studying the real economy, with all its messiness and uncertainty. Then you stumble into a world where there's a record of everything everyone has ever done.
This, more or less, is what just happened to Yanis Varoufakis.
"It's like being omniscient," Varoufakis told me. "It's mesmerizing."
Varoufakis is an academic economist. He recently took a job at Valve, a big video game company. He wants to figure out the virtual economies that exist within the company's games, which are played by millions of people.
"Valve doesn't care about anything other than creating games," Varoufakis said. "Suddenly, they've wound up with economies."
Take, for example, Team Fortress 2.
It's free to play, but players use real money to buy virtual stuff within the game. The game doesn't have its own currency, but players can trade stuff with one another. In other words, it's a barter economy.
Varoufakis expected that a form of money would evolve within the game — in the same way that cigarettes became a kind of money in a World War II POW camp, and canned fish serves as money in some U.S. prisons.
And he thought he knew what the money would be: Keys. In the universe of the game, players sometimes find crates full of goodies. You need keys to open the crates. Any key opens any crate.
If people were using keys as money, you would expect to see lots of instances where players traded something to get keys, then quickly traded the keys to get something else. And you would expect the value of keys relative to other things to be somewhat stable across different transactions.
When Varoufakis looked at the data, he found that keys did serve as money — sort of, sometimes. At other times, hats were a kind of money. Sometimes, metal was money (metal can be turned into guns within the game).
What determines when one thing or another serves as money? "I have not managed to shed light on this," Varoufakis told me. "it's still a mystery to me."
Figuring out which items serve as money Varoufakis says is a first step toward asking bigger questions — questions that any economist would want to answer to understand the world.
How and why do bubbles form? (There was apparently a crazy bubble in a particular type of hat that became fashionable in the game.) What drives economic growth? What causes inflation?
"The dividing line between economic analysis, which is what I do, and game design, which I know nothing about, is suddenly blurred," Varoufakis says. "Effectively, they are designing markets, even if they don't know they're doing it."
For more, read Varoufakis' new blog about his work at valve. And here's a BBC story about another game company that hired an economist a few years back.by Chet Sellers
Thanks for all the well wishes. I/We have some great fans. Looking forward to getting back to OTT to start moving forward pain free. #sens
— Bobby Ryan (@b_ryan9) March 28, 2014
traded from Southern California to Ottawa;
had to give up this car for this car;
got a sports hernia;
was called out publicly for being “sleepy” while trying to play through a hernia;
slumped badly at year’s end before finally undergoing surgery;
missed the playoffs;
endured the longest winter ever.
sent to a team that’s coveted him for two years in exchange for a king’s ransom;
celebrated as “the guy” in Ottawa despite coming off a disappointing season in a second-line role;
asked by fans to sign an extension before he’s played a single game;
blazing start to the year;
got engaged;
full public support from his GM after gritting out a tough injury;
endured the worst winter ever.
Womp womp womp.
Thanks for all the support. Just inked my new deal with the senators. #awesome pic.twitter.com/iaR9lgUzWG— Chris Phillips (@CPhillipsFour) March 5, 2014
Can you guess which one is the NHL defenseman? You'll never guess.
A nice sushi lunch in Van! Think this guy is hungry?! pic.twitter.com/SisYY8oDD5— Mike Hoffman (@MHoffy68) March 2, 2014
The Senators saw their playoff aspirations all but evaporate during the month of March, a month that also saw no end to off-ice drama and personnel changes. Ales Hemsky came to town and taught Jason Spezza that you can't write a love letter unless you spell Czech. Cory Conacher took his microgrit sandpaper to Buffalo. We said goodbye to Joe Corvo for the second, and presumably final, time. Bobby Ryan revealed a closely-held secret, and then some kids arrived to brighten everybody's lives. Like Sens through the hourglass, these were the days of our lives last month. Let's go!I should have known something was up when I saw those “His and Hernia” bathrobes on his wedding registry. Let’s review the bidding for Bobby Ryan’s 2013/14:No, that can't be right. Let me try that again:THAT looks like a much better year, although I still can’t do anything about the weather. I swear, Bobby, it’s not usually this bad. The point is, you can look at Ryan’s first year in Ottawa in a lot of different ways, and rather than try to make a narrative out of all of this, I think we should all just hit the reset button. See you in the fall, Bobby! And if it ever becomes available, the number 9 would look good on you, by the way.Then you are not dressed, bro.So in talking to Aftonbladet last month (translation courtesy of 6th Sens ), Erik Karlsson confirmed what many in town already knew, and what the local media had been considerate enough not to report, even though some of them still got upset when he was clearly working through some stuff and didn’t want to talk to them for a while about what they already knew for a story they wouldn’t report.I’ve seen some hand-wringing online about whether Karlsson still wants to be in Ottawa, and let me tell you, worrying about whether someone’s happy in Ottawa is the second-most Ottawa thing you can do (the first is defending your favourite shawarma place like some kind of religious fundamentalist). But look, this has been a bad year for. Erik Karlsson is still a Senator until 2019 (2019!), and by that point this year will be a distant memory.Besides, every relationship goes through cycles, and relationships between players and teams are no exception. In the early days spending time together is effortless, you like everything about each other, and physicality comes naturally. When things settle into a rhythm, though, what starts out feeling comfortable can end up feeling confining. Friends start to drift away, making doing things together feel more like a chore. Everything seems to turn into an argument about money. Bodies deteriorate.But change is positive too. Over time, you redefine what’s important to you and what you’re looking for. When success finally comes, you share it with each other. And both of you still have the ability to surprise the other when they least expect it.A 23-year-old Erik Karlsson, and an Ottawa Senators team that refuses to spend the money needed to win, are just chapters in a much longer story that’s still being written. Five years from now? Maybe Daniel Alfredsson will be a 46-year-old pensioner who’s moved back into the neighbourhood. Maybe the Senators will be owned by one of the Snapchat guys, after Eugene Melnyk’s rented yacht disappears under what Gary Bettman will later term “mysterious circumstances.” And maybe Erik Karlsson will be a different guy, with different priorities, possibly with kids, or an owl. But whatever happens between now and then, 2014 will seem like a long time ago.I'd like to put a big billboard that looks something like that outside whichever hotel Ales Hemsky is living in, just to get him over the hump on signing in Ottawa. I'd also like to put the following billboard outside Bryan Murray's house in Shawville:Another guy who needs a realtor? I don’t know where I stand on the whole Trade Spezza thing, other than to say that after just losing an 11-year captain to another team, I can see the Senators being reluctant to deal his replacement after only a year. I mean, imagine if they had gone the other way during the off-season and named Chris Phillips captain instead? Can’t you just imagine the team then feeling compelled to do something really crazy, like signing Phillips to another long-term deal? At leastbullet’s been dodged, right folks?Oh. There's Chris Phillips, signing a long-term deal that smells of rich mahogany. I bet the negotations went something like this:MURRAY: Look Chris, I want to keep you but I have to think long-term as well. I can do one year at two million, no more.PHILLIPS: Alfredsson.MURRAY: We're not giving you a long-term deal just because you're one of our last veterans and people think we screwed up with Daniel. Now tell me that one year, $2.5M is going to get this done.PHILLIPS: Alfredsson.MURRAY: I’m not going to two years, Chris.PHILLIPS: Alfredsson.MURRAY: Can’t do it.PHILLIPS: Alllllllllllll...MURRAY: But even if I did... even if I did it wouldn’t be for any more money.PHILLIPS:... fredsson.MURRAY: Two for four.PHILLIPS: *holds up clock set to 11:11*MURRAY: *sighs, defeated* Two for five.PHILLIPS: Pleasure doing business with you. *hip pops as he stands up to shake hands*Phillips, you old polecat. Now let’s move on to the real issues – why can’t I order a duck at your restaurant that’s been shot by Eric Gryba? You want to talk about getting this team's defensive corps to work better as a unit, let's start there.I said it last month, I’ll say it again: good for you, Eric Gryba. This month it’s for putting his (still entry-level!) money where his mouth is, literally, and starting his own duck call company. And Zack Smith (you know, the guy who shoots better than Gryba does ) is a celebrity endorser We talked about Gryba’s duck calls on the podcast so I won’t belabour the point here, other than to say more Senators need to follow Gryba’s lead and starting marketing their own signature products. Would you buy a salon-quality volumizing spray made by Erik Karlsson? Children’s phonetics lessons from Colin Greening? Matt Kassian’s artisanal macaroons? Of course you would.We wrote about Methot’s blogger-shaming in this space a few months ago, and the Olbermann rant above is just a more over-the-top way of telling Methot what we already did – right target, buddy; wrong approach, that’s all.What’s funny about all of this is that in order for a Twitter beef to go viral, somebody had to physically print it out first. And they say print is dead.You forgot to mention that he whittled those chopsticks out of the femurs of his enemies.So apparently if you’re Robin Lehner, a polite-but-forceful “no” is enough to get you out of high school forever. Can you imagine if he ever does get his Grade 10? Can’t tell himafter that.This is, technically, "off-ice".Sure, what the hell. See you next month!NOT RANKED: Eugene Melnyk. Womp womp womp.Washington Republicans have moved to exert more control over their presidential primary debates, limiting the types and number of events in which 2016 candidates can participate, in an effort to get a firmer grip on the nominating process.
The Republican National Committee voted overwhelming Friday in favor of the change at their spring meeting in Memphis.
The 152-to-7 decision essentially allows the group to decide which events will be “sanctioned debates” -- based on their “timing, frequency and format, the media outlet and the best interests of the Republican Party.”
And any candidate who participates in a non-sanctioned debate will not be eligible to participate in ensuing sanctioned ones.
The move follows several criticisms about the 2012 debate season including that events were controlled by the mainstream media and their moderators and that the large number of events gave insurgent candidates free TV time.
Critics say the 20 debates crowded the process and pushed establishment candidate Mitt Romney too far to the right, which contributed to his loss to President Obama.
“The liberal media doesn’t deserve to be in the driver’s seat,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, according to The New York Times.
Party leaders also reportedly want to put a tighter leash on the primary season by scheduling the first four contests -- in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada -- for February so that other states can start voting in March. And they are trying to move up the national convention from late summer to June.
Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul, already a likely top contender and who is expected to get the non-establishment Tea Party vote, told The Times: “I think maybe the last time we had too many. And so I think some of the rule changes, as long as they’re toward things that will enhance the party as a whole, are not a bad idea.”
CNN’s Candy Crowley is among the moderators who upset Republicans during the 2012 debates, in part because she interrupted Romney in his second debate with Obama, saying he made an incorrect statement about the fatal terror attacks on an American outpost in Benghazi.
The RNC last year voted in favor of boycotting presidential primary debates planned by CNN and NBC if they proceeded with lengthy television features on Hillary Clinton, widely expected to be a 2016 Democratic candidate.The Next America
Two Dramas in Slow Motion Demographic transformations are dramas in slow motion. America is in the midst of two right now. Our population is becoming majority non-white at the same time a record share is going gray. Each of these shifts would by itself be the defining demographic story of its era. The fact that both are unfolding simultaneously has generated big generation gaps that will put stress on our politics, families, pocketbooks, entitlement programs and social cohesion. View data for: 1950 1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045 2050 2055 2060 Animation control: 1950 The Pew Research Center tracks these transformations with public opinion surveys and demographic and economic analyses. Our new book, The Next America, draws on this research to paint a data-rich portrait of the many ways our nation is changing and the challenges we face in the decades ahead. Let’s start with what demographers call an “age pyramid.” Each bar represents a five year age cohort; with those ages 0-4 on the bottom and those ages 85 and older on the top. In every society since the start of history, whenever you broke down any population this way, you’d always get a pyramid. But from 1960 to 2060, our pyramid will turn into a rectangle. We'll have almost as many Americans over age 85 as under age 5. This is the result of longer life spans and lower birthrates. It’s uncharted territory, not just for us, but for all of humanity. And while it’s certainly good news over the long haul for the sustainability of the earth’s resources, it will create political and economic stress in the shorter term, as smaller cohorts of working age adults will be hard-pressed to finance the retirements of larger cohorts of older ones.
The New Us
America’s Racial Tapestry Is Changing At the same time our population is going gray, we’re also becoming multi-colored. In 1960, the population of the United States was 85% white; by 2060, it will be only 43% white. We were once a black and white country. Now, we’re a rainbow. Our intricate new racial tapestry is being woven by the more than 40 million immigrants who have arrived since 1965, about half of them Hispanics and nearly three-in-ten Asians. Because these tranformations happen tick by tock, without anyone announcing them with a drum roll or press conference, they are sometimes hard to perceive. But every so often societies experience “aha” moments, when the change is right there in plain sight. We had several such moments in early 2014, as three iconic American brands, Coke, Chevy and Cheerios, rolled out ads during the Super Bowl and Olympics that were aimed at what one voice-over called "the new us." Product advertisers aren’t in the business of making political statements. They’re certainly not in the business of making enemies. They must have known some of their images – interracial families, same-sex parents, “America the Beautiful” sung in several languages – would disturb some of their customers. But they also do their market research and look at their numbers. They know how fast the country is changing.
player_cast “Intermarriage is playing a big role in changing some of our views of ethnicity.” Mark Lopez – Director of Hispanic Research
Immigration Is Driving Our Demographic Makeover Our modern immigrants are different from the big waves of newcomers who came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Back then, about nine-in-ten immigrants were from Europe. Today only about 12% are from Europe. But some things don't change. No matter where they come from, immigrants are strivers. They’re optimists. And they tend to have a lot of kids. Our immigrant stock – that’s immigrants and their children – is projected to make up about 37% of our population by mid-century, the highest share in our history. But understand: this isn’t new. We’ve always been a nation of settlers and immigrants. In this regard, the middle of the 20th century wasn’t the norm, it was the outlier.
Intermarriage Blurs Labels Here’s an interesting question: By 2050, will our racial categories still make much sense? These days our old labels are having trouble keeping up with our new weddings. A half century ago racial intermarriage was illegal in a third of the states and a gasp-inducing taboo just about everywhere else. Today, nearly one-in-six newlyweds marry across racial or ethnic lines.
Changing Perception of 'Mixed Race' More than a quarter of Hispanic and Asian newlyweds “marry out,” as do one-in-six blacks and one-in-ten whites. Whites are still the largest race group, so even though they “marry out” at lower rates, they still account for 70% of all interracial marriages. By mid-century, what will we call the children of interracial marriages? Today we aren’t even sure what to call our president. We do know this: In many cultures and societies through history, being mixed race – being a “mutt” as Obama sometimes calls himself – has meant being an outcast. In today’s America, judging by those Super Bowl ads or today’s celebrities, the norms are changing and the stigma receding.
Today’s Celebrities Reflect America’s Demographic Shifts You probably know the names of these celebrities. Do you know their racial and ethnic ancestry? Derek Jeter Father: African American Mother: Irish, German Cameron Diaz Father: Spanish-Cuban Mother: English, Scots-Irish, German Halle Berry Father: African American Mother: English, German Bruno Mars Father: Puerto Rican Mother: Filipina Apolo Ohno Father: Japanese Mother: European Norah Jones Father: Indian Mother: American Selena Gomez Father: Mexican Mother: Italian-American Tiger Woods Father: African American Mother: Thai, Chinese, Dutch
The Generational Divide
Portraits of America Generations tend to be about 20 years in length and are shaped by the historical events people experience at roughly the same stage in their life cycle. As a result, they share what might loosely be called a generational persona, one that’s also influenced by (and often in reaction to) the persona of their parents’ generation. Gen X
Ages 34-49 Xers: Born 1965-1980 Children of the Reagan revolution and the divorce revolution, they’re distrustful of institutions, especially government.
On economic issues and the role of government, they tilt conservative. But they’re social liberals.
More comfortable than their elders with America's growing racial diversity. Boomer
Ages 50-68 Boomers: Born 1946-1964 Born during the big spike in fertility that began after World War II and continued until the birth control pill came to market.
Famous for leading the counterculture protests of the 1960s, but about half or more have grown more conservative as they’ve aged.
10,000 Boomers are turning 65 every single day between now and 2030. Silent
Ages 69-86 Silents: Born 1928-1945 The most financially secure generation.
The most uneasy with the pace of demographic, cultural, social, racial and technological change.
About eight-in-ten are white, making them a faithful portrait of America circa 1960.
The generation least supportive of an activist government. But hands off their Social Security and Medicare. While obviously there are as many different personality types within a generation as across generations, there’s value in understanding what defines a generation. Pew Research surveys have allowed for comparisons between today’s young and today's old. Because we’ve been asking the same questions over many years, we can also compare today’s young with yesterday’s young. Let’s start with the thumbnail sketches.
Who Are the Millennials? Millennial
Ages 18-33 Millennials: Born after 1981 They’re less religiously affiliated, and they’ve been slow to marry and have children.
“Digital natives” who grew up with cellphones and social networking. Highly educated, but because of the economy, struggling financially.
On politics, half identify as independents, more than any generation. The Millennials are our youngest adult generation. They’re America’s most racially and ethnically diverse generation ever. More than four-in-ten are non-white, many the U.S.-born children of the big wave of Hispanic and Asian immigrants who began arriving half a century ago. They’re political and social liberals, they’re social media wizards, they’re highly educated, they’re not very religious, they’re slow to marry and have kids, and many are saddled with college debt and lousy jobs. Because of their difficulties getting launched in a tough economy, 46% have at some point boomeranged back to their childhood homes, where the refrigerator is stocked, the washing machine isn’t coin-operated, and all their dreams are on hold, but intact. Despite these economic woes, Millennials are the nation’s most dogged optimists. They believe their own best days are ahead – and so are America’s.
player2 “10,000 Baby Boomers a day will turn 65 – every single day between now and the year 2030.” Paul Taylor – Author, The Next America
The Age, Race Voting Gaps Change demographic: AgeRace Age Group Obama Romney Other 18-29 60% 37% 3% 30-44 52% 45% 3% 45-64 47% 51% 2% 65 and older 44% 56% N/A Race Obama Romney Other White 39% 59% 2% Black 93% 6% 1% Hispanic 71% 27% 2% Asian 73% 26% 1% In the past few elections, the young/old partisan voting gap has been the biggest since the voting age was lowered to 18 in 1972. As recently as the year 2000, there had been no difference in the way young and old in America voted. Now, there's a chasm. Six-in-ten young voters supported Barack Obama in his re-election bid in 2012, compared with just 47% of those in the age ranges of their parents (45 to 64) and 44% of their grandparents (65 and older). By race, six-in-ten white voters supported Republican candidate Mitt Romney, whereas more than nine-in-ten black voters supported Obama. Obama also captured more than 70% of the Asian-American and Hispanic vote.
Liberal Youth, Conservative Elders Trend: MarijuanaSame-sex Marriage Millennials have voted more Democratic than older voters in the past five national elections. They came of age in the Bush and Obama eras and hold liberal attitudes on most social and governmental issues, as well as America’s approach to foreign policy. Just as members of the Silent Generation are long-term backers of smaller government, Millennials, at least so far, are strong supporters of a more activist government. On some social issues, such as legalizing marijuana and same-sex marriage, Millennials particularly stand out for their favorable views compared with other generations. Nearly seven-in-ten (68%) Millennials favor allowing gays and lesbians to marry, compared with just 48% of Baby Boomers and just 38% of the Silent Generation.
player3 “Voter turnout among Millennials has been remarkably solid.” Michael Dimock – Vice President, Research
The Young Are Less Religiously Affiliated The generations are divided by more than race and politics. The young are the least religiously affiliated group in modern American history; the old are the most devout believers in the advanced, industrialized world. A record one-in-five American adults today – and fully three-in-ten Millennials – do not have any religious affiliation. Of these so-called “nones,” roughly three-in-ten describe themselves as atheists or agnostics; the remainder say they have no particular religion. Generation Unaffiliated Affiliated Millennials 29% 70% Gen Xers 21% 78% Boomers 16% 83% Silents 9% 90%
The Technology Gap Then there’s the technology revolution. Today’s young are history’s first generation of digital natives. The online world isn’t something they’ve had to adapt to — it’s all they’ve ever known, and it’s their indispensable platform for social interactions and information acquisition. Today’s old have been playing catch-up online, some more enthusiastically than others, but they have a long way to go. The typical Millennial who uses social media has 250 Facebook friends — making them five times “friendlier” than the smaller number of Silents who use social media.
The Showdown
We Have a Big Challenge Ahead At a time when young and old don’t look alike, think alike or vote alike, how will America modernize its entitlement programs so they're in sync with its new demographics? How can we keep faith with the old without bankrupting the young and starving the future? It will be difficult.
Support for Retirement We start with this reality: Social Security and Medicare are practically sacrosanct. Nearly nine-in-ten Americans say they're good for the country. That's an amazing number. But the popularity of these programs really isn't all that surprising. People love them because they do what they were created to do. They ease many of the frets and dreads of old age – a blessing not just for seniors but for everyone who loves, supports and depends on seniors. Which is to say, everyone.
Saving the Safety Net Changing Worker-Beneficiary Ratio The first monthly Social Security benefit check was issued in 1940. By 1945 there were 42 workers for every beneficiary. In 1950, sixteen-to-one. In 2010 there were only three workers for each person in retirement. But the status quo is unsustainable. Some 10,000 Baby Boomers will be going on Social Security and Medicare every single day between now and 2030. By the time everyone in this big pig-in-the-python generation is drawing benefits, we’ll have just two workers per beneficiary – down from three-to-one now, five-to-one in 1960 and more than forty-to-one in 1945, shortly after Social Security first started supporting beneficiaries. The math of the 20th century simply won’t work in the 21st. Today's young are paying taxes to support a level of benefits for today's old that they have no realistic chance of receiving when they become old. And they know it – just 6% of Millennials say they expect to receive full benefits from Social Security when they retire. Fully half believe they’ll get nothing.
player4 “I think the Boomers are feeling in better shape than the generation that's right behind them.” Kim Parker – Director of Social Trends ResearchWe are living through unusual times, and the tendency is to reach for extreme historical analogies. I have seen this era compared to the runup to the Civil War, to Watergate, to the dawn of Nazi Germany, to the presidency of Andrew Jackson, to the rise of Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, to the fall of the Roman Empire.
But the most persuasive analogue is nearer both in time and in space. What this period most closely resembles, argues political scientist Brendan Nyhan, is the aftermath of the 2004 election, when George W. Bush defeated John Kerry. Then, like now, a culturally polarizing Republican candidate was narrowly elected after a campaign waged atop nationalistic, identitarian appeals. Then, like now, the GOP gained control of both the White House and Congress. Then, like now, the winner had no clear policy mandate, and quickly suffered massive legislative defeat (Social Security privatization for Bush, Obamacare repeal for Trump). Then, like now, the president watched his favorability ratings tumble into the 30s, and appeared to be headed for a severe backlash in the midterms.
I would take the analogy yet further. Trump’s callousness and indiscipline has left many liberals yearning for Bush’s more dignified and decent bearing. A poll in October found that a majority of Democrats now hold a favorable opinion of the 43rd president. But in 2004, Democrats absorbed Bush’s reelection as more than a defeat; it was a cultural rejection and a political crisis. Democrats warned that it was “the most important election of our lifetime.” If John Kerry didn’t win, the results could be, would be, catastrophic.
But Bush crushed Democrats with a campaign that, as Robert Reich wrote, was “not just God and gays but also true grit in fighting the evils of Saddam Hussein and global terrorism.” This was the age in which Bill Clinton warned that "when people are insecure, they'd rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than someone who's weak and right,” the era of flag pins, of Swift Boat Veterans, of books with titles like Bush Country: How Dubya Became a Great President While Driving Liberals Insane. It was the era of anti-same-sex marriage ballot initiatives, of Democrats panicking over the loss of white Christian voters.
When Bush won, the left absorbed it as a trauma — proof that they had lost touch with the heartland, that they no longer understood the country they called home. The 2004 election, wrote Paul Starr in the liberal American Prospect, confirmed that Democrats were “no longer a majority party.” In the same magazine, Alan Brinkley wrote, “The greatest success of the modern right has been transforming conservatism into a populist phenomenon.”
Sound familiar? Just wait. In the New York Times, the headline was “Baffled in Loss, Democrats Seek Road Forward.” The article records a litany of prominent Democrats unloading their fears and their confusion. “We need to be a party that stands for more than the sum of our resentments,” said Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat then in the Senate. “In the heartland, where I am from, there are doubts. Too often, we're caricatured as a bicoastal cultural elite that is condescending at best and contemptuous at worst to the values that Americans hold in their daily lives."
All of this could have been said by, and written, about, Democrats in the aftermath of 2016. And it yields, I think, a few lessons.
What 2004 teaches us about 2016
Today, 2004 is one of the few elections I know of that many Democrats believe it’s better that they lost. Had they won, it would have been President John |
carve out a niche as a destination for prestige films at a time when major studios are focused on big-budget spectacles. In the process, Amazon is upending the independent film space. Along with Netflix, which paid top price last year for “Beasts of No Nation,” and recently bid $20 million but failed to land slave drama “The Birth of a Nation,” Amazon is shelling out the kind of money that would be ruinous for a Sony Pictures Classics or A24. The gap between these giants and smaller, pluckier players will only widen as other tech titans such as Apple and Hulu dive into the original content business.
“Amazon has a track record of going into various industries and blowing away the competition,” says Will Richmond, an analyst at VideoNuze.
Ted Hope, Amazon Studios head of motion picture production, will deliver the keynote conversation at Variety’s Massive: The Entertainment Marketing Summit, along with Bob Berney, the studio’s marketing and distribution chief.
Cody Pickens for Variety
While the primary source of corporate parent Amazon’s business is e-commerce and shipping, there’s a reason the company has intensified its push into digital video, analysts say. Just as Amazon foresaw that the rise of the Internet would fracture the retail business, new technology is now splintering the entertainment landscape. The ground is shifting under the broadcast and cable industries as audiences move online, and there’s an opportunity for aggressive players to capture this migrating consumer base.
“The state of play in the video industry is very unsettled, and among large companies like Amazon, Google, Apple and Netflix, there’s very much a land-rush mentality,” Richmond says.
But the Amazon model differs from that of Netflix. Whereas Netflix debuts its films on its streaming service, only grudgingly agreeing to screen them in theaters when it needs to qualify for awards, Amazon adheres to a more traditional distribution strategy. It partners with indie distributors, such as Roadside or Bleecker Street, to release movies in theaters, and then makes them available through its Prime subscription service in what is traditionally known as the pay-television window — the time when a film would run on an HBO or Showtime. Every Amazon film will get a theatrical release, but that time period can range from an abbreviated 30 days in cinemas to a standard 90 days.
This model has won the company the loyalty of filmmakers such as Spike Lee, whose “Chi-Raq,” a look at gang violence in Chicago, became Amazon’s first theatrical release last December.
“Maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I like my films to be in a theater first before people watch it on an iPhone,” says Lee.
Months after fleeing the snow drifts of Park City, Price sat in a Midtown Manhattan restaurant, sipping tea while sketching out his ambitious plans to make Amazon a force in movies, just as it is in television. He wants the company to release between 10 and 12 films a year, with budgets ranging from $5 million to $40 million. Price hopes the studio will become the kind of standard bearer for quality that Paramount Pictures was under Robert Evans in the 1970s, a time that saw the release of “The Godfather” and “Chinatown,” and that Miramax was in its ’90s “Pulp Fiction” heyday.
“The way it was going was not sustainable. There were fewer buyers; the budgets were being cut. Everybody was being really risk averse.” Bob Berney
Whereas Netflix has signed deals with the likes of Adam Sandler and Pee Wee Herman in the hopes of reaching the broadest possible audience, Amazon has moved in a quirkier direction. It’s backing projects from Whit Stillman (“Love & Friendship”), Todd Solondz (“Wiener-Dog”), and an untitled film from Woody Allen — directors who are admired by critics, but have limited commercial appeal.
“ ‘Mall Cop’ is a very funny film, and someone should make it, but that’s not what we’re doing,” says Price, whose casual look is often carried off with a white T-shirt, black leather jacket and sneakers. “We want to work with visionary filmmakers who are making interesting films that you’re still going to be talking about in three years.”
That’s how Amazon has made waves on the television side of the business — by rolling the dice on edgy and offbeat original works such as “Transparent,” a comedy about a family dealing with a transgender parent, and “Mozart in the Jungle,” a dramedy set in the world of classical music. They’re the kinds of projects that would struggle to get a pilot order or would be, in the words of “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway, so “bologna-fied” that they would lose their distinctive qualities.
“So often the tone is the first thing to leak out,” Soloway says. “It’s the victim of all the smallish political necessities that go with working with networks. There are all these people involved with every decision, and they’re telling you things need to be brighter, shinier, more about wish fulfillment, and the women need to be prettier.”
At Amazon, Soloway says, the approach is more streamlined, with fewer layers of bureaucracy to navigate. It’s been smart for business. Giving their showrunners more freedom has resulted in Emmys and Golden Globes.
Bob Berney says Amazon aims to develop half the films it releases.
Cody Pickens for Variety
Amazon hopes to become a destination for the same kind of idiosyncratic artists on the film side, who may find themselves slightly to the left of mainstream tastes. To help realize his movie dreams, Price has tapped two film executives who had a front-row seat during the independent film revolution of the 1990s: Hope, producer of “The Ice Storm” and “American Splendor,” and Bob Berney, former CEO of indie film distributor Picturehouse and the marketing guru behind “The Passion of the Christ” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” The hirings sent a clear message to filmmakers toiling in the arthouse scene.
“I don’t know who could have brought more credibility and knowledge and prestige to what they’re doing,” Stillman says. “There are not that many great homes for our kind of films, so it was hugely reassuring that this would be a place that could catapult them into the marketplace in the right way.”
For Hope, who was hired in January 2015, the call came when he was feeling disillusioned about the state of the movie business. In 2012, he took a job at the San Francisco Film Society, hoping to transform the nonprofit into an incubator for movies. But disagreements about funding led to his resignation the following year, and in a blistering op-ed on his website, he wrote that after working on more than 50 films, he was no longer interested in producing for a living. The economic model was collapsing, he wrote, and cobbling together financing required too many sacrifices — cuts in budgets and development time, and casting concessions to appease the money.
“I want to make films that lift the world and our culture higher — and our current way of doing things does just the opposite,” Hope wrote.
His experience was mirrored by Berney, who was concerned about the long-term prospects for cinema. Major studios, such as Warner Bros. and Paramount, had shuttered their indie labels, while indies like Overture Films were turning out the lights.
“The way it was going was not sustainable,” says Berney, who serves as Amazon’s marketing and distribution head. “There were fewer buyers; the budgets were being cut. Everybody was being really risk averse.”
Working at Amazon, which has the cash and the mandate to back films that aren’t scrubbed of their edges, has fundamentally changed Hope’s and Berney’s outlook. Instead of sounding like a cultural Cassandra, Hope now believes that film is entering a golden age, one that is analogous to the explosion of groundbreaking television shows such as “Louie,” “Breaking Bad” and “Transparent.”
“We’re going to have an outpouring. It’s going to be a wonderful period, I think, for ambitious cinema,” Hope says. “You start to see not just us, but all the competitors that are out there, (enlist) different models where it makes sense to take bigger risks with films of great ambition.”
Part of the reason for his confidence is that the acquisition prices for films are climbing. Two years ago, the biggest sale out of Sundance was $3.5 million for “The Skeleton Twins.” This year, “The Birth of a Nation” set a new high-water mark with its $17.5 million sale to Fox Searchlight. Not only did Amazon spend $10 million on “Manchester by the Sea,” but Netflix shelled out $7 million for the Paul Rudd dramedy “The Fundamentals of Caring” and $5 million for streaming rights to the Ellen Page comedy “Tallulah.” The prospect of financial rewards will inspire artists to bring their best work to the big screen, Hope reasons.
“Movies are being priced correctly again,” he says. “These are bold things for people to do — to put their money behind movies … to put their time … to put all those years … Those are things that are part of the value of the movie.”
Despite this rosy outlook, the reality of the economics are potentially hazardous.
Amazon Studios chief Roy Price says the company’s goal is to “work with visionary filmmakers.”
Cody Pickens for Variety
No film by “Manchester by the Sea” director Kenneth Lonergan has ever grossed $10 million at the domestic box office, and Amazon ponied up $14 million for the rights to Allen’s next film, despite the fact that his most recent efforts, “Irrational Man” and “Magic in the Moonlight,” collapsed in theaters.
That said, Amazon’s business is dramatically different than that of a traditional studio, which still needs a film to break even or make a profit through some combination of ticket sales, home entertainment rentals, and purchases. Amazon doesn’t measure success in box office. Price says he thinks in terms of movie slates, and isn’t concerned if a film marches into the black. With Amazon’s $271 billion market cap, losing a few million on a film won’t make a difference.
“I don’t focus on the individual movie making money,” Price says. “It’s the system that creates value as a whole.”
Making sense of how success is quantified is tricky. Amazon Prime doesn’t just offer its members television shows and films to stream. It is first and foremost a cheaper shipping service, guaranteeing two-day delivery for an annual subscription price of roughly $100. Just as movie theaters exist primarily as a vehicle to sell audiences popcorn, Amazon Prime’s reason for being is to get products to its customers faster. Price says there’s data to suggest that the films and shows Prime customers can access are a draw for them to sign up or renew their membership, but he doesn’t offer any specifics about how they correlate. Nor does he break down subscriber levels, although analysts estimate that Prime has roughly 50 million customers in the U.S.
“We have no idea how many of these subscribers are actually watching video,” says Tim Mulligan, an analyst at Midia Research. “What we do know is, globally, Netflix is winning the battle. They’re in 190 territories worldwide. Amazon is in five. There’s a recognition that [Amazon needs] to up their game or risk being left behind.”
That kind of arms race requires a lot of cash. Netflix will shell out $5 billion in 2016, and while Amazon isn’t disclosing its programming budget, some analysts estimate it will spend more than $3 billion this year spread over its TV, music and film units. That dwarfs what a smaller distributor is able to spend, and figures to escalate as Amazon starts to develop and produce its own projects, instead of buying completed films at festivals. Amazon estimates that by 2017, at least half of the films it releases will be homegrown.
“The scope of the plan really requires that,” Berney says. “To do 12-plus films a year, and to be able to expand to have a different outlook, different voices, you really have to have development for that kind of output.”
Of course, that carries risk. It means that Amazon is responsible for budget overruns or auteurs run amok. Just ask Paramount’s Evans, who was burned by Francis Ford Coppola’s attempts to recapture the magic of “The Godfather” on “The Cotton Club,” or Harvey Weinstein, whose Miramax tenure was nearly derailed when costs spiraled on “Gangs of New York” and “Cold Mountain.”
Amazon’s money won’t be spent on perks. Like other Silicon Valley players, it can seem downright frugal. Instead of a gleaming tower or a sprawling studio lot, its film and television operations are housed several freeways removed from Hollywood, across three floors in a utilitarian Santa Monica building with an open office plan.
For his part, Price embraces the parsimony by making a point of flying coach on business trips.
“I walk by a lot of people in business class who are in this business,” he says. “It’s a small example, but philosophically, it’s meaningful. At the end of the day, the money should be spent on the movies and on things that customers care about.”By the 1960s [J. Edgar] Hoover had become one of the most powerful political figures in America, thanks chiefly to his ability to use the FBI’s notorious Division Five (successively named the National Defense Division, the Security Division, and the Domestic Intelligence Division) to intimidate, blackmail, or destroy the careers of people who were not accused of any crime, but whom he deemed to be dangerous.
Hoover had first exercised such powers during the Red Scare of 1919, when, as head of the Justice Department’s General Intelligence Division, he had without trial deported hundreds of aliens (along with Emma Goldman, who was arguably an American citizen) in the so-called Palmer Raids. Hoover had acted at times without consulting or informing President Wilson, in collaboration with a huge army of volunteer spies, the American Protective League, which had been organized by business executives. Hoover did not by any means act alone; to help put down a national steel-industry strike at this time, the U.S. Army imposed martial law in certain areas.
One should acknowledge that Hoover himself briefly played a different role, professionalizing the Bureau of Investigation, and accepting for about a decade the directive given him by Attorney General Harlan Stone on May 13, 1924: “The activities of the Bureau are to be limited strictly to investigations of violations of law.” Although he had been a major player in the Palmer Raids of 1919–1920, Hoover now (for over a decade) dismantled his General Intelligence Division, concentrated on solving personal crimes already committed, such as bank robberies, and never again involved the Bureau in anything like the Palmer Raids. On the contrary, in 1941 he was a leading opponent within the government of the decision (which originated with a local Army field commander) to round up and intern Japanese Americans. This wholesale internment program overrode Hoover’s own proposal for the selective detention of those Japanese already identified on the FBI’s Custodial Detention list…. It represented, in effect, an unexpected Army rebuff to Hoover.
Instead, the Bureau of Investigation, which in 1935 became the Federal Bureau of Investigation, pursued bootleggers, bank robbers, and other gangsters, from John Dillinger to Al Capone. But noncriminal intelligence files on the general public became the hallmark of the FBI after 1936, when [Franklin] Roosevelt told Hoover he was interested in “‘obtaining a broad picture’ of the Communist and Fascist movements” in America.
The use of intimidation
Roosevelt was responding to a troubling message from Hoover about American right-wing activity at the highest level. In 1935 Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler reported to Hoover that he had been approached by two representatives of Wall Street to lead a right-wing coup d’état against President Roosevelt. Curt Gentry writes that “Hoover informed Butler that since there was no evidence that a federal criminal statute had been violated, he did not have the authority to order an investigation.” We see here a key to Hoover’s political astuteness: his refusal ever to involve himself in disputes among those whose power was equal to or greater than his own. (We see this again in his refusal, for years, to involve the FBI in the investigation of either organized crime or the international drug traffic.)
However Hoover sought and obtained authority from [Roosevelt] to reestablish an Intelligence Division, after a second report from General Butler: that the indigenous American Fascist, Father Charles Coughlin, had “approached General Butler and urged him to lead an armed expedition into Mexico, its purpose to oppose the Cárdenas government and restore the church.”
This time Hoover reported Butler’s information to Roosevelt; and obtained from the president, on August 24, 1936, a verbal go-ahead to conduct investigations on a wide range of domestic political activities, Right and Left. With this go-ahead, Hoover reestablished an Intelligence Division, which eventually evolved into the source of his power over others, including law-abiding Americans.
According to Marc Aronson,
That secret conversation was the moment when Hoover’s life story changed American history. He was given real authority to protect the nation, which he slowly but surely transformed into the right to play by his own rules, even if that totally undermined the laws and principles of the democracy he was protecting.
Because no law or written document had conferred this power on him, Hoover was free to rely increasingly on illegal methods to collect intelligence, ranging from bugs, mail-openings, and wiretaps, to break-ins. He knew very well that information gathered illegally could not be used in prosecutions. But Hoover’s aim was to use information, not for prosecution, but to intimidate and control all sectors of society, especially those with other forms of power.
His method of dealing with Father Coughlin is a good example of this. Hoover kept a sharp eye on the outspoken priest, who by 1940 was probably America’s most powerful pro-Nazi anti-Semite, with a radio show reaching possibly 30 million listeners. In January 1940 the FBI raided an office of the Christian Front, a group supported by Coughlin, for plotting to overthrow the government. Two years later Coughlin was silenced and his radio show went off the air.
Coughlin’s subsequent silence, which lasted for decades, is usually attributed to an order from his bishop, after a deal negotiated with Attorney General [Francis] Biddle. But after Coughlin’s death in 1979, his psychiatrist revealed that what silenced the priest had not been
sudden obedience to his bishop, whom he had successfully defied for several years. That cover story was circulated in May 1942 by church authorities…. Coughlin felt the effects of … J. Edgar Hoover [who] had proof of Coughlin’s homosexual activity. That proof, communicated in the verbal exchange between Hoover and Coughlin, was sufficient to silence Coughlin’s public voice until May 24, 1972…. Hoover had died just three weeks earlier, on May 2, 1972.
Hoover’s silencing of Coughlin demonstrates that he used his intelligence files, not just against the Left, but against any force threatening the somewhat corrupt status quo maintained by his own secret powers.
Armed in 1936 with Roosevelt’s verbal authorization, Hoover proceeded to amass a list of files on tens of thousands of Americans. He was not timid in selecting targets. In 1946, bypassing Attorney General Tom Clark, who he knew would be disapproving, Hoover reported in a memo to Truman via George Allen, a wealthy businessman who was a friend, that “There is an enormous Soviet espionage ring in Washington,” including “a number of high officials”— specifically including Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson and former Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy.
When Truman proved uninterested in Hoover’s dire warnings, Hoover turned instead to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS), sharing his files above all with two selected spokesmen, young Congressman Richard Nixon of HUAC in 1947, and later Sen. Joseph McCarthy of the SISS in 1950. Armed with information from Hoover to capture headlines, first Nixon and later Ronald Reagan were launched into careers of public prominence that led them to the White House. Both men, in different ways, would then contribute to the further institutionalization of the covert intelligence powers first developed by Hoover.
Purges
Hoover eventually collected information on all those with political influence, from members of Congress to the very wealthy; and he retained personal control over this information in his files to protect his position. For example he reportedly had “closely held case files on the business activities of Joseph P. Kennedy, starting with the bootlegging years and including coverage of several illegal — treasonous, even — transactions brought off while Kennedy was Ambassador to the Court of Saint James.”
By all accounts, Hoover’s wealth of such information is what enabled him to retain his office as director for life, and perhaps influence other major political decisions.
The election of Eisenhower in 1952 enhanced Hoover’s status in Washington, and also that of his projects.
Hoover’s men … oversaw internal security purges throughout the government, destroying lives and careers over suspicions of disloyalty or homosexuality…. With the full backing of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, an FBI agent [personally approved by Hoover] named R.W. “Scott” McLeod took a job as internal security chief at State. His political purges of Washington and embassies and consulates overseas used FBI methods, including wiretaps, to force liberals and suspected leftists out of the foreign service. Between May 1953 and June 1955 only 8 persons were dismissed as security risks but 273 submitted their resignations…. The result was a self-censorship which undoubtedly had an effect on American foreign policy, few daring to express their opinions freely for fear they would be accountable to McLeod and, eventually, McCarthy, with whom he shared the findings of his investigations. Through McLeod and his cadre, Hoover was tapped into every part of the State Department. Aides say he knew many of [John Foster] Dulles’s decisions even before the president did.
The victims particularly affected were old “China hands,” like John Paton Davies, who had offended the China lobby by their negative assessments of Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang. Thus was officially instituted a system whereby one part of government, the FBI, gained the power to install its agents in another, for the purpose of affecting its policies by purging its personnel. The resulting demoralization and re-orientation of State long outlasted the fall of McCarthy. It led to two decades of unreal China policy, accompanied by a long-lasting inability of State to oppose reckless CIA and Pentagon escalations of anti-communist violence in Southeast Asia. State Department veteran James C. Thomson, after resigning in 1966 over the Vietnam War, wrote an important article blaming America’s errors and failures in Southeast Asia on the purging of expertise in the McCarthy era, along with Democratic Party remembrance of the “loss of China” charges.
Criticizing this state of affairs from the perspective of someone who had witnessed the SS purges in Nazi Germany, political science professor Hans Morgenthau in 1955 deplored the condition of a similar “dual state” in America, in which the “authorities charged by law” were subordinated to a hostile right-wing clique with “an effective veto over the decisions of the former.”
Swedish professor Ola Tunander, expanding on Morgenthau’s critique, called the second state a “deep state.” Following him in 2007 and 2008, I also defined the deep state somewhat restrictively, as an unrepresentative “restricted locus of top-down power,” or as a parallel “hard-edged coalition,” consisting primarily of the covert agencies (like the CIA) that are “responsive … to the overworld, but with little or no other public constituency.”
… I now use the term “deep state” for the larger aggregation of extralegal powers inside and outside government that Hoover helped consolidate, including not just covert agencies like the FBI, but also their media allies and other allied elements both in the wealthy overworld and the criminal underworld. In short my “deep state” is roughly the “deep political system” I defined in 1993 as “one which habitually resorts to decision-making and enforcement procedures outside as well as inside those publicly sanctioned by law and society.” Since 1963 this system has included at least some elements responsible for covering up the assassination of a president.
This article was published in the September 2016 edition of Future of Freedom and is excerpted from Chapter 11 of his book The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.In my November 2 note (here), I talked about three big changes this year that have been underemphasized by Wall Street and the financial media but have changed the outlook for the global economy and global markets.
Among them is Japan's latest policy move, which licensed them to do unlimited QE.
In September they announced that they would peg the Japanese ten-year government bond yield at ZERO. At that time, rates were deeply into negative territory. In that respect, it was actually a removal of monetary stimulus in the near term--the opposite of the what the market was hoping for, though few seemed to understand the concept.
I talked about it earlier this month as an opportunity for the BOJ to do unlimited QE, and in a way that would allow them to keep stimulating the economy even as growth and inflation started moving well in their direction.
With this in mind, the Trump effect has sent U.S. yields on a tear higher. That move has served to pull global interest rates higher too--and that includes Japanese rates.
You can see in this chart, the ten-year in Japan is now positive, as of this week.
With this, the BOJ came in this week and made it known that they were a buyer of Japanese government bonds, in an unlimited amount (i.e. they are willing to buy however much necessary to push yields back down to zero).
Though the market seems to be a little confused by this, certainly the media is. This is a big deal. I talked about this in my daily note the day after the BOJ's move in September. And the Fed's Bernanke even posted his opinion and interpretation of the move. Still, not many woke up to it.
What's happening now is the materialization of the major stimulative policy they launched in September. This has green-lighted the short yen trade/long Japanese equity trade again. It should drive another massive devaluation of the yen and a huge run-up in Japanese stocks, which I don't think ends until it sees the all-time highs of '89--much, much higher.
Join Forbes Billionaire’s Portfolio where I follow the world's smartest investors into their best stocks. Our portfolio is up 30% since we started in December.The Quebec coroner who investigated the deaths of 47 people in the Lac-Mégantic, Que., train disaster last year says their deaths were "violent" and "avoidable."
Lac-Mégantic, Que., residents honoured victims of the 2013 train disaster at a memorial mass. (The Canadian Press)
Forty-seven coroner’s reports — one on each person who died — were released on Wednesday, closing an important chapter for the families and friends of those who died.
The reports describe the circumstances of each person's death and the condition of each body. The victims of the July 2013 explosion were mostly identified by DNA samples and dental records.
Each of the coroner's reports said, translated into English from French, "This is a violent death. This death was preventable, or avoidable."
Quebec coroner Martin Clavet also published a series of recommendations.
“It seems essential to me to make the following recommendations for a better protection of human life,” Clavet wrote.
His recommendations mirror those of the Transportation Safety Board, which conducted an extensive investigation into the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway derailment.
The train was carrying 72 cars of crude oil when it derailed and exploded in the heart of the tiny Quebec town of Lac-Mégantic.
In his reports, Clavet said new rules approved by Transport Canada in December 2013 didn’t go far enough in instructing how many hand brakes needed to be applied for all rolling materials left unsupervised.
His recommendations to Transport Canada include clear regulations about the number of hand brakes needed in accordance with the train’s weight, the material on board and the angle of the track, as well as a protocol to test the brakes before leaving the rolling vehicle.
Clavet also made similar recommendations to the Quebec Transport Ministry.
This illustration from the Quebec coroner's reports shows where the victims of the train disaster died in relation to the derailment zone. (Quebec coroner's bureau)
Below is the report of one victim, David Martin.
He was one of the 27 people found in the rubble at popular bar Musi-Café.
The coroner was not able to determine a single cause of death for Martin, or the other victims.
However, Clavet said it was likely Martin died quickly.Nuland and Biden in Kiev: Host arrives
The US Vice President Joseph Biden and the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland have arrived on a visit in Kiev. They honoured victims of Maidan and laid flowers on a memorial of the Heaven's Hundred Heroes. Biden has already carried negotiations with the Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko. And today, December, 8, the US Vice President is to take the floor at the Ukrainian Parliament.
Oleg Soskin, the Ukrainian political analyst, economist:
'Now, the IMF should give loans again, and the Americans backed the loan with some billions dollars. Who will return them, if we have Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk here, if this money has been actually stolen? The host of these people, who seized power in Ukraine, has arrived. He will demand a report, will be ordering these MPs around, so that they create the majority. The question will also be whether Yatsenyuk should remain, or someone else should be put, as well as whether Saakashvili should be made a PM.
The failure of Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk is coming. A new revolution should be mounted. These embezzlers of public funds and kleptomaniacs should be ousted, of course. They have stolen so much! They have borrowed about $11 billion for this year only.
Pravda.RuFor the most part, those protesting President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day did so peacefully—but a couple hundred “anti-fascist” protesters marred events in the nation’s capital when they began smashing storefronts and bus stops, lighting fires, and hurling objects at police.
At the time, 230 people were arrested for rioting, which forced law enforcement to use flash-bang grenades and pepper spray. And now, at least 214 people have been indicted on felony rioting charges, CNN reports.
On Tuesday, a grand jury in DC charged five individuals. This was in addition to the 209 other defendants who've been indicted on rioting charges earlier this month. […] The indictment accuses the defendants of using a tactic called "Black Bloc" in which people conceal their identities with dark or black clothing and accessories such as scarves, sunglasses, helmets and masks. They assaulted a limousine driver, smashed windows of local businesses, destroyed a government vehicle and committed "violent and destructive acts," according to the indictment.
The defendants also caused disruption by chanting “F*** it up,” “F*** Capitalism,” and “Whose streets, our streets” as they traveled around the city, the indictment states.
If convicted, the protesters charged with felony rioting could face up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $25,000.I'm looking forward to seeing Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, the ballet thriller that the director views as a companion piece to his last film, the gripping and compassionate drama The Wrestler. But I'm also hoping to see the film's beautiful and striking posters on buses and bus shelters around the country. These are some of the most interesting and arresting movie posters I've seen for a long time.
The adverts were created by the British design studio LaBoca and are influenced by Polish and Czech posters of the 60s and 70s, as well as ballet advertisements of the early 20th century. You can see the full set here. Three of the four take as their starting point some kind of dual or mingled image of Natalie Portman's dancer and the swan of the title. All follow a set colour scheme of black, red and white (or cream), and each uses different, slightly unusual typography that seems integrated into the poster as a whole.
The one above is my favourite (click on the image at the top for the full version), an expressionistic design in which Portman's multiple arms fold over one another in alternating black and red to create the shape of the swan's body, while the swan's neck curves gracefully up from hers. Portman's eye and the swan's eye are identical, and her hairpiece resembles a feather, as well as adding to the 1920s, art deco feel of the overall image.
Black Swan poster.
The second picture (left – click on each image for the full version) is almost as good. In it, the swan's black head curves around Portman's pale face, its red eye doubling as hers, feathers drifting across the frame in inverted silhouette. The swan's red beak could represent a tear, or a mask worn by Portman as part of her costume, and distantly echoes the famous poster for A Clockwork Orange.
Black Swan poster.
In the third advert (left), the stylised, circular body of the swan functions as a keyhole peeking into a theatre, where the dancer performs in front of a starry backdrop, the stage or lake under her feet casually suggested by incomplete horizontal lines.
The fourth picture (below left) is full of futurist movement and urgency, with the figure of the ballet dancer (here not really resembling Portman) pushing forward into the frame, its masked face almost screaming, its body becoming less realistic and representational until its legs become merely a red triangle.
Black Swan poster.
Scot Bendall was the art director and one of three illustrators working on the project at LaBoca. The underlying concept behind the designs, he said, "was to create artwork that conveyed the feeling of the movie in much the same way that Polish and Czech film posters did so well in the 60s and 70s".
Each poster, Bendall said, "aims to convey the grace and fragility of the White Swan in contrast to the aggression and power of the Black Swan".
He compared designing the posters to creating a record sleeve. "Our hope was to create a set of posters that could accompany the film without explicitly acting as a selling tool. We think a movie poster can help make a connection with the story of a film in much the same way a great record sleeve can do with music. It's ultimately about adding something to the experience."
Interestingly, he said the designers were not able to see the film before producing the posters. "The original brief was to make an attempt at interpreting the essence and feeling of the movie in illustration, with the aim of creating teaser posters that could ignite interest and excitement for the forthcoming release," Bendall said. "Without seeing the film this potentially could've been quite difficult to achieve successfully, but also meant we were afforded a lot of creative freedom to explore and develop ideas."
He said the designers had been "overwhelmed" by the positive response to the images.
Eszter Karpati, an art and design historian and editor at Kraken Opus books, said she liked the posters. "I do like how all four posters use the same elements – the swan, the dancer, the oval shape, the moon, the lake, the night," she said. "They share the same basic concept of shapes revealing other shapes, image within image; the negative spaces are always suggestive of new figurative elements.
"And all of this seems really relevant to the plot – the swan having to have two identities at once." (The IMDB notes: "Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina [Portman] fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily [Mila Kunis] is the personification of the Black Swan.")
Karpati said that, if it weren't for the second poster, she would be tempted to say that they were all posters with "a generic 20s-30s modernist aesthetic – which would explain the colour scheme of red, white and black." These colours, she added, "when used together... create an instantly modernist feel and recall the Bauhaus aesthetic and with it their modernist thinking."
But the second poster "just does not seem to fit the bill – the silhouette and the graduation of the tone in the background, going from black to red and back to black again, framed by that oval shape, and those feathers falling off the page – it just feels like a much more contemporary image."
She added of the second advert: "This is the darkest image of the four – it definitely prepares you for some drama. Some feathers will be ruffled... No 2 is the poster that makes me want to see the film – now."
Karpati added that she felt the colour scheme of red, white and black tended to be overused in graphic design and typography even today. "Since the late 1910s, due to [its] instant association with modernism, [this combination has] been appropriated consciously, and perhaps unconsciously – the cover of A Journey [by Tony Blair] – by any project keen to come across forward-looking and'modern'."
As Bendall suggests, the use of silhouettes and blocks of colour are reminiscent of those fascinating Polish film posters exhibited at Cinéphilia West in London last year – particularly the ones for Blade Runner, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Raging Bull and Fight Club (the style has endured beyond the 70s). Like the Polish posters, these ones for Black Swan seem almost to come from a different world, one where, instead of moving from the realist-style ensemble paintings of the 80s to embrace photo-realism, as the majority of film posters seem to have done today, advertising and marketing instead went the other way, towards a more expressionistic, symbolist style of artwork, unapologetically non-realistic.
Natalie Portman Black Swan poster
Fox Searchlight has put out a few more conventional posters for Black Swan too, although this one (left), in which everything but Portman's eyes, nose and lips is out of focus, is unusual in its own way too, with its slightly asymmetrical composition and |
a story – to get a sense from the questions of other journalists of where they might find a hook.
My fellow inductees joke that they have already learnt the most important rule for a journalist working out of Brussels: spend the last ten minutes of your day deleting emails you have received from the European Union. You don’t want to take that stuff home with you and a cathartic ritual can be empowering. But on the broader issue of how to manage our relationship with the institution we’ll be covering, we are offered no advice.
Turning point
We’re here right at a turning point in the history of Europe – and the world. Over coming years the European Union will either start to unravel or its core members will embrace the pioneering spirit of the grouping’s founders and drive for greater unity – even a fully fledged federation.
It’s all happening at a snail’s pace, but when our reports over the next five years are summed up, we will have chronicled something huge. It could be the best work of our careers.
But will we be up to the challenge? Will we manage to rise above the daily fog of press releases, quotable quotes and petty bickering to make sense of the times we are living in? Or does our vantage point in the basement of the Commission make us too close to the action – too compromised by the mechanics of policy announcements – to ever make sense of what’s going on?
Other parts of the series:
El País: delusions of grandeur
Still pandering to the power brokers
Newspapers will not die in Silicon Valley
Culture is becoming a luxuryAbout half a century ago, humankind — inspired as much by Cold War geopolitics as the desire to go where no one has gone before — set its sights on that most distant horizon: space, the final frontier.
About 50 years in, that most distant horizon seems as far away as ever. Sure, we put satellites in orbit and sent men to the moon. But as NASA faces budget cuts and private corporations jockey for position in what’s now called the “space industry,” the Jetsons-ish hope of living extraterrestrially looks like a 1960s daydream.
But today, an enterprising company has jump-started what remains of the space race in a most unusual fashion.
PornHub, which claims to be the world’s biggest pornography site, is crowdfunding for a sex tape filmed in zero gravity.
“Pornhub is teaming up with top ranking adult studio Digital Playground in joining the ranks of Armstrong and Gagarin by pioneering a one of a kind mission to defy gravity, make history, and push the boundaries of intergalactic ‘Sexploration’ by filming the first ever sextape in space,” the site’s $3.4 million appeal reads. “In doing so, we will not only be changing the face of the adult industry, we will also be chronicling how a core component of human life operates while in orbit.”
No, it’s not a joke.
“This is actually 100 percent real,” Corey Price, one of Pornhub’s vice presidents, wrote to The Washington Post in an email.
As fans of films such as the Canadian sleaze classic Flesh Gordon (1974) and Sex Trek (1990) already know, filmmakers have long been interested in exploring the erotic possibilities of the outer limits. But in proposing to send real people — or, at least, porn stars — into orbit to engage in a biological activity researchers might actually need to know more about, PornHub has fused innovation and titillation.
“I’ve had sex pretty much everywhere and every way you can imagine,” proposed sexplorer Johnny Sins said in PornHub’s IndieGogo video. “I’ve had sex on almost every different continent with all kinds of different women. Don’t get me wrong: I love what I do and who I do, but this is a really unique opportunity to break ground in the adult industry.”
Sins added: “I’m excited to be part of the PornHub space program for this exact reason: We’re going to make porn — in space.”
Sins’ would-be co-pilot was equally enthused.
“Who else can say that they were the first porn stars to work in space?” Eva Lovia said. “This is an amazing opportunity to make history and to work two dream jobs at once: porn star and astronaut.”
While Lovia and, ahem, Sins might make unlikely pioneers, talk of Martian colonies and extraterrestrial emigration must include an understanding of what doing the nasty is like off of planet Earth. If humankind must flee Earth because of a resource crisis or asteroid impact, sex will be required for the species to survive. (Absent in vitro fertilization or other sex-free “Interstellar”-style scenarios, of course.)
Even physics superstar Stephen Hawking said sex in space was important — in a roundabout way.
“I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space,” Hawking said in 2010. “It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn’t have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let’s hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.”
YouPorn, Tube8, and Pornhub — they’re all vast, vast sites that dwarf almost everything except the Googles and Facebooks of the Internet
Whether Lovia and Sins would really be the first to copulate in orbit remains an open question. NASA and Russia’s space agency have denied that astronauts rounded the bases — but, for the record, at least one married couple has gone to space together, and other astronauts have been accused of flirting.
“If astronauts have had space sex, it would have been very difficult,” Slate concluded in an examination of the topic in 2007. Not only does space offer limited privacy and a very busy schedule, but the physics could present a physical problem.
“Zero gravity can induce nausea — a less-than-promising sign for would-be lovers,” Christopher Beam wrote. “Astronauts also perspire a lot in flight, meaning sex without gravity would likely be hot, wet, and surrounded by small droplets of sweat. In addition, people normally experience lower blood pressure in space, which means reduced blood flow, which means … well, you know what that means.”
That PornHub would hope to become a player in a field dominated by state governments and billionaires such as Elon Musk speaks volumes about the size of the adult industry. While PornHub is privately held and its valuation is hard to estimate, it’s said that 30 percent of all data transmitted by the Internet is porn.
“YouPorn, Tube8, and Pornhub — they’re all vast, vast sites that dwarf almost everything except the Googles and Facebooks of the Internet,” ExtremeTech wrote in 2012.
PornHub’s sexploration crowdfunding campaign, however, had yet to show much muscle of press time, raising just $5,000 of its $3.4 million dollar goal. Interested supporters of the campaign take note: A $150,000 donation gets you “one of the 2 spacesuits worn by our sextronauts complete with underwear, plus a swag bag!”
The mostly safe for work pitch trailer for the campaign is embedded below
Here is The Post’s email exchange about the campaign with Corey Price, Pornhub’s vice president, edited for length and clarity. Is this real, or just PR for a space-themed film? This is actually 100 percent real. We’ve done all of the necessary legwork in terms of logistics, everything from bringing together all components and research for the equipment that we’ll need (and retrofitting said equipment), obtaining the necessary training for our crew and actors, which they’ll be beginning soon via a six-month accelerated course, and learning what we can about suborbital environments in regards to production. We’re very serious, and if this happens the way we plan, then the world WILL be watching when we make history. Where did this idea come from? Honestly, we’re always looking for new and creative ways to push boundaries and use the theme of adult entertainment to do things no would normally expect us to. This is an extension of that thought process, and it’ll let us sort of nudge that envelope into a place that we’ve never been before. It’s exciting stuff! What private space company will you use to do this — assuming NASA is not involved? We are actually in talks with a number of consumer space travel companies, but given the nature of our endeavor, there’s a good chance for negative fallout should I divulge information regarding our talks with these aforementioned parties. How did you choose Eva and Johnny — and how will they be “trained”? We chose them because they’re known in the industry for being complete professionals in every sense of the word. They know how to take direction and never complain on set from what we’ve heard in the industry. They’ll be undergoing training akin to what most potential astronauts have to go through, just within a more accelerated program. This includes zero gravity training, velocity, and temperature training … they’ll also be taking classes from professionals about the dangers and precautions of space travel. There’s a lot of research on whether sex in space is even possible. Any comment? We’ve done some of our own research here and there, and admittedly there are some obstacles to overcome logistically but we’re totally game for the challenge. And I think with the amount of preparation we’re planning for this film, we may have an excellent chance to settle any speculation.Sometime in 2018, Brookhaven should be cutting the ribbon on a scenic, one-mile concrete bike path with an architectural bridge and benches that eventually could link to the Atlanta Beltline and Buckhead’s PATH400.
But not everybody’s cool with that.
At a meeting this week, Brookhaven residents got their most detailed glimpse to date of the city’s planned “model mile,” a linear-park section of the larger Peachtree Creek Greenway.
The city hired the PATH Foundation earlier this year to tackle designs of the 14-foot-wide trail, and at the meeting, the nonprofit’s executive director, Ed McBrayer, presented the vision.
According to Reporter Newspapers, a resident of nearby Pine Hills applauded the trail initiative in general but voiced concerns about parking, traffic, privacy, and crime. McBrayer reportedly responded that, in his nearly three decades of building trails, he’s never seen a correlation between new trails and spiking crime, adding: “That’s not a reality... That’s your perception. If you go to any police department, they will say trails decrease crime.”
But several of roughly 30 attendees weren’t receptive to that. Some shook their heads, one spouted “ridiculous,” and four people walked out, the newspaper reported.
Nonetheless, the mile-long greenway is expected to break ground early next year and take no longer than eight months to complete. Roughly $6 million in hotel/motel tax revenue is footing the bill.
At the meeting, a Brookhaven city official chimed in that police will patrol the trails, and that the city is working with two forthcoming multifamily complexes along the initial phase to ensure privacy, the newspaper reported.
Beyond Brookhaven, the grand vision calls for a 12-mile greenway snaking along Peachtree Creek from the Atlanta Beltline up to Doraville.
The path would be implemented in five phases, which would stretch barely OTP and connect key points including the Atlanta Hawks Practice Facility, Corporate Square, REI outfitters, Mercer University, a historic mill, and even a Waffle House, Publix, and MARTA station.
Plans indicate the trail would cross Buford Highway twice, closer to the southern end.
Incorporated five years ago as DeKalb County’s 11th city, Brookhaven is establishing itself as a place where discerning standards (some would say rampant NIMBYism) reign supreme.
Earlier this year, Brookhaven succeeded in defeating a planned, MARTA-led transformation of parking lots around the Brookhaven station into a mixed-use community. In response, MARTA shifted focus to ongoing transit-oriented developments in Edgewood and Avondale Estates, which have embraced the projects.
For more on the Peachtree Creek Greenway’s initial Brookhaven leg, the newspaper has a bounty of images and details for the planned mile over here.The Slow Death of Damascus
DAMASCUS, Syria — Until civil war broke out in 2011, Iman enjoyed a comfortable life in Mezze, the center of middle-class Damascus and a popular neighborhood for Syrian government employees. The 39-year-old devoted herself to her two sons, never dreaming her family could ever slip out of the comfort that, after all, was an explicit promise of President Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist state.
Today, the endless grind of war has reduced Iman’s life to a constant state of anxiety. She keeps her sons in hiding, afraid they’ll be drafted by a government hungry for conscript soldiers or simply grabbed by militiamen, who have been known to arbitrarily arrest innocent civilians and hold them for ransom or even forget them in detention. Her psychologist husband quit his practice because he made better money driving a taxi — but then the war made the roads too deadly, and now he says he hasn’t left the house in months. Iman, meanwhile, cleans houses for $3 day — not enough to buy food — and begs her casual employers to pay her utility bills.
Sitting at a café popular with government supporters and members of the security service, she spoke openly about her fears and her desperation to find a path to Europe.
“I live in fear for my sons every day, that they will be drafted or disappeared. There is no solution for this crisis,” Iman said. She placed her tongue against her front teeth and made a long, low whistle. “It will be long, long, long.”
Iman’s plight is shared by thousands of Syrians living in today’s Damascus. Their stories all point to a central quandary facing Assad: How long can his beleaguered government keep its supporters engaged in the fight, as Syria struggles with colossal human losses and economic deprivation?
Few supporters of the government are switching sides to the opposition these days, but many are simply exhausted by the immense toll exacted by the war. Half the country’s people have been pushed from their original homes. The infrastructure is creaking. Even some supporters of Assad say they feel that government-held Syria is hollowing out, running on fumes.
In private, people discuss the point at which they’ll give up. One says they would flee if the road from Damascus to the coast were permanently cut. Another says the breaking point would come if the Islamic State entered central Damascus. For the Assad government, all this worry is driving the Russian- and Iranian-backed campaign initiated last month to save Syria’s urban heartland — a narrow belt of cities stretching from Damascus to the coast — even as the hinterland slips away from the government’s grasp.
The answer to whether Assad’s forces can keep that heartland lies with Syrians like Iman, who have chosen to remain in government-controlled areas and consider themselves neither rebel sympathizers nor government boosters. Iman is a Sunni who wears a headscarf, and some of her relatives are in prison — enough to make Iman herself suspect in these days of heightened sectarianism.
“My neighbors all work for the government, and as long as we walk straight, they leave us alone,” Iman said. “Unless someone writes a report about us.”
Her gripe, however, isn’t with the state or its leaders. She had no intention of leaving until the Syrian currency collapsed, along with her husband’s livelihood.
She dreams of Germany’s free medical care, which she hopes can treat her older son’s eye problems and younger son’s asthma. But she’s terrified that before she can amass the $6,000 she thinks it would cost to smuggle her family to Europe, her sons will be swallowed up by the Syrian military. With their health problems, she’s convinced they wouldn’t survive long in uniform.
Life during wartime
Over the course of a recent 10-day visit, Damascus residents said they feel less embattled than they did a year ago, but the war is still an inescapable reality of everyday life. Every night, dozens of mortars still land in the city center, sending wounded and sometimes dead civilians to Damascus General Hospital. From the city’s still-busy cafés, clients can hear the thuds of outgoing government guns and the rolling explosions of the barrel bombs dropped on the rebel-held suburb of Daraya.
Army and militia checkpoints litter the city. In some central areas, cars are stopped and searched every two blocks. Still, rebels manage to smuggle car bombs into the city center. According to residents, explosions occur every two or three weeks, but are rarely reported in the state media.
Workplaces across the country have emptied out over the summer, as Syrians with a few thousand dollars to spare risked the trip to Europe via Turkey and a boat ride to Greece, taking advantage of a newly permissive Syrian government policy to issue passports quickly and without question.
Employees in government offices, international aid organizations, and private Syrian corporations estimated that anywhere between 20 and 50 percent of their coworkers left the country this summer.
“The government doesn’t care if people leave. It can’t stop them,” one middle-class Syrian, who has chosen so far to remain in Damascus, said of the exodus. “The war seems like it will go on forever. People see no future for their children. The only people who are staying are the ones who have it really good here or the ones who aren’t able to leave.”
Over the last year, the Syrian military has suffered a major manpower shortage, which Assad acknowledged this summer in a rare, frank public assessment of his vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, Syria’s currency tumbled to one-sixth of its prewar value, causing an economic crisis for all but the wealthiest citizens. Rebels have made steady territorial gains throughout 2015, until the recent Russian military intervention threatened to turn momentum in the government’s favor.
Yet for all the danger signs, Assad’s government tries to project confidence. It has lost key territory in the north and east, but it still controls most of the important urban centers from Damascus to the coast, where anywhere from half to 80 percent of the population lives. Members of all of Syria’s ethnic and sectarian communities, including many from the Sunni Arab majority, continue to support the government.
The government showcases its readiness at Damascus General Hospital, whose emergency room treats the capital’s civilian casualties. Despite nationwide shortages and difficulties created by Western sanctions, hospital administrator Dr. Khaled Mansour said the hospital still strives to keep six months of supplies on hand.
“We are prepared to continue serving the population even in the case of a siege,” Mansour said. It has been tough to keep sophisticated machinery like scanners working, he said, and to maintain reserves of diesel and water. Imported medicines are more expensive after the currency collapse, and many pharmaceutical factories are located in areas now under rebel control.
It’s also hard to keep doctors from emigrating. According to Mansour, rebels have kidnapped some medical professionals and forced them into service, and Syria’s well-trained doctors find it relatively easy to emigrate. About 200 out of 650 doctors left the country over the summer, Mansour said, while adding that the hospital had more than enough “spare capacity.”
The brain drain, however, is evident in the examining rooms.
“We used to have the best doctors in Syria,” one patient said wistfully. Now, he said, quality was down; during a recent medical appointment, two young doctors had consulted Google on a smartphone to decide which medicine to prescribe.
Boomtown on the coast
If Damascus can feel like a city under siege, the Syrian coast resembles a booming war economy. Millions of Syrians fled the fighting early in the war and relocated to the safer coastal cities of Tartus and Latakia. The coastal cities are considered strongholds of the Alawite minority, of which the Assads are members. But they have sizable populations of Sunnis and other groups, and tensions have grown as displaced people, mainly Sunnis, have fled to the coast from war-torn parts of the country.
The displaced have driven up rents and strained the infrastructure, but they’ve also brought money, and many have reestablished their old businesses. The Ministry of Social Affairs has created dozens of new positions to employ displaced people. Down the street, Mohammed al-Heeb, a pastry shop owner originally from Aleppo, has created 30 extra jobs for displaced people, mostly make-work positions to help families in need. Despite the charity, he’s still turning a profit.
The fight has become an integral part of daily life, directly affecting almost every family from every type of background. Throughout the coast, photographs of the war’s casualties adorn every block. Each neighborhood has a wall of martyrs, some of them featuring hundreds of dead — part of an effort to build a martyrdom culture not unlike that which sustains loyalists of Iran’s ayatollahs and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, both of which provide key support to the Syrian government.
The government avidly pursues draft dodgers and, at the same time, has made a special effort to burnish the cultural cachet of the families making sacrifices to defend Assad’s state.
The sanctification of martyrs
In the hills above Tartus, the provincial governor in early October unveiled an art fair entitled “Tartus: Mother of Martyrs.” For the exposition, the governor commissioned 30 sculptors to build marble tributes to Syria’s fallen. Most of them included literal representations of mothers, along with local motifs encouraged by the governor, like Phoenician boats and a phoenix rising from ashes.
Hundreds of war-wounded and relatives of soldiers who died in the conflict gathered in the hilltop village of Naqib for the unveiling of the statues. Parents wept as a local official read the names of the fallen — nearly 180 just from the village and its environs, an area with a population of about 80,000 people, according to the mayor.
“This is our destiny,” said Ahmed Bilal, an Alawite cleric who was circulating in a shiny white robe and chatting with the assembled families. A long line of fighters predating the establishment of modern Syria had resisted foreign invaders, he said, and gave inspiration to today’s soldiers.
“Even if we lose one-third of our young men, we will still have the rest to live,” Bilal said. “They died so that the others should have life.”
Saada Shakouf, one of the bereaved mothers, sharpened her sense of Syrian identity after her son died fighting rebel forces in March in the battle of the northern town of Jisr al-Shughour. The opposition victory, which was accomplished by a coalition that included the al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front as well as U.S.-backed, Free Syrian Army-linked groups, created a sense of panic in government circles. From Jisr al-Shughour, the rebels had a gateway to the coast, allowing them to directly threaten strongholds like Latakia.
Shakouf’s son, Nabil, was 23 years old when he died along with his entire unit. He had been “stop-lossed,” a procedure for extending a soldier’s service beyond his or her time of enlistment, and was in his fourth year of military service. According to his mother, Nabil and his companions were burned to death in barrels. She didn’t know if they had hidden there — or if the rebels placed them in the barrels and set them on fire as a grisly form of execution.
Government forces are fighting for a model of coexistence and tolerance that is vanishing from the Arab world, Shakouf said. She had lost her enthusiasm for the pan-Arab cause that had once been so central to Syria’s political identity.
“We used to say the Arab nation was one, and we supported the rest of the Arabs against Israel. Where are those Arabs now? They are attacking us; they are attacking other Arabs,” Shakouf said with bitterness. “We don’t believe in the Arab nation anymore.”
An official from the Ministry of Information who was monitoring the interview interjected: “You can’t say that!”
Shakouf, however, refused to back down.
“We are only Syrians,” she insisted. “Syria can protect itself alone. We don’t need anybody to help us.”
Times could get much leaner than they are now in Tartus, and families like Shakouf’s will be called upon to continue to support the fight. Strained by dwindling resources, she said, the resolve of Syrian government loyalists would only grow. She promised that her surviving daughters and 15-year-old son said they would join the military if called.
“We fought the Ottoman Turks for 400 years,” Shakouf said. “There is no way we will fall. We have been fighting five years for our existence, and we will not lose.”
SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP/Getty ImagesAll Muslims no doubt, and their Muslim friends and family who will follow. via Orwellian ‘defense bill’ imports 3,500 more Afghan immigrants
In the United States of Orwell, a “defense bill” means bringing in more immigrants from one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Our backwards strategy of spending up to $4 trillion in the Middle East primarily to referee Islamic civil wars and even grow Iranian hegemony — all for the purpose of defending our homeland — ends in bringing in more Islamists to our shores.
Folks, you can’t make this stuff up.
Now Congress is set to bring in more Afghans, when the country is more volatile than ever and it’s nearly impossible to distinguish a Taliban operative from non-Taliban.
Today, the House is voting on the final conference report for the FY 2018 defense bill, which authorizes $692.1 billion in defense programs. After sticking 2,500 more Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) into the budget bill earlier this year, the conference committee on the defense bill (NDAA) agreed to insert 3,500 more visas for Afghan contractors and interpreters into the defense bill (sec. 1213 of H.R. 2810). While this sounds like a nice idea, history has shown it is hard to vet their family members. SIV recipients can bring in an unlimited number of family members. Any number of them can be Sharia-adherent Muslims and become yet another statistic in the growing trend of children of Middle Eastern immigrants who rise up against their new homeland in the West.
Even the interpreters themselves are very hard to vet. There is a resurgence of fear of green-on-blue attacks among the Afghan military and civilian workers. Remember, the Bowling Green, Ky., bomb-plotters were Iraqi SIVs who were caught trying to blow up the soldiers they worked for.
More egregiously, this comes on the heels of a Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report showing that half of all the foreign personnel who have gone AWOL in this country after being brought here for training were Afghans. Most are still at large and unaccounted for. Astoundingly, Afghans accounted for only one percent of foreign military personnel trained on our shores. Is now really the best time to bring in more Afghans who work with the military before we get to the bottom of this troubling finding?
The original House version of the NDAA didn’t contain the immigration provision, but as always, the more liberal Senate won out in conference in order to railroad House conservatives. They are confronted with an all-or-nothing choice of voting against a pay raise for the military or voting for a provision that undermines the entire purpose of national defense.
Congress already added an additional 3,000 visas for these individuals plus an unlimited number for family members in the FY 2016 NDAA. Most of those visas have not even been issued yet. So why would Congress open the floodgates for even more visas at a cost of several hundred million dollars? Remember, SIV recipients are treated like refugees and are immediately eligible for all social entitlement and resettlement programs. In recent years, the program has been expanded for other support members beyond interpreters or those helping our soldiers on the front lines — and this program is in addition to a separate visa program specifically for interpreters.
Supporters of the SIVs contend that we “owe” citizenship to those who risked their lives to work with the military in Afghanistan. However, if we are accomplishing no discernable goal in Afghanistan other than bringing in more immigrants, then the entire operation is not worth it to the American people. The entire impetus for the “war on terror” was a 9/11 attack by people who should never have been let into the country. Foreign policy and military intervention are ultimately for homeland security, yet we now go overseas so we can make our homeland insecure.
After 15 years of failure in Afghanistan, we are fighting for a corrupt Sharia government. Now we have nothing to show for it but more immigrants who, by and large, are strict adherents to Sharia. Just today it was announced that another four U.S. troops were injured by a Taliban suicide bombing. To what end?
Meanwhile, the NDAA authorizes another $5 billion for the Afghan forces at a time when they are more impotent, corrupt, and compromised than ever before.Introduction: The terror bombings in Paris and Brussels have raised a cacophony of voices, ranging from state officials, Prime Ministers and Presidents, to academics, journalists and media consultants. Tons of ink and print have focused on the psychology, networks and operations of the alleged perpetrators - radicalized young Muslim citizens of the EU.
Few have examined the long-term, large-scale policies of the EU, US and NATO, which have been associated with the development and growth of the worldwide terror networks. This essay will discuss the historical links between Islamist terrorists and the US-Saudi Arabian-Pakistan intervention in Afghanistan, as well as the consequences of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. In Iraq, the US implemented a deliberate policy of destroying all secular state structures and promoting the Balkanization of the country via ethnic-religious and tribal wars - a policy it has followed in subsequent areas of intervention.
The last section will focus on the US-EU-Gulf Petrol-Monarchy proxy invasions and ‘regime change’ bombings of the secular republics of Libya and Syria with the further cultivation and growth of international Islamist terrorism.
Historical Origins of International Islamist Terrorism: Afghanistan
In 1979, President James Carter and his National Security Chief, Zbigniew Brzezinski, launched Operation Cyclone, a major Islamist uprising against the Soviet- aligned secular Afghan regime. The US coordinated it campaign with the rabidly anti-Soviet monarchy in Saudi Arabia, which provided the funding and mercenaries for ‘international jihad’ against secular governance. This brutal campaign ‘officially’ lasted 10 years until the Soviet withdrawal in 1989. It produced millions of casualties and decades ‘blow-back’ when the CIA-Pakistani-Saudi trained Arab mercenaries (the ‘Afghan-Arabs’) returned to their home countries and elsewhere. The US intelligence agencies, Special Forces Commands and military directorates (especially Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service) trained and armed terrorists with US-Saudi funding. The American covert financial contribution mushroomed over the years rising to over $670 million dollars a year by 1987. Tens of thousands of Islamist mercenaries and adventurers were recruited from the Middle East, North Africa, the Gulf States, the Soviet Union (Chechens), Yugoslavia (Bosnians and Kosovars), China (Uigurs) and Western Europe.
With the defeat of the secular regime of President Najibullah in 1992, the Islamists and tribal factions then fought among themselves, converting Afghanistan into the world’s best-equipped training ground for International Islamist terrorists. Eventually, the Pashtun-based Taliban faction (with Pakistani arms and support) prevailed and established an extreme Islamist regime. The Taliban, despite its rhetoric, settled down to consolidating their brand of ‘Islamism in one country’, (1995-2001), a largely nationalist project. In its quest for respectability, it successfully destroyed the opium poppy fields, earning the praise of US President GW Bush in spring 2001. It also hosted a variety of Saudi princes and warlords, eventually including the jihadi-internationalist Osama bin Laden, who had been driven from North Africa.
Following the terrorist attack on the US in September 2001, US and NATO invaded Afghanistan of October 2001 and overthrew the nation-centered Islamist Taliban regime. The subsequent chaos and guerrilla war open up a huge new inflow and outflow of thousands of international extremists who came to Afghanistan, trained, fought and then departed, fully prepared to practice their terrorist skills in their countries of origin in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
The US interventions and invasion of Afghanistan provide some of the context for the subsequent bombings in Europe and the US. The Islamist ‘returnees’ to Europe and elsewhere had received funds from Saudi Arabia and training from the CIA and Pakistani intelligence. They began their work among a very ‘available’ constituency of potential recruits in the marginalized Muslim youth of the ghettos and prisons of Europe.
The Middle Period: the US-Zionist Invasion and Destruction of Iraq
The turning point in the growth and internationalization of Islamist terrorism was the US invasion, occupation and systematic reign of terror in Iraq. Largely under the guidance of key US Zionist policymakers (and Israeli advisers) in the Pentagon, State Department and the White House, the US dismantled the entire secular Iraqi army and police forces. They also purged the administrative, civil, educational, medical and scientific institutions of nationalistic secular professionals, opening the field to warring Islamist tribal factions. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed and millions fled in a regime of ethnic cleansing - which the Washington touted as a model for the rest of the Middle East. However, thousands of experienced, but jobless Iraqi military officers, who had survived the US-orchestrated purges, regrouped and eventually joined with tens of thousands of nationalist and internationalist Islamist extremists to form ISIS. Their motives were arguable less ethno-religious and more related to revenge for their displacement and the destruction of their own society.
The deliberate US (Zionist)-EU-Saudi strategy to divide and conquer Iraq initially involved working closely with Sunni feudal tribal leaders and other extremists to counter the rising power of pro-Iranian Shia. They promoted a policy of fragmenting the country with the Kurds dominating in the North, the Sunnis in the center and the Shia in the south (the so-called Joseph Biden-Leslie Gelb Plan of national dismemberment and ethnic cleansing). The rationale was to create a weak central authority completely under US-EU tutelage and loose group of fragmented subsistence fiefdoms in what had been the most advanced secular Arab republic.
Despite pouring billions of dollars in arms from the US to create a puppet-colonial Iraqi ‘national army’, the Saudis and Israelis pursued their own policy of financing sectors of the Kurds and violent Sunni opposition - with the latter forming the original mass base of ISIS.
As the US-client Shia regime in Baghdad focused on stealing billions while killing or exiling hundreds of thousands of educated Sunnis, Christians and other secular Iraqis from the capital, the morale of its US-puppet troops plummeted. With the entire experienced and nationalist Iraqi officer core purged (slaughtered or driven into hiding), the new puppet officers were cowardly, corrupt and incompetent - as openly acknowledged by their US ‘advisers’. ISIS, meanwhile had acquired hundreds of thousands of US weapons and was financed by the Shia-hating Saudi Royal Family and other Gulf Monarchs. Armed Sunnis soon launched major, lightning-quick offensives under the leadership of ex-Baathist army officers, supported by thousands of terrorists, suicide bombers and foreign mercenaries. US and European ‘military experts’ expressed ’shock’ at their effectiveness.
ISIS routed the Baghdad-controlled army, their US advisers and Kurdish allies from northern Iraq, capturing major cities, including Mosul, thousands of productive oil wells and drove their forces to within a few dozen kilometers of Baghdad. Territorial conquest and military successes attracted thousands more Islamist volunteers from the Middle East, Europe, Afghanistan and even North America. ISIS provided the military training; Saudi Arabia paid their salaries; Turkey purchased their captured oil and antiquities and opened its borders to the transfer of jihadi troops and weapons. Israel, for its part, purchased captured ISIS petrol at a discount from corrupt Turkish traders. Each regional player had its snout in the bloody trough that had once been Iraq!
ISIS successes in Iraq, led it to expand its operations and ambitions across the border into Syria. This occurred just as the US and EU were bombing and destroying the secular government of Colonel Gadhafi in Libya, in another ‘wildly successful’ planned campaign of ‘regime change’ (According to US Secretary of State Clinton as she gleefully watched the captive wounded Gadhafi ’snuff film’ by unspeakable torture - ‘WE came and HE died’.).
The chaos that ensued in Libya led to an exponential growth of extremist Islamist groups with tons of weapons of ‘liberated’ Libyan weapons! Islamist terrorists in Libya gained territory, took over oil wells and attracted ‘volunteers’ from the marginalized youth of neighboring Tunisia, Egypt, Mali and as far away as Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Flush with more guns, money and training. Many graduates went on to Syria and Iraq.
The Contemporary Period: EU-US-Turkey-Saudi-Israeli Sponsored War in Syria
In 2011, as ISIS rolled across the Iraqi border into Syria and terrorist Islamist bands seized cities in Libya, the US-EU-Turkish-Saudi and Israeli regimes financed and armed Islamist (and the mythical ‘moderate’) forces in Syria to overthrow the nationalist-secular Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad.
Thousands of Islamist extremist volunteers heeded the call (and the fat paychecks) of the Saudi regime and its Salafist propagandists. These constituted the Saudi Royal Family’s own ‘Foreign Legion’. They were trained and armed and shipped into Syria by Turkish intelligence. The US armed and trained hundreds of its own so-called ‘moderate rebels’ whose fighters quickly defected to ISIS and other terrorist groups turning over tons of US arms, while the ‘moderate rebel leaders’ gave press conferences from London and Washington. ISIS seized swaths of Syrian territory, sweeping westward toward the Russian naval and air bases on the coast and upward from the south, encircling Damascus. Millions were uprooted and minority populations were enslaved or slaughtered.
The news of ISIS territorial gains with their plundered oil wealth from sales to Turkey and the flow of arms from Saudi Arabia, the EU and the US attracted over 30,000 ‘volunteer’ mercenaries from North America, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
These new terrorists received military training, including bomb making and logistical planning in Syria. Many were citizens of the EU, Islamist extremists, numbering over five thousand. These young fighters trained and fought in Syria and then returned to France, Belgium, Germany and the rest of the EU. They had gone to Syria with the tacit support and/or tolerance of their own European governments who had used them, rather than NATO troops, in the US-EU campaign of ‘regime change’ against Damascus.
The European governments were sure they had ‘their’ Muslim recruits under control as they joined the US in a reckless policy of overthrowing independent secular |
in mind that tickets for Barcamps are often sold out within minutes. (For example, the 400+ tickets for the UX Camp Berlin 2016 were gone in less than two minutes.)
There are numerous conferences regarding agile practices, so here are just some of the listings:
For an additional listing of agile conferences, check TechBeacon’s list for 2017.
Lastly, the big conferences are often considered must-attend events — useful to earn Scrum Alliance SEUs or improve professional visibility within the agile industry. Alternatively, smaller conferences often prove to be more effective by providing information that helps identify a suitable, prospective agile organization. The larger the conference, the more possibility of noise camouflaging that information.
Browsing Meetup.com for organizers
Meetup.com is a great site to discover which events of the agile community are happening locally and who is organizing them.
There are thousands of Meetups around the world, t covering the topics of agile frameworks and practices, software engineering, and product development in general.
Image from amazonaws.com
Metaphorically, the low-hanging fruit is, of course, an organization that leaves a footprint in the agile community by organizing its own events. A good example of this category is Berlin-based “Zalando”.
Back in 2015, Zalando [Europe’s largest online fashion retailer.] introduced its version of Agile, dubbed ‘radical agility’. It has since proven to be a smashing success, not just fueling the bottom line of the business, but also the company’s ambition to build an outstanding product delivery organization.
A quote from its Senior Manager of Corporate Communications:
Over the last year and a half, we have doubled the technology team from around 800 in 2015 to over 1,600 currently. In addition to changing our business model, we also implemented a unique culture within the technology team called Radical Agility: This has seen monthly technology applications grow from 500 to over 2,000, and allows us to ensure that we are hiring only the best quality.
Matteo Bovio, Zalando SE
Zalando is hosting several events relating to best engineering practices, as well as (generally radical) agility-related events, every month on their own campus. If you want to work in an agile manner in Berlin, Zalando is certainly an organization worth considering.
Read More: “Radical Agility: How Zalando Tech Became Berlin’s Hottest Workplace”
Besides spotting the Zalandos of this world, the other benefit of analyzing a local event is identifying the independent organizers in the community. Most often, these are peers dedicated to the agile cause who are giving back to the community. Given their extended networks, they are usually highly knowledgeable regarding the agile maturity level of local organizations, and may know other peers that might be supportive of a quest. Reaching out to them by attending their normally free events is, therefore, a good strategy for gathering information.
Stay tuned — Part 2 will cover how to analyze job advertisements, and how to prepare for the job interview.
Related Posts
Hiring: 38 Scrum Master Interview Questions To Avoid Agile Imposters
Hiring: 42 Scrum Product Owner Interview Questions to Avoid Agile Imposters
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—and follow Age of Product on Twitter.We are issuing an early alert for Imagine Music Festival attendees based on an anonymous tip from a member of the Imagine community. It has been brought to our attention that two different pills that were sold as MDMA were unidentifiable when tested by the community member.
One pressed tablet is a round, light blue pill with a dolphin on it. The other is a round orange pill with the Louis Vuitton logo (‘LV’).
The reactions for the pills are: Orange LV Pill:
Marquis: no reaction
Mecke: no reaction
Mandelin: unsure
Simon: Blue Light Blue Dolphin Pill:
Marquis: yellow
Mecke: brownish yellow
Mandelin: yellow
Simon: no reaction
Based on these test results, it is unknown what the tablets contain. Please be careful if you or your friends happen to come across these tablets. Alert others, and always test before you ingest! If you have any information on a highly adulterated or misrepresented substance, please tell the folks at the DanceSafe booth and we will issue an alert!
DanceSafe is a nonprofit that is dedicated to keeping the electronic music and nightlife communities safe. All proceeds from our drug checking kit sales go back into the organization so we can continue to offer free harm reduction services at events across the world. To support our mission and to keep yourself safe, purchase a drug checking kit here.Apple is mulling something that its late founder Steve Jobs had outright rejected -- adding a stylus to its iPhone, according to industry sources on Oct. 13.
“Apple is preparing to launch the phone as early as 2019,” an industry source told The Investor on condition of anonymity. “It is also in talks with a couple of stylus makers for a partnership.”
Apple is reportedly "mulling" the idea of launching a stylus compatible with iPhone, believed to be a new iteration of the Apple Pencil, which is currently only supported by the iPad Pro. The rumor comes from industry sources speaking to The Korea Herald (via The Investor ), which claimed that Apple engineers "have recently been working" on a new iPhone device that "comes with a digital pen," aiming for a potential launch in 2019.The sources said that the iPhone stylus is likely to adopt a "supercapacitor stylus type" for price benefits, contrasting with Samsung's Galaxy Note pen which is based on electromagnetic resonance technology that needs additional panel components to be installed underneath the smartphone display. "A supercapacitor type is cheaper to make compared to the EMR stylus. It also offers a more pen-like feel," according to the industry sources.Notably, Apple's current A-series chip would see a "drastic upgrade" as well in order to fuel a better handwriting experience for the stylus on iPhone.The Apple Pencil launched nearly two years ago in November 2015 alongside the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Apple's first stylus was designed specifically to work with the iPad Pro, and gives users the feel of using a real pen or pencil with sensors that determine the orientation and angle of the Apple Pencil, and pressure sensitivity allowing for darker or lighter pen strokes.Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was famously against launching a stylus for iPhones, during the original iPhone event stating: "Who wants a stylus? You have to get them, and put them away, and you lose them, yuck. Nobody wants a stylus."Apple executives and current CEO Tim Cook have repeatedly avoided referring to Apple Pencil as a "stylus" over the years, with Cook commenting in an interview last year that "we launched a pencil not a stylus." The Apple CEO further stated, "I think that Steve would have loved" the Apple Pencil, and even gave early mention of a pencil device potentially supporting iPhones in the future: "if you’ve ever seen what can be created on an iPhone or an iPad with that pencil is really unbelievable."Scotland secretary says if islands were to vote no but national vote was yes, it could become self-governing like Isle of Man
Oil-rich Shetland may consider becoming a self-governing territory like the Isle of Man rather than stay part of an independent Scotland in the event of a yes vote, the Scotland secretary, Alistair Carmichael, has said.
In an interview with the Guardian, Carmichael said if Shetland were to vote strongly against independence but the Scottish national vote was narrowly in favour, then a "conversation about Shetland's position and the options that might be open to it" would begin.
The Liberal Democrat MP, who represents Orkney and Shetland in Westminster and has been secretary of state for Scotland in the coalition government since last October, said those options might include the islands modelling themselves on the Isle of Man, which is a self-governing crown dependency that is not part of the UK, or on their neighbours the Faroe Isles, which are an autonomous country within the Danish realm.
Asked if he was suggesting Alex Salmond should not take for granted that oilfields off Shetland will belong to Scotland in the event of a yes vote, he said: "That would be one of the things that we would want to discuss. I wouldn't like to predict at this stage where the discussions would go."
Responding to Carmichael's comments, a Yes Scotland spokesman said: "Scotland's island communities will have greater control over their local economies, natural environment and be represented at the heart of government in an independent Scotland.
"A yes vote is about empowering people and communities throughout Scotland, including our island communities. That is one reason why the Shetland News has chosen to chosen to back yes."
But Carmichael's comments were echoed by Tavish Scott, Shetland's MSP, who when asked whether Shetland would have to obey the will of Scotland in the event of a yes vote, said: "Will it now? We'll have to look at our options. We're not going to be told what to do by Alex Salmond."
Speaking as he canvassed in the capital Lerwick's town centre on the final day of campaigning before the vote, Scott said the option of becoming a crown dependency was "something we will look at", though he said he ruled out full independence for the islands.
A petition of more than 1,000 signatures raised by islanders from Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles calling for a separate referendum on whether they could themselves become independent was rejected last month by the Scottish government, which said it had promised new powers to the three island groups.
The Shetland archipelago, more than 100 miles north of mainland Scotland, has traditionally voted strongly against Scottish independence, in part because of its distinctive history – until the 15th century it was part of Norway and is closer to its west coast than the Scottish capital – in part because the oil industry has made it rich without particular assistance from Edinburgh.
Sullom Voe oil and gas terminal, in the north-west of the island group, is one of the largest in Europe, and a levy on oil processed through the islands since 1976 has poured into a multimillion pound charitable trust, which funds services, community projects and the arts for the islands' 23,000 population. Shetland's landscape and much of its architecture is unsparing, but roads and services are excellent, shops prosperous and hotels full of foreign business travellers.
If the extent of Scotland's oil reserves has been hotly debated across the nation as a whole, the topic is even more pressing in Lerwick, where the main harbour is dominated by six cruise ships providing accommodation for 1,700 workers from Total's gas plant, next to Sullom Voe.
Few expect Thursday's no vote to approach the emphatic 73% vote against independence in the 1979 referendum, however. In the bustling Yes Shetland shop on Lerwick's Harbour Street, which opened last month thanks to crowd-funded donations, campaigners yesterday rattled off detailed figures for the amount of oil remaining in the oilfields west of Scotland, and repeated the widely held claim among independence supporters that its true extent has been concealed by Westminster. A YouGov poll last week found 42% of voters in Scotland believe it is "probably true" that a bonanza find on the Clair oilfield is being concealed by BP until after polls close.
"Of course they have downplayed the amount of oil we have left," said Angela Sutherland, who had popped in for a cup of tea with fellow campaigners. It was "our oil", she said, and if independence is rejected "we're not going to get a penny of it, it's going to underwrite [Westminster's] debt".
A lifelong Liberal, Sutherland said she joined the SNP four months ago "because I felt the press coverage wasn't supporting yes, so I wanted to give them my support".
For Sue Wailoo, independence offered "an opportunity to build a country that's a fair society. We are a nation that is a small enough unit, and there are enough people with great ideas, that we should be able to govern ourselves."
But many on Shetland remain cautious, and for Gillian Ramsay, owner of the Shetland Art Company, a craft shop on Lerwick's narrow, twisting Commercial Street, there were too many unknowns for her to support yes. "I have a business, and I wonder how a yes vote would affect me. Will we be in the European Union? Will England be a foreign country? Will I have to pay more to bring in my materials? They can't tell me. This is the problem. They have been unable to satisfy me that it would be better if we were independent."
Those were all points being stressed by no campaigners a little further along the street outside the Bank of Scotland where, in a rare display of political unity, representatives from the Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives were campaigning side by side. "We're Shetlanders and we've always lived peacefully in Shetland," explained Theo Nicolson in the strong Lerwick accent that still echoes its Scandinavian origins.
Nicolson, the local Lib Dem chairman, described himself as "Shetlander, and then British". And Scottish? A long pause. Only because his mother was Scottish, he said. "We're so different here in Shetland. Our history; we were part of Norway of course and we've always had a strong Norse background. We don't have the tartan culture here." His strong sense of Britishness comes from his father and grandfather who fought in the two wars, something that is important to many older islanders, he said.
Before retiring, Nicolson worked at Sullom Voe as a marine engineer. What was his perspective on the oil question? "Nobody knows how much oil is there. There's a vast amount of difference between different experts. And as you push out the frontiers, it gets more and more difficult to recover and more and more expensive to recover. It depends on global oil prices whether it will ever be viable, and that's something that no man knows."A Jordanian pilot taken hostage by ISIL in December has been killed by the militant group. Jordan vowed to execute al-Qaeda prisoners Sajida al-Rishawi, Ziad al-Karbouli and four other militants in retaliation.
The Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kasaesbeh, who was captured by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in December after his plane crashed on terrorist-controlled territory in Syria, has reportedly been burned alive on Tuesday.
— Breaking News Feed (@PzFeed) February 3, 2015
Jordan has been making efforts to exchange the pilot for al-Qaeda prisoner Sajida al-Rishawi, who was arrested after a failed suicide bombing attempt. However, one of the conditions for the exchange was that ISIL show proof of the pilot alive.
Earlier, Jordan threatened to hang every ISIL prisoner they currently hold if their pilot was harmed.
A video that shows the pilot being burned alive was distributed on a twitter account that posts ISIL-related propaganda.
The video shows Kasaesbeh wearing an orange jumpsuit, inside a cage, being consumed by fire.
The pilot's family and Jordanian officials have confirmed the video is authentic. Jordanian State TV reported that he was killed on January 3, 2015.
— Nasser Atta (@nasseratta5) February 3, 2015
Within hours after the video was posted, Jordanian officials said the government will execute six al-Qaeda prisoners, including Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziad al-Karbouli, for terrorism-related crimes, according to Lebanese news site el-Nashra.
The director and co-founder of the SITE Intelligence Group that tracks militants online said the video entitled "Healing of the Believers' Chests," is the militants' "most barbaric video yet."
— Nasser Atta (@nasseratta5) February 3, 2015
Photographs of Kasasbeh were released showing his semi-naked body being pulled from water by gunmen shortly after the execution.
The Jordan pilot's death comes just days after ISIL posted a video online showing the decapitation of a Japanese hostage, journalist Kenji Goto.
© REUTERS / Yuya Shino World in Shock Over IS Purported Beheading of Japan Hostage
Goto was a Japanese journalist who entered Syria via Turkey in August to rescue another Japanese journalist, Haruna Yukawa, held hostage by ISIL.
Goto was reported missing in October. He appeared in a video released by ISIL holding a picture of Yukawa’s beheaded body on January 24.
The militant group had demanded a ransom of $200 million for their release.
On January 27, a voice in another ISIL video, claiming to be Kenji Goto, warned that he and the Jordanian Air Force pilot would be killed within 24 hours if they were not exchanged for Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi suicide bomber facing a death sentence in Jordan.
The King of Jordan who is in the U.S. is expected to cut his trip short and head back to Jordan, following the killing of the Jordanian pilot after failed international efforts to release him.
— Arlette Saenz (@ArletteSaenz) February 3, 2015
President Barack Obama said earlier this week that a 26-year-old American woman is currently being held by ISIL. The unnamed female is believed to be the only US citizen held captive by the terrorist organization, after it beheaded aid worker Peter Kassig in November.Perry Glasser interviews the 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner about his experience getting his novel published.
When Paul Harding’s Tinkers was first published, the novel was greeted with deafening silence. After years of rejections from almost every major publishing house, Tinkers, about a New England man’s recollections and memories of his father, finally found a home at Bellevue Literary Press.
Harding struggled to get Tinkers on the publishing establishment’s radar; he was an unknown writer, and Bellevue was a small press with little to no advertising budget. Worse, it was a novel about the male experience—and everyone knows men don’t read books. If nobody would so much as review it, how good could it be?
Turns out, it was good enough to win the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.
More women than men buy books. In the halls of publishing houses, conventional wisdom holds that men only read nonfiction or action novels in which paper-thin characters blow things up. Whether they are 15 or 40, the thinking goes, men’s literary taste never changes.
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So, Paul Harding’s success set me to wondering: Are men not reading quality novels about the male experience because those books represent an insurmountable business risk? Or are quality novels about the male experience not finding their way into print because of an editorial bias?
Why should a novel that goes on to win the Pulitzer have had such a tough time?
I asked Paul Harding about his experience, his success, and his work.
♦♦♦
Glassbrain: Tinkers is about generations of men, and begins with a dying man having thoughts of his long dead father. Can you share with us how and why this theme suggested itself to you?
Harding: The theme arose from the family stories that my maternal grandfather used to tell me about his life in Maine when he was a kid. His father, like Howard Crosby in the book, had epilepsy and left the family when my grandfather was 12, when he found out about his wife’s plans to have him committed to an asylum. Whether out of tact or grief (both, probably), my grandfather would not elaborate on these facts. When he died, I lost access to even the possibility of ever finding out more facts, so I began with those bare fragments and imagined fictional elaborations of them.
♦♦♦
Glassbrain: In commercial publishing, we’ve heard that there is a standard marketing rule, that “men don’t read fiction”—unless it is action, escapist stuff, like Tom Clancy’s. Do you suppose that is the general understanding because few serious novels are published with masculine themes, or are few novels published with masculine themes because, in fact, men don’t read fiction?
Harding: Hmm, not an angle from which I usually think about such things, but maybe that’s just because I’m a man who very much reads fiction, so that seems the normative state of affairs from where I sit. The question raises all sorts of interesting subjects. For example, my experience of writing Tinkers never once included any thoughts about it being concerned with “masculine themes.” And yet, the book is, after all, concerned with fathers and sons.
That sort of thing is, in my experience, a matter of process. It’s a matter of primary, secondary, tertiary orders of a work of art’s worldly career. Primarily, the book was about individual souls. But afterwards, the book might well be accurately described as being concerned “with men.” But that is a subsequent, retroactive description of the result of the composition of the book. I guess it’s connected with aesthetics, too. I think that if I started with a theme and then tried to embody it by inducing it onto fictional characters, I’d end up with a crappy book—doctrine or propaganda or rhetoric, things to which I am mortally averse.
What was the question? Sorry. Anyway, there might be some hard numbers that show that, statistically, it’s women who read the most literary fiction, but, I guess I don’t write for men or for women; I write for human beings. It’s funny; a lot of women tell me that the book is unusually insightful about women, for a male author, and a lot of men tell me that they appreciate the book being manly and literary at the same time. I guess in the end I like the fact that art always confounds any given set of sociological or whatever templates, and exists at some lovely, other order of beauty and truth (yes, a la Keats). I think also that sometimes such things are set in false opposition; how is it that we come to think of them as exclusive of one another (not you, but us, as in human beings)?
♦♦♦
Glassbrain: How long was Tinkers shopped around before it found a home at Bellevue, a small press associated with the New York hospital? What was that process like?
Harding: I shopped the book around to a bunch of editors and agents, not exhaustively, but maybe fifteen or so places. It was turned down at all of them. The rejections ranged from perfectly civil, boilerplate no thank you’s to pretty absurd lectures about the pace of life today and all of that business. Silly stuff written by people preoccupied (perfectly legitimately, but also in a universe parallel to and separate from my own) with the bottom line. At any rate, I tossed the manuscript in a drawer and it sat there for a couple or three years while I taught and raised my young sons with my wife and kept a home and wrote other things. Then, by happy accident, it ended up in the hands of Erika Goldman, the publisher and editor at Bellevue Literary Press (after the friend of a friend read it to see if it would be suitable for his own small, indie press, which it was not).
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The actual process of working with Erika was fantastic—I could not have been more fortunate. She really held me accountable for the writing and the story, but also let me work things out on my own. We trusted each other from the word ‘go’ and I’ve never had an instant’s doubt about her intelligence and integrity and taste.
♦♦♦
Glassbrain: Generally, The New York Times serves as the trade publication for publishing, yet Tinkers failed to receive notice from the Times until the novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. In addition to being personally validating, can you comment on the general state of the lit biz and its openness to men?
Harding: It seems to me that the matter has a lot to do in fact with all sorts of issues of genre and marketing that get obliterated when the lit biz is considered monolithically. I think that maybe second rank writing can be subdivided, often enough by gender, by the marketing department. Maybe a work of art’s availability (or vulnerability) to being subdivided like that is in fact a mark of it being second rank.
First rank art transcends such things, despite being subjected to all kinds of mistreatment at the hands of all sorts of factions. It might be the transcendentalist in me, but I endeavor to be a faction of one and I think that every successful work of art should be a genre unto itself. For my part, so long as the actual book I wrote and stand by gets printed, I want it to be read by men, women, Africans, Asians, black folks, white folks; I want everyone who reads what I write to recognize his or her humanity. As far as the Times being the steward of the state of the art and all that, I’ve been a paid subscriber for fifteen years, greatly delighted in loving and hating it every morning, feeling vindicated, marginalized, and everything in between. I think the Times is fine and I think the book did pretty well without its imprimatur.
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♦♦♦
Glassbrain: What advice would you give to men who want to write, publish, and be read? Would you give the same advice to women?
Harding: I’ve taught writing to a lot of people, men and women, and, yes, I give the same advice to everyone. I’ve been fortunate that the classes I teach are all just about writing. I don’t talk much about publishing or about readership, outside of the advice that you should never think about publishing while you’re writing (unless you’re doing a certain kind of genre that works by formula) or about demographics of readership. Those things will distract you from your real work. It’s all about the writing itself. Writing is not a means; it is the thing itself. If you write something true and solid, you’ll get published and you’ll get readers. That’s what the story behind Tinkers illustrates, if it illustrates anything.
I got $1000 and was published by the NYU School of Medicine, with pretty much zero marketing budget. But, even before the Pulitzer, the book sold 15,000 copies, almost wholly by word of mouth. I think that the average first novel sells fewer than 5,000 copies. That means there are readers out there who want literary novels, no mater how tough it is for the bean counters to market them. So, just write what you really think is true. And beautiful. Write what you think is true and beautiful. Really, the two are one and the same thing.
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♦♦♦
Glassbrain: What are you working on these days?
Harding: I’m working on a novel called Enon. It is about one of George Washington Crosby’s grandsons, Charlie, and Charlie’s daughter, Kate. So, maybe it’ll get called a book about fathers and daughters….That’d be fine. It’s not a sequel to Tinkers, but it occurs in the same world, in the same family. If all goes according to my best intentions, it will be out in 2012.
—Perry Glasser is also a contributor to The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood.Jaguars, the third-largest cats after lions and tigers and the biggest in the Western Hemisphere, used to live here. In the 1700s and 1800s people spotted them in Arizona, New Mexico, California and Texas. Sometimes the cats roamed as far east as North Carolina and as far north as Colorado.
As humans have encroached on their territory, the endangered cats' range has shifted south. Today it stretches from northern Argentina into Mexico's Sonoran Desert. But they cross into the American Southwest frequently enough for some conservationists to argue that they deserve critical habitat protection. Now, after years of legal wrangling, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has agreed. “We do plan on proposing to designate some critical habitat,” says Steve Spangle, field supervisor for FWS in Phoenix. “But we don't know yet where or how much.” The agency plans to announce its decision in July.
The question of whether or not jaguars deserve critical habitat reflects a broader debate in conservation circles. How does one prioritize spending among the many species that are slowly disappearing from the planet? Many experts believe the best way to help the species is to increase resources south of the border, where jaguars live and breed. But Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sued FWS to designate critical habitat, says the goal should be to help jaguars repopulate parts of the U.S. where they have gone extinct, especially since dozens were killed under a federal predator-extermination program that continued into the 1960s. It is important to look at a species' historical range and not just at “a snapshot in time,” Robinson contends.
Whatever critical habitat the government grants most likely will be small. In April an outline prepared by an advisory group to FWS focused on an area that includes the southeastern corner of Arizona and a tiny slice of New Mexico's southwestern corner, neglecting New Mexico's Gila National Forest and Arizona's Mogollon Rim, which Robinson says are prime jaguar habitat.
The subject “can be debated for a couple of more generations while the species goes extinct,” says Howard Quigley, a co-leader of the advisory group convened by FWS and executive director of the jaguar program at the wild cat conservation group Panthera. “But we need an area in which to focus now and get recovery actions under way.” At least it's a start.With no proof of the ivory’s age, a Beverly auction house canceled the sale of these figurines.
The Beverly auctioneer made quick work of a bullwhip belonging to television cowboy Rex Trailer and a 19th-century Russian icon before turning later to Chinese figurines that had been advertised as wood.
Except the pair weren’t elaborately carved wood. They were ivory. And they sold for $600 at Kaminski Auctions without proof of their age, which is required by the US government.
Such is the murky world of the ivory trade, where few transactions are scrutinized, few questions are asked, and understaffed federal agents are overwhelmed by a market in which 30,000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks.
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That trade, much of it illegal, is doing brisk business in Massachusetts, according to a prominent wildlife organization that conducted a survey this year on ivory sales in the United States.
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The International Fund for Animal Welfare ranked Boston fourth among US cities in its study of ivory advertised on Craigslist, a popular online marketplace. And nearly all of the ivory items — tusks, jewelry, furniture, and statues — were being offered without the proof of age and origin required for a legal sale.
As a result, wildlife activists said, some of these items could belong to the vast cache of elephant ivory, carved and uncarved, that is smuggled into the United States by an industrial-size criminal network.
Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe Ivory figures were described as carved from wood in a recent Kaminski Auctions catalog.
“We don’t have a system in the United States to determine whether what people are seeing online, or in a store, or in an antique shop is legal or not,” said Azzedine Downes, chief executive officer of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which conducted the survey in March.
“There’s no real fear of being found out,” Downes said.
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The US Fish and Wildlife Service has made illegal ivory sales and imports its top priority. To spread the word, the agency earlier this month crushed a ton of ivory in a public display at Times Square in New York.
The ivory had been seized during an undercover operation, but the agency’s 198 law-enforcement officers are able to investigate only a small portion of crimes.
“You’re looking at multiple tons of ivory coming in across the country, much of it illegally and under the radar,” said Adam Roberts, chief executive officer of Born Free USA, an animal advocacy group.
The size of the Massachusetts market is impossible to gauge accurately, federal authorities said. But the Craigslist survey conducted by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, a fleeting snapshot that illuminated only a sliver of the problem, showed that Boston’s healthy economy is a powerful magnet for ivory, Downes said.
“There is a correlation between wealth centers and the sale of ivory,” Downes said. “There’s always been an allure.”
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The San Francisco area ranked first in the number of ivory items offered for sale between March 16 and 20 on Craigslist, followed by Los Angeles, South Florida, and Boston, which also ranked fourth in the value of its ivory.
A British and Kenyan report published in 2008 ranked Boston and Cambridge as the country’s seventh-largest ivory market. Overall, the United States ranks second in ivory trade, trailing only China.
Under a complicated welter of federal wildlife laws and regulations, African elephant ivory can be sold within the United States only if it was lawfully imported before 1990, or lawfully imported after 1990 but shown to have been taken from the wild before 1976.
“The obligation is on the seller” to document compliance, said Craig Hoover, chief of the wildlife trade and conservation branch of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Kaminski Auctions canceled its $600 ivory sale within days of the transaction, citing the legal dangers of selling ivory without proof of age. In the week before the sale, a Kaminski appraiser confirmed that the figurines were ivory for a Globe reporter who did not identify himself. He also told the reporter that the ivory might be difficult to resell out of state.
When asked why Kaminski had advertised the ivory as wood, vice president Steven Demers said he did not know.
Edward Grace, deputy chief of law enforcement for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said auction houses must identify ivory correctly.
“If someone advertises something as wood, when they know it’s ivory, then it’s false labeling,” Grace said. “They either need to redo their catalog listing or take it out of the sale.”
Internet traffic accounts for much of the trade in ivory, which can fetch up to $1,500 a pound, but ivory also can be found on the shelves of some antique houses in Massachusetts.
Many of these items are more than a century old, but unscrupulous sellers will use stains or other techniques to make recent ivory look antique.
“It’s so easy to make newly poached ivory look like old ivory. That’s essentially the problem in a nutshell,” said state Senator Jason Lewis, a Winchester Democrat who has filed legislation to ban all sales of African elephant ivory in Massachusetts.
“It can be heated and dried out and cracked, just like furniture can be. It’s carved in the style of various periods, and just like any antique or piece of furniture, it’s tough to know the authenticity,” said Lewis, a native of South Africa.
The bill is supported by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell Animal Medical Center, and Zoo New England.
Many ivory traders use false documents to deceive authorities. Last month, a Concord woman pleaded guilty to conspiring with Chinese nationals to smuggle ivory to China and mislabeling ivory as wood.
The woman, Carla Marsh, helped ship ivory that had been purchased at auction houses in the United States, according to court documents. She once suggested that items be mailed through the US Postal Service, because “it’s less expensive than UPS and does not get scrutinized quite as much in Customs.”
In addition to the Kaminski auction, ivory also was available at two of four antique shops visited recently on Charles Street in Boston.
At Elegant Findings Antiques, a visitor was shown ivory that had been painted with Napoleon’s portrait.
Valued at more than $2,000, the item had been given by the French emperor to one of his officers, according to a handwritten note that accompanied the artwork. Although the ivory appeared antique, no independent proof was available.
At Marika’s Antique Shop, ivory figures from Japan were displayed on a shelf. Their sales history is known, a staff person said, but not their age.
Some antique dealers in Massachusetts believe all of their peers must stop selling ivory.
“Antique dealers and auction houses have to take an ethical or moral stance,” said Tom Lang, co-owner of Alexander Westerhoff Antiques in Essex. “Ivory has got to be devalued in the marketplace.”
US wildlife officials said they are committed to a near-total ban on ivory sales, and that they are moving to prohibit the interstate trade of ivory and limit the number of imported elephant trophies.
Wildlife advocates say the clock is ticking.
“This is really one of those times in history when you have to decide as a person to contribute to changing society,” said Downes, at the International Fund for Animal Welfare. “A trinket is a live elephant roaming Africa. That’s the choice.”
Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at macquarrie@ globe.comFinally, the Senate passed a bill today on new federal student loan rates for college that is headed to President Obama's desk to be signed. The House already approved the new rates for federal loans that will allow undergraduates to borrow at a 3.9 percent interest rate for subsidized and unsubsidized loans. Graduate students will be able to borrow at 5.4 percent, and parents can borrow at 6.4 |
profits, and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.
These are days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer to quiet to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom; a time when technology has brought this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to make a difference, or to just hit delete...
This version was compiled from a few different versions found on the Internet:
Original version Dr. Bob Moorehead:
The Paradox of Our Age
We have taller buildings but shorter tempers; wider freeways but narrower viewpoints; we spend more but have less; we buy more but enjoy it less; we have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, yet less time; we have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgement; more experts, yet more problems; we have more gadgets but less satisfaction; more medicine, yet less wellness; we take more vitamins but see fewer results. We drink too much; smoke too much; spend too recklessly; laugh too little; drive too fast; get too angry quickly; stay up too late; get up too tired; read too seldom; watch TV too much and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values; we fly in faster planes to arrive there quicker, to do less and return sooner; we sign more contracts only to realize fewer profits; we talk too much; love too seldom and lie too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, not life to years. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space; we've done larger things, but not better things; we've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice; we write more, but learn less; plan more, but accomplish less; we make faster planes, but longer lines; we learned to rush, but not to wait; we have more weapons, but less peace; higher incomes, but lower morals; more parties, but less fun; more food, but less appeasement; more acquaintances, but fewer friends; more effort, but less success. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication; drive smaller cars that have bigger problems; build larger factories that produce less. We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men, but short character; steep in profits, but shallow relationships. These are times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure and less fun; higher postage, but slower mail; more kinds of food, but less nutrition. These are days of two incomes, but more divorces; these are times of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, cartridge living, thow-away morality, one-night stands, overweight bodies and pills that do everything from cheer, to prevent, quiet or kill. It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stock room. Indeed, these are the times!
Learn more about this version here.Continued Strong Revenue Growth, Executing on Differentiation and Expansion Strategy
TSX:ACB
VANCOUVER, Nov. 9, 2017 /CNW/ - Aurora Cannabis Inc. (the "Company" or "Aurora") (TSX: ACB) (OTCQX: ACBFF) (Frankfurt: 21P; WKN: A1C4WM) today announced its financial and operational results for the first quarter of fiscal 2018, ended September 30, 2017.
Q1 2018 Financial and Operational Highlights
Q1 2018 Q4 2017 Change Q1 2017
# # % # Active registered patients (1) 19,280 16,400 17.6% 8,200 Grams sold 889,965 755,059 17.9% 435,720 Grams produced(2) 1,009,585 1,164,683 -13.3% 354,975
(In CDN $000's unless otherwise noted) $ $ % $ Revenues 8,249 5,936 39.0% 3,071 Average selling price per gram 8.22 7.45 10.3% 6.32 Cash cost of sales per gram (3) 1.92 2.09 -8.1% - Cash cost to produce per gram (3) 1.73 1.91 -9.4% - Cash and cash equivalents 127,915 159,796
23,194
(1) As of the date hereof, the Company has over 20,000 active registered patients. (2) Grams produced in the first quarter 2018 decreased due lower yielding strains being harvested in the period compared to higher-yielding strains in prior periods. Additionally, the Mountain View facility has reached optimal production capacity in the quarter. (3) Cash cost of sales per gram and cash cost to produce per gram are non-IFRS financial measures that do not have a standardized meaning under IFRS and may not be comparable to other companies. See definitions at the end of this document.
Continued Strong Patient and Revenue Growth
Recorded $8.2 million in revenues, up 169% from Q1 2017 and up 39% sequentially from Q4 2017.
Revenues were generated as follows:
- Dried cannabis sold in Canada $4.7 million;
- Cannabis oils sold in Canada $1.4 million;
- Dried cannabis sold in Germany $1.2 million, and
- Service revenues $0.9 million.
Sold 889,965 gram equivalent of cannabis, up 18% from Q4 2017, consisting of:
- Dried cannabis: 802,250 grams, and
- Cannabis oils: 87,715 gram equivalent.
Added approximately 2,880 active registered patients during the quarter, an 18% increase.
Increased the prices for its dried cannabis strains from $8.00 to $9.00 per gram (from $5.00 to $6.00 per gram for low-income patients).
Capacity Expansion
Continued to progress on schedule and on budget with the construction of the 800,000 square foot Aurora Sky facility.
The Company's subsidiary Pedanios passed the first stage of the tender application process to become a licensed producer of medical cannabis in Germany. Results of the tender process are expected March 2018.
. Results of the tender process are expected. The Company's Mountain View facility meets EU GMP certification standards, required by the German government for export to that market, and anticipates receiving the certification shortly.
Received its export permit issued by Health Canada, as well as provisional import status from the German Bundesopiumstelle (Federal Narcotics Bureau), to import medical cannabis products into Germany through Pedanios, which currently distributes cannabis to 1,700 pharmacies.
Product Line Expansion
Entered into a subscription and an option agreement with Hempco and Hempco founders, which, upon exercise, would bring the Company's total ownership interest in Hempco to over 50% on a fully diluted basis.
Completed the acquisition of BC Northern Lights and Urban Cultivator, leading companies, respectively, in the production and sale of proprietary systems for the safe, efficient and high-yield indoor cultivation of cannabis, and in state-of-the-art indoor gardening appliances for the cultivation of organic microgreens, vegetables and herbs in home kitchens.
Entered into a technical services agreement with Cann Group Limited of Australia (19.9% owned).
(19.9% owned). Entered into an exclusive hardware supply agreement for the Canadian market with Namaste Technologies Inc. ("Namaste") whereby Aurora, through its website and mobile application, offers a specially curated selection of industry-leading vaporizers sourced through Namaste.
Financings
Strengthened the balance sheet and liquidity position during the first quarter of 2018 with $1.5 million in new financings via the exercise of warrants, options and compensation options, as well as the conversion of convertible notes into common shares.
in new financings via the exercise of warrants, options and compensation options, as well as the conversion of convertible notes into common shares. Approximately $96 million in additional gross cash proceeds remain available from the future exercise of warrants, stock options and compensation options/warrants.
in additional gross cash proceeds remain available from the future exercise of warrants, stock options and compensation options/warrants. The Company received 14,285,714 units and 77,540 units of Radient on conversion of $2.0 million in debentures and payment of final interest, respectively.
Management Team Expansion and Director Change
Strengthened its senior management team to ensure the Company has the leadership to further grow and build shareholder value through execution of domestic and international objectives and opportunities. In July and August 2017, the Company appointed VPs in Finance, Market Development, and Production, as well as a Chief Cultivator.
, the Company appointed VPs in Finance, Market Development, and Production, as well as a Chief Cultivator. Graduated from the TSX Venture Exchange to the Toronto Stock Exchange in July.
Mr. Barry Fishman resigned from the board of directors effective September 25, 2017.
Developments subsequent to the quarter
Continued Strong Patient and Revenue Growth
Aurora registered over 3,500 patients since fiscal year end, and as of the date of this release, the Company has surpassed 20,000 active registered patients.
CanvasRx, which now operates 25 facilities nationwide, remains the leading Canadian network of cannabis counseling and outreach centres, with more than 31,900 registered patients. Over 8,900 medical doctors across Canada have referred patients to CanvasRx or its affiliated medical clinics.
Capacity Expansion
The construction of the Aurora Sky facility at the Edmonton International Airport in Alberta is progressing well. At 800,000 square feet, with modern technology and automation, Aurora Sky is expected to produce over 100,000 kilograms annually and deliver significant economies of scale for Aurora. Located on Edmonton International Airport land, with access to ample power, Aurora Sky is ideally positioned for increased domestic and international distribution. To date, over 400,000 square feet of structure has been erected, 80% of which has its specialty glass installed, and many sub-systems have been delivered to the site. The Company anticipates the first bays to be completed and ready for planting before the end of calendar 2017, with the first harvest in the first half of 2018, and full completion of the construction project by mid-2018.
International Airport in is progressing well. At 800,000 square feet, with modern technology and automation, Aurora Sky is expected to produce over 100,000 kilograms annually and deliver significant economies of scale for Aurora. Located on International Airport land, with access to ample power, Aurora Sky is ideally positioned for increased domestic and international distribution. To date, over 400,000 square feet of structure has been erected, 80% of which has its specialty glass installed, and many sub-systems have been delivered to the site. The Company anticipates the first bays to be completed and ready for planting before the end of calendar 2017, with the first harvest in the first half of 2018, and full completion of the construction project by mid-2018. Completed the construction upgrades at and received the cultivation license from Health Canada for the Company's 40,000 square foot purpose-built indoor facility, Aurora Vie, in Pointe-Claire, Quebec in six months, reflecting the Company's agility, capabilities and speed of execution. The Company anticipates shipping genetics shortly and first harvest in Q1 of calendar 2018.
Expanding International Operations
Exports to Germany in September 2017 have passed the country's lab testing requirements for quality control, and were delivered to pharmacies in October 2017. Revenues from exports to Germany will be recorded beginning in Aurora's Q2 2018. The Company continues to export ongoing, regular shipments of dried cannabis flower from Canada to Germany.
Financings
Completed a bought deal and a private placement for gross proceeds of $75 million. Units in both placements were priced at $3.00, and consisted of one share and one common share purchase warrant (priced at $4 for a period of three years following closing).
. Units in both placements were priced at, and consisted of one share and one common share purchase warrant (priced at for a period of three years following closing). Pro-forma cash balance of $185 million providing substantial firepower to continue fueling expansion strategy.
providing substantial firepower to continue fueling expansion strategy. Approximately $200 million in additional gross cash proceeds remain available from the future exercise of warrants, stock options and compensation options/warrants.
Strategic Relationship with Radient Technologies Inc.
In November, Aurora and Radient announced that they had finalized a Master Services Agreement, pursuant to which Radient will perform certain services for Aurora using its Map TM technology, as well as other technologies, for the development, commercialization and supply of standardized cannabis extracts, which may be derived from both cannabis and hemp. The agreement initially covers services delivered in Canada, Australia, and the European Union, but may be expanded to additional territories. Within the countries covered by the agreement, Radient shall deliver its services under preferential terms to Aurora. Radient has applied with Health Canada to obtain Licensed Dealer and Licensed Producer status, and is progressing well through the processes. Upon receipt of either license, Radient will be able to commence production of cannabis extracts. The Company expects that this agreement will enable Aurora to accelerate the production of high-margin cannabis derivatives under favourable terms.
technology, as well as other technologies, for the development, commercialization and supply of standardized cannabis extracts, which may be derived from both cannabis and hemp. The agreement initially covers services delivered in,, and the European Union, but may be expanded to additional territories. Within the countries covered by the agreement, Radient shall deliver its services under preferential terms to Aurora. Radient has applied with Health Canada to obtain Licensed Dealer and Licensed Producer status, and is progressing well through the processes. Upon receipt of either license, Radient will be able to commence production of cannabis extracts. The Company expects that this agreement will enable Aurora to accelerate the production of high-margin cannabis derivatives under favourable terms. On June 5, 2017, Aurora and Radient successfully completed their joint venture research activity and confirmed the effectiveness of Radient's Map™ technology and associated continuous flow design for extracting cannabinoids from dried cannabis.
Product Line Expansion
Aurora announced the launch of its proprietary and patent-pending live plant transporter, the Aurora EnvoyTM ("Envoy"), which possesses several features that promote the health, vigor and vegetative growth of live plant cuttings during shipment, leading to increased transplant success rates. The Envoy is anticipated to launch commercially in the coming months and targets the home garden market.
Management Team Expansion
On October 30, the Company announced the appointment of Mr. Darryl Vleeming as its Chief Information Officer, a newly created position, reflecting Aurora's vision and commitment to incorporating technological innovation across all corporate functions.
Management commentary
"Aurora is performing brilliantly, with powerful domestic and international revenue growth, record harvests, decreasing per-gram production costs, industry-leading integration of technology, and exceptional execution, which is testament to the outstanding team we've assembled," said Terry Booth, CEO. "In just six months, we acquired our next-generation Aurora Vie facility, completed it with major upgrades, and received our production license, nearly doubling our production capacity. At Aurora Sky, we're building what by mid-2018 will be the world's largest capacity production facility, and we're doing it at an amazing pace. We've made smart acquisitions, established ourselves as a partner of choice for strategic alliances, and expanded our product offering to customers. I'm absolutely delighted with the A-Team's performance.
Being exceptionally well capitalized, our balance sheet provides the fuel needed to maintain a very high pace for footprint and product offering expansion. The agility and execution track record of our team translate into strong confidence in our ability to create significant further shareholder value going forward as we aggressively pursue domestic, international and product line growth."
Financial review Q1 2018
A comprehensive discussion of Aurora's financials and operations are provided in the Company's Management Discussion & Analysis and Financial Statements to be filed with SEDAR today and will be published on www.sedar.com.
Revenues
Sep 30, 2017 Jun 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2016
Net Revenue $ $ $ Canadian dried cannabis 4,641 4,384 2,752 Canadian cannabis oils 1,439 804 - Germany dried cannabis 1,235 439 - Service revenue 934 309 319 Total consolidated net revenue 8,249 5,936 3,071
Grams sold # # # Dried cannabis 802,250 710,155 435,720 Cannabis oils (gram equivalent) 87,715 44,904 - Total consolidated grams sold 889,965 755,059 435,720
Average net selling price per gram sold $ $ $ Dried cannabis 7.32 6.79 6.32 Cannabis oils (per gram equivalent) 16.41 17.91 - Total consolidated average selling price per gram sold 8.22 7.45 6.32
Revenues for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 were $8.2 million, up 168.6% from the same quarter in the prior year and up 39.0% from the previous quarter (Q4 2017). Revenue growth was achieved across all of the Company's product lines and territories, driven predominantly by strong growth in Canadian cannabis oil sales, sales in Germany, and an increase in the average price per gram of product sold. The average price of product sold increased by 10.3% from $7.45 to $8.22 per gram, attributable mainly to strong increases in cannabis oils sold and sales through Pedanios in Germany.
Total product sold for the period was 889,965 grams of dried cannabis and cannabis oils, up 104% as compared to 435,720 grams of dried cannabis in the first quarter of 2017, and up 17.9% from 755,059 grams in Q4 2017.
Cost of sales
Included in cost of sales for the three months ended September 30, 2017 were the unrealized gains on changes in fair value of biological assets of $4.6 million, inventory expensed of $2.0 million, and production costs of $2.1 million.
The increase in production costs and inventory expensed to cost of sales during the three months ended September 30, 2017 was largely attributable to increases in production and production yields during the period. The Company produced 1,009,585 grams of cannabis in the first quarter 2017 compared to 354,975 grams produced in the same period 2016, an increase of 184% or 654,610 grams. The cultivation of lower yielding but high demand strains during the quarter resulted in a slightly lower grams of product harvested as compared to Q4 2017 (1,164,683 grams).
Cash costs of sales per gram of dried cannabis produced during the quarter continued to decline, coming in at $1.92 for Q1 2018, as compared to $2.09 for Q4 2017 and $3.89 for Q1 2017.
Gross Profit
Gross profit for the period under review increased to $8.8 million, as compared to $0.1 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016, attributable to the gain on the effect of changes in fair value of biological assets in addition to an increase of $5.2 million in revenues, as the number of active registered patients increased from 8,200 at September 30, 2016 to 19,280 at September 30, 2017. In addition, the Company generated $1.2 million in revenues through the sale of medical Cannabis by Pedanios in Germany.
Gross profit increased by 51% as compared to the previous quarter, attributable to a 43% increase in the gain on the effect of changes in fair value of biological assets and a 39% increase in revenues, offset partially by a 22% increase in production costs and inventory expensed to cost of sales as a result of scaling up of production.
General & Administrative Costs
General and administration costs increased by $1.9 million to $3.0 million for the quarter as compared to Q1 2017, attributable primarily to increases in corporate and general administrative activities as the Company scaled up its business operations in Canada and Germany, as well as other costs incurred related to ongoing negotiations for additional financings and investment opportunities. In the prior period, the Company began to expand operations with the acquisition of CanvasRx and closed equity and debt financings.
Sales & Marketing
Sales and marketing costs were $3.7 million in Q1 2018, relatively stable compared to Q4 2017, and up $2.1 million as compared to Q1 2017, attributable mainly to increased service fees paid in relation to CanvasRx, and higher selling and client care expenses related to a substantial increase in registered patients and resulting business volume.
Net Income
Net income before taxes of $4.7 million was recorded, as compared to a net loss before taxes of $6.3 million for the same quarter in the prior year. The increase was due predominantly due to higher revenues, an unrealized gain on the change in fair value of biological assets, as well as an unrealized gain on the $2.0 million Radient Technologies debenture Aurora invested in as part of its strategic collaboration.
Unrealized gains on marketable securities primarily resulted in in the Company recording a comprehensive net income of $14.5 million.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Strengthened Capital Position
Aurora strengthened its balance sheet and liquidity position during the first quarter of 2018 with $1.5 million in new financings as follows:
The Company raised $1.30 million through the exercise of warrants, options and compensation options.
through the exercise of warrants, options and compensation options. The Company also converted approximately $0.25 million of convertible notes into common shares.
Approximately $96 million in additional gross cash proceeds remain available from the future exercise of warrants, stock options and compensation options/warrants.
Cash Position, Cash Flows, and Working Capital
Net cash and cash equivalents on hand decreased from $159.8 million as at June 30, 2017, to $127.9 million as at September 30, 2017, due mainly by net cash used for operations of $5.0 million, investments and capital expenditures of $28.4 million, and adjusted by $0.2 million from the effect of foreign exchange on cash flows, offset partially by cash flows of $1.3 million from financing activities.
Subsequent to the quarter, the Company raised $75 million through a concurrent $69 million bought deal offering and a $6 million private placement of units, with each unit priced at $3 in both placements, consisting of one common share and one common share purchase warrant. Each warrant, exercisable for three years following the closing date of the placement, gives the right to purchase one common share at $4 per share. On a pro-forma basis following the closing of the concurrent placements, the Company had a cash balance of approximately $185 million.
Working capital as of September 30, 2017 was $169.7 million, as compared to $170.1 million at June 30, 2017.
The Company anticipates that it has sufficient funds to cover future operating cash flows, to complete the construction of its Aurora Sky facility and to execute its growth strategy for domestic and international expansion based on the current capital resources available.
Outstanding Share Data
As of the date of the MD&A, the Company had the following securities issued and outstanding:
Securities November 8, 2017
# Issued and outstanding shares 375,421,933 Restricted stock units 2,127,128 Options 18,510,070 Warrants 47,427,237 Compensation warrants 699,468 Convertible debentures 24,644,962
Outlook
While production capacity at our Mountain View facility in Cremona is nearly fully optimized, we anticipate further expansion from the first calendar quarter of 2018 onwards with first harvest at Aurora Vie, followed in subsequent quarters by harvest from the first completed bays at Aurora Sky. Until such time, revenue growth will largely be a function of increased shipments to our European subsidiary, Pedanios, which will start contributing from Q2 onwards, growth of cannabis oil production and sales, increased product availability through strategic wholesale supply relationships, and consolidation of our recent acquisitions BC Northern Lights and Urban Cultivator.
Aurora's business strategy is to continue accelerating its penetration of the Canadian medical cannabis market, leverage its Health Canada sales license for derivative products (cannabis oils), commence cultivation at its Aurora Vie facility in Quebec, and complete the Aurora Sky facility in Alberta for additional production capacity. Upgrades are also being undertaken to the Company's first facility in Cremona, Alberta, to further enhance production.
In preparation for the anticipated mid-2018 Canadian federal legalization of adult consumer use of cannabis, the Company is building organizational and production capacity to capture a share of the adult use market.
Innovation and integration of technology are key components in Aurora's growth strategy. Going forward, Aurora will continue to leverage new technologies, aimed at:
Improving the customer experience, e.g. via further enhancements to Aurora's unique mobile application - the world's only mobile app for ordering legal medical cannabis;
Delivering industry-leading per square foot production capacity, while reducing operational expenses at its production facilities, and
Substantially increasing the production of cannabis concentrates through the Company's collaboration with Radient.
The Company is also focusing on delivering further product differentiation, through Aurora's intended strategic investment in Hempco, its partnership with Namaste Technologies, and the acquisition of homegrow and urban garden companies BC Northern Lights and Urban Cultivator.
Finally, the Company is executing a significant international expansion as evidenced by the lead participation in the May 2017 Cann Group IPO in Australia, and the May 2017 acquisition of Pedanios, Germany's largest distributor of medical cannabis. The Company is actively pursuing further international opportunities.
Non-IFRS Financial Measures
The Company has included the following non-IFRS performance measures in this press release:
Cash cost of sales per gram of dried cannabis is calculated by taking the total IFRS cost of sales and removing the effect of changes in fair value of biological assets, non-cash production costs, oil conversion costs, cost of sales from service revenue and purchases from other Licensed Producers, all divided by the total number of grams of dried cannabis produced in the period. Cash cost to produce dried cannabis is calculated by further removing packaging costs.
About Aurora
Aurora's wholly-owned subsidiary, Aurora Cannabis Enterprises Inc., is a licensed producer of medical cannabis pursuant to Health Canada's Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations ("ACMPR"). The Company operates a 55,200 square foot, state-of-the-art production facility in Mountain View County, Alberta, known as "Aurora Mountain", a second 40,000 square foot high-technology production facility known as "Aurora Vie" in Pointe-Claire, Quebec on Montreal's West Island, and is currently constructing an 800,000 square foot production facility, known as "Aurora Sky", at the Edmonton International Airport.
In addition, the Company holds approximately 9.6% of the issued shares (12.9% on a fully-diluted basis) in leading extraction technology company Radient Technologies Inc., based in Edmonton, and is in the process of completing an investment in Edmonton-based Hempco Food and Fiber for an ownership stake of up to 50.1%. Furthermore, Aurora is the cornerstone investor with a 19.9% stake in Cann Group Limited, the first Australian company licensed to conduct research on and cultivate medical cannabis. Aurora also owns Pedanios, a leading wholesale importer, exporter, and distributor of medical cannabis in the European Union, based in Germany. The Company offers further differentiation through its acquisition of BC Northern Lights Ltd. and Urban Cultivator Inc., industry leaders, respectively, in the production and sale of proprietary systems for the safe, efficient and high-yield indoor cultivation of cannabis, and in state-of-the-art indoor gardening appliances for the cultivation of organic microgreens, vegetables and herbs in home and professional kitchens. Aurora's common shares trade on the TSX under the symbol "ACB".
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
AURORA CANNABIS INC.
Terry Booth
CEO
This news release includes statements containing certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "continue", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate", "may", "will", "potential", "proposed" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. These statements are only predictions. Various assumptions were used in drawing the conclusions or making the projections contained in the forward-looking statements throughout this news release. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Company is under no obligation, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law.
Neither TSX nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of Toronto Stock Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
AURORA CANNABIS INC.
Condensed Interim Consolidated Statements of Financial Position
September 30, 2017 and June 30, 2016
(Unaudited – In thousands of Canadian dollars)
September 30, 2017 June 30, 2017
$ $ Assets
Current
Cash and cash equivalents 127,915 159,796
Accounts receivable 3,701 2,312
Marketable securities 34,760 14,845
Inventory 11,653 7,703
Biological assets 6,083 4,088
Promissory notes receivable 5,250 1,222
Loans receivable 2,132 2,096
Prepaid and other current assets 1,742 1,544
193,236 193,606
Property, plant and equipment 71,385 45,523 Convertible debenture - 11,071 Derivative 4,892 292 Investment in a joint venture - - Intangible assets 30,670 31,087 Goodwill 47,651 41,100
347,834 322,679
Liabilities
Current
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 12,015 8,753
Deferred revenue 1,548 1,421
Finance lease 71 69
Contingent consideration payable 9,928 13,221
23,562 23,464
Finance lease 263 282 Convertible notes 66,581 63,536 Deferred gain on convertible debenture - 10,206 Deferred gain on derivative 3,856 321 Deferred tax liability 8,656 5,937
102,918 103,746
Shareholders' equity
Share capital 230,432 221,447
Reserves 39,108 25,912
Deficit (24,624) (28,426)
244,916 218,933
347,834 322,679
AURORA CANNABIS INC.
Condensed Interim Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Loss
Three months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016
(Unaudited – In thousands of Canadian dollars, except share and per share amounts)
2017 2016
$ $ Revenue 8,249 3,071
Unrealized (gain) loss on changes in fair value of biological assets (4,611) 1,262 Inventory expensed to cost of sales 1,973 482 Production costs 2,077 1,241 Cost of sales (recovery) (561) 2,985
Gross profit 8,810 86
Expenses
General and administration 2,993 1,047
Sales and marketing 3,668 1,570
Research and development 107 40
Acquisition and project evaluation costs 340 165
Depreciation and amortization 634 159
Share-based payments 2,486 380
10,228 3,361
Loss from operations (1,418) (3,275)
Other income (expenses)
Interest and other income 590 28
Finance and other costs (2,016) (3,040)
Foreign exchange (247) -
Unrealized gain on debenture 6,937 -
Unrealized gain on derivative 817 -
6,081 (3,012)
Income (loss) before income taxes 4,663 (6,287)
Income tax recovery (expense)
Current - 8
Deferred, net (1,103) 666
(1,103) 674
Net income (loss) 3,560 (5,613)
Other comprehensive income (loss)
Deferred tax (1,632) -
Unrealized gain on marketable securities 12,551 -
Foreign currency translation (4) -
Comprehensive income (loss) 14,475 (5,613)
Earnings (loss) per share
Basic 0.01 (0.03)
Diluted 0.01 (0.03)
Weighted average number of shares outstanding
Basic 368,631,600 183,610,213
Diluted 376,199,780 183,610,213
AURORA CANNABIS INC.
Condensed Interim Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
Three months ended September 30, 2017 and 2016
(Unaudited – In thousands of Canadian dollars)
2017 2016
$ $ Cash provided by (used in)
Operating activities
Net income (loss) for the period 3,560 (5,613)
Adjustments for non-cash items
Change in fair value of biological assets (3,881) 1,262
Depreciation of fixed assets 359 159
Amortization of intangible assets 417 -
Share-based payments 2,486 380
Unrealized gain on debentures (6,937) -
Unrealized gain on derivatives (817) -
Accrued interest and accretion expense 1,947 920
Financing fees - 1,578
Interest and other income (59) -
Deferred tax recovery 1,103 (666)
Changes in non-cash working capital
GST recoverable (1,218) (13)
Accounts receivable 224 (389)
Inventory (1,173) (203)
Prepaids and other current assets (143) 494
Accounts payable and accrued liabilities (829) (1,264)
Contingent consideration payable (32) -
Deferred revenue 19 480
(4,974) (2,875)
Investing activities
Promissory notes receivable (4,736) -
Purchase of property, plant and equipment (21,061) (630)
Acquisition of businesses, net of cash acquired (2,635) (3,418)
(28,432) (4,048)
Financing activities
Finance lease (17) -
Proceeds of convertible notes - 15,000
Proceeds (repayment) of short term loans - (4,549)
Proceeds (repayment) of long term loans - (4,000)
Financing fees - (610)
Shares issued for cash, net of share issue costs 1,296 24,017
1,279 29,858
Effect of foreign exchange on cash and cash equivalents 246 -
Increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents (31,881) 22,935
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period 159,796 259
Cash and cash equivalents, end of period 127,915 23,194
Supplementary information:
Property, plant and equipment in accounts payable 3,765 280
Depreciation in production costs 142 68
SOURCE Aurora Cannabis Inc.
View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2017/09/c3337.htmlLEXINGTON, Ky. – About a day after Fayette County school officials unveiled the Stallion mascot and green and orange colors of the new Frederick Douglass High School, they’re reversing course amid complaints the horse is sexist.
“Since the public announcement of the mascot Monday, we have received feedback from some community members who have concerns about the mascot and we want to assure our constituents that there was absolutely no intent to offend or upset anyone,” Fayette County Schools Superintendent Manny Caulk said in a statement Tuesday, according to WKYT.
“We also recognize that there is support from others in our community to honor the former stallions of Hamburg Place farm.”
The new school sits on 65 acres of the former farm where the Madden family raised champion racehorses that included four Kentucky Derby winners and the first Triple Crown winner – Sir Barton. District officials chose the Stallions mascot to honor the famed racehorses, which were buried on the central Kentucky farm, Caulk said.
But 207 people who signed onto a Change.org petition apparently believe the stallion mascot is sexist, and pressured school officials to reconsider.
The Stallions mascot “is inappropriate and sexist when you consider the definition from ‘YourDictionary’ … ‘The definition of a stallion is a male horse that has not been castrated, used for breeding or is slang for a powerful and virile man who has lots of lovers’ and from Wikipedia…’because of their instincts as herd animals, they may be prone to aggressive behavior, particularly toward other stallions, and thus require careful management by knowledgeable handlers. However, with proper training and management, stallions are effective equine athletes at the highest levels of many disciplines,’” the petition read.
“What message does this send to our daughters and granddaughters? Our sons and grandsons?” it continued. “We demand that |
a hate crime, set his ex-girlfriend's car on fire and then staged his own abduction to throw off detectives.
Vincent Palmer, 27, told detectives he taped a note with racial slurs and the words "KKK" and "Trump" written on it to his ex-girlfriend's mailbox early Saturday before throwing a brick through her car window and dousing the back seat in gasoline because they were having problems over the custody of their children, according to an arrest report.
Ormond Beach police and firefighters responded to the woman's home on Biltmore Drive shortly after 5:30 a.m. Saturday after she found her car on fire in the driveway. She told police a neighbor woke her up to make sure everyone in the house, where her family has lived since the 1970s, was safe.
Officers noticed brick in the back seat and called the State Fire Marshal's Office to investigate the fire as suspicious, a report states.
Police said the victim called Palmer to tell him what happened and he showed up while they were still at the scene. Officers didn't consider him a suspect at the time but said they noticed him acting suspicious, so they checked and found he had a warrant out for his arrest on child-support charges, according to the report.
CAPTION The Orlando Police Department is asking local legislators for $250,000 to purchase the ANDE 6C Rapid DNA System, an instant DNA-testing technology that allows law enforcement to test and compare evidence in-house in less than two hours, without shipping it to a state lab. The Orlando Police Department is asking local legislators for $250,000 to purchase the ANDE 6C Rapid DNA System, an instant DNA-testing technology that allows law enforcement to test and compare evidence in-house in less than two hours, without shipping it to a state lab. CAPTION The Orlando Police Department is asking local legislators for $250,000 to purchase the ANDE 6C Rapid DNA System, an instant DNA-testing technology that allows law enforcement to test and compare evidence in-house in less than two hours, without shipping it to a state lab. The Orlando Police Department is asking local legislators for $250,000 to purchase the ANDE 6C Rapid DNA System, an instant DNA-testing technology that allows law enforcement to test and compare evidence in-house in less than two hours, without shipping it to a state lab. CAPTION Two Orlando-area massage parlors and women are among the dozens implicated in a six-month statewide investigation into human trafficking, prostitution and racketeering. Two Orlando-area massage parlors and women are among the dozens implicated in a six-month statewide investigation into human trafficking, prostitution and racketeering. CAPTION An engineering student at UCF was arrested after police discovered he was keeping a fully-automatic AR-15 in his car at his on-campus apartment, authorities said. An engineering student at UCF was arrested after police discovered he was keeping a fully-automatic AR-15 in his car at his on-campus apartment, authorities said. CAPTION A Chuluota man killed his parents and brother after he was kicked out of his home and accused of stealing more than $200,000 from his family to send to a woman he had met on a porn website, according to the Sheriff’s Office. A Chuluota man killed his parents and brother after he was kicked out of his home and accused of stealing more than $200,000 from his family to send to a woman he had met on a porn website, according to the Sheriff’s Office. CAPTION Announcing the solving of the Christine Franke cold case from 2001, Orlando Police chief Orlando Rolón, Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer, detectives and family members gather for a press conference at Orlando Police headquarters, Monday, Nov. 5, 2018. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel) Announcing the solving of the Christine Franke cold case from 2001, Orlando Police chief Orlando Rolón, Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer, detectives and family members gather for a press conference at Orlando Police headquarters, Monday, Nov. 5, 2018. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
He was booked into the Volusia County Branch Jail and released on bail, records show.
The next morning, Daytona Beach police were called to a possible abduction after one of Palmer's relatives found a bloody note saying, "You will never see your grandson again alive" and "KKK," according to an arrest report. Palmer later told police that it was his blood.
Officers started searching for Palmer and found him at a Burger King in Ormond Beach, where he eventually confessed to the crimes, police said.
Palmer was jailed Monday without bail on an arson charge.
sallen@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5417Visualize your BigQuery data with re:dash
Torbjørn Vatn Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 13, 2016
How do you make sense of all those terabytes of data stuck in your BigQuery database?
We here at Unacast sit on loads of data in several BigQuery databases and have tried several ways of visualizing that data to better understand them. These efforts have been mostly custom Javascript code as a part of our admin UI, but when we read about Re:dash we were eager to test how advanced visualizations we could do with an “off the shelf” solution like that. We wanted both charts showing all kinds of numerical statistics retrieved from that data and maps showing us geographical patterns. Re:dash supports this right out of the box, so what were we waiting for?
Getting up and running
Since we run all our systems on Google Cloud we were really happy to discover that Re:dash offers a pre-built image for Google Compute Engine, and they even have one with BigQuery capabilities preconfigured. This means that when we fire up Re:dash in one of our Google Cloud projects, the BigQuery databases in the same project are automatically available as a data sources ready to be queried. Awesomeness!!
Apart from booting the GCE image itself we had to open some firewall ports (80/443) using the gcloud compute firewall-rules create command, add a certificate to the nginx instance running inside the Re:dash image to enable https and lastly add a dns record for easy access.
The final touch was to add authentication using Google Apps so we could log in using our Unacast Google accounts. This also makes access and user control a breeze.
The power of queries
As the name implies, the power of BigQuery lies in queries on big datasets. To write these queries we can (luckily) just use our old friend SQL so we don’t have to learn some new weird query language. The documentation is nothing less than excellent. There’s a detailed section on Query Syntax and then there’s a really extensive list of Functions that spans from simple COUNT() and SUM() via REGEXP_EXTRACT() on Strings and all kinds of Date manipulations like DATE_DIFF(). There’s also beta support for standard SQL syntax
which is compliant with the SQL 2011 standard and has extensions that support querying nested and repeated data
but that’s sadly not supported in Re:dash yet (at least not in the version included in the GCE image we use).
In Re:dash you can utilize all of BigQuery’s querying power and you can (and should) save those queries with descriptive names to use later for visualizations in dashboards. Here’s a screenshot of the query editor and the observant reader will notice that I’ve used Google’s public nyc-tlc:yellow dataset in this example. It’s a dataset containing lots and lots of data about NYC Yellow Cab trips and I’ll use them in my examples because they’re kind of similar to our beacon interaction data as they contain lat/long coordinates and timestamps for when the interaction occurred.
It’s, however, worth noting that you don’t get any autocomplete functionality in Re:dash, so if you want to explore the different functions of BigQuery using the tab key you should use the “native” query editor instead. Just ⌘-C/⌘-V the finished query into Re:dash and start visualizing.
Visualize it
Every query view in Re:dash has a section at the bottom where you can create visualizations of the data returned by that specific query. We can choose between these visualization types: [Boxplot, Chart, Cohort, Counter, Map] and here’s how 100 cab trips look in a map
When you get a handful of these charts and maps you might want to gather them in a dashboard to e.g. showcase them on a monitor in the office. Re:dash has a dashboard generator where you can choose to add widgets based on the visualizations you have made from your different queries. You can even rename and rearrange these widgets to create the most informative view. Here’s an example dashboard with the map we saw earlier and a graph showing the number of trips for each day in a month. The graph makes it easy to see that the traffic fluctuates throughout the week, with a peak on Fridays.
So what’s the conclusion?
Re:dash has been a pleasant experience so far, and it has helped us get more insight into the vast amount of data we have. We discover new ways to query the data because it’s easier to picture a specific graph or map that we want to produce rather than just numbers in columns. We intend to use this as an internal tool to quickly generate visualizations and dashboards of specific datasets to better understand how they relate too and differs from other datasets we have.
There are some rough edges, however, that have been bothering us a bit. The prebuilt GCE images aren’t entirely up to date with the latest releases, unfortunately. The documentation mentions a way to upgrade to the newest release, but we haven’t gotten around to that yet. The lack of support for standard SQL syntax in BigQuery is also a little disappointing since that syntax has even better documentation and the feature set seems larger, but it’s not that big of a deal. The biggest problem we have been facing is that the UI sometimes freezes and crashes that tab in the browser. We haven’t pinpointed exactly what causes it yet, whether it’s the size of the result set or the size of the dataset we’re querying. It’s really annoying regardless of the cause because it’s hard to predict which queries will cause Re:dash to crash. Hopefully, this will be solved when we figure out how to upgrade to a newer version or the Re:dash team releases an updated image.Donald Sterling faced universal condemnation from members of the media and Hollywood on Saturday, following the release by TMZ of a nine minute tape in which the LA Clippers owner admonishes his girlfriend for publicly associating with black people.
Magic Johnson, whom Sterling targeted in the rant, has pledged to never attend a Clippers game so long as their current ownership stays in place, and Snoop Dogg minced no words in an expletive-laden Instagram post directed at Sterling earlier on Saturday.
Also read: LA Clippers Owner Caught Asking His Girlfriend to Not Bring Black People to Games, NBA Investigating
As the afternoon wore on, more people made their opinions known, including the former NBA stars that serve as commentators on TNT’s coverage of the NBA.
“You can’t have this guy making statements like that,” Charles Barkley said. “He has to suspend him and fine him immediately. The problem I have with it is, if someone wants to be racist, that’s alright, that’s their thing. But when you’re in a position of power and you can take jobs and economic opportunity from people, that’s what crosses the line. You cannot have an NBA discriminating — we’re a black league.”
During a conversation about whether the current Clippers team should play in its next playoff game, Shaquille O’Neal was firmly on the side of taking the court. “As a player, they should not let this stop them or discourage them from trying to win a championship,” O’Neal, who won four NBA titles, said.
Also read: Snoop Dogg Sends Message for ‘Chickens—t Motherf—er’ LA Clippers Owner
Below, find reactions from others, including NBA MVP LeBron James “Anchorman” director and Clippers’ season ticket holder, Adam McKay.
Racism is a refuge to ignorance. Sterling has shown his primitive uneducated thoughts.It’s a shame the only thing u are rich in is money. Very strong from LeBron James: “There’s no room for Donald Sterling in our league.” - Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) April 26, 2014
— Kenny Smith (@TheJetOnTNT) April 26, 2014
It’s a shame. Because I love the Clippers team and players. But can’t give a dime to Sterling. #BoycottClippers — Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) April 26, 2014
Hard to ignore anymore. Donald Sterling, owner of Clippers is a massive racist. Ill be giving up my season tix. #ClippersOwnerIsaRacist — Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) April 26, 2014
I always wondered how Cliven Bundy had such good seats at The Clipper games. — Albert Brooks (@AlbertBrooks) April 26, 2014
Next wave of news is a stream of these owners all saying they don’t share Sterlings beliefs.Lmao all the NBA can do is fine him for …money — Chuck D (@MrChuckD) April 26, 2014
USArs worship of the dying $ & fame for no reason allows a Sterling to swing a racist sword to the masses.Money buys USA respect jus ask Rap — Chuck D (@MrChuckD) April 26, 2014
The silence of black athletes now eeks out through tweets & hence the agents & the leagues want to silence them into being powerless eunuchs — Chuck D (@MrChuckD) April 26, 2014
I’m sorta glad when these assholes make it clear where they stand. – John Legend (@johnlegend) April 26, 2014
It’s very easy to hit sterling where it hurts. Just don’t watch – John Legend (@johnlegend) April 26, 2014The much anticipated first location of the Wahlburgers franchise opened with a street-closing party that featured Paul Wahlberg, the chef who started the burgery who is the star of a reality show about the restaurant on A&E. He brought along his brother Mark.
The franchise owners, including renown restaurateur Manny Garcia and his daughter and son-in-law, Gina and Mike Buell, wanted to throw the street party for the locals they knew would show up for the gala.
Inside the restaurant, which is in the SunTrust Building at the corner of Church Street and Orange Avenue, invited VIPs mingled and sipped drinks from the half-open bar (free drinks included a Harvey Wahlburger). Sighted in the crowd were former N’Syncer Joey Fatone (I think I’ve been mispronouncing his name); attorney and billboard giant Mark NeJame; UCF provost Dale Whittaker and several university VPs; philanthopists (and franchise investors) Tony and Sonja Nicholson; and Orlando city officials (but no Mayor Dyer). Donny, the other famous Wahlberger, did not attend.
Food was being passed around, too, but being part of the VIP insiders didn’t necessarily mean you were well fed. A lot of the platters of mini burgers as well as totted sweet potatoes and onion shreds were whisked from the window of the kitchen past the reaching hands of the well-heeled to be served to the folks gathered outside on the viewing line. As much as I wanted one of the burgers for myself, I thought this was a very nice gesture. (I finally tackled a server and got one of the burgers, but I’ll save my review for another, less crazed visit.)
Although media had been alerted that the Wahlbergs might walk the red carpet anytime beginning at 6:30 p.m. but more likely 7 or 7:15, it was well past 8 o’clock before they entered the restaurant and slowly made their way through the crowd.
A makeshift putt-putt course using items from the restaurant had been set up for the two brothers to have a putt off (apparently this is a thing on the tv show). I was standing next to Mark in a rare moment when no one was tugging at him or talking to him and none of his handlers were guarding him. I asked him if he was having fun yet and he gave me a side glance and said, “You know, it would be great to just hang out and have some food.” I said it was good of him to put up with all of this. He snapped back into character and said, “It’s really great to be here.”
Interesting observations: Mark signs autographs with his left hand but putts right-handed; Paul putts left-handed. I did not see him sign any autographs.
Garcia told me how impressed he is with Paul Wahlberg as a restaurateur. He said that he had observed Wahlberg earlier in the week going over a delivery from a local supplier (I can’t tell you the name of the supplier, but it rhymes with Frysco). Wahlberg found the quality of the items to be substandard and told the delivery person to get the stuff out of there and bring him what he had ordered. But he didn’t say stuff.
By the way, when you want Mark Wahlberg to attend your opening, you don’t just send him a plane ticket, not even if it’s first class and you promise a direct flight. No, you fly him in a private jet. And not one of those little ones, either.
The staff of Wahlburgers held up nicely and I think more than a few of them were a little stunned by the masses and the hoopla. As I was leaving, I heard someone who may have been a manager say that if the restaurant is crowded like this all the time they’ll be a success.
I think it’s going to do just fine. But if they want to be sure, they’d better buy a big jet.
Human after all.Anna and I are both notoriously risk averse in games. (And in almost anything we do in life, but that’s an entirely different subject) We wondered if grouping everyone we know into those categories would tell us something about the games we enjoyed, but we quickly realized that there are a lot of other factors. We already think of ourselves in terms of social gamers versus individual players, and so the seed of an idea started to develop into a more complicated theory.
This isn’t one of those tongue in cheek “the 5 types of people who play boardgames” articles. This is a serious attempt to examine some aspects of personality and how they can help you find games. As with all good personality tests (Meyers-Briggs, Voight-Kampf) we have named this assessment after its creators, and dubbed it the Levan-Rutledge Game Personality Test. Our goal is to be able to apply this to games and people to help match games, players, and designers.
A Brief Overview
There are 5 dimensions we identified (the concepts are firm, but the personality types could use some work.)
Interacting-Solving
Interacting players are interested in how they can work with (or against) other players to accomplish their goals. Solving (Reactive) players are more interested in finding a better way to accomplish goals than other players. This is “social” versus “independent”, but independent players don’t necessarily want to play alone.
Building-ConQuering
Building players like growth and creation, especially creating an engine. Conquering players like to defeat enemies, other players, or the game rules. The natural opposite for “building” would be “destroying”, and while we feel this difference definitely exists, we wanted to eliminate the negative connotations.
INtuitive-Analytical
Intuitive players make the moves that feel right without figuring out the consequences completely. Analytical players studying their moves and options in order to make sure they have the right decision. If you suffer from analysis paralysis, you’re analytical.
Planning-ADapting
Planners create a plan and remain confident in choices when the situation changes. Adapters change their plans quickly and frequently to best react to the situation. This is similar to the intuitive-analytical split, but is more about how you make strategic decisions, while intuitive-analytical is more about how you make tactical decisions.
Risky-Cautious
This was the hardest for us to define. What we eventually settled on is that it reflects your overall outlook, when looking at a cost-benefit balance, risky players prioritize the benefits while cautious players prioritize the cost.
So why isn’t there a Tactical-Strategic dimension? This was a hard one, but we eventually decided that while games tend to favor one or the other, you rarely choose to ignore an entire aspect. So it might affect what kind of games you enjoy, it isn’t a good measure of how you actually make the decisions. Using the intuitive-analytical and planning adapting will provide a more interesting and useful examination of personality type.
How can this be used?
The goal is to group games by “personality” so if your letters are close, you can be reasonably sure that the game will be a good fit for you. (It’s not guaranteed that you’ll like it, since there are more factors involved, but it’s a good beginning) Let’s start by applying this to a few very widely played games, and seeing what kind of personalities fit them. In the future, I’d like to actually be able to select games for each option. (That’s 32 games, so maybe we’ll have to group some together.)
Ticket to Ride. Definitely interactive, because players are competing directly for routes. Building because the game awards points for constructing routes and completing routes, while blocking is a much smaller part of the game. Either Intuitive or Analytical seems to work. Executing a strategy depends on both planning your routes, and adapting to others’ plays, and risk is difficult to manage, but there are some techniques, so looks like it ends up as IB***, with a slight lean toward IBndr. (lowercase meaning weakly). Its flexibility makes it a great game to pull out with almost anyone, and because it is interactive and building, it is a great gateway game to involve others.
Catan is interesting because setup has more emphasis on Solving, Building, Analytical, Planning, and Caution, but once you get into the game, it is more Interacting, Adapting, and Risky, with elements of Conquering. Perhaps this dual nature reveals why it is so widely enjoyed.
Agricola is mostly Solving, Building, Planning, and Cautious. Intuitive and Analytical are about a toss-up. SB*PC
Carcassonne is Interacting, Intuitive, and Adapting, but suits both risky and cautious. Various expansions and sway the game between building and conquering, but more importantly, the base game is more building with 3+ players, but slightly toward conquering with only two, which becomes a bit more tit-for-tat.
We don’t have a test yet, but do a self assessment and see where you fit. Get others to do an assessment of you, too, and then compare the results. It is often hard to see ourselves clearly, because you focus on the things that you have to work at, and not the things that you do naturally. I come out as a SBAPC. Anna is more of a SBNDC, because she is more intuitive and adaptive than I am. I’ll revisit this again with some ways designers can use these dimensions to see their game from other angles.
AdvertisementsHaving a break-down on the side of the road flat-out sucks. Maybe you’re driving your lady home, honing your driving skills, or even overseas, the simple truth is that a little bit of car preparation can go a very long ways toward keeping the wheels turning and getting you where you need to go.
You don’t have to be a trained mechanic to ruggedize your vehicle, all it takes is a little bit of time, basic tools and materials that you can find just about anywhere to turn a normal production vehicle into a high speed workhorse ready to tackle your driving adventures.
Battery
Your battery needs to be tied down very securely if you plan on operating at high speeds, over rough terrain, or both. A loose battery will arc its terminals on sheet metal, flex and break its connections, or shift from its location and interfere with other moving parts. Batteries can be tied down with ratchet straps, bungees, paracord, etc.
Take care not to bridge the terminals with metal or any other conductive material, even touching the terminals together with a tool tool can let the smoke out of the wires or ECU. Cover the battery or at least the hot terminal with scrap rubber or plastic, even wrapping with tape will help prevent a catastrophe.
Tires
Standard equipment tires found on most sedans across the world are fairly thin, weak units. The sidewalls of the tires are especially prone to puncture, as the steel belts and other plies are typically found only in the tread section of the tire.
Over-inflating tires to 35-40 PSI will help to keep the sidewalls away from the terrain that you’re driving over, this will also keep a better seal between the tire and the wheel. Do not slide the car overly sideways on rough terrain, as this exposes your sidewalls to rocks and debris.
Specific rally-racing tires are available in a variety of sizes to fit most vehicles, these tires are designed and reinforced to handle very abrasive surfaces and rough terrain. Whenever possible, carry a full size spare and tools. Secure all of these as well.
Lights
Standard white lights found on most cars leave much to be desired. Replace bulbs with higher wattage units when possible. Also, it is important to understand that your headlights were aimed at the factory with other driver’s feelings in mind. In the States, left side headlights are aimed further inboard and down as a courtesy to other motorists, and headlights are in general aimed further down than is practical for expedient driving.
Find a level surface to align your lights against a large wall or even a deserted stretch of road. Rain-X not only works well on windshields but it keeps headlights clean too. Be sure to adjust your following distances on muddy roads.
Underbody
There are many vulnerable parts on the underside of your vehicle that will stop your trip in a hurry if they are compromised. Your radiator and oil pan typically sit fairly low, as well as fuel tanks, pumps and brake lines. With time and materials, you can do an excellent job of protecting these items, but we all know that there’s often no time for this. Scrap metal, thick rubber, plastic or even a road sign can make an adequate skid plate underneath the engine or fuel tank. I have a Finnish friend that once cut a piece from the wing of an old military aircraft in Estonia to fashion a skid plate in a hurry.
Slice small diameter rubber hose lengthwise and use it to wrap fuel and brake lines then finish it off by affixing with hose clamps or flex ties. Secure the exhaust system firmly to the body with mechanics wire or hose clamps at all mounting points.
Drive Time
These few precautions should dramatically prolong the life of a standard vehicle. The more time that you have available, obviously the better you can prepare your vehicle for rough terrain, heavy loads or aggressive driving. Simply by going through these checks, you also make yourself more familiar with the vehicle and aware of its weak points, which will allow you to change your driving style and decisions accordingly. Good luck out there and keep it on the road.
Editor-in-Chief’s Note: Please join us in welcoming Wyatt Knox as a contributor on ITS Tactical. Wyatt was the 2011 2-Wheel Drive US Rally Champion, former lead instructor at the Team O’Neil Rally School and is now racing internationally as well as doing private instruction and coaching.Finally, any advice for girls aiming to make it to the PR world?
“PR and communications has turned into quite a wide-ranging field and there are now opportunities for lots of different roles within it. Good writing skills and being able to be creative with ideas and story angles are great abilities for across the board. Selling in stories to media is a real skill and you need to have dogged determination and a thick skin! But when you see a story you’ve pitched turn up in print or on screen it’s a fantastic feeling. Social media is now a huge part of PR and ability there is very valuable. We have all become content creators and so basic photography and video skills are also something that is increasingly valuable.”
“Above all, I would say passion for the role is key. I have worked in other industries including football and entertainment and PR skills are transferrable. I would never recommend someone to want to be in motorsport PR in order to be in motorsport. In my opinion, the first passion has to be for the PR first and foremost. I’m lucky that I discovered what I wanted to do when I was quite young! My final bit of advice would be to have some patience – building a career takes time. I started out making coffee, photocopying, putting together press lists and lots of admin. Soak up everything along the way, work hard and you will work your way up and get there. And, by the way, even if you end up some day owning a company, you will still be making coffee and doing admin!”The #GamerGate controversy reached a new high (or low depending on your perspective) recently when one of its main protagonists, the radical feminist and cultural critic, Anita Sarkeesian, was featured on the front page of the New York Times. Ironically, in view of the focus of her criticism about passive female characterization in video games, she herself was cast as the “damsel in distress”, under threat from active male protagonists.
Ostensibly, headlines like this are a direct validation of her work. Sarkeesian asserts that video games directly contribute to a culture of gendered violence in real life and – hey presto – there it is!
But are radical feminist claims about games promoting violent norms really correct? Studies of violence in video games say no. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court evaluated the evidence and came to a disappointing conclusion for people, like Sarkeesian, who are fond of using ideological rhetoric to win hearts over minds before all the evidence is in.
It appears that video games, even violent video games, have more positive effects on people than negative. Where negative effects were noted, these were with people who had already scored highly on tests showing a predisposition to anti-social behaviour. But, as the following graph shows, the case for the corruption of society by video games, is weak.
*What makes people angry with Sarkeesian (anger is allowed, abuse is not), is that she is unaccountable. Her videos on sexism and toxic masculinity are used as educational aids in schools, yet they are based on ideology not evidence. Sarkeesian has no academic credentials. She has legitimate critics, I am one of them, but she refuses to engage in open debate and instead directs attention to the abusive minority. That’s cowardly and manipulative. There is no logic that dictates that women are any less corruptible by power than men. To suggest otherwise, in fact, would be sexist.
This is not to excuse threats or suggest that such harassment isn’t traumatic. What reasonable person would not condemn the criminal harassment of women, (or men), in any industry? That is surely moot. What is less moot, is who is actually responsible for these threats.
Sarkeesian is adamant that the culprits are the supporters of #GamerGate. Yet the evidence points to third-party mischief-makers and anonymous trolls being equally vicious to both sides. Journalists are disseminating the radical feminist narrative uncritically, but they themselves are implicated in the scandal, so their impartiality cannot be taken for granted. The involvement of the notorious hacking/trolling group GNAA (who are experts at tricking the media into panic-mode) should also send alarm bells ringing.
Absent further evidence, claims about the identity of the anonymous trolls are pure speculation. There have been no arrests. People on either side of the barricades have been subject to abuse, although coverage has focused mostly on one, photogenic side. In a story about games and players, it’s difficult to discern just who is the player and who is the played.
Who are the most likely suspects? GNAA aside, in every 100 people there will be one bona-fide psychopath. Twitter alone has over 200 million active users per month! There are estimated to be around one billion “gamers” worldwide. That certainly leaves room for a sizeable minority of psychopaths who would jollily send prominent women obscene emails. I’m inclined to think it’s these kinds of people who are responsible for the threats, and a recent study of online trolls supports this. A lazy trend in the media towards favouring the narrative of lunatic minorities on Twitter to draw sweeping conclusions about gender and culture is not a healthy one.
But I spy another trend. I am a gamer, but I am also a researcher in evidence based gender studies. I see this squabble not as about games or journalism but an expression of a wider battle that has been spilling out into popular culture for a few years now. A battle that was surrendered, and whose unintended consequences are now emerging. When Sarkeesian made the front page of the NYT this battle also went mainstream, yet very few people are aware of it. It is the battle for feminism.
Radical feminism has already won this battle. It is documented in the denouncement of the woman who launched the second wave, Betty Friedan, as an anti-feminist, by Susan Faludi in Backlash. Many equity feminists dropped “feminist” and took up “egalitarian” instead. The unforeseen consequence of this was a vacuum of authority that allowed radicals to claim the “feminist” brand. Now people who attempt to challenge radical feminism are, like Friedan, labelled anti-feminist, as if “feminist” and “woman” were synonyms. They aren’t.
The dictionary definition of “feminist” is in urgent need of revision!
Radicalism is the orthodoxy in feminism today. Radfem mater familiar Germaine Greer went so far as to announce this summer, “We’ve gone as far as we can with this equality nonsense. It was always a fraud!”
The radical feminist script; about men and masculinity, female passivity, objectification and patriarchy, was written in the 1960s and 70s, but you can still hear it echoing down the generations in the sermons of people like Sarkeesian, who has a long and troubled relationship with “straight-male” sexuality.
Radfem questions are always rhetorical. The answer to, “Is it sexist?” is always, “Yes.” They see sexism and misogyny everywhere, the way Abigail Williams saw Goody Proctor with the devil.
In the face of increasing tolerance of sexual expression, radical feminism has refused to adapt. More worryingly, it has refused to listen to the voices of dissenting women. This raises an important question: Does feminism exist to support women, or do women exist to support feminism? Unlike radical feminist questions, this one is not rhetorical.
So when radical feminists protest that gamers are “anti-feminist”, remember this does not mean “anti-woman”. In the modern context, it is more likely to mean “pro-equality”.
Radical feminism is a separatist movement, not a conciliatory one. One which “Bathes in Male Tears” while David Haines and other members of an accursed class of “straight, white males” pay an unimaginably terrible price for the freedom radical feminists take for granted. Radical feminism is about building walls between the sexes. Egalitarianism is about building bridges.
In an interview before she died, Friedan wondered, “if women are alienated from the women’s movement because it is antagonistic toward men, I understand that…Maybe the women’s movement has to be superseded by a larger political movement.” That movement is egalitarianism.
#Gamergate is an egalitarian push back against a modern feminist doctrine which explicitly wants to suppress “problematic” elements of human nature. History is littered with the damning results of such attempts. But history also shows that humans – men and women – fight back. Against the last wave of radical feminism comes a rising tsunami of egalitarianism.
*edit 25/10/14
AdvertisementsFirefox has recently released a feature they call "Black Boxing". It's very useful, you can black-box JavaScript source files on a case-by-case basis. When a library is black-boxed the Debugger ignores it. When you're stepping through lines the Debugger will automatically step through lines contained in black-boxed sources.
This is great for a number of reasons. One is that libraries such as jQuery, Underscore, and many others define functions that iterate lists and invoke a function.
Let's say we've written a library that "does one thing very well", library.js:
exports. forEach = function ( list, callback ) { for ( var i = list. length - 1 ; i >= 0 ; i -- ) { callback ( list [ i ]); }; };
And we use that in our source, application.js:
require ( 'library.js' ). forEach ([ 1, 2, 3 ], function ( item ) { debugger console. log ( "We got item: " + item ); });
When we get to that debugger and start stepping through execution, we keep stepping through the implementation of forEach as well as our callback.
If you black-box library.js and step through execution you will only pause inside application.js, which is great, because we probably don't need to debug library code most of the time.
Bravo Firefox team, excellent feature!
What about Chrome?
But what about your days debugging in the Chrome Web Inspector?
Hold on to your hat, because you CAN do just that if you're willing to jump "hearts first and ankles last" into the swampy mire of Developer Tools Experiements. Currently this works in AT LEAST the Chrome dev channel (31.0.1612.2 dev), Canary, and naturally Chromium.
The first step is to enable the Developer Tools Experiments in about://flags
Navigate to the Experiments tab, note the warning of danger, and toggle framework debugging anyway (if anybody asks you about this when you eventually run for President just say you toggled the switch but never inhaled).
Time for the "Texas two-step" of Web Inspector use:
Close the Inspector. Open the Inspector again.
(Texas Two-Step? Are we developing a Presidential politics meta-theme?)
Now use the settings again, but this time navigate to the General tab, find the "Sources" section and start adding things to skip.
Deep in the bowels of Web Inspector the value of this text box will be passed to
new RegExp ( valueFromTextBox )
So keep in mind you obey regex rules.
As noted in the Chromium issue tracker, a nicer UI is probably coming for this. In the meantime, happy hacking!Luck determines the winners and losers of society, not merit or |
survive. “I must do it,” he says, leaving unsaid his fear that, otherwise, no one else will do it. For Avery, it is simply a matter of, “Because I like music, and they’re my friends.”
Joywave, whose booming dance-floor pop riffs have outgrown the Bug Jar, has booked a Dec. 3 gig at one of Rochester’s biggest clubs, Anthology. Maybird, which has flown the local coop as well after signing with the indie-music impresario Danger Mouse’s label, is returning to the Bug Jar on Nov. 19. And The Hotelier has lined up a Dec. 13 show at the Bug Jar after hearing the same deflating news that’s prompted the Joywave and Maybird shows.
Tim Avery has cancer.
“I was feeling kind of sick and tired, I’d been sleeping a lot, my energy levels were not where they normally are,” he says. Avery is a mere 35 years old, a non-smoker and all-around good guy. “I was feeling pain in my back for no reason, I was rolling on a baseball trying to loosen up, thinking it was a muscle spasm. Taking three Advils before bed, that kind of thing.”
Tim Avery’s mother, Corrine Kelly Avery, takes a selfie with her son this week after another round of chemo. (Photo: Provided by Corrine Kelly Avery)
It’s not that Avery doesn’t like doctors, but he’s one of those people who feels better when they’re not around. But with the baseball not working, he reluctantly made an appointment for the end of August.
A tumor was found and surgically removed. That’s just the start. The cancer was also in his lymph nodes, “your superhighway,” as Avery puts it. The lymph nodes shipped the cancer to his lungs, and a little to the liver as well. Avery’s undergone two rounds of chemotherapy, after the second one picking up a staph infection that left him delirious with a 103.5 fever. “I couldn’t do work, I couldn’t do anything,” he says.
He had his third round of chemo this week, more to go. “Chemo messes up your system,” Avery says. He’s discovering that one doctor appointment can balloon into five hours of tests, and finds himself wondering: “Why do I need more blood or platelets?”
“The expense of this is ridiculous”
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Chemo. Blood. Platelets. Numbers on a chart. That’s his life now. “Actually, none of this hurts,” Avery says. “Some cancers are really painful. I think I’ve always had a high pain tolerance. But sometimes you’re just a wreck, physically.
“I think ultimately I’ll be OK. I’m OK nine out of 10 days.”
But, “The expense of this is ridiculous,” he says. Two weeks ago, friends helped Avery move out of his Gregory Street apartment and back to his parents’ home in Chili.
These friends of his: How do you tell them?
“I kept it quiet,” Avery says. “My mom is the Facebook queen, she let it out.”
Billy Martin met Avery in 2011, when Avery took over the lease from the apartment Martin and his girlfriend were living in, along with a few other friends. “Kind of a communal place,” Martin says. “He told me this is who I am and what I do, and if I have any musical endeavors give him a call.”
“It’s kind of like family at this point.” Dan Ambruster
Actually, Martin has two of them. Leus Zeus and the power trio The Ginger Faye Bakers. Naturally, both soon had Bug Jar gigs.
Martin heard about Avery’s illness through “the circle of friends.”
“I walked into the Bug Jar one night just to see if he was around,” he says. “He was working through post-op, pre-chemo, and everybody was talking about it. I thought, if we can get this group of local artists and musicians together, spread the word through social media …”
Avery is what Martin calls “a good Samaritan,” active in his church, local politics and volunteering in the community. “Everybody knows Tim,” Martin says. “I knew everybody would want to be a part of it.”
So many, in fact, that the Dec. 3 ROC4TIM show at Anthology, organized by Martin, Mike Turzanski and Greta Page-Mann, will run for 10 hours, from 2 p.m. to midnight. The goal is to raise $15,000 for Avery’s medical expenses. Fifteen performers, including Leus Zeus, Avery’s Secret Pizza and Joywave.
“He’s one of the best people I know,” Joywave lead singer Dan Armbruster says. “A lot of times people working in promoting shows, their end goal is to make money for themselves. Tim never does that. He lets the bands keep the door every night” – meaning the musicians receive all of the proceeds from ticket sales and the cover charge – “and he doesn’t force them to sell tickets. He’s very selfless, he brings in these great bands. He does what’s best for Rochester.”
Avery booked Joywave for its first-ever show, at The Bug Jar in 2010. It’s Joywave’s neighborhood bar. The band – back in town now, recording its next album – can walk from its studio to the club in about 30 seconds. “It’s kind of like family at this point, I guess,” Armbruster says. “We still hang out there a lot. Ben, our keyboard player, has a DJ gig there on Thursdays.”
Booking shows does not pay Avery’s rent. Well, living with his parents again, maybe it does. “I lose money,” he concedes.
But he has a real-life job now, as a New York state Department of Environmental floodplain training coordinator at Bergmann Associates. “It’s a lot like booking shows, where you’re coordinating events and training sessions across the state,” Avery says. “Teaching municipal officials, anyone who wants to go, how to understand FEMA maps. If you purchase a building and need a mortgage, and you’re working with a Realtor, you might need to check if you need flood insurance for that mortgage. That’s based on FEMA maps, which you have to read and understand.”
This is real stability for a guy who, recalling how he got through life less than a decade ago, “It’s a miracle that we all survived,” Avery says. Living off AmeriCorps jobs, eating off food stamps, “just starving, trying to stay alive.”
Music, that gets you through the week. “Putting on shows in houses, basements, getting shut down by the cops all the time,” he says. “They didn’t want you to have shows or music or fun. There were a lot of bad things taking place that the cops weren’t taking care of. We were just making Rochester a better place.”
That peaked in 2009 when Avery moved into The Shark Tank with a revolving door of like-minded indie dreamers. “That was the first house that stayed stable and never got shut down by the cops that I was a part of,” Avery says. “The first year was really crazy, we were doing two shows a week. No one paid attention to us, maybe that’s how we got away with stuff.”
“They basically brought the Rochester music scene together,” says Maybird’s Josh Netsky. “They would have a day where all day they would have Rochester musicians get together and put together a random band. Someone from Green Dreams, someone from Thunder Body, a guy from another band. Then they would go in the basement for an hour and write and record a song, and they made an album out of that. And that’s how a lot of people in the music scene met each other.”
Netsky was at the first one of those events. It was Avery who booked Maybird for its first Bug Jar gig, on October 2013. Avery even played trumpet on Maybird’s first EP. Now the favor comes back around, and the Nov. 19 Avery benefit at The Bug Jar.
“The last time I was in Rochester, I saw him for a while,” Netsky said earlier this week. He was calling from the road as Maybird was concluding a short tour, with shows in Atlanta and Nashville, before the band begins recording a new EP for 30th Century Records. “He was in really good spirits, he was really psyched about the music we were sharing with each other.”
But aside from assembling grab-bag bands of Rochester musicians, there was also nights with people such as Julian Koster of Georgia’s Neutral Milk Hotel, the psychedelic folk favorites of the indie scene. He contacted Avery and asked if he could play The Shark Tank. This is not music for rebellion’s sake. It’s really one of the few ways to keep alive this scene that generates no revenue that would interest a club, and certainly not a record label. “We’re in a very stressful place,” Avery says of the fragile nature of this scene, “you have to have an understanding of what’s going to work.”
What will work? Avery cites a Japanese manga animated book series, Fullmetal Alchemist, which is set in an alternate history, in the fictional country of Amestris.
“In the ancient city of Amestris, you have to give up something to get something,” he says. “Extrapolate from that, you have to give something up to make something valuable happen. It’s sweat equity.”
He extrapolates further to the punk philosophy of DIY. Do It Yourself.
“That’s what keeps it alive, personal sacrifice,” Avery says. “Saying it’s not about me, I have to give something out. I’m doing everything I can at my end. I had to give up a great apartment.
“If you were ever on the road, you would want people to take care of you. When they’re on the road, you take care of them. It’s the DIY thing, that’s how it works. It gets passed on by others. If you don’t do that, the whole thing crumbles.”
JSPEVAK@gannett.com
Tim Avery benefits
Maybird benefit: 8 p.m. Nov. 19 at The Bug Jar, 2189 Monroe Ave., with Alberto Alaska, The Dirty Pennies, Machine Gun English and Dangerbyrd. Admission is an $8 donation at the door.
ROC4TIM: 2 p.m. Dec. 3, until midnight, at Anthology, 336 East Ave. With Joywave, Leus Zeus, Secret Pizza, Mikaela Davis, KOPPS, King Buffalo, Harmonica Lewinski, The Demos, Tapehead, Green Dreams, Pleistocene, Seth Faergolzia’s Multibird, Total Yuppies, Howlo and DRUSE. Tickets ($20) are available at roc4tim.com, Record Archive and The House of Guitars.
The Hotelier benefit: 8 p.m. Dec. 13, at The Bug Jar, with DRUSE, California Cousins and Treadwater. Tickets are $8 advance, at the door $10 for 21 and over, $12 ages under 18 to 20 the day of the show, available at bugjar.com.
Read or Share this story: http://on.rocne.ws/2fxzCNdMammon's grunt is so funny.
Contents show]
Opening
Hey, reader. Welcome, again, to another one of these tiny update things. If you're just interested in the future content then just read the first two sections below and get the heck outta here to whatever important things you have to do, but if not, then feel free to stay with me and read a little more.
There are a lot of applied changes now. As I mentioned in my previous blogposts, 7★ units are now available in packs and the medal exchange has been updated to reflect JP Ishtaria's medal exchange. The upcoming banner for Ariel's Bingo Challenge is also now available, so you can check that out if you have the free time to.
And of course, Twilight Coliseum has already started going underway. However, not a lot of people I know are ranking in it - those who are in my Union are getting my full support for their struggle, including whatever extra red pot I have. Perhaps it's because I'm their friend or I want to see them rake the reward in to help contribute for the wiki.
Enough of that though. After I'm done talking about the 'future' content, then we'll discuss some wiki things so anyone who hasn't bounced yet can just bounce away as they're done.
Ariel's Bingo Challenge
As you can see above, that's Ariel's bingo challenge. I'm not going to copy-paste the content over here, since you can just as easily refer to it over there.
Once again, Ariel's Bingo Challenge is on the 26th after Twilight Coliseum. As you can see, she is a no evo unit. She's given as a reward for completing the Master bingo card. You can see her info at Ariel.
Tiamat will also be made available in Gold Packs once Ariel's event starts, so do anticipate that also.
Untamed Goddess Packs
Like Untamed Goddess and War Goddess Packs, it costs 1k crowns
Summon Rates for the new limited pack 1 of 2 Add photo
They should be made available on April 2nd, following Ariel's Bingo Challenge. They're going in tandem with the new Union PvP thing they're adding, League of Reconquista or whatever it's called. (Note that too!)
As the pages are right now, they're adjusted to have as much information as we know about these units given the data in the wiki and from the few gnomes we have lurking around in the JP Ishtaria server. The rates are as you see it, and it costs Ishtarian Crowns ×1000 to perform one pull. So it works just like Arthur/Furfur's War Goddess Packs and Wolpertinger/Jackalope's Untamed Goddess Packs. The units listed above will be the only units in the pack, as you could expect.
Are rates good? Ehh, I guess they're decent, 16% for a 6★ or 7★ but it's still very very pricey. You're also going to have to pray you don't get some dumb stuff because the pulls are quite expensive, yet they're still much better a return than the likes of, perhaps, 100 crown packs or regular Platinum packs, which are by far just awful. Everyone with a 7★, sheesh. Either really lucky, or really impatient.
I won't endorse rerolling since I think it's especially unfair to the developer, but it is a method to get units you can't otherwise normally get without spending money.
But hey, with Ariel's Bingo Challenge coming up, it may be time you start farming those easy reroll accounts so you may just have a chance at pulling your own Sakimuni or... even more luckily so, a Fauna. All that effort you're throwing into Twilight Coliseum, think of what it could net you if you put all that effort into just rerolling units!
Enough with the bad or decent? suggestions though. I'm here just to write about stuff people may be interested in about.
EDIT: Seems the Beginner's Board rewards were changed from being the usual 500 crowns to 10 AP pots. Ah well, RIP rerolls.
In addition to what I've said here, there's also screenshots of their information in the comments below, by yours truly. I decided to conveniently name them fling, because I was really, really lazy.
Legend of Reconquista
We still don't know a whole lot about this feature, but I know it's been talked about in other discussion platforms.
I do not know much about this, sadly. I do apologize. I'll remember to push the blame on my gnomes later... maybe. But as I did mention before, in my last blogpost, it's something related to Union PvP.
Not going to say anything conclusive, but it does have something to do with castles and group battles. Rewards are as follows:
Rhiannon x1 (for the top 20 unions)
Azaria x3 (for the top 40 unions)
And then some tickets and stuff but that's about it I know. I'll update more as I find out, but perhaps its time you start looking for a really good union or start revamping your own! I know I might... if the scrubs get lazy...
Wiki Stuff
The wiki's been making fair progress. I mean, we're still not organized as much as I'd like us to be and we're still not getting all the help we need (as you can probably see in Category:Housekeeping) but we're still managing fairly okay.
However, the Status Quo is that updating the front page with the new events takes effort that I may just not have the time for or want to put up with. In addition to that, my funds and reach of units can only go so far - 7★ are immensely expensive and I really will have to rely a lot on the people I know that may help on those ends. I'm a player too, and although I am somewhat greedy there is no flippin' way I can extend my efforts that far, even for a wiki to be complete. I'm just way too poor a college student for it.
The way Age of Ishtaria works is that unlike other mobile CCGs we actually don't know a lot until a person gets the actual unit and decides to contribute it to the wiki with whatever knowledge they have. It explains why some stuff is just missing, because Ishtaria, large as it is, has to download data for each user piece by piece, which is why it shows that downloading green bar anytime you try to view something new.
So once again, please help. As it falls in line with our About page now, the wiki should survive on many other contributors too - I'm doing a lot of the work with only a few contributors to help along the way (User:Coax75ohm and User:Kimlasca warrior being the biggest) and I know the wiki needs a lot more.
And I know contributing might be intimidating to the few of you who really want to help out, which is why the Manual of Style exists to help you out - it was written by me to help along those who needed more than just the default Help:Contents page, although that page does teach you great style too if you want to read it.
The last thing I will say, also, is that I'm losing a bit of interest in the game so it's gotten to be kind of a drag sometimes to help manage the wiki, even as new content comes showering in and I feel like updating the Unreleased unit pages. It does take effort to source out this information and then blog it here, and I'm doing it because I want to let others know in addition to just organization.
If you are interested in being an admin and really show you know your way around using the markup, templates, categories, and things like that, please let me know! It will, of course, take some effort on your part to show me what you can do and what you can learn by contributing to the wiki frequently over the next few weeks or so, however. This is so I'll know you're a dedicated contributor that will show the right qualities for being another admin that can manage the wiki and its' community (small as it is).
In reality, that's all an admin does - just manage the community and the wiki to help steer it in kind of the right direction. We're very dedicated contributors, but we're just like the likes of you - who, hopefully, want to help complete the content in a wiki.
Maybe you want to learn more when you're comparing units, or you just want to show a library of all the units in a game to a friend so you can convince him to join with you. Perhaps this is your place to write a guide that might give people a lot of pointers on how to run a certain quest or how to defeat a certain boss. The wiki is a tool - and it can't be maintained effectively if there's nobody wanting to do anything. It's probably right to say that a wiki is just nothing without its' users.
So yes, please help! I don't want to do this... alone...
Oh Also
You can skip this if you like.
Feel free to skip this section if you really like, it's just something small and annoying that bothers me about a particular user of this wiki. This, perhaps, is an example of what NOT to be on the wiki.
Expand Me Here For the love of all things donut, pizza, burger, and spaghetti, don't be the douchey guy who thinks I'm wrong and actually be wrong. For the love of all things donut, pizza, burger, and spaghetti, don't be the douchey guy who thinks I'm wrong and actuallywrong. Here is a link to a comment. Shamsiel#comm-8996. I replied, correcting him. Since I was fairly annoyed with his attitude, I gave him a gentle 2 week ban (ok, maybe a bit overkill, my bad). Guy then goes on my fucking in-game profile on Ishtaria and decides to just annoy the crap out of me. I'm annoyed enough that I bump up his ban to a year and prevent account creation, in addition to sending Silicon Studio a support ticket about his harassment. Wasn't just me either - I saw a player named Myr that was being harassed by the guy by being called a hacker. Cute, I thought to myself. This guy must be freaking crazy. Well, anyways, he logged onto a different IP and decided to once again bother me, now on my message wall at Thread:9083. At this point, I'm kind of whatever and give a proper reply, telling him that he is outright wrong and that my comment was correct, but also his attitude was just really flippin' annoying and wasn't proper, especially for a simple mistake like that one. Like, what the hell? All over just one dumb comment that anyone could've just skipped over. The guy needs to grow up. TL;DR Douchebag of a guy annoys me in-game regarding a comment I lightly picked on him for because he called Coax and I twits. I go ahead and ban him for a year because I'm just not going to put up with that crap. I may reduce it if I feel it's necessary.
EDIT: Reduced it to two months. EDIT: Reduced it to two months.
Closing
Thanks for reading! I know I'm mixing in a bit of other stuff in addition to what I usually write about the future stuff but I hope you, reader, have found it interesting enough to you that maybe perhaps you also want to contribute. I sure don't understand all the nihongos in JP Ishtaria so if you're well versed in this stuff and like this game, perhaps you may also want to handle the content that I'm doing right now.
Some people thank me for the work I do for the wiki and I'm pretty thankful of that - I've been learning a lot as an admin of a wiki in how to manage the site and I feel like I might be able to apply these skills elsewhere also, so I don't feel like it's a total waste of time. People have been nice enough to give me tons of gifts despite me not having really budged to rank or put in an effort to reroll. I will not mention what they are, but it's just really nice of them to help me out since I don't think I would've been able to continue enjoying this game without their extra efforts.
And last but not least, thank you reader, if you read until the very end. It means a lot that you read this whole thing, even though it's just me yammering on for about a half-hour and just typing my mind out regarding game and wiki things. I write my blogposts in a very personal manner, as you could've noticed.
Well, that's that. As always, best of wishes to all you peeps out there collecting your QT units, like the bunnies and stuff in Divine Beast Packs. I'll end this here.
If you have any further questions or comments you can reply down in the comments section below or bug me on my message wall at Message Wall:Fairingrey. Please be gentle.Illustration by Otto Steininger
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NO ONE will be astonished to hear that health care costs more in Indiana than in India. However, a few might be surprised to learn that Americans spend more than twice as much per person on health care as Swedes do. And many may be shocked to be told that in Miami people pay twice as much as in Minnesota, even for far worse care.
The American health-care system, which gobbles up about 16% of the country's economic output, is by far the most expensive in the world (see chart 1). The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that on current trends spending on Medicare and Medicaid, the government schemes for the old and the poor, will rise from 4% of GDP in 2007 to 12% in 2050. The prospect of long-term fiscal disaster is the main reason why efforts to reform health care are gaining momentum in Washington, DC. As Peter Orszag, the director of Barack Obama's Office of Management and Budget, puts it, “that ‘long term' keeps getting closer and closer.”
The system has its defenders. They point out that countries should expect to spend more on health care as people age. Americans are wealthy enough to choose extra health care over other things. Their free-spending approach calls forth the invention and speedy adoption of valuable new drugs, devices and procedures, whereas Europe's stodgy and stingy (not to mention socialist) health-care systems deny coverage and ration care, to the detriment of their people's health.
A poll carried out for The Economist by YouGov highlights Americans' beliefs about the state of their system. Although 68% of them rate the care they receive as “excellent” or “good”, 52% are dissatisfied with the quality in the country as a whole. Only 25% think the system works pretty well and requires only minor changes; 40% think fundamental change is needed and 29% think it should be completely rebuilt. Some results are shown in chart 2. A fuller version is available at www.economist.com/yougovpoll.
The doubters have a better case than the defenders. Granted, medical inventions are readily embraced by American doctors and patients. In specific instances—technology to save babies born prematurely and statin drugs to reduce cholesterol, to take two—the benefits of spending greatly outweigh the costs. But if the system in general were providing value for money, America's vast expenditure would at least be reflected in a healthier population than in more frugal countries.
Alas, it is not. Comparisons with other rich countries and within the United States show that America's health-care system is not only growing at an unsustainable pace, but also provides questionable value for money and dubious medical care. Three troubling symptoms stand out: uneven quality of care, inadequate coverage and soaring costs.
Start with quality. Evidence is mounting that spending more does not necessarily buy better health. On the contrary, it appears that many Americans are getting mixed or even downright dreadful health care. In a recent study economists at the OECD found that America does indeed do well on some measures, such as breast-cancer survival rates and cervical-cancer screening, compared with other rich countries. However, it does worse in other areas. American infant mortality was 6.7 per 1,000 births in 2007, against an OECD average (excluding Mexico and Turkey) of 4.0. The death rate after haemorrhagic strokes was 25.5% in American hospitals but only 19.8% in OECD countries as a group.
Jonathan Skinner, an economist at Dartmouth College, cautions that factors other than health-care systems—attitudes to teenage pregnancy, say, or smoking—may influence the numbers. Even so, he thinks the system is wasteful. In a paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives last year he and Alan Garber, of Stanford University, argued that America's health system was “uniquely inefficient”, producing too little per unit of input and consuming far too much of the country's resources.
Mr Skinner is involved with another worrying line of research. The Dartmouth Atlas project has scrutinised variations in health outcomes and spending involving Medicare. It has found wide differences in costs across the country—less than $5,000 per person in Salem, Oregon, in 2006; a bit more than $8,000 in San Francisco, in line with the national average; more than $16,000, and rising fast, in Miami—but no connection between higher spending and better outcomes. In fact, the evidence points in the other direction: outcomes tend to be better where costs are lower. Mr Orszag points to the Dartmouth work to argue that up to 30% of America's health-care spending is sheer waste.
The second symptom is coverage. Uniquely among rich countries, America's system of health insurance is not universal. Around 49m people have no health insurance. On current trends, within a decade 60m will be without cover. Studies have shown that not all these people are indigent: a quarter or more can afford insurance, but choose not to buy it.
They know they are unlikely to be left to die in the streets. With the truly poor, the free-riders turn up at emergency rooms. This is hugely inefficient, because pricey late interventions and operations could very often have been avoided with a much smaller investment in preventive care. Insured people and taxpayers are forced to cross-subsidise such “uncompensated” and wasteful treatments to the tune of tens of billions of dollars per year.
Other rich countries cover almost all their citizens in one of two ways. Some, such as Britain, Canada and Sweden, have “single payer” systems, in which taxes support a public service. Others, notably the Netherlands and Switzerland, oblige individuals to buy insurance. France has a mixed public-private system.
After decades of failed attempts at reform, a consensus appears to be emerging in America around the principles needed for universal coverage. One likely change means a restructuring of America's failed health-insurance markets. Firms are today allowed to pick the safest patients and reject the sickest. In future they will have to take all comers. Because this imposes unfair burdens on firms that attract lots of older or sicker people, reform is likely to include government-funded mechanisms for risk pooling or reinsurance. The Netherlands, in particular, uses such an approach.
American health insurers, having long opposed this idea, have performed a startling U-turn in recent weeks. America's Health Insurance Plans, their chief lobbying group, now says it is willing to accept such heavy-handed reforms—if they are accompanied by a requirement that all Americans purchase coverage. This may seem a cynical ploy to expand their business, but some compulsion is needed to get around the selection problem. Any legislation is likely to include subsidies to help the poorest pay for cover.
If done properly, this will in time move America towards the Swiss and Dutch models of universal private insurance. These are not perfect, to be sure. Regina Herzlinger of Harvard Business School observes that the Dutch reforms have led to rapid consolidation of insurers and hospitals, fuelling resented price increases. She favours the decentralised Swiss model, which preserves individual choice and competition. Others note that Swiss health-care costs are high by European standards. But they are a third less, as a share of GDP, than America's, and the country's excellent health outcomes should be the envy of American reformers. Our poll suggests that an individual mandate would be unpopular, with only 21% in favour and 53% opposed. Respondents did favour having the option to buy from the government, by 56% to 23%.
Such reforms would expand coverage, but could exacerbate the third symptom, cost, as the experience of Massachusetts, a trailblazing state that has already implemented a plan for universal coverage, suggests. The state faces possible bankruptcy unless it finds a way to rein in costs.
Indeed, tackling inflation in American health care remains the most important and difficult part of the treatment. According to our poll, cost is a tender nerve: 61% thought the high cost of care and insurance was a bigger problem than the number of uninsured, against 31% who believed the reverse. Only 21% would be willing to support a reform plan if they had to pay more in insurance or tax; 62% would not.
Some common diagnoses are wide of the mark. One is price gouging by drug companies. In fact, pills account for barely a tenth of health-care spending in America and similarly small shares elsewhere. But aren't costs lower in Europe because of price controls? Europe does indeed spend less on new branded drugs, but also uses fewer generic drugs and pays much more for them. And Switzerland actually has higher drug prices than America (as does Canada). Greedy drugmakers are not the main cause of America's runaway costs.
Nor are baby-boomers, though they are often blamed for health-care inflation because there are a lot of them and they are getting old. Ageing will clearly push up costs in time (see our special report in this issue), but it is not the main culprit yet. The CBO estimates that ageing accounts for only a quarter of the health-care inflation to come in the next few decades, and the share in other rich countries is similar.
Doctors' generous pay is another popular culprit. But doctors in several European countries are well paid too. The OECD estimates that general practitioners in America earn 3.7 times the average wage. Their British counterparts earn 4.2 times their national average. American specialists earn 5.6 times the average wage, against 7.6 times for their Dutch colleagues. Yet health-care costs in Britain and the Netherlands remain lower than America's. The real problem is not how much American doctors are paid, but how. The system of medical reimbursement warps incentives for doctors, insurers and patients that lead Americans to consume more and more medical services. There is strong evidence that Americans use pills, procedures, scans and other expensive forms of health care more often than do patients in other rich countries, and not always to good effect.
America's insurance system encourages overuse in several ways. One is the tax break that favours health insurance provided by employers, which leads to excessively generous coverage and hence over-consumption. Another is the fact that American health insurers earn a lot of revenue from administering the health plans provided to employees by big corporations which, in effect, insure themselves. This leaves insurers with no incentive to curb costs, because more spending means fatter management fees.
The incentives facing doctors are even more perverse. Most doctors are not paid a fixed salary, still less rewarded for better health outcomes. Integrated American systems such as Kaiser Permanente and the Mayo Clinic are exceptions to this rule, and Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is trying to adopt a similar approach. But most doctors and hospitals are paid more if they provide more services, regardless of the results. Predictably, this leads to far higher rates of doctors' visits, specialist referrals, scans and so on.
For instance, the OECD countries have an average of 11 magnetic-resonance imaging machines per 1m people. America has 25.9. America uses them more often, too: 91.2 times per 1,000 people per year, compared with the OECD average of 39.1. Similar tales can be told about other pricey kit.
This incentive problem even extends to patients. If patients pay very little out of their own pockets they have little desire to curb consumption. Though this is a problem in many OECD countries, in America the proportion of out-of-pocket spending has declined sharply in the past few decades. And a new report by McKinsey, a firm of management consultants, identifies a more subtle problem. Having examined insurance and out-of-pocket spending for several health risks, it concludes that Americans are generally “over-insured and under-saved”. It is prudent for individuals to have comprehensive health insurance against catastrophic health risks such as heart attacks or cancer. But McKinsey finds that Americans with private health insurance often have generous coverage for non-essential and even medically unjustified care (see chart 3). This encourages over-consumption.
A second big factor pushing up health costs is the lack of competition among operators of American hospitals. Thanks to a wave of consolidation in recent years, argues Harvard's Ms Herzlinger, “most parts of the United States are dominated by oligopolistic hospital systems.” George Halvorson, who heads Kaiser Permanente, insists that “there is an almost total lack of price competition among providers.”
Nimble upstarts and innovators are challenging the incumbents in some areas. Such efforts range from specialist heart hospitals, which get better outcomes at more reasonable prices than local general hospitals, to retail clinics at Wal-Mart stores. Remote medicine, in the form of technology for tele-care or medical tourism to Thailand and Costa Rica, also poses a threat. But medical lobbies are using political influence and outdated regulations to thwart competition where they can (for example, through rules preventing a doctor from treating a patient in another state).
To counter this, reforms could allow federal regulators to overrule state-level obstacles to entrants such as clinics staffed by inexpensive nurse-practitioners. More transparency would help too, by empowering patients to choose hospitals and doctors providing good value and better results. Electronic medical records would make shopping around easier.
Another useful way to promote transparency and value would be to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of new drugs, devices and treatments. This may be common sense, but it is rarely done in America. Britain's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) pioneered this approach, and other European countries have followed it. Andrew Dillon, the agency's chief executive, accepts that “the NICE model is not transportable in precise form” but he still insists that “one can dissect and apply what is relevant to other countries.”
Illustration by Otto Steininger
In America, the drugs and devices lobbies are violently opposed to a NICE-style agency that could issue mandatory rulings. They paint a scary picture of Americans being denied access to life-saving new drugs by faceless bureaucrats. In Britain NICE has come under fire for rulings that limited access to expensive drugs for Alzheimer's and cancer on the NHS. America could get around this problem by requiring and perhaps even funding studies, but leaving insurers and individuals to decide whether to pay for treatments.
More competition |
7, 2016.WASHINGTON — And on the third day, Ted Cruz looked upon his creation, and he saw that it was good.
Yes, Congressional negotiations had devolved into a manic game of finger-pointing that centered on cancer-patient gaffes and pitched battles over war memorials; hundreds of thousands of federal workers had been sent home without paychecks; and Republicans were continuing to cling stubbornly to a list of extraordinary demands that Democrats flatly refuse to entertain. With the country careening haplessly toward potential fiscal calamity, the most powerful governing body in the free world had ground to a halt.
But the Tea Party Senator from Texas saw meaning in the madness. One of the primary authors of the chaos consuming Washington, it was Cruz and his audacious campaign to #makeDClisten and dismantle the Affordable Care Act that first set the government on course for a shutdown. Now, even as he endures scolding from his Senate elders and panicked second-guessing from his skittish colleagues, Cruz makes no apology for his government-breaking crusade.
This, after all, is exactly what voters sent him to Washington to do.
"When I ran for office I promised Texas voters that I would do everything possible to stop Obamacare, and that's a commitment I'm working very hard to honor," Cruz told BuzzFeed. "My top priority is restoring jobs and economic growth, and Obamacare is causing millions of American to lose their jobs or not be hired, to be forced into part-time work, to pay skyrocketing premiums, and to lose or risk losing their health insurance."
"In the past few weeks, we have engaged in a national debate about the enormous harms caused by Obamacare — all because millions of Americans have spoken up and held our elected officials accountable," he said.
Many of those elected officials do not appreciate Cruz's antics. They call him a spotlight hog, or an "anarchist," or a "wacko bird." But amid all the criticism he and his Tea Party cohorts have received from veteran Washingtonians over the past three years, the underlying sentiment has always been a profound distaste for their unwillingness to conform, to act reasonably, to operate within the tried and true bounds of responsible governance.
As the government shutdown wore on this week, some of the most conservative lawmakers in Congress — as well as the army of ideological aides they command on the Hill — told BuzzFeed that their critics still don't understand their mission. The Tea Party didn't come to Washington just to turn the dial a few degrees to the right, or make a couple of symbolic spending cuts. They came to revolutionize the way This Town works — starting with Obama's healthcare law. And if that means taking big, dramatic risks, or upending traditional policy-making procedure, or slaying a herd of sacred cows standing in the way, so be it.
"I think we have changed the conversation, I don't think we have changed Washington enough," said Idaho Republican Rep. Raul Labrador, who entered the House of Representatives during the 2010 Tea Party wave. "I think the American people understand that we came here to make sure there was less deficits, less spending, and we want a strong nation that has growth. I feel we have changed the way things are done here."
None of the Republicans interviewed defended the government shutdown, and they all blamed Obama for refusing to negotiate with them. But they were also adamant that they couldn't simply cave to Democrats and pass a funding bill without any concessions. They described the problems facing the country — and the progressive policies Obama has implemented — in terms of urgency, insisting that the state of affairs is dire enough to necessitate bold, controversial action on their parts.
"We're $17 trillion in debt," said Tea Party Rep. Tim Huelskamp. "We're slowly making progress. We've held the line on certain levels of spending — and here is an opportunity to continue to make progress."
If some on the GOP's conservative wing seem insufficiently alarmed that they've contributed to the first government shutdown in nearly two decades, it's probably because they always knew radical action might eventually become necessary.
From its genesis in 2009, the Tea Party movement has been fueled by the rhetoric of revolution. True believers attend rallies unironically dressed in colonial garb. Their early organizers preached earnestly from Saul Alinsky's left-wing activist handbook Rules For Radicals — a book that advises just the sort of procedural disruption they've imposed this week. And while Nevada Senate candidate Sharon Angle outraged mainstream political observers when she suggested people may start looking for "Second Amendment remedies" to the country's problems, one recent survey showed that nearly half of Republicans believe armed insurrection might be necessary "in the next few years."
Data points like those have long been Democrats' bread and butter as they work to cast the Tea Party as "extreme." But they also show just how extreme conservatives consider America's current peril to be. To believe an armed revolution could realistically be on the horizon is to live with the genuine suspicion that your government could, at any point, be overtaken by tyranny. In that context, some temporary furloughs seem like a small price to pay.
That isn't to suggest that many of the Republicans on Capitol Hill are stockpiling ammunition in preparation for a popular uprising. But on a somewhat smaller scale, many Tea Party lawmakers view Obamacare as such a catastrophic threat to the country's healthcare system and long-term economic health that it's worth the high-stakes legislative brinksmanship to try to slow it down.
At least, that's what they hear when they return to their districts.
"You hear back home, 'You guys never stand up to the Democrats, or you won't fight,'" said South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, who won a special election earlier this year with Tea Party support. "And again, not going into the merits or demerits on the strategy, there's a belief within the [Republican] conference that people are trying to stand up in a way they haven't in the past. And a belief from the folks back home that's finally being done."
Kate Nocera contributed to this report.If I encountered an individual morally uncomfortable with participating in an activity with me and my boyfriend, it would be uncomfortable for me to force her.
The Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court case will be far more influential than it should be. The key question is fairly easily answered and agreed upon by all sides on most other issues concerning freedom of association.
We seem to agree that Twitter should be allowed to limit racists’ expression, as it does not wish to be associated with that message. We understand why they choose not to verify white supremacist leaders, as that may provide the appearance of endorsement. We do not blame any business choosing not to host or participate in hateful activities.
Without comparing the two, it should be simple to appreciate why religious people who deeply oppose socially changing marriage to include same-sex couples would not wish to endorse or participate in a same-sex wedding.
No gay person has been discriminated against or denied a service offered by any business in question within the last several years of cases. Twitter more directly denies its public services to individuals based on being identified as associating with hateful groups than cake shops have denied gay couples access to their services. Masterpiece Cakeshop, as with many caterers, florists, and photographers, has merely declined to participate in an event or associate their brand with that event.
Why do LGBT activists perceive this as a direct attack on the validation of their relationships? It seems logical that a person would not wish to give money to another person who morally disapproves of their behavior. I would not seek employment or request a table at a Planned Parenthood event and expect them to accommodate me. Why would I help them raise money or support their business model? If I encountered an individual morally uncomfortable with participating in an activity with me and my boyfriend, such as couple photos or planning a party, it would be uncomfortable for me to force her.
It’s Not About Logic, It’s About Validation
The issue at hand is not one of reason, but one of validation. The LGBT Left has become obsessed with complete acceptance from the public in all areas. It isn’t enough that same-sex marriage is legal, despite the wishes of many people in many states. Those people must celebrate same-sex marriages or be shamed in public. Many gay people genuinely feel personally attacked when faced with an individual who does not approve of their sexual behavior.
Let’s take a moment to look at the issue from the gay couple’s side. If I were to go into a photography shop and request a booking to capture a special event with my boyfriend, for example, and the cashier said “Oh, I’m sorry, but we do not photograph same-sex couples,” I would admittedly be taken aback.
For one, I would be completely shocked by the abnormality of the reaction. I traveled recently, and at many security points along the way authorities inquired about my relationship status. I used the word “boyfriend” without hesitation and absolutely no one blinked twice. I have come to assume normalcy in my day to day life.
It is this very emotion the Left is mostly concerned about. The moment of rejection and the realization one has been rejected solely on his sexuality is the most troubling aspect. The LGBT world has built itself on a foundation of overcoming rejection of its legitimacy, so is hyper-sensitive towards even the hint of it. Much of the LGBT Left’s inner-circle dialogue focuses on hypothetical situations in which rejection happens and the individual or group triumphs over it. When it happens in real life, it is a sudden and powerful validation of who they are, and winning in spite of bigotry is a valuable prize.
Yet this is such a rare event that when it does happen the LGBT world unites in outrage, each reliving what they imagine the rejection would feel like and contributing to the emotional outpouring of anger and support. It is why something as simple as “You could always go to another shop” enrages them so intensely. The very notion they should have to at all validates the hate they believe surrounds them daily.
Refusing Service to Gays Is Not Like Refusing It to Blacks
It is also fairly reasonable to assume that if an interracial couple reported similar treatment, the vast majority of the population would be outraged in exactly the same way. We have all grown up with imagery of black people being discriminated against by cruel shop owners, and if we were to hear of this happening would quickly relive the strong emotions we felt when first witnessing it in fiction. I can certainly recall the anger, sadness, and desire to protect I experienced watching civil rights movies as a child.
A fundamental goal of the Left is to associate rejection of LGBT with the rejection of black Americans and shame accordingly. The only problem is the rejection is in no way similar or rooted in the same source. The objection to homosexuality is profoundly different than racism and we cannot lump the two together due to our cultural evolution on both subjects.
We oppose both anti-LGBT bigotry and racism, but anti-LGBT bigotry and racism are not the same things. A person who religiously opposes same-sex marriage is not acting out of malice or bigotry. They are honoring their deeply held religious beliefs. Their personal feelings in no way obstruct the same-sex couple from pursuing their relationship or marriage.
Let’s look at the Christian cake maker. Why would baking a cake be such a profoundly significant act? The issue is, of course, not the act of making the cake but of associating with the activity the cake will be used for.
Orthodox Jews are careful not to drink wine from bottles held or sold by non-Jews. Why? Is it an act of prejudice or hatred? No. They believe the non-Jew is just as religious and faithful to their gods as the Orthodox Jew is to his, and they assume the non-Jew was thinking about enjoying his wine in honor of said gods. The Orthodox Jew does not want to drink that same wine and accidentally honor other gods in turn.
The Christian baker is not rejecting the gay couple, but politely declining to participate in a celebration he feels violates his promises to honor his god. The cake will be used to celebrate the event. Its only purpose is to honor and consecrate the union. Our culture views eating the wedding cake as public confirmation of the joy of marriage. It is why we share the cake with all of our friends and family who attend to celebrate with us. It is a meaningful cultural act. If it were not so, the same-sex couple would not be so offended.
These Rules Also Force Religious Folks Into Hypocrisy
Beyond that, if a Christian professes to support biblical ideals of marriage but is seen as associating his brand with same-sex marriages, it could be perceived as an act of hypocrisy. There is a Jewish prohibition against even appearing to break a commandment and possibly lead other Jews to sin.
A Jew is prohibited from eating shrimp, for example. Imitation shrimp is available, and is perfectly kosher. However, if other people were to see a good Jew eating what they believe is shrimp, it may undermine their opinion of the Jew’s dedication and faith. They may look poorly on all Jews and question Jewish religious tradition. Other Jews may choose to eat real shrimp believing it to now be permissible because they watched the good Jew eat the fake shrimp.
A Christian cannot allow the current culture to erode away her faith over time, little by little. She must stand strong for herself, for her god and for other Christians. Just because society wants her to celebrate same-sex weddings does not mean she should abandon her principles to do so. The baker would not be able to disassociate his business from the same-sex wedding and thus involuntarily be participating in it and associating his reputation and name with the celebration.
The Battle Between Faith and Feelings
This issue is a battle between the emotional reaction to being rejected and the personal desire to honor faith and religious obligation. In my example, although I would be taken aback by a rejection, I would feel it is my responsibility to choose another photographer rather than force another person to violate her faith for my satisfaction.
What if a security officer refused to allow me on a plane because he disapproved of my relationship? Wouldn’t allowing discrimination lead to this consequence? I do not believe we can restrict the rights of some to prevent an unlikely occurrence based on a hypothetical scenario. It is simply ridiculous for me to fear that reaction, and if it happened that person’s supervisor would quickly intervene.
The outcome of this case matters because it will determine how everyone is required to associate themselves regardless of how they feel in the future. As is usually the case, the Left cannot conceive of the cage they are locking themselves in to trap their enemies. This is not a civil rights issue, but one of freedom for all.
I do not want Twitter to be forced to endorse racists, and I do not want the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop to be forced to violate his faith for another person’s celebration. It really should be that simple.My partner recently tasked me with producing a vegan chocolate avocado cake just because it looked intriguing and never being someone who shirks from a challenge, I decided to give it a go. This vegan cake mix uses avocados (and a small amount of coconut oil) in place of butter. As someone who worships at the altar of butter, I was pretty sceptical as to whether this chocolate avocado cake would turn out to be remotely tasty, but by God, I was wrong!
Without the addition of butter I was convinced that the vegan chocolate avocado cake would be dry and dense, but the chocolatey sponge cake emerged from the oven with a beautifully light and delicate crumb, while also being very moist and fudgy. The cake is sandwiched and covered in a very simple chocolate cream made from avocados, cocoa and icing sugar, and although I could taste the avocados in the frosting, in my opinion it only lent the cake a light, fresh flavour as opposed to making it taste as though it contained vegetables.
This vegan chocolate avocado cake kept in the fridge for a good four or five days (under cling film) and even by its final day in this world it had not lost any of its moist texture. Although the original recipe did not call for any decoration I’m pleased I included walnuts on the top of the cake because they added a nice crunch to the cake’s texture and a lovely nutty flavour which complemented the avocado icing.
If I could offer one tip when it comes to making this cake it’d be that you have to use really ripe avocados because they need to blend well with the other ingredients, for both the cake mix and the icing. One of my so-called ‘ready and ripe’ Marks and Spencer’s avocados was nowhere near ripe and I had to pick bits of hard lurid green fruit out of my cocoa icing which was pretty annoying. However, all in all, I’ll definitely make this incredibly flavoursome cake at some point again.
Ingredients :
For the cake :
3 cups of gluten-free flour (I use Dove’s Farm G/F flour because it’s made with low FODMAP ingredients whereas many other gluten-free flours are made with high FODMAP options.)
40g cocoa powder
2 tsps. baking powder
2 tsps. bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp of salt
¼ cup of melted coconut oil
60g ripe avocado (mashed)
2 cups of water
2 tbsps. white vinegar
2 tsps. vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
For the icing :
100g ripe avocado (mashed)
2 cups icing sugar
24g of cocoa powder
50g of walnut halves (to decorate)
Method :
To make the cake :
Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/350°F/Gas mark 4.
Grease or line with greaseproof paper two 9 inch cake tins.
Put all of your cake ingredients (except the baking powder, bicarb, water and vinegar) in a large mixing bowl.
Add the baking powder, bicarb, water and vinegar and whisk until all of your ingredients are combined.
Pour the cake batter evenly into the two cake tins and put in the oven.
Bake for at least 30 mins or until a skewer poked into the middle of the cakes comes out clean.
Leave to cool.
To make the icing :
Put your avocado, icing sugar and cocoa powder in a bowl and whisk together. (I added a little dash of water because I felt the icing was a little bit too thick.)
Once your cakes are cool, use some of your icing to sandwich your cakes together and then put the rest on the top of the cake and (if you have enough left over) ice the sides of the cake. (I just made my cake so it had a generous amount of icing on the top.)
Top with walnuts if you fancy and serve.
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Savefeminist-fairy-princess:
nostlenne: devingelion: uselessbagge: devingelion: Why is no one talking about how they changed team Aqua’s race??? THEY WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO MAKE THESE VILLAINS HAVE DARKER SKIN. Why would they even do this?? The clothes tattering thing is one thing for pirates but like they made them distinctly black and this is just really bad and subconsciously racist and it’s really upsetting that I haven’t seen anyone say anything when talking about the new designs 1; team aqua is a group of pirates, they could be just tanned 2; if they were dark skinned does it really matter, team aqua is a strong team and they managed to bring fear into the hearts of hoenn 3; they are in Hoenn. A reigon based off of japan. Everyone there is most likely poc It’s pretty clear that they’re not just tanned, all of their features changed too, one of the admins had orange hair originally and now her hair is dark. The reason why it matters is because changing a group of villains to a dark skinned race sends a racist message Wow ½ of a villain duo team becomes tanned and suddenly you’re losing your mind. It sounds to me like you’ve got black people so high on a pedestal we can’t ever be villains, and that is some racist, white-guilt laden bullshit. Shut up and let Japan continue to actually add people with dark skin to what is literally their second most lucrative franchise, even though by all rights they have zero reason to do so because Pokemon is based geographically on Japan. i think this would make sense if the op wasn’t a poc. also, it’s not an issue for poc to be villains but when a group of villains has their race changed and is given tattered clothes, does that not send the wrong message? do they really seem ‘just tan’ to you? i’m honestly confused about your point. should there not be diversity because of the setting? is it ‘whiny’ to be weary that the villains were split into white people in nice dress and poc in ratty clothes? i don’t see how this is ‘white-guilt laden bullshit.’ is it not important to criticize media?
You invalidated yourself the moment you said poc. The world is more than white and ‘other’.
but when a group of villains has their race changed and is given tattered clothes,
You mean like pirates? Cause tattered and/or layered clothes is a common pirate visual trope.
Do they really seem ‘just tan’ to you? i’m honestly confused about your point
A better question: Does it genuinely matter? Dark-skinned fucking pirates man. It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for.
should there not be diversity because of the setting?
They would be perfectly within their rights not to yes, just like with most anime. Which are mostly set in Japan. Meaning that technically, despite all that technicolor hair and the stupid strength of any slight amount of heritage from elsewhere that automatically bestows blonde hair and blue eyes, everybody’s Japanese. Because the overwhelming majority people in Japan are fucking Japanese.
I’m still cheesed that we got the option to make a dark-skinned avatar in X/Y.
is it ‘whiny’ to be weary that the villains were split into white people in nice dress and poc in ratty clothes?
Once again, the world is more than white and 'other’, and those are pirate costumes. They are stylized far more heavily than their initial costume design to give them the rougher, more hardy look. Team magma, by contrast, still look like they’re wearing devil ear hoods and have taken the more scientific looking angle.
Why the hell wouldn’t pirates be bigger, butcher, and rougher looking?
i don’t see how this is ‘white-guilt laden bullshit.’ is it not important to criticize media?
Because a person who isn’t black talking about how offensive shit is to black people specifically is usually stemming from somebody’s white guilt complex. Sorry, that’s just how things have been on tumblr.
And yes, it is important to criticize. I just think this criticism is a stupid one. Why? Because it’s not like they made Team Magma the fucking good guys and invoked the white savior trope. Regardless of their clothes or skin color, both these teams are eco-terrorists and villians, and you pound their goddamn faces in for being idiots and endangering Hoenn.
Like were y'all mad that Lenora was a thick chick with an afro in an apron too, just ignoring that she was also an archeologist?
You’re boiling the characters down to 'black people in tattered clothes’ ignoring the context and their place in the story and calling it racist and if you can’t see the hypocrisy in that, I can’t help you.People demonstrating at North Dakota's Access Pipeline protest have expressed frustration at white demonstrators who are reportedly turning up to "colonise" the camp.
Concerns have been raised by protestors on social media, who claim that people are arriving at the Standing Rock demonstration for the "cultural experience" and treating it like Burning Man festival.
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Protestor Alicia Smith wrote on Facebook: "On my way back from the camps. Need to get something off my chest that I witnessed and found very disturbing in my brief time there that I believe many others have started to speak up about as well.
"White people are colonizing the camps. I mean that seriously. Plymouth rock seriously. They are coming in, taking food, clothing and occupying space without any desire to participate in camp maintenance and without respect of tribal protocols.
"These people are treating it like it is Burning Man or The Rainbow Gathering and I even witnessed several wandering in and out of camps comparing it to those festivals."
Shape Created with Sketch. Protesters occupy Standing Rock reservation, North Dakota Show all 15 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Protesters occupy Standing Rock reservation, North Dakota 1/15 A person pours a pepper spray antidote into a protester's eyes during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota Reuters 2/15 People swim across a river to where the police officers are standing guard during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota Reuters 3/15 A man holds up a ceremonial object while police officers look down from a hill during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 4/15 People protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota November Reuters 5/15 Two people stand in the water of a river while police officers guard the shore during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota Reuters 6/15 A man stands on a makeshift bridge over a river while police officers stand on the opposite shore during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 7/15 Police use pepper spray against protesters in a boat during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 8/15 Police use pepper spray against protesters in a boat during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 9/15 Police use pepper spray against protesters in a boat during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 10/15 Tonya Stands recovers after being pepper sprayed by police after swimming across a creek with other protesters hoping to build a new camp to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, near Cannon Ball, Reuters 11/15 Dakota Access Pipeline protesters stand in the foreground and in the waist-deep water of the Cantapeta Creek, northeast of the Oceti Sakowin Camp, near Cannon Ball, N.D., Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016. Officers in riot gear clashed again Wednesday with protesters near the Dakota Access pipeline, hitting dozens with pepper spray as they waded through waist-deep water in an attempt to reach property owned by the pipeline's developer. Reuters 12/15 Dakota Access Pipeline protesters stand in the foreground and in the waist-deep water of the Cantapeta Creek, northeast of the Oceti Sakowin Camp, near Cannon Ball, N.D., Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016. Officers in riot gear clashed again Wednesday with protesters near the Dakota Access pipeline, hitting dozens with pepper spray as they waded through waist-deep water in an attempt to reach property owned by the pipeline's developer. Reuters 13/15 People who were tear gassed return to the shore during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, Reuters 14/15 People yell at police officers standing on the opposite shore of a river during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 15/15 Police use pepper spray against protesters in a boat during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 1/15 A person pours a pepper spray antidote into a protester's eyes during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota Reuters 2/15 People swim across a river to where the police officers are standing guard during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota Reuters 3/15 A man holds up a ceremonial object while police officers look down from a hill during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 4/15 People protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota November Reuters 5/15 Two people stand in the water of a river while police officers guard the shore during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota Reuters 6/15 A man stands on a makeshift bridge over a river while police officers stand on the opposite shore during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 7/15 Police use pepper spray against protesters in a boat during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 8/15 Police use pepper spray against protesters in a boat during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 9/15 Police use pepper spray against protesters in a boat during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 10/15 Tonya Stands recovers after being pepper sprayed by police after swimming across a creek with other protesters hoping to build a new camp to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, near Cannon Ball, Reuters 11/15 Dakota Access Pipeline protesters stand in the foreground and in the waist-deep water of the Cantapeta Creek, northeast of the Oceti Sakowin Camp, near Cannon Ball, N.D., Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016. Officers in riot gear clashed again Wednesday with protesters near the Dakota Access pipeline, hitting dozens with pepper spray as they waded through waist-deep water in an attempt to reach property owned by the pipeline's developer. Reuters 12/15 Dakota Access Pipeline protesters stand in the foreground and in the waist-deep water of the Cantapeta Creek, northeast of the Oceti Sakowin Camp, near Cannon Ball, N.D., Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2016. Officers in riot gear clashed again Wednesday with protesters near the Dakota Access pipeline, hitting dozens with pepper spray as they waded through waist-deep water in an attempt to reach property owned by the pipeline's developer. Reuters 13/15 People who were tear gassed return to the shore during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, Reuters 14/15 People yell at police officers standing on the opposite shore of a river during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters 15/15 Police use pepper spray against protesters in a boat during a protest against the building of a pipeline on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Cannonball, North Dakota, U.S Reuters
Ms Smith observed that many protestors appeared to be living off the native American community, and were taking advantage of donations sent in for the cause. Another Twitter user said they had witnessed a protestor turn down tap water to spend donations on 'fluoride free' water.
An open letter detailing the camp's ground rules has been shared on Twitter in an attempt to tackle the issue, which reminds demonstrators that the camp is "not a vacation".
It says protestors should avoid drugs and alcohol, engage with the elders, and refrain from playing guitars around campfires.
A similar note is being shared on Facebook from Jon Petronzio, who said that there had been a "huge influx" of "mostly white" people arriving at the camp.
Mr Petronzio urged demonstrators to remember that they are not on vacation and to help by carrying supplies and speak to the elders who are "pillars of this community".
The North Dakota Pipeline protest was sparked by plans to construct a 1,170-mile long pipeline which would run across four states. Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the pipeline, says that it has taken measures to prevent leaks, and that there is no archaeological significance to the area.
Thousands of people have been gathering to support the Standing Rock Sioux tribe in their legal battle against the plan.
On Saturday activists protesting the continued construction of the pipeline were told to shut down one of their camps by 5 December in a letter sent to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's leader by the Army Corps.
Tribal leader Dave Archambault and other protest organisers have made it clear that they intend to stay in the Oceti Sakowin camp — one of three camps near the construction site — which would have been shut down.
"We are wardens of this land. This is our land, and they can't remove us," protester Isaac Weston, an Oglala Sioux member from South Dakota, told AP on Saturday.
"We have every right to be here to protect our land and to protect our water."
However US authorities said on Sunday that they had no plans to forcibly remove activists.
The US Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the federal land where the main protest camp is located, said in a statement that anyone who remained would be considered unauthorised and could be subject to various citations.
It also said emergency services might not be adequately provided to the area.
"The Army Corps of Engineers is seeking a peaceful and orderly transition to a safer location," the statement said.
"This will reduce the risk of harm to people in the encampments caused (by) the harsh North Dakota winter conditions."
High profile supporters who have expressed their support for the cause include Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Lupita Nyong'o, Whoopi Goldberg and Mark Ruffalo.
A GoFundMe page recently raised more than $1 million after aiming to reach just $5,000.The state legislature is the only body with the power to change the inherently dysfunctional structure of New York City's Board of Elections, but that isn't stopping Mayor Bill de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer from giving the appearance of trying.
This morning, de Blasio tried to upstage the audit Stringer announced last week with an offer of $19.6 million in funding to the BOE, contingent on a number of "common-sense reforms." The money includes $1.5 million to hire a consultant to "identify and rectify systemic challenges within the organization" and to "[empanel] a blue-ribbon commission to identify failures." Also on the table are $10 million to increase poll worker pay and update poll worker training, and $8.1 million to hire professional record keepers and create email and text-message notifications for voters.
The mayor said in a statement:
The Board of Elections is an outdated organization in dire need of modernization—and we need to make these changes now. We cannot allow a single voter to be disenfranchised because of the Board of Elections’ outdated operations. These common-sense reforms will bring much-needed transparency, modernize practices, and help ensure we do not experience an Election Day like last week’s again.
Stringer, meanwhile, has said, "We've got to take a sledgehammer to this," referring to the New York voting system. Stringer is undertaking a "top-to-bottom" audit of the BOE, but, seemingly conscious of the limitations of his office, refers as much to the difficulties posed by New York's restrictive voting laws as to the BOE itself.
To recap, 126,000 people were stricken from the list of active registered Democrats in Brooklyn ahead of last week's presidential primary. Voters there and across the city reported finding themselves unlisted at their local polling places on Primary Day, despite being regular voters or having registered with a party ahead of the relevant deadlines. These particularly egregious problems came along with a smattering of threats, missing ballots and voter lists, misleading mail, and late-opening polling places typical of a New York City election.
So far, one official, at the BOE's Brooklyn office, has been reprimanded in connection with the Primary Day problems, suspended temporarily pending an internal review.
Why aren't more people getting fired, or at least providing a public accounting of what went wrong and what's going to be done to fix it? And why isn't de Blasio demanding that, instead of throwing money at consultants and email newsletter software?
Because the BOE is a political patronage mill that the city has almost no control over. Inside the agency's 32 Broadway office, who you know is much more important than your qualifications to administer large datasets, and even a past criminal conviction while working for the city isn't necessarily a barrier to employment. The problem can be traced back to state laws [pdf] delineating the structure of the boards of elections for New York City's counties, and counties across the state. Each county board is overseen by commissioners who are appointed by the local Democratic and Republican party establishment. In New York City, the two commissioners for each borough are approved by the City Council, members of which depend on the backing of their parties for reelection. The state board, which loosely manages the 62 county boards, is likewise run by commissioners appointed by state leaders of each party and signed off on by the governor.
It was a leaked report from the governor-controlled state Board of Elections that called out de Blasio for alleged campaign-finance violations, an odd but not surprising turn of events given the governor's own history of questionable fundraising.
The Mayor's Office did indicate that de Blasio would support state legislation transferring the responsibility for managing the city Board of Elections from commissioners to the board's hired management. However, given that the commissioners vet the agency's director and clerks, it's not clear what the advantage would be of this. Still, de Blasio has the backing of some of the same good-government advocates who criticized his use of nonprofits to subvert campaign finance laws, which is now under federal scrutiny, for at least raising the need for BOE reform.
"The Board of Elections is a patronage driven entity, funded by public dollars, that willfully flouts its responsibility to taxpayers," said Common Cause NY director Susan Lerner said in a statement. "Common Cause NY applauds the Mayor for introducing these significant reforms to deliver an efficient system of elections that works for all New Yorkers."
In a statement, Stringer said that state lawmakers need to professionalize the election boards, but in the meantime proposals like those de Blasio is making are a good idea.
"What we need is state legislation to reform the Board of Elections and install a professional, non-partisan board of directors," Stringer said. "But the BOE could start tomorrow to improve operations by providing better training for poll workers, and instituting |
more about the growing power of single women in politics.)
But, Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg said there's another group of highly coveted women — independents, who do not identify with either major political party.
"Independent women tend to be one of the most important, persuadable blocs in the electorate," Greenberg said. "They sort of are the holy grail of general elections.... They also tend to be a little more socially liberal and a little more economically conservative."
And socially liberal women tend to have more liberal attitudes about abortion — an issue that's come to the forefront recently in the GOP campaign because of comments from Donald Trump.
toggle caption Asma Khalid and Meg Kelly/Exit Polls
"The reason we have trouble talking to women voters is that many women voters believe Republican voters are wrong on specific women's reproductive issues — and that's a challenge," said Republican strategist Lisa Camooso Miller. "I think now more than ever the Republican Party is in a deficit because of the words and the actions Donald Trump has taken in the primary."
But, it's not just words, it's also tone, continued Camooso-Miller.
"That back and forth between the candidates," she said, "whether it's Donald Trump or anyone else, is really unattractive and unappealing to women, because we are looking for... candidates that are coming up with solutions, talking about the issues rather than sparring with one another back-and-forth, sometimes even to the detriment of the other candidates' spouses."
She said most voters — women or men — are concerned about homeland security and the economy, and Republican candidates need to figure out a way to pivot back to that conversation.
Polls show Donald Trump has a 70 percent unfavorable rating among women. And, Camooso Miller is worried Trump is repelling women at the same time Clinton is trying to court them.
If the current trajectory continues, Clinton could turn the traditional gender gap into a gender gulf in November. But, of course, she has to secure the Democratic nomination first.
And, for now, she has a challenge — the other end of the gender spectrum — men. Exit polls show Clinton has had a rockier record winning male voters, especially white men. In Wisconsin, for example, Sanders won men resoundingly beating Clinton by about 30 points.The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) has released its outlook for summer temperatures, and, in the words of the American poet Nelly: It’s getting hot in herre.
Temperatures all across the country are facing increased odds for well above average summer temps: From Seattle to Sag Harbor, boob sweat and swamp ass will abound. The only exceptions in these United States are South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas — so pack your bags, babies! We’re heading to Omaha.
Beside the basic discomfort of hot-as-balls weather, exceptionally high temperatures are bad news for things like drought, wildfire, and curly hair. This could mean an especially difficult year for parts of California and the Southwest that are already suffering from years of high temps and low precipitation.
Howard Diamond, scientist at NOAA, put it this way:
“Yes, parts of California already under severe drought could again be in for more of the same.” But, he adds, “Please also remember that the climate outlooks below for June-July-August are just that — outlooks. They are not specific forecasts, but based on past climatology, and models give us a possible snapshot of what conditions will most likely be like.”
In other words, it looks bad, but there’s always a chance that the predictions are off and the drought is over and there will be no more wildfires and we’ll all be blissfully basking in 70 degree days for the next three months.
Here’s hoping.(SP) – The Cleveland Browns say they are continuing to look at various options with the No. 1 overall pick and admit they have cooled a bit on Myles Garrett after the Texas A&M defensive end expressed a strong desire to play for the team.
“Obviously Myles is an impressive player with a lot of upside,” said Browns general manager Sashi Brown. “That said, football I.Q. is a big part of what we evaluate in a player and we are growing concerned it’s just not there for him.”
Garrett repeatedly proclaimed this week that he would “punish” the Browns if they don’t use the top pick on him, telling ESPN: “I’m gonna start winning and winning now. And because if you don’t draft me No. 1, I will punish your team for the next 10 to 12 years. I’ll knock your QB out of the game every time we play you, and I’ll have to kick the hell out of No. 1, whoever it is.”
Cleveland’s GM said that he “appreciates” Garrett’s enthusiasm, “but that’s just not realistic for him to say. Best case scenario with the Browns, we win in three or four years, not now. And the idea that he will punish us if we don’t draft him? Laughable. We’re the Browns. We ruin the careers of people we do draft. Come on.”
With Garrett likely off the board, the Browns are set to move onto someone a bit more grounded in reality.
“We want a good player, but we need someone with some knowledge of how the NFL works,” said Brown. “I just don’t think Myles Garrett is mentally able to deal with a few 3-13 seasons. Our model player is Joe Thomas: productive on the field, but can handle crushing and sustained disappointment. Getting players like that is the only chance we have of turning this franchise around.”
Also see … SEAL Team 6 rescues Joe Thomas from Browns in daring midnight raidWHEN Robert Burley began documenting the global implosion of the silver-halide roll-film industry in 2005, he used an analogue camera. A digital one would have been a quirky choice for his style, unable to deliver the same precise results he was used to after decades of photographing architecture and landscapes. But as Mr Burley's journey progressed, he watched the ecosystem of film rapidly dissolve around him. "I was starting to feel like a blacksmith," he says, recalling the large-format camera kit he would unpack in order to capture his waning industrial subjects. The final result of his efforts, "The Disappearance of Darkness", is a book full of poignant insights, both visual and literary, into a bygone technological era.
Mr Burley, an associate professor at Ryerson University in Toronto, did not set out to write this book. Rather, he heard in 2005 that Kodak would shutter long-standing Canadian operations in his city. So he asked the firm if he could take pictures of the plant. This turned into 18 months in which he documented the layoff of workers, carting off of plant equipment and destruction of buildings.
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That was the beginning of the end for Kodak. In 2007 Mr Burley travelled to watch the implosion of buildings in Rochester, New York, where George Eastman founded the company in 1889, four years after having invented roll film. (Eastman lacked all the necessary patents, for which he later paid dearly.) The same year he visited Chalon-sur-Saône, a French city north of Lyon, where the first known photographic print was produced in 1827, and where Kodak settled its European operations in 1961. Kodak tried to bring down its primary building there in December that year. It refused to be blown up. A second set of charges was required a few months later. In 2010 Mr Burley went to Dwayne's Photo Lab in Parsons, Kansas, the last place in the world to process Kodachrome, as it handled the final rolls.
Even so, film refuses to die. But neither can be it resurrected, says Mr Burley. Kodak's bankruptcy filing in January was a result of decades of mismanagement. But it was also the victim of rapid technological change for an industry based on chemistry and large-scale production of an obsolescent good. The spike in silver prices was no help, either, for a product that must needs use it. (Your correspondent, who once worked for Kodak, witnessed it fritter away the technological lead it held in 1991.)
Consumers and professionals ditched film first. Then health-care services, which used it for X-rays, shifted to digital scans. The final blow came with the film industry's switch to digital projection. IHS iSuppli, a supply-chain analysis firm, estimates filmmakers consumed 2.5m miles (4m kilometres) of film each year for the distribution of prints at its height. That was just a few years ago. By 2012 this plunged by two-thirds. In 2015 it will be next to nothing. Mr Burley says that after years of talking with the workers, chemists and engineers that ran the plants he foresees a tipping point beyond which consistent quality photographic film will be impossible to make because of the scale necessary to maintain operations.
That point has not yet been reached. Polaroid factories in Massachusetts may be abandoned, but those in Enschede, the company's former European headquarters in the Netherlands, live on. That is thanks to the Impossible Project, which aimed to reboot instant-film production using original equipment (as well as a fair amount of reverse-engineering, or reinventing, lost secrets). With the expertise and hard work of a handful of people it succeeded, and has shipped millions of units of print film, including new variants that go beyond anything Polaroid made. It relies partly on Ilford, a British manufacturer of black-and-white film based in Mobberley (and also documented in the book). Ilford has so far survived bankruptcy and upheaval. But the Impossible Project as a whole depends on ancient equipment, a limited term lease and chemicals and processes provided by other firms.
Mr Burley showers praise on the Impossible Project. Yet it could only succeed because its product need not be consistent. Compared to standard photographic film, each instant print is messier and unpredictable. It is the exception that proves the rule, he says.
The youngest crop of his students, all digital natives, have never touched analogue film. So, despite embracing (and teaching) digital photography, Mr Burley also developed a course, now in its third year, which recaps the history of photographic processes, from glass plates to the present day. It is exotic for them to spend the day working slowly with their hands instead of in front of a digital screen, he says. The instant availability of digital photographs means students are never surprised by what they make. The course lets them appreciate the "objecthood" of the photographic image.
Photographic film has nearly completed its transition from the mass market to the artisanal. Memories of analogue film fade each year. Older folk pass away, materials become more expensive and developing labs close. And darkrooms let in light.Police say a student brought a handgun to Perry Hall High School. Reigniting fear in a community that’s experienced gun tragedy before.
Ava-Joye Burnett reports on how police found out about the gun.
Police say the student brought the gun to school and was showing it around, but it was the actions of another student that alerted a school resource officer.
“I think that was pretty brave because most people are scared about what other people would say, and whoever this person was stepped up to the plate and kept all of us safe, so he is a hero, he or she is a hero,” said student Erin Bethea.
This episode brought back back memories of what happened just a few years ago.
“Just the panic of the day, just the panic of everything,” said parent Tracy Kraft.
In 2012 a 15 -year-old shot another student inside the cafeteria. The victim ended up in critical condition.
The teenage shooter pleaded guilty to attempted murder and got 35 years behind bars.
“I lived out the shooting previously a few years ago with my oldest son. It just goes to show that there, something needs to be done within the school to prevent incidents like this from happening,” Kraft said.
Police say the student involved in Thursday’s incident did not point the gun at anyone but this show-and-tell will most likely result in charges.
“The student had obtained the gun from a family member and the family was not aware that he had the weapon,” said Baltimore County Police Sgt. Andrea Bylen.
No one was injured Thursday and students who were initially shaken up are proving to be resilient.
“It will feel a little different, just being more cautious about what’s happening around me and being on the look out, but I feel pretty protected.”
WJZ has repeatedly contacted the school district for comment on this matter and they have not responded.
It is not clear what the specific charges against the student will be.
Follow @CBSBaltimore on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on FacebookThe Oklahoma City Thunder have agreed to a five-year deal worth nearly $25 million with restricted free-agent forward Kyle Singler, sources confirmed.
The final year of the agreement is a team option, sources said.
With Singler signed, the Thunder now turn their attention to finalizing an agreement with restricted free agent Enes Kanter. According to sources, the Thunder were set to meet with Kanter and his representation Wednesday and are said to be in a strong position to re-sign the Turkish big man.
Signing Singler also could spell the end for Perry Jones III and/or Steve Novak as the Thunder look to clear roster spots and shed additional salary as they move into the luxury tax.
Singler, 27, was selected by the Detroit Pistons 33rd overall in the 2011 draft, but traded to the Thunder at the deadline in February as part of a three-team deal. He appeared in 26 games for Oklahoma City, starting 18, after appearing in 54 (40 starts) for the Pistons.
With the Thunder, he averaged 3.7 points on just 33 percent shooting (37 percent from 3-point range) with 2.1 rebounds per game. That was a significant decline from his consistent production with the Pistons, where he averaged 7.1 points on 40 percent shooting (40.6 percent from 3) and 2.6 rebounds.
Singler didn't anticipate stepping into Kevin Durant's shoes, but was forced to once the former MVP was ruled out for the season due to injury. Singler was inconsistent in the role, struggling to find his shot, which eventually led to him dropping out of the starting lineup in late March and out of the rotation altogether in April.
Thunder general manager Sam Presti was on record saying he wanted to re-sign Singler.
In three seasons, Singler holds career averages of 8.1 points and 3.4 rebounds while shooting 37.8 percent from 3. A four-year player at Duke, Singler won a national championship in 2010 and was named the Final Four's most outstanding player.Image copyright Wales News Service
Two seats with their backs to the seafront in Bridgend county have been named "selfie benches" amid criticism for facing a busy road.
They were put on Porthcawl's Esplanade by Bridgend council which has said it will turn one due to public opinion.
Bridgend Tourism Association said it decided to put a "positive spin" on the situation and encouraged people to take photos on one of the "selfie benches".
The council said other seats were available nearby which faced the sea.
Association tourism director Hugh Murray said: "We have a fantastic coastline and when people take a selfie they have this amazing background behind them."
The benches had helped to "put Porthcawl on the map", he added.
Image copyright Wales News Service
On a clear day, visitors in Porthcawl can see the coast of Somerset and Devon.
But instead of looking out to sea the newly-installed benches look over a busy road towards hotels.
The council said a local group wanted the seats to face the road.
A spokesman added: "Due to the strength of public opinion, we will be changing the direction of one of the benches towards the sea so that visitors have a choice of which view they would prefer to face."
Image copyright Wales News Service
If you have taken a selfie on the "selfie bench" in Porthcawl and are happy for it to used on BBC Newsnight, please tweet it to @BBCNewsnight using #selfiebench or email it to mark.lobel@bbc.co.uk. A selection of your images may be used at the end of the programme tonight.yes they are missing their cutie marks I hate drawing those fight me
So wow, guess who is two months behind watching episodes of MLP and the movie? Yeah, that'd be me. I'm an incredibly cyclic person (in case you couldn't tell) and I recently fell out of my three-year-long MLP active cycle, so I have fallen sooo far behind on the show. To try to jump-start myself back in, I decided to go basic and doodle these guys again in just a fun and loose way, because EVERYTHING LOOKS SO COOL with Gabby and Discord stuff and the big movie with epic music and superpowers and apparently the finale or something happened? I dunno, I haven't seem much detailed spoilers on stuff but it all seems super fun- if I can just get myself going again!
In case you're wondering about the constellations, those are actually just a fun left-over idea from an old project that never got completed- someone wanted me to create Nightmare designs for each of the main six, plus some. I've always loved the idea of them all literally being the stars that aid Luna's escape from Nightmare Moon, so I just took it to a literal level and gave them all constellation designs. Does it align with cannon? Nah. Still fun though~Lately I’ve been pondering on this question. At first, it was a subconscious decision. Somewhat by inertia, I was following in the footsteps of my parents. That’s what they did, and that’s what I’m supposed to do. However, I realized recently that I am re-gifting a gift. Instilling a love of classical music is one of the best gifts my parents gave me.
Just as in any typical Jewish family, my older brothers suffered through several years of music school. Neither one liked taking piano lessons, but they took them. My parents finally saw the writing on the wall and pulled them out of music school when my oldest brother pulled some keys off a piano keyboard.
I was spared from taking piano lessons but for a different reason: my mother passed away when I was ten years old. My father was suddenly alone with three kids. He signed me up for piano lessons, but when I showed little interest, he didn’t have the energy to nudge me further. I quit after only a small handful of lessons.
Eleven years later, when I was twenty-one, I took piano lessons again, this time completely of my own free will. But I didn’t want to start with the basics – that was too boring. I went right for the (classical music) jugular: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, my favorite piano concerto. Which also happens to be one of the most technical piano concertos ever composed. Needless to say, I failed at it miserably.
Both of my older kids have taken piano lessons, but neither one showed much interest (my youngest is only two and a half and has so far been spared). My wife and I tried different teachers, but in the end we realized piano was not in the cards for our oldest kids. It is my job as a parent to nudge my kids to try new things, and maybe push them a little (enough to overcome their natural laziness – it’s a lot more fun playing outside than practicing the piano). But at the same time, as a parent I need to know when to cut my losses and move on.
Though my parents nudged us to play piano, they never forced us to listen to classical music. They taught by example. They listened to classical music when we were around. They always spoke positively about it. They admired people who listened to it. They took us to concerts. I didn’t care much about the music but patiently waited for intermission – those were the rare occasions when they’d buy me dessert (a huge treat in Soviet Russia).
This exposure made it easier for me to fall in love with classical music later in life.
Classical music is complex. I’m generalizing, but classical music is often more complex than pop music. There are a lot of themes (stories) going on in the music; they are like underground currents that you don’t encounter unless you swim in the river awhile. Though we can instantly fall in love with some pieces, many require us to work – we need to listen to them more than once to hear them, to “understand.”
By exposing me to classical music my parents created a musical foundation for me. My mother loved Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 – she played that record many, many times. I liked small parts of it when I was very young, but when I heard Rachmaninoff’s 2nd concerto when I was eighteen, the whole piece suddenly clicked with me – I “understood” it.
My parents opened an incredible world to me that has definitely made my life better and richer. Classical music, just like any art, has an ability to unearth emotions we did not know we had and that our dictionaries often cannot describe. It makes us feel. Yes, just feel. That is an incredible gift. Today I could not imagine life without it; it would be plain, pointless, and simply boring. So now I know why I torture my kids. My job as a parent is to pass this gift to them, though they may not unwrap it until decades later.
Today I want to share with you a few arias from Puccini’s Tosca (I am taking my daughter Hannah to see it on Friday). “Vissi d’arte,” sung by Angela Gheorghiu
or another version– she is my favorite Tosca.
“Va, Tosca” – my favorite scene in Tosca.A parishioner who launched a Facebook tirade against the archbishop of his church has been ordered to pay $150,000 in damages after the religious leader sued him for defamation in the NSW Supreme Court.
Mar Meelis Zaia, the Archbishop of the Assyrian Church of the East in Australia, took legal action against former parishioner Sargon Eshow after Mr Eshow waged what Justice Lucy McCallum described as a "campaign of criticism" against him online.
Mar Meelis Zaia, Archbishop of the Assyrian Church of the East in Australia, pictured in 2014 with then premier Barry O'Farrell. Credit:Wesley Lonergan
Mr Eshow was suspended from the church for two years from April 2015 after he published two posts on his Facebook page in Arabic criticising the appointment of two priests.
He was told to stop posting "defaming information on Facebook" and was warned that any future "misbehaviour" or "disturbance" would not be tolerated. He published a series of posts later that year.One of Pamela Geller’s cohorts, Debbie Schlussel, has explicitly stated that those killed at Utoya got what was coming to them because they were “HAMAS Youth” and (at the same time) “Fatah PLO” terrorists.
Schlussel may not be as well-known as Geller (perhaps because Schlussel has not exercised a leading role in anything as prominent as the “Ground Zero Mosque” furor), but she is a politically active Republican and more mainstream than Geller because she is also a culture writer with a strong media presence. (Not that she separates this work from her anti-Islamic campaign – she has criticized the film industry for not doing enough to portray Islam “correctly”).
Her opinion on the Norway terror attacks can be summed up with these quotes taken from her ongoing screeds against the terror victims:
“Based on these pics, seems like he’s [Glenn Beck’s] spot on, though he should have added, HAMAS Youth camp, too. As we all know, Nazis boycotted Jews and were Jew-killers. And these hateful, privileged brats at the camp boycotted Jews and sided with Jew-killers. But what goes around comes around. You support terrorists against innocent civilians in Israel, then you get attacked by terrorists who are upset with your support.... Frankly, the HAMAS charter and HAMAS’ behavior, all of which these kids at the Norwegian HAMAS youth camp cheered on, is a lot more scary than the screed and deeds of Breivik.... I shed no tears for these HAMASnik campers with a Scandinavian dialect. Perpetrators are not victims. Sorry. HAMAS collaborators don’t get my pity. They never will.”
Far stronger words than Geller was willing to use. But they are par for the course as far as Schlussel is concerned.
Her prominence derives from her utility to the male conservative-dominated anti-Islamic movement. The fact that she is a woman (and also the daughter of Holocaust survivors) speaking out against Islam gives greater credence to an ideological group whose most well-known speakers are white Christian males like Newt Gingrich, Geert Wilders and Pat Robertson (the movement is, as a whole, dominated by sociopolitically conservative men, although many are not Christians).
Gingrich and Robertson, for instance, denounce Islamic attitudes towards women, while still being hostile to “feminism” under the cloak of “family values.” Having women on their anti-Islamic bandwagon helps prove their “point” about Islamic backwardness and their moral righteousness, which is a combination of faux-progressivism (treating Geller and Schlussel as intellectual co-equals) and paternalism (evoking Orientalist images of rapacious Muslim brutes). A similar logic animates the GOP embrace of Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter and Michele Bachmann. Schlussel and Geller, among others, are useful for the right (while at the same time, they castigate individuals on the left for being Islam’s “useful idiots”).
But back to Schlussel’s own anti-Islamic agenda. Before this most recent denunciation of insufficiently Zionist individuals, she famously responded to Osama bin Laden’s death by quipping “1 down, 1.8 billion to go.” When a family of West Bank settlers were murdered earlier this year, she approvingly quoted PM Netanyahu’s son’s remarks that “terror has a religion and it is Islam” and “not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.”
Schlussel is an ardent Zionist – Hamas and Fatah are basically the same thing, in her analysis, and are dedicated to ending Israel forever. With this in mind, few individuals or institutions are pro-Israel enough for her: Republican Governor Chris Christie, for instance, is “Hamas GOP” because he appointed Pakistani-American Sohail Mohammed, a Muslim attorney who defended individuals (including Hamas supporters) that the federal government sought to extradite from the U.S. after 9/11, to the NJ State Supreme Court. Whole Foods is “anti-Israel” because it sells fair trade products from Palestinian farmers in the West Bank and has dared to wish its customers a good Ramadan (there is ill-intent behind this marketing ploy, of course). And, like Robert Spencer and Pat Robertson, she believes that mainstream media is “anti-American” (and thus, anti-Western) and panders to Islam because it is anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and anti-Western.
Both Congressmen Ron Paul (who has called for a U.S. withdraw from the Middle East and an end to the US$3 billion in aid Washington sends Israel annually) and Dennis Kucinich (who condemned the Israeli assault on the first Freedom Flotilla) are “for” Hamas, according to Schlussel. That a libertarian who caucuses with the GOP and one of the most lefit-wing members of the Democratic Party are somehow colluding to advance Hamas’s agenda is well within the realm of possibility for Schlussel: either you are with Israel (and the West – which, by extension, means you’re “with” civilization), or against it. For Schlussel, no Muslim can ever be “for” those things.
As Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Watch asked in its coverage of her work, why did Schlussel even bother saying that she doesn’t support Anders Breivik when she says that “I can’t feel sorry for those who support my would-be assassins. And I don’t get too upset when they face the karma that is their fate.”
<The author would like to thank Mondoweiss’s readers for bringing Schlussel’s response to his attention>.Need a new ride? Forget about heading down to the dealership and trading in your old car. Instead, take a page out of Joseph Marcus’ book and trade a $1.25 pen for a 4×4 pickup truck.
After being told he was required to take part in Penn State’s Trader Challenge for his entrepreneurial leadership class ENGR 310, Marcus’ professor told him to have high goals.
“At the start of the challenge he said be unrealistic with your goals,” said Marcus. Still, it was a shock to everyone when Marcus, whose goal was to find a more reliable winter ride for his father, succeeded. While the next best accomplishment was a 34-inch TV, Marcus’ truck blew the competition out of the water.
“I’d say he was definitely surprised,” said Marcus.
The challenge took plenty of planning, but Marcus pulled off a series of trades that make the typical broke college student trading in old text books look downright lazy. While he was on break over Martin Luther King Day weekend, Marcus was at a friend’s house when he heard the friend’s parents telling him to get rid of a broken guitar. When Marcus returned to school and the challenge started, he realized he had a valuable opportunity.
“I knew he had to get rid of it anyways, so I called him and asked if he wanted to trade it for a pen,” said Marcus.
From there the trading frenzy was on. Marcus traded the broken fake fender stratocaster for a brand new Cajon drum. The drum was traded for an abstract painting, the painting for a 2-burner charcoal grill, the grill for an antique fishing rod and arrows, the fishing rod and arrows for first-generation Soviet night vision binoculars, the night vision binoculars for a Toshiba LCD projector, the projector for a Bowflex home gym, and finally the Bowflex for his end goal: a 4×4 Ford F-250 pickup truck.
Trades like that don’t come easy. Marcus learned quickly that he had to employ all of the tricks he had to keep the process moving.
“I used Craigslist a lot. I would ask people what they wanted and trade up to that item so that I could get what they were offering,” he explained.
Take the grill for example. When Marcus got two offers for it on Craigslist, he didn’t just pick one and hope to find someone that would be interested, he shopped both items around and then accepted the bamboo fishing rod after he had already found someone who wanted it.
“I developed great networking skills,” said Marcus, and those skills are already paying off in other areas of his life. “I’m using the skills I learned in this challenge for a project I’m working on in a club. With a lot of networking I’ve lined up a potential $10,000 grant for the club.”
As can be expected with Craigslist, every deal didn’t go exactly as planned. After getting the Bowflex, Marcus thought that he had a trade lined up for a 14-foot john boat. The trader soon admitted that he didn’t actually have the boat, but wondered if Marcus would want a gasoline powered moped that was in his garage. Ten phone calls and twenty emails later, the trader wasn’t heard from again.
“The Bowflex was the hardest to get rid of,” Marcus admitted. “It turns out everyone and their uncle owns a Bowflex.”
After sitting on it for two weeks, a trade finally emerged. “I found a truck that was just sitting in a garage in New Jersey. All the parts were there, it just needed to be put together.” he said. After a brief inquiry the owner of the truck agreed to trade the truck for the Bowflex, despite the price difference. “I went and looked at it and he will be trailering it to my house when I go home in April,” said Marcus.
When he first told his parents that he had gotten them a new car, their first reaction was that they didn’t want to pay for more car insurance but now “they are really excited about getting a new car,” said Marcus. If getting a truck from a pen weren’t enough, Marcus also received a Kindle Fire HD for winning the challenge.
With the experience under his belt, Marcus says it’s something he’d definitely consider doing again. You know, whenever he feels like getting another truck.
“I would recommend for everyone to try it at least once. Definitely try it and don’t be discouraged by trades falling through. When you set a goal, have a reason behind it. The reason I wanted the truck was because my dad is using a minivan at home in bad weather conditions. I drove it in high school and the brake lines snapped on me twice. He needed a truck,” said Marcus.
Next time you head to the bookstore to trade in 400 dollars worth of books for fifty bucks, hang your head in shame. Think to yourself, “What would Joseph Marcus do?” With a little ambition and the right reasons, you could be the next yellow lambo guy on campus.
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About the Author
Mitchell Wilston I apologize in advance.
East Renovation Continues With Approval For Sproul, Geary Halls Penn State’s Board of Trustees approved the next phase of East Halls renovations at its meeting Friday, setting the stage for construction to begin on Sproul and Geary Halls.By Mawlana Ismaeel Nakhuda
Introduction
The following are brief notes from a series of nine speeches on Tasawwuf delivered by Shaykh Mawlana ‘Abdul Hafiz Makki[ ] (may Allah enlighten his resting place) that were delivered after the Tarawih prayers during the Sunnah i‘tikaf of the last ten days of Ramadan at the Centre Mosque in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa in 2012. I have revised the notes and also added a few additional points from some of the late shaykh’s other speeches on the same subject.
The importance of Tasawwuf
The importance of Tasawwuf was not unknown to the early scholars. Hafiz Ibn al-Qayyim mentions the concept of ihsan (that you worship Allah as if you are seeing Him or that He is seeing you) in his book Madarij al-Salikin and writes that whatever has been mentioned so far was regarding Tasawwuf and what shall henceforth be mentioned will revolve around ihsan.
Tasawwuf is to do with the heart. There is a famous Arabic saying that the heart is sovereign over the body (al-qalbu malik al-jasad). Meaning that if the heart were to be corrected then the affairs of the entire body would be set right. This is the concern of Tasawwuf, which is all about the affairs of the heart.
Purification (islah) of the heart from the lowly traits or impurities (radha’il) is compulsory (wajib) on every individual. In his magnum opus, Imam al-Ghazali has established a chapter entitled Bab al-Muhlikat or the chapter relating to that which destroys a person; in this chapter he mentions in detail a number of spiritual maladies that lead to a person’s destruction, including hatred for others, jealousy, vanity, backbiting, ostentation etc.
There is a famous hadith that Allah Most High will summon three individuals on the Day of Judgment: a martyr, a scholar who had acquired and imparted knowledge and read the Qur’an and a wealthy man who had been spent abundantly in the path of Allah. First the martyr will be brought forward and Allah will remind him of His favours which he will acknowledge. He will be asked what he had done at which he will say that he fought in the way of Allah until he was martyred. At this Allah Most High will tell him he has lied and that he only fought so people would say he was courageous and they had surely done so. The angels will then be commanded to throw him into the Fire and he will be dragged on his face and thrown inside it. Next a man who was a scholar will be summoned and reminded of Allah Most High’s favours and asked what he had done at which the man will say he taught many people and involved himself in the studying and teaching of sacred knowledge. Allah Most High will tell him that he had lied and that he had only acquired knowledge so that people may call him a learned man and that they had surely done so. He will also be commanded to be thrown into the Fire and will be dragged on his face into it. Then the wealthy man will be summoned who spent freely in the way of Allah. He will be reminded of Allah Most High’s favours at which he will mention what he had spent for Allah’s sake. At this, Allah Most High will tell him that he has also lied and that he only spent so people would call him generous and they had surely done so. He will also be commanded to be thrown into the Fire and so will be dragged face down into the Fire.
It is, therefore, critical that a person exerts effort in purifying himself from spiritual ailments. This is enjoined within our religion and is what the Sufis busied themselves in.
The founder of Tabligh Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhalwi (may Allah have mercy on him) used to say that the person who spends three chillahs (four months in Tabligh work) while stringently adhering to the principles of Tabligh would have, hopefully, achieved the compulsory reformation (wajibi islah) that is required in our religion. Shaykh al-Hadith Mawlana Muhammad Zakariyya (may Allah enlighten his resting place) also mentioned the same in relation to those students graduating from the dawrah al-hadith (the final year of studies in the Dars-i-Nizami) that they would also have achieved their wajibi islah if they had spent their time properly while studying. It is no wonder that many of these students would, after graduating, spend a short time in the company of an accomplished (kamil) shaykh and receive permission to transmit the silsilah (ijazah). I have also seen the same in relation to those who spend their time properly while struggling in the way of Allah.
Incident of a Companion
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an edgy proponent of free speech actually was. For all its bark, the majority of the site’s early days involved housing goofy animations and games that made 420 jokes and dropped references to The Matrix while serving up the occasional ho-hum game whose one defining quality was its supposed-taboo subject matter. At its worst, Newgrounds was Baby’s First Rebellion all the way through to its dick-jokey core.
And yet in spite of all this, the site remains important in the history of video games.
Thanks to its lax submission policy, Newgrounds was an odd kind of frontier, especially in the later aughts, a Deadwood for developers to debut games that couldn’t exist anywhere else because there simply wasn’t a digital marketplace for them. This was long before Itch.io, even before Steam took a vested interest in anything indie. The lack of such a market often meant that creators weren’t making anything with a particular audience in mind outside of the strangers who visit the site (though developers like Edmund McMillen would go on to release well-received commercial games).
While this unfortunately played a substantial role in making the shallow, dismissive criticism that a game “looks like a flash game” (and should therefore be free) a common refrain, it also led to the creation of unconventional, genuinely interesting games. These were games that didn’t really fit into established categories, like first-person shooters or platformers, but were instead often abstract, or featured experimental narratives that you couldn’t find outside of the web. I remember playing Distance, a game about a long-distance relationship that served as a great mood piece and, as I could later attest, an accurate depiction of the sorrow inherent in being in a relationship with someone who lives far away. There was also A Night Forever, a poetic scroller game about desire that continues to vex me years later.
The Majesty Of Colors is the one that easily left the biggest impression on me. I was home from college, having just barely survived my first semester academically, and Jim was over for the day. It felt like I hadn’t seen him in a decade. We spent the day doing what we had done for years: We flipped open my laptop, huddled around my parents’ kitchen table and played Flash games from noon to dusk. The Majesty of Colors was gaining traction in the Best of All Time stuff, so we decided to play it.
The game casts you in the role of a tentacle monster living near the shore of a town, beneath the waves. Balloons are floating overhead. You hear the monster’s thoughts (“Last night I had a dream. I was perfect, titanic, and serene”) as you reach for them with your tentacles. Eventually the monster inadvertently creates a conflict with the humans who live nearby and your choices determine how the game ends.
The game meant something. To me and him. Something vague and nebulous that left us silent for 10 minutes entranced by the game’s pixelated visuals and its 8-bit serenade, perhaps invested because we had spent the larger part of our lives feeling like social abominations interacting with people who reviled us. It was a game that resonated deeply with me, and it’s the one my mind jumps to the most when I think of Newgrounds’ place in the sphere of gaming history.
More than a virtual middle finger aimed at its many detractors or a showcase of talent, this site was a working notion of the idea that a game by anyone—me, you, whoever—could mean something to a large audience of people. A game didn’t have to be about killing people or sliding pieces around on a board until you finished a puzzle, or finding the right key to unlock the door barring your progress. It could be quiet and marvelous and poignant and even lack closure. That games could be these things and more was not a new notion. Still, Newgrounds, at its peak, embodied this ideal by creating a space for the creators who wanted to will these types of works into existence.
Creating simple, manipulative games or animations that are guaranteed to make people mad—the stuff that Newgrounds built its reputation on—doesn’t take exceptional skill, nor is it particularly memorable. If anything, it’s rather dull.
However: Giving artists a space, with nearly no restrictions, is a radical act in itself, one that can have meaningful consequences, like an artist or developer making the jump from hobby to profession—or even something as simple as introducing a work to two young men huddled around a wobbly table in the late afternoon, reassuring them that they’re not the only freaks in this strange, angry world.
Javy Gwaltney devotes his time to writing about these videogame things when he isn’t teaching or cobbling together a novel. You can follow the trail of pizza crumbs to his Twitter or his website.
Photo credit: Nicholas Eckhart; adapted under Creative CommonsWith the Women's World Cup in full swing in Germany, soccer fans can now rest assured that women are less likely than men to fake on-field injuries, according to a new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center published in the July issue of the journal Research in Sports Medicine.
"Injuries are common in women's soccer and seem to be on the rise at the international level," said Daryl Rosenbaum, M.D., an assistant professor of Family and Community Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist. "The goals of our study were to determine the frequency of apparent injury incidents in women's international soccer and estimate what proportion of these incidents is authentic. It is clear from this study that female players don't fake injuries at the same rate as their male counterparts."
Rosenbaum said that in 2008, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the international governing body of soccer, issued a directive calling for "the football family to unite in denouncing injury simulation and working to eradicate this scourge from the game." Results of a study conducted in 2010 by Rosenbaum show that the faking or exaggerating of injuries at the men's international level may be a valid concern. He hopes his research will help determine if injury simulation in soccer is due to the nature of the sport or is specific to certain types of participants.
For the latest study, video recordings of 47 televised games from two international women's tournaments were reviewed to identify incidents in which a player behaved as if injured. Apparent injuries were considered "definite" if a player withdrew from participation within five minutes or if bleeding was visible; the remaining incidents were considered "questionable." A total of 270 apparent injuries were observed, a rate of 5.74 per game. The "definite" injury rate was only 0.78 per match compared to 4.96 for "questionable" injuries.
"While it was difficult to know for certain if a player had a true injury or was faking or embellishing, we found that only 13.7 percent of apparent injuries met our definition for a 'definite' injury," Rosenbaum said. "Also consider that we saw six apparent injuries per match in the 2007 Women's World Cup but team physicians from the tournament reported only 2.3 injuries per match, so it looks like there may be some simulation in the women's game."
Rosenbaum's research indicates that apparent injury incidents for women are much less frequent than for men, however, occurring at a rate of 5.74 per match as compared to 11.26 per men's match. The proportion of apparent injuries that were classified as "definite" was nearly twice as high for women, 13.7 percent, as compared to 7.2 percent for men.
Rosenbaum said "questionable" injuries are more likely to be associated with contact and referee sanctions than "definite" injuries, which may indicate that players may use these situations to try to deceive referees. There was no evidence that teams that did this frequently won more often, nor was there any evidence that players used injury simulation as a way to try and rest or kill time.
"In the end, I think this study shows that women are less likely than men to fake soccer injuries," Rosenbaum said. "What isn't clear is if injury simulation is used to gain a tactical advantage. Only the players themselves know the answer to that question."
Funding for the study was provided by the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist. Co-authors are: Ravi Sanghani, M.D., Wake Forest School of Medicine; Stephen W. Davis, M.A., Department of Family and Community Medicine, Wake Forest Baptist; Travis Woolen, High Point University.I met future politician Ned Taylor just after Canada’s 2015 federal elections, in which I stood as a candidate for the Animal Alliance/Environment Voters Party (thankfully now renamed the Animal Protection Party)! Ned, then sixteen-years-old, wanted my help in promoting his Change.org petition to “Ban Battery Cages in Canada,” fighting against the brutal treatment of factory-farmed chickens in the egg industry.
Ned’s petition exposed the reality that more than ninety percent of Canada’s egg-laying hens are trapped in cramped wire “battery cages” for their entire lives, forced to exist in spaces smaller than an 8 ½ x 11 inch piece of paper. It was a stellar document that I enthusiastically supported and promoted.
But I was also struck by its author, this fresh-faced, engaging and energetic youngster who was spending so much time researching and crafting his petition, and then guiding it through the rule-bound, paper-strewn path that is the only route to changing Canadian laws. And Ned’s eagerness to learn was real, and he listened to the more experienced animal advocates he sought out to help him. Clearly he was a caring, compassionate and effective politician still in embryo stage!
And I assumed that his passion about drastically improving the lives of the farmed chickens whose intelligence and sensitivity he admire meant that he must also be vegan, the logical consequence of his heartfelt opinions.
But when we spoke on the telephone and I mentioned our shared veganism, Ned quickly set me straight.
“Oh, I’m not vegan,” he said. “We humans are animals, too, and animals have been eating other animals for centuries. I believe that if we treat them right and they live a full life, then there’s nothing wrong with eating them.”
And so do humans have the right to kill healthy, usually very young animals at will, as they currently do? I demanded. And what about food culture that avoids all killing and cruelty? In other words, what about veganism?
“I completely support and understand it,” Ned responded. “In fact, I’m considering it. Not promising to do it, just considering it right now.” By the time our conversation ended, he had committed to one meatless day a week.
Ned’s meatless experiment has gone well. Almost a year later, he is a steadfast vegetarian. It’s a great start! And, Ned adds cheerfully, “It’s incredibly easy now.” He is mindful of how his food is sourced, what kind of oil is used in fried dishes, if animal-derived gelatin is used, and he has even abstained from fur and leather – “I really don’t mind the little details,” he says. His family, always supportive, has also become much more veggie-friendly, and his dad encourages him to eat more healthful nuts and beans. “My mom thought my vegetarianism was a phrase,” Ned says. “But now she realizes it’s forever.”
Ned Taylor’s Vegetarian Year!
Forever! That’s my kind of vegetarian (with vegan flourishes), and I renewed my efforts to recruit Ned for the Animal Protection Party. But Ned’s loyalty to the Green Party is unshakeable, and for compelling reasons. “Animal welfare issues are hugely important to me, and always will be” Ned explains, “especially the environmental issues such as climate change that directly relate to animals and meat consumption. People often don’t make that connection, and that’s what I want to focus on. I want to bring that awareness into the Green Party.”
How could anyone argue with that? And I’ve longed for years to see that awareness in the Green Party. With Ned and some of his cohorts, that will likely happen, with animals huge beneficiaries.
Ned has already caught Green Party leader Elizabeth May’s attention and, at her invitation, he spent a week in Ottawa volunteering, which reinforced his conviction that this is where he is meant to be.
But it’s not a loss for the Animal Protection Party, it’s a win for animals, as Ned and several of his friends transition to vegetarianism or veganism. “Kids and teens are now more receptive to vegetarians and vegetarian food,” Ned says, “and even friends who were previously pescetarian are ditching fish. My co-workers at Starbucks also notice that lots of customers order soy or other non-dairy drinks, and they make sure it’s available.” In other words, among young people, a slow and steady food revolution is unfolding, one squash soup and soy latte at a time!For the past seven weeks he had led an idyllic existence, swimming in lakes, eating honey and killing the odd sheep. But the adventures of Germany's most famous fugitive - Bruno the bear - came to an abrupt end on Monday when a group of Bavarian hunters unapologetically shot him dead.
After weeks of attempts to stun and capture the bear, Bavaria's environment ministry announced over the weekend that Bruno could be shot. Three Bavarian hunters took matters into their own hands.
German officials confirmed that Bruno had been killed at 4.50am near the town of Zell in southern Germany. "The shooting has happened - the bear is dead," said Manfred Wölfl, the Bavarian government's bear specialist.
Officials said the bear, which has been commuting since early May between the mountains of Italy, Austria and Germany, was a risk to humans.
"It's not that we don't welcome bears in Bavaria. It's just that this one wasn't behaving properly," Otmar Bernhard, an official with Bavaria's environment ministry said. "The bear kept wandering into populated areas. Its death was regrettable. But we didn't have much choice."
"This animal didn't just kill when he hungry. He had a lust for killing," Anton Steixner, an official from South Tirol, said, dismissing those who had emailed him in protest at Bruno's peremptory death as "fanatics".
Environmentalists who had been campaigning to save Bruno - the first bear to wander into Germany for 170 years - reacted with fury.
"It's incomprehensible," Heike Finke, spokeswoman for Germany's Wildlife Alliance told the Guardian. "Other countries like France, Romania, Austria and Italy manage to co-exist with bears. But three weeks after the first one turns up in Germany we have to shoot it dead. It's so frustrating."
She added: "I have to go and lecture developing world countries about how they should save their elephants and tigers. I haven't got much credibility as a German when we kill our only bear. It's embarrassing."
"This is the most stupid of all solutions," Hubert Weinzierl, the head of Germany's Wildlife Protection Association, said. "It's a tragedy for nature protection in Bavaria."
A team of Finnish hunters had spent two weeks trying to capture Bruno. They gave up last Friday after their attempts to stun and capture him failed and their dogs collapsed with exhaustion.
Bruno rambled into Germany last month. Technically known as JJ1, he was part of a programme in northern Italy to reintroduce the animal into the Alps. The 100kg (220lb) bear had not harmed humans - but had been spotted several times.
Over the weekend three mountain bikers watched him go for a swim. An Austrian motorist also encountered the nocturnal Bruno last week after the bear jumped down from the low wall of a reservoir, clipped a wing mirror, and ran off.
Otherwise, Bruno's behaviour appears to have been normal. He had killed sheep and rabbits and looted beehives for honey. The elusive bear's odyssey, meanwhile, had kept the attention of German media despite wall-to-wall coverage of the World Cup. Some observers had even speculated that Bruno might have been heading for Berlin - the venue for the World Cup final on July 9, and would have made a better mascot than the current incumbent, an unloved lion called Goleo.
Bavaria still intends to honour the bear it has killed. Bruno will be stuffed and exhibited in Munich's Museum of People and Nature, Mr Bernhard said, refusing to answer further questions.So today arrived my awesome collection of Nerd stuff. When I opened the box glittering red stuff greeted me and I was excited. Some Doctor Who glasses fell of and I knew this will be great :) So this collection contained - awesome lip balm, that I totally was lacking
A kitty card with warm words and explanations of my presents
a tiny dinosaur that made quick friends with my lego dinosaur
Nerd Sweets (me and my mother quickly tested and loved)
a cthulhu dice game, that will surely rob friends and collegues of there sanity
a bottle holder that will acompany me on bike tours (that i should do more often)
burger and hotdog socks, I will surely wear to work tomorrow
a personal defend tool (I hope not having to use)
and last but certainly not least a bluetooth sensor that will watch over my only Ginseng plant :D (which I had to show to my )
The packing was awesome and I sincerly enjoyed unwrapping piece for piece and laughing over every bit :D I really had a lot of fun unpacking alone and will have a lot fun using all of it :D
greetings from germany and very many thanks Naomi, you totally made my day :)Jefferson County (Ohio) Judge Joseph Bruzzese Jr. (WTOV-TV via AP)
An Ohio judge was shot Monday morning outside his courthouse in an ambush attack that ended when the judge and a probation officer returned fire, killing the attacker, authorities said.
Police said a man apparently waiting for Judge Joseph J. Bruzzese Jr., who sits on the Jefferson County Court of Common Pleas, ran up to the judge and began shooting when he approached the courthouse. Bruzzese drew a gun and fired at least five rounds at the shooter, possibly hitting the attacker, Jefferson County Sheriff Fred J. Abdalla told reporters during emotional remarks Monday morning.
“This individual laid in wait for our judge,” Abdalla said, tearing up during his remarks. “It just hurts. First thing on Monday morning, you have a judge shot in front of his courthouse … This was an ambush and an attempted murder on our judge.”
A gunman shot and wounded a judge in an ambush outside an Ohio courthouse on Aug. 21 before being fatally shot by a probation officer. (Reuters)
The shooting occurred in Steubenville, Ohio, a city best known for a high-profile rape case involving high school football players. In a strange twist, the shooter was identified by authorities on Monday afternoon as Nathaniel Richmond, father of one of the two teenage boys found delinquent — or guilty — in 2013 as part of that rape case.
Jane Hanlin, prosecutor for Jefferson County, identified Richmond as the shooter, but she said authorities do not believe there was “any connection whatsoever” between Richmond’s son, Ma’lik, and the shooting on Monday.
Bruzzese had “nothing at all to do with that particular case,” Hanlin said during an afternoon briefing, noting that it was handled by a visiting judge from another area.
However, Hanlin said authorities still did not know what might have motivated Monday’s shooting. She said Nathaniel Richmond had a criminal history and cases in Bruzzese’s courtroom, as well as before other judges, but said it was not clear whether these previous cases or a pending case had anything to do with the shooting.
Bruzzese was taken into surgery after the shooting, police said. He was in stable condition Monday afternoon and is expected to survive, Hanlin said.
Richmond was struck three times and killed on Monday. Since a probation officer as well as the judge fired rounds at him, Abdalla said it was not clear whether one of Bruzzese’s bullets hit Richmond, who had fired five rounds.
A March 17, 2013, file photo of Nathaniel Richmond. (Keith Srakocic/AP)
During remarks to reporters Monday afternoon, Abdalla described Bruzzese as an avid hunter and sportsman. The sheriff said that years earlier, he had urged Bruzzese to carry a weapon with him for protection due to all of the “nutcases” around the country.
“With all the nuts running around, I encouraged him to get a weapon,” Abdalla said. “And he did.”
According to Abdalla, Richmond approached the courthouse early Monday morning in a car with another person before leaving and returning. When Richmond saw Bruzzese, Abdalla said, he “jumped out” of the car and ran over to begin shooting.
The second person in the car is not considered an accomplice, Abdalla said, and told authorities that Richmond had only said he had to be in court Monday morning. This second person, who was not identified, did not get out of the car and was wounded by a possible bullet ricochet and taken to the hospital, the sheriff said.
Abdalla said authorities have video of the shooting that they are working to have enhanced to show people what happened.
“This man shoots a judge, could’ve killed him,” Abdalla said of Richmond.
He added: “Thank God he’s not that good a shot.”
Bruzzese’s work involves hearing criminal felonies as well as some civil cases, according to the court’s website.
Judge Joesph Brusezze is in stable condition – keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers @WTOV9 — Lauren Healy (@LaurenWTOV9) August 21, 2017
In a statement Monday, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said that the Steubenville Police Department asked the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to investigate the shooting.
DeWine said that the state agency assigned its special investigations, crime scene and cyber units to probe what happened.
“Fran and I are praying for Judge Bruzzese and his family at this difficult time,” DeWine said.
Rep. Bill Johnson (R), who represents Jefferson County, released a statement saying he was “very saddened and alarmed” by the shooting, noting that he had worked with Bruzzese, and he linked the incident to the attack on Republican members of Congress at a baseball practice in Virginia earlier this summer.
“From the shootings at the congressional baseball practice, to today’s tragic shooting, public officials are increasingly under assault,” Johnson said. “Public service shouldn’t be a dangerous occupation, but it all too often is.”
This story has been updated since it was first published with additional remarks from officials.
Further reading:
Two bailiffs killed by inmate during attempted jail break, police say
Ambushes and fatal shootings fuel increase in police death toll last yearTelltale Games will release a second season of The Wolf Among Us: A Telltale Games Series, an adventure game based on the comic series Fable, in 2018. The developer revealed that the game was in the works as part of its summer 2017 update, embedded above.
Bigby Wolf, the hero of the first game, returns for the sequel. Expect to make more tough choices in the darkly tinged fairy tale world when it launches next year.
Fans of The Wolf Among Us’ first season have pelted Telltale with sequel requests since it wrapped three years ago. Telltale made light of this in the video update, highlighting tweets from fans begging for more from the world. As recently as this week, the studio denied any hint that a second season was in the works, throwing fans off their trail with some success.
In an Ask Me Anything session earlier this year, Telltale communications head Job Stauffer gave fans hope that The Wolf Among Us would return.
"We have been asked over and over again for some insight into the mystery at the end of the finale for [The Wolf Among Us],” Stauffer wrote. “Something I've always wanted to admit is that while we do have a clear answer to who was who at the end of that story... we had also agreed to keep it a mystery for the fans to ponder on their own. Definitely fun to see all of the theories pour out, and exciting to pay off our neon-noir story with a femme fatale twist.”
The conversation restarted this week, when Stauffer tweeted about his own wish to come back to the series.
“We'd KILL to step back into that world [of The Wolf Among Us] some day and we know our fans would too," Stauffer wrote on Twitter, just after saying, "Your voices and your passion will never go unheard here at [Telltale Games]."
Also on its way is Batman: The Enemy Within, a second season of Telltale’s Batman series, which debuted in August 2016. The first episode will launch Aug. 8 and features new villains like John Doe.
Telltale also teased The Walking Dead’s fourth and final season, which will complete Clementine’s story in 2018.Image copyright Reuters
Mexican police have arrested Margarito Soto Reyes, believed to be one of the leading members of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel, the government says.
Soto Reyes, also known as "The Tiger", was detained with eight accomplices near the western city of Guadalajara, the Ministry of Public Security said.
Soto Reyes allegedly smuggled half a tonne of drugs into the US every month.
Police believe he replaced Ignacio Coronel, a top member of the cartel killed by soldiers in July.
Investigations by Mexican and US security forces showed that Soto Reyes had taken over control of an important trafficking route for synthetic drugs that had formerly been operated by Coronel, the ministry said in a statement.
The Sinaloa cartel is one of the most powerful and violent drug trafficking organisations in Mexico.NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bitcoins may help Zynga (ZNGA) reach profitability in 2014, but not for the reasons you may think. Earlier this month, Zynga, the popular maker of many games played on Facebook (FB), announced it would start accepting bitcoins as payment for virtual goods. If you missed it, here's the story on TheStreet in part:
"Zynga (ZNGA) Tests Bitcoin in FarmVille 2 and Other Games."
"The social game developer is using popular Bitcoin service provider Bitpay for its test. The test lets gamers buy in-game currency in games such as FarmVille 2, CastleVilla, ChefVille, CoasterVille, Hidden Chronicles, Hidden Shadows and CityVille using the cryptocurrency."
Will adding the ability to buy virtual seeds to plant in FarmVille 2 create an abundance of crops, resulting in a crash in prices of virtual commodities? Don't count on it, most players with the means and desire to buy Zynga cash are probably content to do so with their credit cards.
Adding a new method of buying what amounts to little more than different colored pixels on a screen won't likely add much revenue or bottom line profits, unless of course, the colored pixels are in the shape of poker chips. Last year Zynga added ZyngaPlusCasino and ZyngaPlusPoker to its lineup of games.
According to Zynga's latest quarterly filing, poker revenue accounted for 21% of online game revenue during the third quarter ended September 30, 2013. FarmVille came in a close second, at 20%, and CityVille brought in 12%. ZyngaPlusCasino wasn't quite as successful as ZyngaPlusPoker, based on the company disclosure that no other games resulted in at least 10% of the total game revenue.
What I find remarkable is how much emphasis is placed on FarmVille, and to a lesser extent the other games, when ZyngaPlusPoker is the dominate game, based on revenue, and the potential for growth is enormous. Keep in mind the succulent fact that ZyngaPlusPoker launched in the second quarter. Poker didn't take a year to develop into a meaningful franchise for Zynga; in only one quarter, ZyngaPlusPoker become the No. 1 game.
Meanwhile, back at the farm (cheesy pun, I know), many analysts and pundits remain focused on declining MAUs (monthly active users). Sure, it's a key metric to be sure, but it appears to me that the free games are, or may soon, become relegated to the dog house while real money poker and casino revenue become the focus. It's certainly not hard to figure out why.
Currently, Zynga is only licensed in the already competitive U.K. market. The company is also the No. 1 play-money poker site in the world, according to PokerScout.com. Three states, Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware, currently allow some online gambling (more state, if you include lottery sales).
As more states bet that online gambling can help solve their budget woes, the opportunity for Zynga increases. The recent addition of New Jersey could prove to be a tipping point for other states looking to cash in. Don't forget that all Zynga needs is one state to allow regulated world-wide gambling licenses and the majority of the market opens up. New Jersey has some legislative support for a company to locate in Atlantic City and operate. If not there, it won't take long for another state to figure out how much tax revenue is up for grabs.
While its license is currently based in the U.K., the company accepts currencies other than the pound including dollars, euros, yen and Canadian dollars. Accepting different currencies may make funding easier for users, but the real bottleneck comes from credit card companies. Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) allow online gambling transactions where it's legal, but American Express (AXP) doesn't. Even where online gambling is legal, some card issuers, including J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC), won't.
Along comes bitcoin. Bitcoin removes the pesky credit card approval issues for both user and merchant and eliminates credit card fraud and disputed charges. Zynga offers other methods of payment, but bitcoin offers much lower transaction fees (conversion and BitPay fees notwithstanding).
The net result is, Zynga should be viewed more as an attractive online gambling play and no longer as Facebook's outside dog begging for a few table scraps. If you believe online poker is here to stay, the company is uniquely well positioned to hunt for increases in profits.
At the time of publication, Weinstein had no positions in securities mentioned.
Follow @RobertWeinstein
This article represents the opinion of a contributor and not necessarily that of TheStreet or its editorial staff.Bucks head coach Jason Kidd chats with a referee during the first half of the game against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center. (Photo: Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
It was less than two minutes into Thursday's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves and both John Henson and Tony Snell knew they had messed up defensively.
So when Sterling Brown and Thon Maker went to the scorer's table, both Milwaukee Bucks starters knew they'd be headed to the bench momentarily.
"It was my fault," Henson said. "Me and Tony didn't blitz (Jimmy) Butler and it was the game plan. We talked about it two minutes before we got on the court and we need to execute. Rightfully so, we had to come out. Needless to say, I didn't not blitz him again, so it worked."
RELATED: Big fourth-quarter rally fixes poor start
Henson and Snell were the first of multiple Bucks to get a hook from head coach Jason Kidd on Thursday night. It was something that ultimately worked out and the players appreciated as they battled back from a 20-point deficit to earn a 102-96 win at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
“They just made a mistake and we just needed to talk about it, and I thought they fixed it after we talked about it," Kidd said. "Understanding what the game plan was and they didn’t execute it right away. Being pros those guys responded in a positive way and that just shows the maturity. Hopefully, that group is growing up, the guys that did get pulled."
Those two starters hit the bench with 10:05 remaining the first quarter and point guard Eric Bledsoe joined them just over a minute later. On successive possessions, Bledsoe hurt the Bucks with an obvious lack of intensity.
First, he threw a lazy, poor pass that was easily stolen by Butler. The next time the Bucks got the ball, Khris Middleton lost control of it and it squirted out toward half court. Bledsoe, who was the closest Bucks player to the ball aside from Middleton, never made any attempt to help Middleton corral it and didn't help chase down Minnesota's Tyus Jones, who scooped up the loose ball and put in a layup over Middleton on the break.
Maker missed a shot and then Timberwolves guard Andrew Wiggins knocked down a three-pointer, prompting a timeout from Kidd. When the Bucks returned to the court, Matthew Dellavedova was in for Bledsoe, with the swap coming just over three minutes after tip-off.
"I feel like that's just great coaching," Bledsoe said. "We go over stuff, go over situations. The way they prepare us during shootaround and we come and (mess) up time after time in the game, you gotta try something new.
"And he did a great job pulling guys that were (messing) up and I thought we did a great job responding when we got back in."
With three starters on the bench, the Bucks scuffled through the first quarter. Down by six when Bledsoe joined Snell and Henson on the bench, the deficit ballooned to 14 points before Bledsoe came back in late in the quarter.
Milwaukee went over 5 1/2 minutes without a field goal, with some of that time coming after Bledsoe's return. Brown, Maker, Dellavedova and Terry combined to log 23 first-quarter minutes, and Giannis Antetokounmpo was the only starter to play the whole period.
While he stayed in the right during the opening half, Kidd made it clear shortly after halftime that even Antetokounmpo — Milwaukee's star and one of the NBA's top players — isn't immune to getting the hook.
"Even Giannis can make mistakes and understanding we’re a team, there is no favorite," Kidd said. "He made a mistake, he understood the mistake, and he moved on.”
Those mistakes came on the defensive end where Taj Gibson opened the third quarter with a pair of buckets inside that Antetokounmpo played a role in failing to stop. Malcolm Brogdon, who barely saw the court in the first half, was summoned off the bench about a minute into the third quarter with the Bucks down by 13. He replaced Antetokounmpo.
“I love it," Antetokounmpo said three times. "If you’re not doing the right thing, you’ve got to sit your butt on the bench. I think Coach did a great job pulling guys out and teaching them a lesson. I was one of them. He pulled me out and he told me, ‘You’ve got to play harder.’
"I came back in, played harder. I love that. (For) a coach to do that, that means he really wants to win and he really cares about his team. We’ve got to appreciate that as players.”
By the time Antetokounmpo got back in, the Bucks were on the brink of an embarrassing loss. They were down, 74-54, with 7:13 left in the third and the sellout crowd at the Bradley Center was booing at what they were seeing.
But like the other players who had been pulled earlier, Antetokounmpo responded. He battled on defense and made big plays down the stretch — collecting 22 points and 10 rebounds — to help lead the comeback.
"Me as a player and I know everyone on this team appreciates that," Antetokounmpo said of Kidd's decision to bench him. "No one gets no special treatment. We’re just here to win. Whoever wants to play hard is going to play, whoever doesn’t want to play hard is going to sit on the bench.”
Bledsoe upped his intensity after his early malaise, powering the Bucks on their final push, a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter. He had a hand in 10 of those points, coming through on four straight possessions.
He knocked down the go-ahead three-pointer, curled into the lane for a layup through a foul, hit Antetokounmpo down low for a layup then found Henson for an exclamation-point dunk with 36.2 seconds left.
Bledsoe finished with a team-high 26 points, six assists and five steals. Henson, who scored Milwaukee's first eight points out of halftime, played a big role as well, finishing with 14 points and being lauded by Kidd postgame for his pick-and-roll defense, especially when it came to making things difficult for Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns in the fourth quarter.
"It's cool," Henson said. "I love to be held accountable because it allows other teammates to be held accountable and it trickles on down and everybody does their job. That's part of building a winning culture and it was good for us tonight."Chris Herhalt, CP24.com
Toronto police say they have charged a 17-year-old girl after a 16-year-old girl was forced into the sex trade last year.
Investigators allege the suspect recruited a 16-year-old student of St. Joseph’s College School near Queen’s Park. She allegedly introduced the victim to two men, who told her she could make a lot of money working for them.
The accused is a former student of St. Joseph’s College School.
Police allege the victim was “controlled through intimidation and threats,” and forced to work in the sex trade.
The 17-year-old suspect allegedly took photos of the victim in various states of undress and posted them on backpage.com.
The victim was taken to various Toronto-area hotels and forced to have sex with clients.
Police allege the men sexually assaulted the girl and forced her to turn over all of the money she earned.
On May 6, the 17-year-old suspect was arrested by members of the Human Trafficking Enforcement Team.
She faces charges including procuring a person under the age of 18, making child pornography and advertising another person’s sexual services.
She cannot be identified per the terms of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Two male suspects were charged in connection with the case on April 21, 2016.
Henry Borrego-Salinas, 25, and Justin Ferguson, 26, both of Toronto, are each charged with seven offences including trafficking in persons under 18, procuring and exercising control and sexual assault on a person under 18.
Toronto Catholic District School Board spokesperson John Yan said the board is cooperating fully in the investigation and offering support services to students at the school if they need it.
The letter sent home to parents |
}, _ From, State ) when is_pid ( Pid ) -> ets : insert ( State #state.pid2id, { Pid, Id }), ets : insert ( State #state.id2pid, { Id, Pid }), link ( Pid ), % tell us if they exit, so we can log them out %io:format("~w logged in as ~w
",[Pid, Id]), { reply, ok, State }; handle_call ({ logout, Pid }, _ From, State ) when is_pid ( Pid ) -> unlink ( Pid ), PidRows = ets : lookup ( State #state.pid2id, Pid ), case PidRows of [] -> ok ; _ -> IdRows = [ { I, P } || { P, I } <- PidRows ], % invert tuples ets : delete ( State #state.pid2id, Pid ), % delete all pid->id entries [ ets : delete_object ( State #state.id2pid, Obj ) || Obj <- IdRows ] % and all id->pid end, %io:format("pid ~w logged out
",[Pid]), { reply, ok, State }; handle_call ({ send, Id, Msg }, From, State ) -> F = fun () -> % get users who are subscribed to Id: Users = subsmanager : get_subscribers ( Id ), io : format ( "Subscribers of ~w = ~w
",[ Id, Users ]), % get pids of anyone logged in from Users list: Pids0 = lists : map ( fun ( U ) -> [ P || { _ I, P } <- ets : lookup ( State #state.id2pid, U ) ] end, [ Id | Users ] % we are always subscribed to ourselves ), Pids = lists : flatten ( Pids0 ), io : format ( "Pids: ~w
", [ Pids ]), % send Msg to them all M = { router_msg, Msg }, [ Pid! M || Pid <- Pids ], % respond with how many users saw the message gen_server : reply ( From, { ok, length ( Pids )}) end, spawn ( F ), { noreply, State }. % handle death and cleanup of logged in processes handle_info ( Info, State ) -> case Info of { 'EXIT', Pid, _ Why } -> handle_call ({ logout, Pid }, blah, State ); Wtf -> io : format ( "Caught unhandled message: ~w
", [ Wtf ]) end, { noreply, State }. handle_cast (_ Msg, State ) -> { noreply, State }. terminate (_ Reason, _ State ) -> ok. code_change (_ OldVsn, State, _ Extra ) -> { ok, State }.
And here's a quick test that doesn't require mochiweb - I've used atoms instead of user ids, and omitted some output for clarity:
(subsman@localhost)1> c(subsmanager), c(router), rr("subsmanager.erl"). (subsman@localhost)2> subsmanager:start_link(). (subsman@localhost)3> router:start_link(). (subsman@localhost)4> Subs = [#subscription{subscriber=alice, subscribee=rj}, #subscription{subscriber=bob, subscribee=rj}]. [#subscription{subscriber = alice,subscribee = rj}, #subscription{subscriber = bob,subscribee = rj}] (subsman@localhost)5> subsmanager:add_subscriptions(Subs). ok (subsman@localhost)6> router:send(rj, "RJ did something"). Subscribers of rj = [bob,alice] Pids: [] {ok,0} (subsman@localhost)7> router:login(alice, self()). ok (subsman@localhost)8> router:send(rj, "RJ did something"). Subscribers of rj = [bob,alice] Pids: [<0.46.0>] {ok,1} (subsman@localhost)9> receive {router_msg, M} -> io:format("~s
",[M]) end. RJ did something ok
This shows how alice can a receive a message when the subject is someone she is subscribed to (rj), even though the message wasn't sent directly to alice. The output shows that the router identified possible targets as [alice,bob] but only delivered the message to one person, alice, because bob was not logged in.
Generating a typical social-network friends dataset
We could generate lots of friend relationships at random, but that's not particularly realistic. Social networks tend to exhibit a power law distribution. Social networks usually have a few super-popular users (some Twitter users have over 100,000 followers) and plenty of people with just a handful of friends. The Last.fm friends data is typical - it fits a Barabási–Albert graph model, so that's what I'll use.
To generate the dataset I'm using the python module from the excellent igraph library:
fakefriends.py:
import igraph g = igraph. Graph. Barabasi ( 1000000, 15, directed = False ) print "Edges: " + str ( g. ecount ()) + " Verticies: " + str ( g. vcount ()) g. write_edgelist ( "fakefriends.txt" )
This will generate with 2 user ids per line, space separated. These are the friend relationships we'll load into our subsmanager. User ids range from 1 to a million.
Bulk loading friends data into mnesia
This small module will read the fakefriends.txt file and create a list of subscription records.
readfriends.erl - to read the fakefriends.txt and create subscription records:
- module ( readfriends ). - export ([ load / 1 ]). - record ( subscription, { subscriber, subscribee }). load ( Filename ) -> for_each_line_in_file ( Filename, fun ( Line, Acc ) -> [ As, Bs ] = string : tokens ( string : strip ( Line, right, $
), " " ), { A, _} = string : to_integer ( As ), { B, _} = string : to_integer ( Bs ), [ #subscription { subscriber = A, subscribee = B } | Acc ] end, [ read ], []). % via: http://www.trapexit.org/Reading_Lines_from_a_File for_each_line_in_file ( Name, Proc, Mode, Accum0 ) -> { ok, Device } = file : open ( Name, Mode ), for_each_line ( Device, Proc, Accum0 ). for_each_line ( Device, Proc, Accum ) -> case io : get_line ( Device, "" ) of eof -> file : close ( Device ), Accum ; Line -> NewAccum = Proc ( Line, Accum ), for_each_line ( Device, Proc, NewAccum ) end.
Now in the subsmanager shell, you can read from the text file and add the subscriptions:
$ erl -name router@minifeeds4.gs2 +K true +A 128 -setcookie secretcookie -mnesia dump_log_write_threshold 50000 -mnesia dc_dump_limit 40 erl> c(readfriends), c(subsmanager). erl> subsmanager:first_run(). erl> subsmanager:start_link(). erl> subsmanager:add_subscriptions( readfriends:load("fakefriends.txt") ).
Note the additional mnesia parameters - these are to avoid the ** WARNING ** Mnesia is overloaded messages you would (probably) otherwise see. Refer to my previous post: On bulk loading data into Mnesia for alternative ways to load in lots of data. The best solution seems to be (as pointed out in the comments, thanks Jacob!) to set those options. The Mnesia reference manual contains many other settings under Configuration Parameters, and is worth a look.
Turning it up to 1 Million
Creating a million tcp connections from one host is non-trivial. I've a feeling that people who do this regularly have small clusters dedicated to simulating lots of client connections, probably running a real tool like Tsung. Even with the tuning from Part 1 to increase kernel tcp memory, increase the file descriptor ulimits and set the local port range to the maximum, we will still hit a hard limit on ephemeral ports.
When making a tcp connection, the client end is allocated (or you can specify) a port from the range in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/iplocalport_range. It doesn't matter if you specify it manually, or use an ephemeral port, you're still going to run out.
In Part 1, we set the range to "1024 65535" - meaning there are 65535-1024 = 64511 unprivileged ports available. Some of them will be used by other processes, but we'll never get over 64511 client connections, because we'll run out of ports.
The local port range is assigned per-IP, so if we make our outgoing connections specifically from a range of different local IP addresses, we'll be able to open more than 64511 outgoing connections in total.
So let's bring up 17 new IP addresses, with the intention of making 62,000 connections from each - giving us a total of 1,054,000 connections. Safely over the 2^32 mark:
$ for i in `seq 1 17`; do echo sudo ifconfig eth0:$i 10.0.0.$i up ; done
If you run ifconfig now you should see your virtual interfaces: eth0:1, eth0:2... eth0:17, each with a different IP address. Obviously you should chose a sensible part of whatever address space you are using.
All that remains now is to modify the floodtest tool from Part 1 to specify the local IP it should connect from... Unfortunately the erlang http client doesn't let you specify the source IP. Neither does ibrowse, the alternative http client library. Damn.
Crazy Idea.. At this point I considered another option: bringing up 17 pairs of IPs - one on the server and one on the client - each pair in their own isolated /30 subnet. I think that if I then made the client connect to any given server IP, it would force the local address to be other half of the pair on that subnet, because only one of the local IPs would actually be able to reach the server IP. In theory, this would mean declaring the local source IP on the client machine would not be necessary (although the range of server IPs would need to be specified). I don't know if this would really work - it sounded plausible at the time. In the end I decided it was too perverted and didn't try it.
I also poked around in OTP's http_transport code and considered adding support for specifying the local IP. It's not really a feature you usually need in an HTTP client though, and it would certainly have been more work.
Note: gentcp lets you specify the source address, so I ended up writing a rather crude client using gentcp specifically for this test:
floodtest2.erl
- module ( floodtest2 ). - compile ( export_all ). - define ( SERVERADDR, "10.1.2.3" ). % where mochiweb is running - define ( SERVERPORT, 8000 ). % Generate the config in bash like so (chose some available address space): % EACH=62000; for i in `seq 1 17`; do echo "{ {10,0,0,$i}, $((($i-1)*$EACH+1)), $(($i*$EACH)) }, "; done run ( Interval ) -> Config = [ { { 10, 0, 0, 1 }, 1, 62000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 2 }, 62001, 124000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 3 }, 124001, 186000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 4 }, 186001, 248000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 5 }, 248001, 310000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 6 }, 310001, 372000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 7 }, 372001, 434000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 8 }, 434001, 496000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 9 }, 496001, 558000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 10 }, 558001, 620000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 11 }, 620001, 682000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 12 }, 682001, 744000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 13 }, 744001, 806000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 14 }, 806001, 868000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 15 }, 868001, 930000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 16 }, 930001, 992000 }, { { 10, 0, 0, 17 }, 992001, 1054000 }], start ( Config, Interval ). start ( Config, Interval ) -> Monitor = monitor (), AdjustedInterval = Interval / length ( Config ), [ spawn ( fun start / 5, [ Lower, Upper, Ip, AdjustedInterval, Monitor ]) || { Ip, Lower, Upper } <- Config ], ok. start ( LowerID, UpperID, _, _, _) when LowerID == UpperID -> done ; start ( LowerID, UpperID, LocalIP, Interval, Monitor ) -> spawn ( fun connect / 5, [? SERVERADDR,? SERVERPORT, LocalIP, "/test/" ++ LowerID, Monitor ]), receive after Interval -> start ( LowerID + 1, UpperID, LocalIP, Interval, Monitor ) end. connect ( ServerAddr, ServerPort, ClientIP, Path, Monitor ) -> Opts = [ binary, { packet, 0 }, { ip, ClientIP }, { reuseaddr, true }, { active, false }], { ok, Sock } = gen_tcp : connect ( ServerAddr, ServerPort, Opts ), Monitor! open, ReqL = io_lib : format ( "GET ~s \r
Host: ~s \r
\r
", [ Path, ServerAddr ]), Req = list_to_binary ( ReqL ), ok = gen_tcp : send ( Sock, [ Req ]), do_recv ( Sock, Monitor ), ( catch gen_tcp : close ( Sock )), ok. do_recv ( Sock, Monitor ) -> case gen_tcp : recv ( Sock, 0 ) of { ok, B } -> Monitor! { bytes, size ( B )}, io : format ( "Recvd ~s
", [ binary_to_list ( B )]), io : format ( "Recvd ~w bytes
", [ size ( B )]), do_recv ( Sock, Monitor ); { error, closed } -> Monitor! closed, closed ; Other -> Monitor! closed, io : format ( "Other: ~w
",[ Other ]) end. % Monitor process receives stats and reports how much data we received etc: monitor () -> Pid = spawn (? MODULE, monitor0, [{ 0, 0, 0, 0 }]), timer : send_interval ( 10000, Pid, report ), Pid. monitor0 ({ Open, Closed, Chunks, Bytes } = S ) -> receive report -> io : format ( "{Open, Closed, Chunks, Bytes} = ~w
",[ S ]); open -> monitor0 ({ Open + 1, Closed, Chunks, Bytes }); closed -> monitor0 ({ Open, Closed + 1, Chunks, Bytes }); chunk -> monitor0 ({ Open, Closed, Chunks + 1, Bytes }); { bytes, B } -> monitor0 ({ Open, Closed, Chunks, Bytes + B }) end.
As an initial test I was connecting to the mochiweb app from Part 1 - it simply sends one message to every client every 10 seconds.
erl> c(floodtest2), floodtest2:run(20).
This quickly ate all my memory.
Turns out opening lots of connections with gen_tcp like that eats a lot of ram. I think it'd need ~36GB to make it work without any additional tuning. I'm not interested in trying to optimise my quick-hack erlang http client (in the real world, this would be 1M actual web browsers), and the only machine I could get my hands on that has more than 32GB of RAM is one of our production databases, and I can't find a good excuse to take Last.fm offline whilst I test this :) Additionally, it seems like it still only managed to open around 64,500 ports. Hmm.
At this point I decided to break out the trusty libevent, which I was pleased to discover has an HTTP API. Newer versions also have a evhttpconnectionsetlocaladdress function in the http API. This sounds promising.
Here's the http client in C using libevent:
#include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/time.h> #include <sys/queue.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <err.h> #include <event.h> #include <evhttp.h> #include <unistd.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <sys/socket.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include <time.h> #include <pthread.h> #define BUFSIZE 4096 #define NUMCONNS 62000 #define SERVERADDR "10.103.1.43" #define SERVERPORT 8000 #define SLEEP_MS 10 char buf [ BUFSIZE ]; int bytes_recvd = 0 ; int chunks_recvd = 0 ; int closed = 0 ; int connected = 0 ; // called per chunk received void chunkcb ( struct evhttp_request * req, void * arg ) { int s = evbuffer_remove ( req -> input_buffer, & buf, BUFSIZE ); //printf("Read %d bytes: %s
", s, &buf); bytes_recvd += s ; chunks_recvd ++ ; if ( connected >= NUMCONNS && chunks_recvd % 10000 == 0 ) printf ( ">Chunks: %d \t Bytes: %d \t Closed: %d
", chunks_recvd, bytes_recvd, closed ); } // gets called when request completes void reqcb ( struct evhttp_request * req, void * arg ) { closed ++ ; } int main ( int argc, char ** argv ) { event_init (); struct evhttp * evhttp_connection ; struct evhttp_request * evhttp_request ; char addr [ 16 ]; char path [ 32 ]; // eg: "/test/123" int i, octet ; for ( octet = 1 ; octet <= 17 ; octet ++ ){ sprintf ( & addr, "10.224.0.%d", octet ); for ( i = 1 ; i <= NUMCONNS ; i ++ ) { evhttp_connection = evhttp_connection_new ( SERVERADDR, SERVERPORT ); evhttp_connection_set_local_address ( evhttp_connection, & addr ); evhttp_set_timeout ( evhttp_connection, 864000 ); // 10 day timeout evhttp_request = evhttp_request_new ( reqcb, NULL ); evhttp_request -> chunk_cb = chunkcb ; sprintf ( & path, "/test/%d", ++ connected ); if ( i % 100 == 0 ) printf ( "Req: %s \t -> \t %s
", addr, & path ); evhttp_make_request ( evhttp_connection, evhttp_request, EVHTTP_REQ_GET, path ); evhttp_connection_set_timeout ( evhttp_request -> evcon, 864000 ); event_loop ( EVLOOP_NONBLOCK ); if ( connected % 200 == 0 ) printf ( "
Chunks: %d \t Bytes: %d \t Closed: %d
", chunks_recvd, bytes_recvd, closed ); usleep ( SLEEP_MS * 1000 ); } } event_dispatch (); return 0 ; }
Most parameters are hardcoded as #define's so you configure it by editing the source and recompiling.
Compile and run:
$ gcc -o httpclient httpclient.c -levent $./httpclient
This still failed to open more than 64,500 ports. Although it used less RAM doing it.
It turns out that although I was specifying the local addresses, the ephemeral port allocation somewhere in the kernel or tcp stack didn't care, and still ran out after 2^16. So in order to open more than 64,500 connections, you need to specify the local address and local port yourself, and manage them accordingly.
Unfortunately the libevent HTTP API doesn't have an option to specify the local port. I patched libevent to add a suitable function: void evhttpconnectionsetlocalport(struct evhttpconnection *evcon, ushort port);.
This was a surprisingly pleasant experience; libevent seems well written, and the documentation is pretty decent too.
With my modified libevent installed, I was able to add the following under the setlocaladdress line in the above code: evhttpconnectionsetlocalport(evhttp_connection, 1024+i);
With that in place, multiple connections from different addresses were able to use the same local port number, specific to the the local address. I recompiled the client and let it run for a bit to confirm it would break the 2^16 barrier.
Netstat confirms it:
# netstat -n | awk '/^tcp/ {t[$NF]++}END{for(state in t){print state, t[state]} }' TIME_WAIT 8 ESTABLISHED 118222
This shows how many ports are open in various states. We're finally able to open more than 2^16 connections, phew.
Now we have a tool capable of opening a million http connections from a single box. It seems to consume around 2KB per connection, plus whatever the kernel needs. It's time to use it for the "million connected user" test against our mochiweb comet server.
C1024K Test - 1 million comet connections
For this test I used 4 different servers of varying specs. These specs may be overpowered for the experiment, but they were available and waiting to go into production, and this made a good burn-in test. All four servers are on the same gigabit LAN, with up to 3 switches and a router in the middle somewhere.
The 1 million test I ran is similar to the 10k test from parts 1 and 2, the main difference being the modified client, now written in C using libevent, and that I'm running in a proper distributed-erlang setup with more than one machine.
On server 1 - Quad-core 2GHz CPU, 16GB of RAM
Start subsmanager
Load in the friends data
Start the router
Start mochiweb app
Create 17 virtual IPs as above
Install patched libevent
Run client:./httpclient to create 100 connections per second, up to 1M
Run msggen program, to send lots of messages to the router
On server 2 - Dual Quad-core 2.8GHz CPU, 32GB of RAMOn server 3 - Quad-core 2GHz CPU, 16GB of RAMOn server 4 - Dual-core 2GHz, 2GB RAM
I measured the memory usage of mochiweb during the ramp-up to a million connections, and for the rest of the day:
The httpclient has a built in delay of 10ms between connections, so it took nearly 3 hours to open a million connections. The resident memory used by the mochiweb process with 1M open connections was around 25GB. Here's the server this was running on as seen by Ganglia, which measures CPU, network and memory usage and produces nice graphs:
You can see it needs around 38GB and has started to swap. I suspect the difference is mostly consumed by the kernel to keep those connections open. The uplift at the end is when I started sending messages.
Messages were generated using 1,000 processes, with an average time between messages of 60ms per process, giving around 16,666 messages per second overall:
[ spawn ( fun () -> msggen : start ( 1000000, 10 + random : uniform ( 100 ), 1000000 ) end ) || I <- lists : seq ( 1, 1000 ) ].
The machine (server-4) generating messages looked like this on Ganglia:
That's 10 MB per second of messages it's pumping out - 16,666 messages a second. Typically these messages would come from a message bus, app servers, or part of an existing infrastructure.
When I started sending messages, the load on server 1 (hosting subsmanager and router) stayed below 1, and CPU utilization increased from 0 to 5%.
CPU on server 2 (hosting mochiweb app, with 1M connections) increased more dramatically:
Naturally as processes have to leave their hibernate state to handle messages, memory usage will increase slightly. Having all connections open with no messages is a best-case for memory usage - unsurprisingly, actually doing stuff requires more memory.
So where does this leave us? To be on the safe side, the mochiweb machine would need 40GB of RAM to hold open 1M active comet connections. Under load, up to 30GB of the memory would be used by the mochiweb app, and the remaining 10GB by the kernel. In other words, you need to allow 40KB per connection.
During various test with lots of connections, I ended up making some additional changes to my sysctl.conf. This was part trial-and-error, I don't really know enough about the internals to make especially informed decisions about which values to change. My policy was to wait for things to break, check /var/log/kern.log and see what mysterious error was reported, then increase stuff that sounded sensible after a spot of googling. Here are the settings in place during the above test:
$ cat /etc/sysctl.conf net.core.rmem_max = 33554432 net.core.wmem_max = 33554432 net.ipv4.tcp_rmem = 4096 16384 33554432 net.ipv4.tcp_wmem = 4096 16384 33554432 net.ipv4.tcp_mem = 786432 1048576 26777216 net.ipv4.tcp_max_tw_buckets = 360000 net.core.netdev_max_backlog = 2500 vm.min_free_kbytes = 65536 vm.swappiness = 0 net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65535
I would like to learn more about Linux tcp tuning so I can make a more informed decision about these settings. These are almost certainly not optimal, but at least they were enough to get to 1M connections. These changes, along with the fact this is running on a 64bit Erlang VM, and thus has a wordsize of 8bytes instead of 4, might explain why the memory usage is much higher than I observed during the C10k test of part 2.
An Erlang C-Node using Libevent
After dabbling with the HTTP api for libevent, it seemed entirely sensible to try the 1M connection test against a libevent HTTPd written in C so we have a basis for comparison.
I'm guessing that enabling kernel poll means the erlang VM is able to use epoll (or similar), but even so there's clearly some overhead involved which we might be able to mitigate by delegating the connection handling to a C program using libevent. I want to reuse most of the Erlang code so far, so let's do the bare minimum in C - just the connection handling and HTTP stuff.
Libevent has an asynchronous HTTP API, which makes implementing http servers trivial - well, trivial for C, but still less trivial than mochiweb IMO ;) I'd also been looking for an excuse to try the Erlang C interface, so the following program combines the two. It's a comet http server in C using libevent which identifies users using an integer Id (like our mochiweb app), and also acts as an Erlang C-Node.
It connects to a designated erlang node, listens for messages like { 123, <<"Hello user 123">> } then dispatches "Hello user 123" to user 123, if connected. Messages for users that are not connected are discarded, just like previous examples.
httpdcnode.c
#include <sys/types.h> #include <sys/time.h> #include <sys/queue.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <err.h> #include <event.h> #include <evhttp.h> #include <stdio.h> #include <sys/socket.h> #include <netinet/in.h> #include "erl_interface.h" #include "ei.h" #include <pthread.h> #define BUFSIZE 1024 #define MAXUSERS (17*65536) // C1024K // List of current http requests by uid: struct evhttp_request * clients [ MAXUSERS + 1 ]; // Memory to store uids passed to the cleanup callback: int slots [ MAXUSERS + 1 ]; // called when user disconnects void cleanup ( struct evhttp_connection * evcon, void * arg ) { int * uidp = ( int * ) arg ; fprintf ( stderr, "disconnected uid %d
", * uidp ); clients [ * uidp ] = NULL ; } // handles http connections, sets them up for chunked transfer, // extracts the user id and registers in the global connection table, // also sends a welcome chunk. void request_handler ( struct evhttp_request * req, void * arg ) { struct evbuffer * buf ; buf = evbuffer_new (); if ( buf == NULL ){ err ( 1, "failed to create response buffer" ); } evhttp_add_header ( req -> output_headers, "Content-Type", "text/html; charset=utf-8" ); int uid = - 1 ; if ( strncmp ( evhttp_request_uri ( req ), "/test/", 6 ) == 0 ){ uid = atoi ( 6 + evhttp_request_uri ( req ) ); } if ( uid <= 0 ){ evbuffer_add_printf ( buf, "User id not found, try /test/123 instead" ); evhttp_send_reply ( req, HTTP_NOTFOUND, "Not Found", buf ); evbuffer_free ( buf ); return ; } if ( uid > MAXUSERS ){ evbuffer_add_printf ( buf, "Max uid allowed is %d", MAXUSERS ); evhttp_send_reply ( req, HTTP_SERVUNAVAIL, "We ran out of numbers", buf ); evbuffer_free ( buf ); return ; } evhttp_send_reply_start ( req, HTTP_OK, "OK" ); // Send welcome chunk: evbuffer_add_printf ( buf, "Welcome, Url: '%s' Id: %d
", evhttp_request_uri ( req ), uid ); evhttp_send_reply_chunk ( req, buf ); evbuffer_free ( buf ); // put reference into global uid->connection table: clients [ uid ] = req ; // set close callback evhttp_connection_set_closecb ( req -> evcon, cleanup, & slots [ uid ] ); } // runs in a thread - the erlang c-node stuff // expects msgs like {uid, msg} and sends a a'msg' chunk to uid if connected void cnode_run () { int fd ; /* fd to Erlang node */ int got ; /* Result of receive */ unsigned char buf [ BUFSIZE ]; /* Buffer for incoming message */ ErlMessage emsg ; /* Incoming message */ ETERM * uid, * msg ; erl_init ( NULL, 0 ); if ( erl_connect_init ( 1, "secretcookie", 0 ) == - 1 ) erl_err_quit ( "erl_connect_init" ); if (( fd = erl_connect ( "httpdmaster@localhost" )) < 0 ) erl_err_quit ( "erl_connect" ); fprintf ( stderr, "Connected to httpdmaster@localhost
\r " ); struct evbuffer * evbuf ; while ( 1 ) { got = erl_receive_msg ( fd, buf, BUFSIZE, & emsg ); if ( got == ERL_TICK ) { continue ; } else if ( got == ERL_ERROR ) { fprintf ( stderr, "ERL_ERROR from erl_receive_msg.
" ); break ; } else { if ( emsg. type == ERL_REG_SEND ) { // get uid and body data from eg: {123, <<"Hello">>} uid = erl_element ( 1, emsg. msg ); msg = erl_element ( 2, emsg. msg ); int userid = ERL_INT_VALUE ( uid ); char * body = ( char * ) ERL_BIN_PTR ( msg ); int body_len = ERL_BIN_SIZE ( msg ); // Is this userid connected? if ( clients [ userid ]){ fprintf ( stderr, "Sending %d bytes to uid %d
", body_len, userid ); evbuf = evbuffer_new (); evbuffer_add ( evbuf, ( const void * ) body, ( size_t ) body_len ); evhttp_send_reply_chunk ( clients [ userid ], evbuf ); evbuffer_free ( evbuf ); } else { fprintf ( stderr, "Discarding %d bytes to uid %d - user not connected
", body_len, userid ); // noop } erl_free_term ( emsg. msg ); erl_free_term ( uid ); erl_free_term ( msg ); } } } // if we got here, erlang connection died. // this thread is supposed to run forever // TODO - gracefully handle failure / reconnect / etc pthread_exit ( 0 ); } int main ( int argc, char ** argv ) { // Launch the thread that runs the cnode: pthread_attr_t tattr ; pthread_t helper ; int status ; pthread_create ( & helper, NULL, cnode_run, NULL ); int i ; for ( i = 0 ; i <= MAXUSERS ; i ++ ) slots [ i ] = i ; // Launch libevent httpd: struct evhttp * httpd ; event_init (); httpd = evhttp_start ( "0.0.0.0", 8000 ); evhttp_set_gencb ( httpd, request_handler, NULL ); event_dispatch (); // Not reached, event_dispatch() shouldn't return evhttp_free ( httpd ); return 0 ; }
The maximum number of users is #defined, and similarly to the mochiweb server, it listens on port 8000 and expects users to connect with a path like so: /test/. Also hardcoded is the name of the erlang node it will connect to in order to receive messages, httpdmaster@localhost, and the erlang cookie, "secretcookie". Change these accordingly.
Run the erlang node it will connect to first:
$ erl -setcookie secretcookie -sname httpdmaster@localhost
Compile and run like so:
$ gcc -o httpdcnode httpdcnode.c -lerl_interface -lei -levent $./httpdcnode
In the erlang shell, check you can see the hidden c-node:
erl> nodes(hidden). [c1@localhost]
Now connect in your browser to http://localhost:8000/test/123. You should see the welcome message.
Now back to the erlang shell - send a message to the C node:
erl> {any, c1@localhost}! {123, <<"Hello Libevent World">>}.
Note that we don't have a Pid to use, so we use the alternate representation of {procname, node}. We use 'any' as the process name, which is ignored by the C-node.
Now you're able to deliver comet messages via Erlang, but all the http connections are managed by a libevent C program which acts as an Erlang node.
After removing the debug print statements, I connected 1M clients to the httpdcnode server using the same client as above, the machine showed a total of just under 10GB or memory used. The resident memory of the server process was stable at under 2GB:
So big savings compared to mochiweb when handling lots of connections - the resident memory per connection for the server process with libevent is just under 2KB. With everything connected, the server machine claims: Mem: 32968672k total, 9636488k used, 23332184k free, 180k buffers So the kernel/tcp stack is consuming an additional 8KB per connection, which seems a little high, but I have no basis for comparison.
This libevent-cnode server needs a bit more work. It doesn't sensibly handle multiple connections from the same user yet, and there's no locking so a race condition exists if you disconnect at just when a message was going to be dispatched.
Even so, I think this could be generalized in such a way that would allow you to use Erlang for all the interesting stuff, and have a C+libevent process act as a dumb connection-pool. With a bit more wrapper code and callbacks into Erlang, you'd hardly need to know this was going on - the C program could be run as a driver or a C-node, and an Erlang wrapper could give you a decent api built on top of libevent. (see this post for an example Erlang C driver). I would like to experiment further with this.
Final Thoughts
I have enough data now to judge how much hardware would be needed if we deploy a large scale comet system for Last.fm. Even a worst case of 40KB per connection isn't unreasonable - memory is pretty cheap at the moment, and 40GB to support a million users is not unreasonable. 10GB is even better. I will finish up the app I'm building and deploy it somewhere people can try it out. Along the way I'll tidy up the erlang memcached client I'm using and release that (from jungerl, with modifications for consistent hashing and some bug fixes), and some other things. Stay tuned :)While some Dell investors have taken issue with CEO Michael Dell's proposed plan to take his company private, an SEC filing has revealed some compelling reasons for investors to think twice about protesting the move. As noted by Forbes, a filing dated March 29th includes a lengthy section where Dell outlines the "risks and uncertainties" related to continued ownership of the company's stock — it's essentially a laundry list of how the consumer tech market has changed and how hasn't quite managed to |
democracies given Trump’s campaign vows to rip up pacts such as the Iran nuclear deal.
Trump’s latest appointment was that of former rival and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson as secretary of housing and urban development on Monday. The transition said additional cabinet selections are likely this week.
Trump has sent mixed signals to China, America’s largest trading partner. Beijing has already protested to Washington after Trump took a phone call with the authority leader of Taiwan - the first such call in around four decades.
The defiant president-elect followed up with a series of provocative tweets directed at Beijing on Sunday, accusing China of expansionism and of fiddling the exchange rate.
But China’s response to the tweet storm was muted, suggesting that Beijing may still be scrambling to work out what the outburst could mean for US relations.
On Tuesday, Trump is scheduled to meet Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, who has close ties to China’s president and is reportedly a candidate to become ambassador to Beijing.
China regards self-ruling Taiwan as part of its own territory awaiting reunification under Beijing’s rule, and any US move implying support for the island’s independence is gravely offensive to Beijing. — AFPThe Oakland Raiders signed former San Francisco 49ers linebacker Aldon Smith on Friday in an effort to bolster their defensive front ahead of the 2015 season.
San Francisco released Smith in early August after he was charged with driving under the influence and vandalism in an hit-and-run incident.
Smith practiced with the team on Friday, according to Ed Werder of ESPN who cites a source that says he impressed the coaching staff and the Raiders plan on having him in Week 1 unless the league intervenes.
The standout pass-rusher has yet to be disciplined by the NFL for his latest run-in with the law - his fifth in the past three years - and would be eligible to play until punishment is issued by the league office.
Misdemeanor charges stemming from the arrest were officially filed by the Santa Clara County DA shortly after Smith joined the Raiders on Friday, with his arraignment scheduled for Oct. 6, according to Matt Keller of ABC7 News.
Smith is joining the Raiders on a one-year contract worth up to $8 million with roster incentives, Bleacher Report's Jason Cole reports.
If he avoids a season-long absence, as the Raiders appear to be counting on given the one-year agreement, Smith would combine with second-year defensive end Khalil Mack to give Oakland one of the league's most explosive pass-rush tandems.
"We are confident that the Raiders provide an environment where Aldon can thrive through the support, structure and leadership within the building," general manager Reggie McKenzie said in the team's official announcement. "We are excited to have Aldon here in the Raiders family."
The former first-round pick recorded 44 sacks in 50 regular-season games with the 49ers, highlighted by a 2012 sophomore season in which his 19.5 sacks earned him both a Pro Bowl nod and first-team All-Pro honors.U-niversal appeal (God help me)
New Super Mario Bros. 2 was a good game, but I couldn't help feeling disappointed with it. The first New Super Mario Bros. felt like a breath of fresh air, a welcome return to the past in an age where such simplicity had been forgotten. The right bit of nostalgia at the right time can feel incredibly new.
The sequel was not that. Already following New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario 3D Land, it didn't feel old-school as much as it felt plain old. Still good, but wholly unambitious.
With the advent of New Super Mario Bros. U, I now know why it lacked adventure and inspiration. Nintendo had clearly already spent itself working on this little bit of greatness.
New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U)
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Release: November 18, 2012
MSRP: $59.99
New Super Mario Bros. U is, as you might expect, yet another sidescrolling romp through a variety of platform levels spread out across a colorful map of eclectic themed worlds. As usual, Princess Peach has gotten herself kidnapped by the forces of Bowser, and Mario must come to her aid. You know the deal by now. We joke about how much she gets kidnapped, but it's honestly gotten past the laughing point. Sort it out, Mushroom Kingdom. Sort it out.
This latest chapter in the Mario story doesn't go out of its way to contrive surface-level innovations like NSMB2 did, instead focusing on the kind of purity that made the series so appealing, while making sure to throw in just enough new toys to validate its existence. Chief among the fresh trinkets is the acorn power-up that transforms Mario into Flying Squirrel Mario, able to not only glide but gain a huge boost jump with a button press or shake of the GamePad. It's a subtle addition that blends features of old power-ups with a few unique twists, which sums up the game overall quite adequately.
Also joining the adventure are Baby Yoshis that can be carried for new powers. Unlocked in the world map, these plump curiosities follow the player through courses and are color coded according to their unique abilities. Pink Yoshis are inflated to gain high altitudes, Blue Yoshis spit bubbles that trap enemies and can be jumped on to cross gaps, while Yellow Yoshis generate light and radiate a large circular glow in order to push Boos back a little and give Mario some breathing room. Baby Yoshis will also eat any monster they come into contact with, and, more importantly, sing backing vocals to any course's music once held -- which is ludicrously adorable and brilliant for all the right reasons.
Crucially, NSMBU's level design is where it really stands strong. Intricately set out and featuring some really clever environments that play with conventional platform design, this Wii U launch title not only brings inspiration back to the series but challenge as well. Far more than in recent Mario games, quick reflexes and a solid knowledge of Mario's abilities are required to get through each course intact, not to mention discover the many hidden paths scattered throughout almost every environment.
From spooky forests to deadly mountains and even a course rendered with a lovely watercolor aesthetic, the variety and vibrancy is something more recent releases have sorely lacked. Multiple paths, allowing players to choose which world to visit, as well as courses, add to the feeling of discovery that has returned with welcome aplomb. Those looking to be challenged and surprised while still enjoying all the familiarity of the New Super Mario Bros. series will be more than satisfied with what Nintendo has to offer here.
Less-skilled players are once again catered to with a little condescending help in times of repeated failure. Die on a course enough times, and you can offer to have Luigi take over and play the level for you. Players can step into Luigi's shoes at any time and take over where the CPU left off, allowing them to pass a particularly tricky obstacle or even clear an entire course. While the hardcore players will be angry at the further "dumbing down" of videogames, the fact that you have to die quite a lot, not to mention how boring it is to watch Luigi slowly play through a stage, ensures that this feature is not something easily exploited. Skilled players will barely, if ever, even have this feature offered, so it should bother nobody and be accepted gratefully by those who may need it.
Though NSMBU is a return to liveliness, it still must be said that a lot of the freshness of the original concept is long gone, and the foundation upon which this new chapter is built happens to be nothing we've not seen before. The game is pure quality, through and through, but it's not the kind of breathtaking experience that once it was. Some of the sheen invariably comes off when such a simple idea as New Super Mario Bros. is repeated as many times as it has been, and while this is a vastly entertaining experience that does a lot of what New Super Mario Bros.2 didn't, the recent release of that latter game has unavoidably taken some the wind out of the sails of this one.
There are some moments where the pacing seems to drop off and the game settles into safe territory. Bosses are relatively uninspired and more or less retread old ground with maybe one or two little spins on the formula. A few levels also mine for nostalgia, but come off more like repetition, especially when it comes to the "snaking" stages and mid-world castles. Likewise, the game's worlds are quite traditional, from the usual mountains and deserts to ocean and sky-themed environments. The watercolor course mentioned earlier could have supported an entire world, but bold new themes are only ever explored in their own little levels, while the larger portions of the game are not quite so brave as to reinvent themselves.
Nevertheless, New Super Mario Bros. U is a largely brilliant return to greatness for a series that had been teetering on the edge of banality. It's helped that, for the first time, we get to see a Mario game built for HD viewing, and it is glorious. The endearing animations and gorgeous color scheme were made for modern televisions, to the point where one almost feels compelled to look back on the Wii's first-party library with sad regret. I was fine with the Wii while it lasted, but New Super Mario Bros. U will make it almost impossible to go back once it's been experienced in its new resolution.
Local multiplayer returns for this console installment, though thanks to the Wii U's limitations, only one GamePad can be used. This is exploited for a new co-op feature that has players controlling characters directly with Wii remotes, while the GamePad player can interact with the world itself to generate new platforms and deal with enemies. It's a unique little idea that can certainly alleviate the challenge for players, but at the same time I can't help but feel that the GamePad side of things is a little boring. When you play a Mario game, you want to play a Mario game, rather than feel relegated to a jumped-up cheerleader position.
As well as the main game, there is a Boost Rush and Coin Rush mode, playable solo or cooperatively. These challenge modes take previously cleared courses and have you trying to either clear them as quickly as possible or with as many coins as can be grabbed. While not worth the price of entry alone, they provide a neat little distraction for those who want some extra replay value.
New Super Mario Bros. U is perhaps not the best game to show off the Wii U's capabilities. It keeps things very familiar, to the point where the expected input method is actually an upturned Wii Remote (the game's start screen even says, "Press 2," despite the GamePad having no "2" button). However, a game like this is good to have early, as it demonstrates that, just because Wii U games have access to new features, that doesn't mean they need to be implemented just for the sake of it. NSMBU keeps it simple and elegant, while also revealing how the GamePad can be used as a theoretical handheld device.
GamePad players will not need to use the touchscreen for any extra features, instead getting a stream of the game exactly as it's represented on the television. It's more or less useless, yet it does show off the startling response time of the GamePad screen, and while the visuals are a lot more drab as opposed to the television presentation, the idea of being able to turn on the Wii U, start the game, and play without ever having to turn the TV on is a whimsical thing to experience, if only the once.
New Super Mario Bros. U is a great little platformer that kicks off the Wii U launch with a bang. Players know exactly what they're getting with this one -- an entertaining and incomplex bit of gaming that provides challenge and smirks in equal measure. While certainly a "safe" game to launch with, it is by no means unremarkable, and the only people who would fail to have fun are those with a fundamental aversion to Mario or platformers in general. Literally everybody else would find it incredibly difficult to dislike this one... even if some of those latter stages will make them temporarily despise it.
Because nobody likes lava levels. Nobody.
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New Super Mario Bros. U reviewed by Jim SterlingAt Syriza’s HQ, the cigarette smoke in the cafe swirls into shapes. If those could reflect the images in the minds of the men hunched over their black coffees, they would probably be the faces of Che Guevara, or Aris Velouchiotis, the second world war Greek resistance fighter. These are veteran leftists who expected to end their days as professors of such esoteric subjects as development economics, human rights law and who killed who in the civil war. Instead, they are on the brink of power.
Black coffee and hard pretzels are all the cafe provides, together with the possibility of contracting lung cancer. But on the eve of the vote, I found its occupants confident, if bemused.
However, Syriza HQ is not the place to learn about radicalisation. The fact that a party with a “central committee” even got close to power has nothing to do with a sudden swing to Marxism in the Greek psyche. It is, instead, testimony to three things: the strategic crisis of the eurozone, the determination of the Greek elite to cling to systemic corruption, and a new way of thinking among the young.
Of these, the eurozone’s crisis is easiest to understand – because its consequences can be read so easily in the macroeconomic figures. The IMF predicted Greece would grow as the result of its aid package in 2010. Instead, the economy has shrunk by 25%. Wages are down by the same amount. Youth unemployment stands at 60% – and that is among those who are still in the country.
So the economic collapse – about which all Greeks, both right and leftwing, are bitter – is not just seen as a material collapse. It demonstrated complete myopia among the European policy elite. In all of drama and comedy there is no figure more laughable as a rich man who does not know what he is doing. For the past four years the troika – the European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank – has provided Greeks with just such a spectacle.
As for the Greek oligarchs, their misrule long predates the crisis. These are not only the famous shipping magnates, whose industry pays no tax, but the bosses of energy and construction groups and football clubs. As one eminent Greek economist told me last week: “These guys have avoided paying tax through the Metaxas dictatorship, the Nazi occupation, a civil war and a military junta.” They had no intention of paying taxes as the troika began demanding Greece balance the books after 2010, which is why the burden fell on those Greeks trapped in the PAYE system – a workforce of 3.5 million that fell during the crisis to just 2.5 million.
The oligarchs allowed the Greek state to become a battleground of conflicting interests. As Yiannis Palaiologos, a Greek journalist, put it in his recent book on the crisis, there is “a pervasive irresponsibility, a sense that no one is in charge, no one is willing or able to act as a custodian of the common good”.
But their most corrosive impact is on the layers of society beneath them. “There goes X,” Greeks say to each other as the rich walk to their tables in trendy bars. “He is controlling Y in parliament and having an affair with Z.” It’s like a soap opera, but for real, and too many Greeks are deferentially mesmerised by it.
Over three general elections Syriza’s achievement has been to politicise the issue of the oligarchy. The Greek word for them is “the entangled” – and they were, above all, entangled in the centrist political duopoly. Because Syriza owes them nothing, its leader, Alexis Tsipras, was able to give the issue of corruption and tax evasion both rhetorical barrels – and this resonated massively among the young.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alexis Tsipras of Syriza in Athens on 22 January. Photograph: AGF/Rex
And here’s why. In a functional market economy, the classic couple in a posh restaurant are young and close in age. In my travels through the eurocrisis – from Dublin to Athens – I have noticed that the classic couple in a dysfunctional economy is a grey-haired man with a twentysomething woman. It becomes a story of old men with oligarchic power flaunting their wealth and influence without opprobrium.
The youth are usurped when oligarchy, corruption and elite politics stifle meritocracy. The sudden emergence of small centrist parties led by charismatic young professionals in Greece is testimony that this generation has had enough. But by the time they got their act together, Tsipras was already there.
From outside, Greece looks like a giant negative: but what lies beneath the rise of the radical left is the emergence of positive new values – among a layer of young people much wider than Syriza’s natural support base. These are the classic values of the networked generation: self-reliance, creativity, the willingness to treat life as a social experiment, a global outlook.
When Golden Dawn emerged as a frightening, violent neo-Nazi force, with – at one point – 14% support, what struck the networked youth was how many of the political elite pandered to it. People who had read its history could see a replay of late Weimar flickering before their eyes: delusional Nazis feted by big businessmen craving for order.
I’ve reported the Greek crisis since it began, and what changed in 2015 was this: Syriza had already won the solid support of about 25% of voters on the issues of Europe and economics. But now a further portion of the Greek electorate, above all the young, are signalling they’ve had enough of corruption and elites.
Greece, though an outlier, has always been a signifier, too: this is what happens when modern capitalism fails. For there are inept bureaucrats and corrupt elites everywhere: only the trillions of dollars created and pumped into their nations’ economies to avoid collapse shields them from the scrutiny they have received in Greece.
We face two years of electoral uncertainty in Europe, with the far left or the hard right now vying for power in Spain, France and the Netherlands. Some are proclaiming this “the end of neoliberalism”.
I’m not sure of that. All that’s certain is that Greece shows how it could end.
Paul Mason is economics editor at Channel 4 News. Follow him @paulmasonnewsNew Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate with this online video. (Maggie Hassan)
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) on Monday announced that she will challenge incumbent GOP Sen. Kelly Ayotte, ending months of speculation about her Senate ambitions and teeing up what could be one of the marquee Senate races of 2016.
"Washington has lost its way on too many of the priorities that matter to New Hampshire, and you can count on me to take my bipartisan approach, my common sense and my commitment to problem solving and results to the Senate,” she said in a video announcing her candidacy. “The Granite State needs a senator who knows that New Hampshire comes first -- and leads like it.”
Hassan's candidacy represents a major recruiting victory for Democratic leaders hoping to recapture the Senate in 2016. National Republican groups, who have closely monitored Hassan as she considered a high-profile candidacy, wasted no time attacking the Democratic governor’s record.
“Governor Gridlock Maggie Hassan has failed to move New Hampshire forward – and now she wants to take her resume of partisan gridlock to Washington as Harry Reid’s hand-picked Senate candidate,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Andrea Bozek.Comcast has sent TorrentFreak a cease and desist letter, claiming copyright over contents of an article which revealed that Prenda Law was involved in operating a pirate honeypot. Failure to comply will result in a lawsuit in which the Internet provider will seek damages, a Comcast representative informs us. In addition, Comcast also alerted our hosting provider, who is now threatening to shut down our server.
Over the past several years we have covered many copyright disputes, but now we have become part of one ourselves.
Last week we wrote a news article based on public court records, revealing that Prenda Law has been involved in operating a honeypot in order to lure Internet users into downloading copyrighted material.
This revelation came to light after Comcast returned a subpoena linking the IP-address of Pirate Bay uploader “Sharkmp4″ to the infamous law firm, and has since been published by several other news outlets since we broke the news.
It was an article like any other, we thought, but on Monday we learned that Comcast was not happy with our coverage. Through the brand protection company Cyveillance they sent a cease and desist letter for an alleged copyright infringement, demanding that we take the article offline, or face legal action.
The threats are clear. If we fail to comply with the takedown notice within five days Comcast will file a lawsuit seeking immediate injunctive relief, compensatory damages, statutory damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and costs of the suit.
Unfortunately, the email above provides no indication of what we have done wrong. It simply states that we infringed on Comcast’s copyrights without explaining what the actual infringement entails.
To find out more we contacted Cyveillance with a request for additional information. In a quick response, the company informed us that the copy of the subpoena (also available on the Internet archive) response was the problem.
“The thing that we would like you to remove from you post is the copy of the subpoena form that contains Comcast subscriber’s information, The rest of the post can stay,” we were told.
While the response is clear, it still doesn’t explain what the actual infringement is. According to our knowledge court records are public domain and can be freely used by reporters, especially when they are the center of a news piece.
When we pointed this out to Cyveillance the company suddenly informed us that Comcast told them to “hold off on working on the removal of the post in question.” Baffled by the situation, and unclear how to proceed we asked for further details. However, everything went silent and several follow-up emails sent by us since Monday afternoon have gone unanswered.
Meanwhile, the situation further deteriorated when we learned that our hosting provider LeaseWeb received the same cease and desist notice. LeaseWeb alerted us to this problem on Tuesday and stated that our IP-address would be blocked if the issue was not resolved within 24 hours.
We contacted Cyveillance and alerted them to this issue, but again, no response.
TorrentFreak has consulted several legal experts who agree that we’ve done nothing wrong here. Also, Comcast has not asked the court to seal the filing in question and it can still be accessed through the court records.
While we generally refrain from writing about Internal issues, we believe this copyright claim is a matter of interest and one the public should be aware of. We hope that Comcast can clarify its stance eventually, and that our server remains online in the meantime.
Update 7pm CET: A Comcast spokesperson responded to an inquiry we sent to the company’s lawyers:
“[I] am replying to let you know that the cease and desist was sent in error, and you may disregard it. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.”When the Seahawks drafted Tyler Lockett in the third round of last year's NFL draft, the thought was he'd be able to come into the league, contribute immediately as a returner and eventually find a role on offense.
Four months later, the game plan has changed.
"He’s kind of just a regular part of the offense now," coach Pete Carroll said. "I really think he’s a receiver that’s returning kicks. We thought of him probably, 'We’ll figure that other part out. Let’s get him to be the returner,' We went about it that way, and he took it over and showed us that we need to think the other way."
In Week 1, Lockett (5-foot-10, 182 pounds) played 70 percent of the offensive snaps. While some pegged him as a slot receiver coming out of Kansas State, the Seahawks felt differently. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Lockett lined up out wide 72.7 percent of the time against the Rams. He was in the slot 25.5 percent of the time and lined up in the backfield once.
The receiving numbers were far from eye-popping: four catches for 34 yards. But the number of snaps Lockett played and where he lined up suggest that the coaches have real confidence in him.
That's why Lockett is a player to watch tonight against the Packers. The game plan will likely focus on a heavy dose of Marshawn Lynch, given what Bears running back Matt Forte did to the Packers' offense in Week 1. But if the ground game gets going, the Seahawks will take shots downfield off play-action, something they were not able to do in Week 1. With 4.40 speed, Lockett is the offense's best deep threat, and there's a good chance he'll get a couple of opportunities in this one to hit on big plays.
The Seahawks' best personnel grouping in Week 1 was Lynch, Doug Baldwin, Jermaine Kearse, Lockett and Jimmy Graham. Wilson was 18-for-20 for 194 yards with those five, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Given Lockett's speed and Graham's ability to work the middle of the field, it makes sense to get them on the field at the same time.
Lockett is an attractive fantasy option in leagues that count return yards. But even in ones that don't, given his big-play ability and upside, he's not a bad flex option against Green Bay.Joe Arpaio at a news conference at the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Headquarters in Phoenix in 2013. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)
The man formerly known as “America’s toughest sheriff” is facing federal criminal contempt charges for allegedly continuing with his racially profiling “immigration patrols” and detentions in defiance of a federal order. The trial ended last month, and the judge is expected to issue a ruling soon.
This week, I received two unsolicited emails purporting to be from Arpaio’s wife — one from “Mrs. Joe Arpaio,” and another from “Ava Arpaio.” Both — with the same text — were fundraising emails for Arpaio’s legal defense.
The email itself is something. Unsurprisingly, Ava Arpaio says the charges against her husband were politically motivated and timed to do maximum damage to his reelection campaign. (After 24 years in office, the 85-year-old Arpaio was finally defeated last year.) This section is particularly interesting:
You know, most Americans know Joe as “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” But I know him as a kind, simple and loving man. During his 24 years as the longest serving Sheriff in Maricopa County, folks have heard about him putting criminals in pink underwear in “tent cities” in the desert, but not very many people know that he also gave shelter to abandoned and endangered cats, dogs and other animals in his jails and had the prisoners care for them and to save them. That’s the kind of man Joe is.
I don’t doubt that Ava Arpaio loves her husband and that she intended this as a compliment. And I suppose that if you think it is commendable for a man to treat animals better than he treats the human beings entrusted to his care, then you’re free to donate. I suspect, however, that most people won’t see this particular passage in a light as complimentary to Joe Arpaio as Ava Arpaio seems to see it.
But I was also drawn to another phrase in the email. Apparently, Arpaio’s defense fund is being handled by a group called the National Center for Police Defense (NCPD), a nonprofit organization. That means that donations to Arpaio’s defense are, as the email put it, “100 percent tax-deductible.” The link in the email takes you to this page, which includes the following copy:
Sheriff Joe Arpaio has spent his entire life in public service, and now, he’s under attack for upholding the laws of the land and needs your support to fight this legal battle. Justice Department hold-overs from the Obama administration and their allies won’t rest until they see him wearing prison orange. The National Center for Police Defense needs your immediate support to help fund his defense. Will you use the form below to make the most generous donation you can afford? Your gift is 100% tax deductible and will be put to immediate use!
Something about that seems a bit off. Everyone facing criminal charges deserves a robust legal defense, even if he or she can’t afford one. And yes, that even includes a buffoonish sheriff who spent most of his career running roughshod over the civil and constitutional rights of others. And of course we have nonprofit groups such as the ACLU and the Equal Justice Initiative, which provide pro-bono legal defense in criminal cases. But I can’t recall another example in which a nonprofit solicited tax-deductible donations specifically for one defendant. So I consulted with Marcus Owens, an expert on nonprofit law and partner at the D.C. law firm Loeb & Loeb.
Owens says that if you’re facing criminal charges, you certainly have the right to set up a legal defense fund. Or a friend could do it for you. But donations to that fund are not tax-exempt, and the IRS would not let you get tax-exempt status. In fact, Owens says large donations may even be subject to an additional gift tax. Donors would give because they support you, or perhaps because they feel you’ve been wronged. But there would be no tax-based incentive to give.
So what about EJI or the ACLU? “A group like the ACLU files for nonprofit status to ‘defend human and civil rights secured by law.’ That’s the language you use,” Owens says. “You then need to have an independent board that decides which cases to take that fit with your mission.”
These groups can use individual cases they have already agreed to take in their fundraising materials, but you can’t start a nonprofit solely to benefit the legal defense of one specific person.
The National Center for Police Defense (NCPD) does appear to have a mission statement. This is from the group’s website:
The National Center for Police Defense, Inc. (NCPD), is dedicated to helping law enforcement officers in their time of need. Helping with the legal process when they do their job and are rewarded with a grand jury hearing that could lead to a possible indictment, or are severely injured and out on sick leave and need financial or legal assistance until they are back on their feet. NCPD isn’t only about legal defense for Law Enforcement. NCPD is about help! “NCPD is the only organization that helps protect you from the system that you protect and serve, at your time of crisis.”
In addition to Arpaio, the group also claims to have assisted or to be assisting Betty Shelby, the white Tulsa police officer recently acquitted in the shooting death of unarmed black motorist Terence Crutcher, as well as Anthony Federico, a Rockville Centre, N.Y., officer facing charges for allegedly hitting a man in the head with his Taser, then lying about the incident.
So does that mean the group is legit? It might. But dig a little further, and it all gets murky again. According to Charity Navigator, NCPD received its tax-exempt status in December 2015. That’s about five months after a federal judge sent U.S. marshals to seize evidence from Arpaio’s office. It’s also about five months before the same judge held Arpaio in criminal contempt. In other words, the group was founded just as it started to become clear that Arpaio was facing some pretty serious legal troubles. According to the email sent out under Ava Arpaio’s name, NCPD has already given some $350,000 to her husband’s defense. (The email also included a photo of NCPD’s president presenting Arpaio with an oversize check for $250,000.) That’s interesting, because according to Charity Navigator, NCPD took in just $388,952 in revenue in 2016. Which means that in its first year of existence, NCPD gave about 90 percent of its revenue to Joe Arpaio’s legal defense.
Owens says that in some cases, someone might start a nonprofit for the specific purpose of aiding victims of some traumatic event, such as a natural disaster or a plane crash. “In those cases, you’ll often seen language indicating that any money collected beyond what the victims need will be spent at the organization’s discretion.”
Arpaio’s criminal case probably is pretty traumatic to Arpaio, but it obviously isn’t in the same category as a plane crash or natural disaster. But language similar to what Owens describes exists on the NCPD’s Arpaio page as well.
The National Center for Police Defense, Inc. (NCPD) is a 501©3 non-profit organization. All contributions are tax-deductible as allowed by law, and are made with the understanding that NCPD has complete discretion and control over the use of all donated funds. If we receive more than we need for any one law enforcement officer’s case, the remaining funds will be used to assist other officers and/or to help further other programs.
Owens says there’s a lot of gray area in nonprofit law. Which means whether or not what NCPD is doing for Arpaio is technically legal may be open to interpretation. “What we may be seeing here is a paper adherence to the requirements,” Owens says. “Based on what you’ve told me, this is an organization that is aware of the need to appear to have an independent board, but the board doesn’t seem to be all that independent. It may be a shell so Arpaio can solicit tax-deductible donations. I would think a state attorney general or the IRS might want to take a look.”
At the very least, it’s all a bit unseemly. Arpaio has been on the public dole for nearly all of his professional life. He now stands accused of abusing his authority and violating the constitutional rights of the people he was elected to serve. I’d argue that if he can’t afford an attorney, he ought to be given the same taxpayer-funded defense any other indigent defendant would get when facing federal charges, which would be the federal public defender. Of course, he’d still have the right to set up a defense fund. And his supporters would have the right to donate to it. I’m just not sure why taxpayers should subsidize those donations.
All of which raises one final question: Who is the NCPD? The answer isn’t exactly clear. The group doesn’t list its board of directors on its website. There’s no phone number. I sent a query to the only email address listed on the site but didn’t receive a response.
The only listed staff member on the NCPD website is James Fotis, listed as the president. Prior to his current gig, Fotis was the longtime head of a group called the Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA). That, too, was a pretty shadowy group. For more than 15 years, the LEAA ran exploitative, often misleading ads in state attorney general, state supreme court and other state races across the country. But the group never disclosed its donors and rarely talked to the press about its funding. Here’s a Time magazine profile of the group from 2015:
Wedged between a nail salon and a pizza shop in a strip mall about 25 miles south of Washington, D.C., is a postal supply store where a small brass mailbox sits stuffed with unopened envelopes. It’s the unlikely home of one of the country’s most mysterious political hit squads. The Law Enforcement Alliance of America once had offices in a nearby office park, but it abandoned them more than a year ago. It hasn’t filed required IRS reports in two years, and its leaders, once visible on television and in congressional hearings, have all but vanished. But the nonprofit that calls itself “the nation’s largest coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victims and concerned citizens” still has teeth. It has succeeded in helping knock out 12 state-level candidates in 14 years, including an Arkansas judicial candidate last year. In doing so, the group helped launch the current governors of Texas and Nevada to their stepping-stone positions as state attorneys general. The LEAA uses brute tactics — parachuting into otherwise small-dollar races close to the end and buying up TV ads that accuse candidates of siding with “baby killers” and sexual predators.
According to the Time report, written by the Center for Public Integrity, the LEAA was created in the 1990s by the National Rifle Association in an effort to get police officers and law enforcement groups on board with the gun rights movement. The NRA stopped funding LEAA in 2010. Sometime in the early 2000s, the LEAA began to focus more on pushing law-and-order candidates in state elections. Despite its name, the Time/CPI report points out that police organizations have distanced themselves from the LEAA. Even the head of the nation’s largest police union told the author of the report, “If we have ever agreed with them, it’s been totally coincidental.” Though the LEAA never disclosed its donors, it has also apparently received funding from fiscally conservative groups such as Americans for Tax Reform and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — presumably on the assumption that tough-on-crime candidates also tend to be fiscally conservative.
I first learned about the LEAA through its involvement in Mississippi Supreme Court elections. I’ve been covering the state’s death investigation system for over 10 years now, in particular the tenure of discredited medical examiner Steven Hayne and his sidekick, the “bite mark” and “tool mark” specialist Michael West. One of the first Mississippi Supreme Court justices to question West’s credibility was former justice Charles McRae. He did so in a lonely dissenting opinion in the case of Levon Brooks, who had been convicted of raping and killing a 3-year-old girl. Brooks was convicted almost entirely due to West’s bite-mark testimony, which McRae found dubious. When McRae was up for reelection, the LEAA took out ominous ads noting that McRae “was the only judge to reverse the conviction of the murderer of a 3-year-old.”
McRae lost. In 2007, Levon Brooks was exonerated and released from prison. Kennedy Brewer was also exonerated and released. He had been convicted and sentenced to death for a remarkably similar crime. It would turn out that the same man committed both murders.
In 2008, the LEAA ran more vicious attack ads against Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz, one of the few members of that court to question the credibility of Hayne, who even |
705,000 cars delivered in the first three quarters of 2009. One factor for its popularity in China is that Audis have become the car of choice for purchase by the Chinese government for officials, and purchases by the government are responsible for 20% of its sales in China.[37] As of late 2009, Audi's operating profit of €1.17-billion ($1.85-billion) made it the biggest contributor to parent Volkswagen Group's nine-month operating profit of €1.5-billion, while the other marques in Group such as Bentley and SEAT had suffered considerable losses.[38] May 2011 saw record sales for Audi of America with the new Audi A7 and Audi A3 TDI Clean Diesel.[39] In May 2012, Audi reported a 10% increase in its sales—from 408 units to 480 in the last year alone.[40]
Audi manufactures vehicles in seven plants around the world, some of which are shared with other VW Group marques[41] although many sub-assemblies such as engines and transmissions are manufactured within other Volkswagen Group plants.
Audi's two principal assembly plants are:
Ingolstadt, Opened by Auto Union in 1964, (A3, A4, A5, Q5)
Neckarsulm, Acquired from NSU in 1969 (A4, A6, A7, A8, R8 & all RS variants)
Outside of Germany, Audi produces vehicles at:
Aurangabad, India since 2006
Bratislava, Slovakia, shared with Volkswagen, SEAT, Škoda and Porsche (Q7)
Brussels, Belgium, acquired from Volkswagen in 2007 (A1)
Changchun, China since 1995
Győr, Hungary, (TT and some A3 variants)
Jakarta, Indonesia since 2011
Martorell, Spain shared with SEAT and Volkswagen (Q3)
San José Chiapa, Mexico (2nd gen Q5)
In September 2012, Audi announced the construction of its first North American manufacturing plant in Puebla, Mexico. This plant is expected to be operative in 2016 and produce the second generation Q5.[42]
From 2002 up to 2003, Audi headed the Audi Brand Group, a subdivision of the Volkswagen Group's Automotive Division consisting of Audi, Lamborghini and SEAT, that was focused on sporty values, with the marques' product vehicles and performance being under the higher responsibility of the Audi brand.
On January 2014, Audi, along with the Wireless Power Consortium, operated a booth which demonstrated a phone compartment using the Qi open interface standard at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).[43] In May, most of the Audi dealers in UK falsely claimed that the Audi A7, A8, and R8 were Euro NCAP safety tested, all achieving five out of five stars. In fact none were tested.[44]
In 2015, Audi admitted that at least 2.1 million Audi cars had been involved in the Volkswagen emissions testing scandal in which software installed in the cars manipulated emissions data to fool regulators and allow the cars to pollute at higher than government-mandated levels. The A1, A3, A4, A5, A6, TT, Q3 and Q5 models were implicated in the scandal.[45] Audi promised to quickly find a technical solution and upgrade the cars so they can function within emissions regulations.[46] Ulrich Hackenberg, the head of research and development at Audi, was suspended in relation to the scandal.[47] Despite widespread media coverage about the scandal through the month of September, Audi reported that U.S. sales for the month had increased by 16.2%.[48] Audi's parent company Volkswagen announced on 18 June 2018 that Audi chief executive Rupert Stadler had been arrested.[49]
In November 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency implicated the 3-liter diesel engine versions of the 2016 Audi A6 Quattro, A7 Quattro, A8, A8L and the Q5 as further models that had emissions regulation defeat-device software installed.[50] Thus, these models emitted nitrogen oxide at up to nine times the legal limit when the car detected that it was not hooked up to emissions testing equipment.[51]
In November 2016, Audi expressed an intention to establish an assembly factory in Pakistan, with the company's local partner acquiring land for a plant in Korangi Creek Industrial Park in Karachi. Approval of the plan would lead to an investment of $30 million in the new plant.[52]A farmer in a small village in Macedonia is digging up a new part of his field when the plow hits an object. It’s a box that’s chained shut. Being brave and curious (and probably hoping it contained gold or something that might get him his own reality show), he opened the box and found a strange skull that looks to him to be from a werewolf or ‘Varkolak’ in the local language. Is it?
That the story a farmer named Trayche from Novo Selo Stipsko in Macedonia told Filip Ganov, a Bulgarian student who was in the village doing research on the Balkan Wars. The inside lid of the box contains lettering in Cryllic script which is common in Bulgarian and Macedonian languages. No translation was given of the lettering, which would have been helpful.
Trayche wouldn’t part with his werewolf skull but he did let Ganov take pictures, which were presented to a wildlife expert in Bulgaria who speculated that it was indeed from a wolf but not necessarily a werewolf. Instead, he surmised the wolf was suffering from Paget’s disease, a genetic disorder (also common in humans) that can cause misshapen bones and enlarged skulls. Paget’s disease can be caused by canine distemper virus, a common virus in wolves and dogs.
The skull definitely looks both canine and human and a little baboonish, which would probably cause some consternation among Bulgarians and Macedonians raised on Eastern European folklore. The chain around the box is a good indication whoever buried it believed it was a creature they didn’t want roaming around again.
So, is Trayche’s skull-in-a-box from a werewolf? It’s definitely a creature that’s out of the norm. Only a DNA test will tell. Until then, Trayche probably keeps digging and hoping for a reality show.Warning: contains strong sexual language
Where once the sexual assault trial of Jian Ghomeshi was a mere meshugaas (a wonderful Yiddish word for craziness), it has now entered unsettling new territory.
With the collapse Monday of the third accuser’s credibility — she might just as well have been wearing a suicide vest, so thoroughly did she blow up — it’s now apparent the case was built upon the self-serving and carefully edited allegations of dishonest complainants, two of whom appear to have been colluding and gleefully anticipating Ghomeshi’s ruination, and raised up on the gossamer wings of unproven allegations in the press and on social media.
Now the trial, merely by continuing to proceed, actually threatens to bring the administration of justice into disrepute.
The magic moment came Monday, when Ghomeshi’s third accuser was being grilled about some of the 5,000 messages she exchanged in the relevant period from the fall of 2014 to the fall of 2015 with fellow Ghomeshi complainant Lucy DeCoutere.
As became clear only in the cross-examination by Marie Henein, Ghomeshi’s lead lawyer, the woman was regularly reporting in to DeCoutere whenever she met with Toronto Police or prosecutors Mike Callaghan and Corie Langdon.
In this particular message, the woman had texted DeCoutere to tell her she’d just met Callaghan and Langdon.
“Did they talk about him (Ghomeshi)?” DeCoutere asked. “Like, does he miss me?”
Even now, the woman in the witness box found this to be terribly witty, and laughed.
Already, Henein had caught her red-handed in what sure looks like collusion with DeCoutere — their messages are filled with talk of “our team,” and they shared a publicist and at least for a time the same civil litigator lawyer — and a growing list of lies or omissions.
The woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, had just been forced to admit that before she went to police on Dec. 3, 2014, she told DeCoutere in a message a month earlier that “he choked me, smothered me, but never hit” — this despite saying, just two hours earlier, that she and DeCoutere had never discussed the specifics of their allegations.
“I guess I did,” the woman said. “Yep.”
In fact, the very day before the woman gave her police statement she asked DeCoutere, “Did you read about the latest allegations about him (Ghomeshi)?”
The two kept close tabs on the case.
The day of Ghomeshi’s bail hearing, for instance, the woman wrote to DeCoutere to say she was tempted to show up at the hearing, carrying a bowl of popcorn and wearing “a s–t-eating grin.”
“I think people know his goose is cooked,” DeCoutere replied.
“He’s cooked, all right,” the woman said.
And that was the least of their vicious, occasionally racist, discussion of the fallen CBC star, whom they sometimes called “the Arabian princess.”
In two messages to DeCoutere in November of 2014, the woman wrote, “It’s time to sink the pr–k. I’ll do whatever I can to put this predator where he belongs,” and said she wanted this “piece of s–t to pay for all he’s done.”
Yet still, even now, the woman still found DeCoutere’s little joke funny, and laughed — as though the 48-year-old Ghomeshi isn’t on trial, as Mike Duffy’s lawyer used to say like a mantra, “for his liberty,” as though there is something amusing about fully grown women sandbagging police and prosecutors, making 11th-hour revelations and leading the criminal justice system about by the nose.
DeCoutere was discredited last week, caught in a web of her own making by what turned out to be her assiduous courting of the very man she claimed had choked her and cut off her air.
This woman imploded in even more dramatic fashion.
Thirty-two years old when she first met Ghomeshi in July of 2003, she was involved in the arts community. After an event in a Toronto park where she was performing, he came up behind her and they talked. Then they met another time for dinner, then on another occasion ended up in a secluded part of the same park after another performance, and sat on a bench and made out.
They kissed a while, the woman said, and then at some point she felt “his hands were around my neck and he was squeezing.
“I realized something’s not right,” she told Ontario Court Judge William Horkins. “I felt like some kind of switch (had been thrown in him), I tried to get out of it, and then his hand was on my mouth, smothering me.”
She wiggled out of it, she said, adding, “There was nothing about this I wanted to be a part of. It didn’t feel safe or sexy.”
But she went out with him again, for dinner and drinks on King Street (asked why, she told Callaghan “…he’s very charming and you sort of second-guess yourself”), but there was nothing remarkable about the evening, she said.
Up until last Friday, this was all she ever said about that night — and that since the alleged choking, she had always kept her distance from Ghomeshi.
Friday, however, she had a revelation that perhaps there was “the little thing I didn’t say and you didn’t ask” as she told the detectives.
The detail was that she’d taken Ghomeshi home after the King Street dinner, and there, in the safety of her house, they’d messed around and she’d masturbated him, and then he’d fallen asleep for a while, and then he went home.
Now what she’d originally told the police, quite specifically, was that that night, “I took a cab. I went home.”
“That’s a lie, under oath?” Henein asked.
“It’s an omission,” the woman replied.
“Well, it wasn’t accidental,” Henein said.
“It was an absolute misjudgment and one that a lot of women make,” the woman began to say, but Henein stopped her. “That is a lie?”
“Sure,” the woman said.
“Deliberately misleading?”
“Yes,” the woman said.
The police had asked, of course, if she and Ghomeshi had ever had sexual discussions, and she said no.
“You tell the police ‘I never had sex” (with Ghomeshi). Did you think masturbating him would fall within that category?” Henein asked.
And the woman, invoking the great Bill Clinton, who famously did not have “Intercourse with that woman,” replied, “It wasn’t sex. Intercourse is sex.”
National Post
• Email: cblatchford@postmedia.com | Twitter: blatchkikiGoing into the season, the Chicago Cubs were not only the defending champions, but they had nearly the same exact roster as the 103 win team from the year before. They were a clear favorite to run away with the NL Central, with Fangraphs predicting a 97 win 2017 just after they had won the 2016 World Series. All that really seemed left was the formality of winning the NLDS and NLCS to get to the World Series once again. But that is why the games are actually played.
Through 58 games this season, the Cubs have a record of 30-28, a game behind the Milwaukee Brewers, sitting in second place. The way the Cubs are set up, you’d think they would be the ones 13 games in their division, not just the Astros.
There are some key reasons the Cubs are sitting in the middle of the pack in the National League this season. For one, the excellent pitching they had last season just isn’t clicking the way it did in 2016. Comparing 2016 to 2017, the Cubs had a 3.15 ERA (1st), 3.77 FIP (5th), and 20.4 fWAR (4th) last season, but have fallen to a 4.00 ERA (8th), 4.05 FIP (10th), and 5.9 fWAR (12th).
For another, instead of their offense being at the top of the leaderboards as it was in 2016, it is currently in the bottom half of the league with only a 93 wRC+, 20th in the MLB. Last season their 106 team wRC+ was 3rd in all of the MLB.
As expected, the pre-season Steamer projections were very high on the Cubs. For position players, there were seven players projected at 2.3 or higher WAR. On the pitching side, four of their starters were projected at 2.7 WAR or higher, with another three pitchers sitting between 1 and 1.3 WAR. However as we’ve seen above, the 2017 MLB season has seen several Cubs players underperform their projections, and it’s really hurt their record.
Below are some of the key offenders:
BA OBP SLG wRC+ fWAR Schwarber Steamer Value Proj. 0.264 0.353 0.49 124 2.8 Current Value 0.175 0.297 0.381 82 -0.1 R.O.S. Value Proj. 0.241 0.341 0.457 113 1.4 Change In Value -1.5
BA OBP SLG wRC+ fWAR Russell Steamer Value Proj. 0.247 0.321 0.417 96 3.4 Current Value 0.209 0.291 0.335 67 0.2 R.O.S. Value Proj. 0.246 0.321 0.417 96 2.1 Change In Value -1.1
ERA FIP fWAR Hendricks Steamer Value Proj. 3.69 3.75 3 Current Value 4.09 4.42 0.6 R.O.S. Value Proj. 3.91 3.94 1.6 Change In Value -0.8
ERA FIP fWAR Lackey Steamer Value Proj. 3.98 3.9 2.7 Current Value 5.12 5.04 0.3 R.O.S. Value Proj. 4.18 4.07 1.5 Change In Value -0.9
The above charts have four levels. The first being the original Steamer projection. The second being the value they have put up through the first 58 games of the 2017 season. The third is the player’s rest of season Steamer projection. The fourth is the overall change in value from original projection to what they have done combined with what they are projected to do the rest of the season.
These are not the only players on the team to be projected less value than originally thought, but they these are the four worst cases. Ben Zobrist‘s overall change in projected value is half a win. Jake Arrieta‘s is -0.3. Mike Montgomery‘s is -0.6. Brett Anderson’s is -0.8! But as mentioned, Kyle Schwarber, Addison Russell, Kyle Hendricks, and John Lackey are a big part of why this team isn’t running away with the NL Central at the moment.
Diving even further into the numbers, I took any Cubs position player that was projected for more than 100 PA, and calculated their total projected value at 26.9 WAR. Next I added up the fWAR those players have already accumulated, as well as added the remaining projected WAR for the rest of the season. The graph below is going to show this information as well as the prorated WAR projected through 58 games and how well the Cubs have lived up to that:
Steamer Value Proj. 26.9 Steamer Value Projection Updated 24.4 R.O.S. Value Proj. 17.4 Total Season Change In Projection Value -2.5 Approximate Expected Value Through 58 games 11.5 Actual value through 58 games 7 % of projected WAR reached through 58 games 61
Next, I took a look at pitchers for anyone projected to throw at least 35+ innings and did the same thing:
Steamer Value Proj. 20.8 Steamer Value Projection Updated 17.5 R.O.S. Value Proj. 11.6 Total Season Change In Projection Value -3.3 Approximate Expected Value Through 58 games 7.5 Actual value through 58 games 5.9 % of projected WAR reached through 58 games 78.66
Lastly, we have the Cubs current wins vs the Cubs expected wins:
Cubs wins through 58 games 30 Cubs win % through 58 games 0.508 Expected Cubs wins 97 Expected Cubs wins through 58 games 35 Expected Cubs win % through 58 games 0.599 % of projected wins reached through 58 games 85.7
Starting with the position players, to this point in the season they are nearly a whopping 40% off from their pre-season Steamer projections. The pitching has done a better job of staying closer to their projections, but even they are over 20% off as well. Luckily for the Cubs, they are only around 14% off from their expected wins to this point.
Some good news is that Steamer still loves the Cubs going forward. Steamer expects improved offense from Schwarber, Russell, Rizzo, Zobrist, Heyward, and Contreras for the rest of the season. They also expect better pitching from Arrieta, Hendricks, Lackey, Lester, and some others. Even if Steamer is right about these players, the Cubs will earn an expected 24.4 out of 26.9 projected WAR for positions players, and 17.5 out of 20.8 projected WAR for pitchers. If this happens, it is very unlikely that the Cubs would reach the lofty 97 wins that Fangraphs had them at post-2016 World Series, but it would likely put them around 88-90 wins, well enough to take the middling NL Central.
One thing I would be worried about is Steamer over-projecting some of these players despite two-plus months of below average play, but talent does usually win out. Kyle Schwarber has too much offensive talent to hit under a 100 wRC+ for long. Odds are that all four of Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, Kyle Hendricks, and John Lackey won’t be pitching under their projections for the entire season. Addison Russell and Ben Zobrist aren’t great hitters, but they are certainly better than what they have been showing.
The Cubs certainly have not played to their sky-high potential by early June in this 2017 MLB season, that is clear. As mentioned earlier, it is unlikely they will end up near 100 wins based off of their slow start as well. But if the projections are to be trusted, the Cubs may soon be coming on a hot streak and finally taking hold of the NL Central that is just waiting for a team to take it.
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News > Esport > [WCS] SteelSeries to sponsor Nordic Nationals
[WCS] SteelSeries to sponsor Nordic Nationals
DreamHack proudly presents SteelSeries as Sponsor of StarCraft II: World Championship Series – Nordic Nationals 28th of July. SteelSeries will support the event where the Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish StarCraft II Champion will be crowned.
DreamHack and Blizzard will host the Nordic Nationals in StarCraft II: World Championship Series 28th of July in Annexet, Stockholm – Sweden. SteelSeries will sponsor the event and also the tournament with their outstanding gaming peripherals and accessories developed for professional gaming.
SteelSeries is one of the leading gaming gear companies in the world and also a long-term DreamHack partner and big sponsor of StarCraft II events and teams around the world.
”Historically SteelSeries is one of the biggest supporters of competitive gaming and electronic sports and we’re of course very happy to have them on board. Nordic Nationals 28th of July will definitely be this Summer’s biggest and coolest eSports shows” said Robert Ohlen, CEO at DreamHack.
“For SteelSeries, Supporting the Nordic event scene has been a key factor for success. DreamHack has over the past two years brought eSport in Sweden to a new level, therefore we are really excited to partner up yet another great event together” said Henning Christiansson, Marketing Manager at SteelSeries Nordic & Baltic.
Find out more about SteelSeries and the products at steelseries.com
Follow SteelSeries on Facebook
Follow SteelSeries on Twitter
More about SteelSeries and DreamHacks joint-activities during Nordic Nationals will be released in the upcoming days.
More information / previous news items about Nordic Nationals:
- WCS Nordic Nationals Brackets and Livestreams
- WCS Nordic Nationals Casters announced
- Official Hotel: Quality Hotel Globe
- Nordic Nationals Media partner: Aftonbladet
- SC2 WCS Nordic Nationals ticket release 09.00 July 3
- Nordic Nationals Online Qualifiers announced
- Nordic Nationals take place at AnnexetThis article is about the administrative region of China. For the ethno-cultural region, see Tibet. For other uses, see Tibet (disambiguation)
Autonomous region
This article contains Tibetan script. Without proper rendering support, you may see very small fonts, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Tibetan characters.
The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) or Xizang Autonomous Region, called Tibet or Xizang for short (Chinese: 西藏; pinyin: Xīzàng; Mandarin pronunciation: [ɕí.tsâŋ]; literally: 'Western Tsang"; Tibetan: བོད་, Wylie: Bod, ZYPY: Poi, Tibetan pronunciation: [pʰø̀ʔ]), is a province-level autonomous region in southwest China. It was formally established in 1965 to replace the Tibet Area, an administrative division the People's Republic of China inherited from the Republic of China (ROC), about five years after the dismissal of the Kashag by the PRC (this is contested)[citation needed] following the 1959 Tibetan uprising, and about 13 years from Tibet's incorporation into the PRC in 1951.
The current borders of the Tibet Autonomous Region were generally established in the 18th century[5] and include about half of ethno-cultural Tibet. The Tibet Autonomous Region is the second-largest province-level division of China by area, spanning over 1,200,000 km2 (460,000 sq mi), after Xinjiang, and mostly due to its harsh and rugged terrain, is the least densely populated provincial-level division of the PRC.
History
There is a politically-charged historical debate on the exact nature of relations between Tibet and the Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and whether the Ming Dynasty had sovereignty over Tibet[6][7][8] after the Mongol conquest of Tibet and Yuan administrative rule in the 13th and 14th centuries. Qing dynasty (1636–1912) rule in Tibet began with their 1720 expedition to the country when they expelled the invading Dzungars, and Tibet was actually first controlled by central government. From 1912 to 1950 Tibet was under de jure suzerainty of the Republic of China, however, the difficulties of establishing a new government in the aftermath of the Xinhai Revolution, the fractious Warlord Era, the Chinese Civil War, and the overwhelming Japanese invasion and occupation before and during World War II left the Republic unable to exert any effective administration. Other parts of ethno-cultural Tibet (eastern Kham and Amdo) had been under de jure administration of the Chinese dynastic government since the mid-18th century;[9] today they are distributed among the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan. (See also: Xikang province)
In 1950, the People's Liberation Army marched into Tibet and defeated the Tibetan local army in a battle fought near the city of Chamdo. In 1951, the Tibetan representatives signed a 17-point agreement with the Central People's Government affirming China's sovereignty over Tibet and the incorporation of Tibet. The agreement was ratified in Lhasa a few months later.[10][11] Although the 17-point agreement had provided for an autonomous administration led by the Dalai Lama, a "Preparatory Committee for the Autonomous Region of Tibet" (PCART) was established in 1955 to exclude the Dalai Lama's government and create a system of administration along Communist lines. Under threat of his life from Chinese forces the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 and renounced the 17-point agreement. Tibet Autonomous Region was established in 1965, thus making Tibet a provincial-level division of China.
Geography
The Tibet Autonomous Region is located on the Tibetan Plateau, the highest region on earth. In northern Tibet elevations reach an average of over 4,572 metres (15,000 ft). Mount Everest is located on Tibet's border with Nepal.
China's provincial-level areas of Xinjiang, Qinghai and Sichuan lie to the north, northeast, and east, respectively, of the Tibet AR. There is also a short border with Yunnan province to the southeast. The PRC has border disputes with the Republic of India over the McMahon Line of Arunachal Pradesh, known to the Chinese as "South Tibet". The disputed territory of Aksai Chin (which in India, is part of Jammu and Kashmir) is to the west, and its boundary with that region is not defined. Doklam in Sikkim is also disputed with Bhutan and India. The other countries to the south are Myanmar (Kachin State), Bhutan (Gasa, Lhuntse Thimphu, Trashiyangtse and Wangdue Phodrang Districts) and Nepal (Far-Western, Mid-Western, Western, Central, and Eastern Regions).
Physically, the Tibet AR may be divided into two parts, the lakes region in the west and north-west, and the river region, which spreads out on three sides of the former on the east, south, and west. Both regions receive limited amounts of rainfall as they lie in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, however the region names are useful in contrasting their hydrological structures, and also in contrasting their different cultural uses which is nomadic in the lake region and agricultural in the river region.[12] On the south the Tibet AR is bounded by the Himalayas, and on the north by a broad mountain system. The system at no point narrows to a single range; generally there are three or four across its breadth. As a whole the system forms the watershed between rivers flowing to the Indian Ocean − the Indus, Brahmaputra and Salween and its tributaries − and the streams flowing into the undrained salt lakes to the north.
The lake region extends from the Pangong Tso Lake in Ladakh, Lake Rakshastal, Yamdrok Lake and Lake Manasarovar near the source of the Indus River, to the sources of the Salween, the Mekong and the Yangtze. Other lakes include Dagze Co, Namtso, and Pagsum Co. The lake region is a wind-swept Alpine grassland. This region is called the Chang Tang (Byang sang) or 'Northern Plateau' by the people of Tibet. It is some 1,100 km (680 mi) broad, and covers an area about equal to that of France. Due to its great distance from the ocean it is extremely arid and possesses no river outlet. The mountain ranges are spread out, rounded, disconnected, separated by relatively flat valleys.
The Tibet AR is dotted over with large and small lakes, generally salt or alkaline, and intersected by streams. Due to the presence of discontinuous permafrost over the Chang Tang, the soil is boggy and covered with tussocks of grass, thus resembling the Siberian tundra. Salt and fresh-water lakes are intermingled. The lakes are generally without outlet, or have only a small effluent. The deposits consist of soda, potash, borax and common salt. The lake region is noted for a vast number of hot springs, which are widely distributed between the Himalaya and 34° N, but are most numerous to the west of Tengri Nor (north-west of Lhasa). So intense is the cold in this part of Tibet that these springs are sometimes represented by columns of ice, the nearly boiling water having frozen in the act of ejection.
The river region is characterised by fertile mountain valleys and includes the Yarlung Tsangpo River (the upper courses of the Brahmaputra) and its major tributary, the Nyang River, the Salween, the Yangtze, the Mekong, and the Yellow River. The Yarlung Tsangpo Canyon, formed by a horseshoe bend in the river where it flows around Namcha Barwa, is the deepest, and possibly longest canyon in the world.[13] Among the mountains there are many narrow valleys. The valleys of Lhasa, Xigazê, Gyantse and the Brahmaputra are free from permafrost, covered with good soil and groves of trees, well irrigated, and richly cultivated.
The South Tibet Valley is formed by the Yarlung Tsangpo River during its middle reaches, where it travels from west to east. The valley is approximately 1200 kilometres long and 300 kilometres wide. The valley descends from 4500 metres above sea level to 2800 metres. The mountains on either side of the valley are usually around 5000 metres high.[14][15] Lakes here include Lake Paiku and Lake Puma Yumco.
Government
The Tibet Autonomous Region is a province-level entity of the People's Republic of China. Chinese law nominally guarantees some autonomy in the areas of education and language policy. Like other subdivisions of China, routine administration is carried out by a People's Government, headed by a Chairman, who has been an ethnic Tibetan except for an interregnum during the Cultural Revolution. As with other Chinese provinces, the Chairman carries out work under the direction of the regional secretary of the Communist Party of China. The regional standing committee of the Communist Party serves as the top rung of political power in the region. The current Chairman is Che Dalha and the current party secretary is Wu Yingjie.[16]
Administrative divisions
The Autonomous Region is divided into seven prefecture-level divisions: six prefecture-level cities and one prefecture.
These in turn are subdivided into a total of 66 counties and 8 districts (Chengguan, Doilungdêqên, Dagzê, Samzhubzê, Karub, Bayi, Nêdong, and Seni).
Administrative divisions in Tibetan, Chinese, and varieties of romanizations English Tibetan Tibetan Pinyin Wylie transliteration Chinese Pinyin Tibet Autonomous Region བོད་རང་སྐྱོང་ལྗོངས། Poi Ranggyongjong bod rang skyong ljongs 西藏自治区 Xīzàng Zìzhìqū Lhasa city ལྷ་ས་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། Lhasa Chongkyir lha sa grong khyer 拉萨市 Lāsà Shì Xigazê city གཞིས་ཀ་རྩེ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། Xigazê Chongkyir ggzhis ka rtse grong khyer 日喀则市 Rìkāzé Shì Qamdo city ཆབ་མདོ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། Qamdo Chongkyir chab mdo grong khyer 昌都市 Chāngdū Shì Nyingchi city ཉིང་ཁྲི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། Nyingchi Chongkyir nying khri grong khyer 林芝市 Línzhī Shì Shannan city ལྷོ་ཁ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། Lhoka Chongkyir lho kha grong khyer 山南市 Shānnán Shì Nagqu city ནག་ཆུ་གྲོང་ཁྱེར། Nagqu Chongkyir nag chu grong khyer 那曲市 àqū Shì Ngari Prefecture མངའ་རིས་ས་ཁུལ། Ngari Sakü mnga' ris sa khul 阿里地区 Ālǐ Dìqū
Urban areas
Population by urban areas of prefecture & county cities # City Urban area[21] District area[21] City proper[21] Census date 1 Lhasa[a] 199,159 279,074 559,423 2010-11-01 (1) Lhasa (new districts) [a] 21,093 78,957 see Lhasa 2010-11-01 2 Xigazê[b] 63,967 120,374 703,292 2010-11-01 (3) Qamdo[c] 44,028 116,500 657,505 2010-11-01 (4) Nagqu[d] 42,984 108,781 462,381 2010-11-01 (5) Nyingchi[e] 35,179 54,702 195,109 2010-11-01 (6) Shannan[f] 30,646 59,615 328,990 2010-11-01
a b New districts established after census: Doilungdêqên (Doilungdêqên County) Dagzê (Dagzê County). These new districts not included in the urban area & district area count of the pre-expanded city. ^ Xigazê Prefecture is currently known as Xigazê PLC after census; Xigazê CLC is currently known as Samzhubzê after census. ^ Qamdo Prefecture is currently known as Qamdo PLC after census; Qamdo County is currently known as Karuo after census. ^ Nagqu Prefecture is currently known as Nagqu PLC after census; Nagqu County is currently known as Seni after census. ^ Nyingchi Prefecture is currently known as Nyingchi PLC after census; Nyingchi County is currently known as Bayi after census. ^ Shannan Prefecture is currently known as Shannan PLC after census; Nêdong County is currently known as Nêdong after census.
Demography
With an average of only two people per square kilometer, Tibet has the lowest population density among any of the Chinese province-level administrative regions, mostly due to its harsh and rugged terrain.[32]
In 2011 the Tibetan population was three million.[33] The ethnic Tibetans, comprising 90.48% of the population,[34] mainly adhere to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, although there is an ethnic Tibetan Muslim community.[35] Other Muslim ethnic groups such as the Hui and the Salar have inhabited the Region. There is also a tiny Tibetan Christian community in eastern Tibet. Smaller tribal groups such as the Monpa and Lhoba, who follow a combination of Tibetan Buddhism and spirit worship, are found mainly in the southeastern parts |
share it with us here. To join the list of supporters of this law and receive updates as it progresses, please sign up here.
We look forward to the opportunity to testify in support of this bill and hope that the Committee on the Judiciary–chaired by Councilmember Mendelson–will take the bill seriously and hold a hearing on the law very soon.
(***Note that the Committee on the Judiciary is holding a hearing on enforcement practices related to bicyclists and pedestrians on November 2nd. This is also an important hearing, but it is separate in nature. The Committee must also hold a hearing on the Assault of Bicyclists Prevention Act in order for it to be voted on by the full Council and possibly go become law.)The weather icon on the iPhone's homescreen always reads a pleasant 73 degrees and sunny. It has since the original iPhone was released, a comfortable, inoffensive temperature that matches the comfortable, inoffensive homescreen on iOS.
The prevailing opinion after the iPhone 5 announcement is that it's boring, but still pretty great. The hardware is without a doubt impressive from a technical and engineering standpoint, but iterative on previous designs. The software is as competent as we've come to expect from Apple. Together they make for a product that's not surprising — and therefore a little boring.
"Boring" doesn't quite encapsulate what's happening with the iPhone 5, though. The new iPhone is timid. Apple has taken very few — if any — real chances. It's a safe, pleasant, and sunny 73 degrees on the iPhone.
Thoughtful, beautiful, and a wonder of modern engineering — but it is not radical
As we noted in our hands-on with the iPhone 5, the thinner and taller design feels incredibly light yet still very sturdy. Apple has tossed in the usual assortment of spec bumps: a faster processor, improved camera, and a larger screen. That last item is a bigger change than usual for Apple, but it actually does very little with the extra space from a software perspective. Moreover, compared to the other smartphones, Apple's small adjustment in screen size still leaves its smartphone at the bottom end of the spectrum.
From a distance, it’s actually difficult to tell the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S apart. Phil Schiller told us that "The design language is an iteration, but otherwise this is a completely new phone." In a promotional video, Jony Ive explained the reticence towards radically changing the iPhone’s design:
When you think about your iPhone, it’s probably the object that you use most in your life. It’s the product that you have with you all the time. With this unique relationship people have with their iPhone, we take changing it really seriously. We don’t want to just make a new phone, we want to make a much better phone.
Apple wasn’t pursuing a bold, new design, it decided to take a safer approach. Scott Wilson, founder of Chicago-based studio MINIMAL — who's had a hand in the design of the Xbox 360, Dell Venue Pro, Microsoft Courier, and the TikTok and LunaTIK iPod nano watches — characterized Apple as "masters of refinement." He puts a positive spin on Apple’s conservative design decisions, saying that "you have to respect the restraint that the company has." The design of the iPhone 5 is thoughtful, beautiful, and a wonder of modern engineering — but it is not radical.
The most important part of the iPhone's physical design has always been its minimalism. It's primarily a window into the software, where all the action is on smartphones. While consistency has served Apple well when it comes to physical design of its products, on the software side it’s a little more complicated. If software is the main design element on modern smartphones — and it is — then we should be seeing Apple sweating each and every pixel just as it sweated each and every micron. Just try to close a dozen notifications on the iPhone and ask yourself if Apple is sweating the details.
The iPhone’s UI basics have never changed
You can count the major UI changes that Apple has made to iOS on one hand: Folders, dock-based multitasking, universal search, the notification drop down, and Siri. In its five year history, iOS has seen smartphone competitors take radically different tacks on the core UI — webOS's multitasking cards, Android's widgets and stacked multitasking thumbnails, Windows Phone's active tiles, and even the upcoming BlackBerry 10's "flow" UI. Through it all, the iPhone’s UI basics have never changed; they invariably consist of a dock of 4 icons, a grid of icons above that, and lots of added features on the periphery.
Because Apple is sticking with its basic UI design, users are missing out in genuinely helpful and innovative ideas that can improve a smartphone experience. Swiping notifications away, widgets and tiles with live information, more intuitive and informative multitasking experiences — are all of these things really so disruptive to the iPhone's simplicity that they would put off new users?
Even if you don't compare iOS to other smartphone platforms, you can compare it to the third-party apps on iOS itself. There has been quite a lot of innovation in UI design and even a degree of consistency. Much of that consistency comes from Apple's own design guidelines, but a new trend has emerged across multiple flagship apps. Sliding panels, where you can swipe the main screen to the right to get a menu of options that lies "behind" it, has found its way into apps from Google, Facebook, Evernote, Path, and many more. It has quickly become a commonly understood and used UI model on iOS apps, but Apple hasn’t adopted it.
Apple doesn't seem to be willing to take any risks at all with the core UI of iOS
The innovation on third party UIs comes in part because developers have near total control over their UI in their apps, free to play around and try new things. Apple, however, doesn't seem to be willing to take any risks at all with the core UI of iOS. Why is that? It could be that the company still believes it nailed it with the iPhone's original UI, but perhaps there's a better explanation.
When Microsoft was at the height of its Windows dominance, it found itself caught in a cycle of sameness with Windows. The need to keep backwards compatibility and the fear that big changes would upset its user base led Microsoft to keep Windows looking the same and behaving the same. It packed on feature after feature, ultimately resulting in a confusing mess of mixed UI metaphors and arcane functionality. The trend culminated in Vista, where Microsoft tried to square the circle of innovating on UI while keeping app functionality the same. It didn't work, and because of the problems in Vista the OS was widely rejected.
Some of that old Microsoftian "don’t mess with success" myopia seems to have affected Apple
Apple has supplanted Microsoft as both the biggest and the most influential company in consumer electronics and technology. Like Microsoft in the 90s and early 2000s, it is taking a very conservative approach to updating its core UI in the name of accessibility and consistency. Apple is keeping the iPhone in a very familiar and safe zone, but does it really need to? It’s risky, taking something that’s massively successful and trying something new and different with it. Most companies don’t do it, but Apple has a reputation built making those kinds of bets. Perhaps it doesn’t deserve that reputation anymore.
We could really dig into some of the aggravating parts of iOS 6 — and there are plenty of them — to try to draw a direct parallel to Vista, but that would be disingenuous. To be very clear, the iPhone 5 won't be Apple’s Vista moment. Unlike Vista, it will work and be successful. Some of that old Microsoftian "don’t mess with success" myopia seems to have affected Apple, though. Success and innovation are not the same thing, and once a company stops driving for continuous innovation, it can be a difficult trait to rekindle should business ever slow. Just ask Microsoft, which has spent years rebooting Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8.
The faster you go, the harder it is to turn
The success of the iPhone has moved at breakneck speed and with every new version it has only accelerated. The faster you go, the harder it is to turn. In that context, it makes sense for Apple to play it safe when it comes to design, both from a hardware and a software perspective.
But we’ve seen where the road of not innovating OS design goes, and Apple may find that the road is shorter than it thinks.The Freer | Sackler Library of the Smithsonian Libraries have completed digitizing over 1100 volumes/41500 images from its collection of illustrated Japanese woodblock-printed books and manuscripts from the Edo and Meiji periods (1600-1912). The Libraries’ digitization project was generously funded by the Anne van Biema Endowment Fund.
The collection includes over 1,100 volumes, most of which were from the personal library of Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), the founder of Freer Gallery of Art. Often filled with beautiful multi-color illustrations, many titles are by prominent Japanese traditional and ukiyoe (“floating world”) painters such as Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716), Andō Hiroshige (1797-1858) and Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Freer also collected a large number of tea ceremony and flower arrangement books.
Additionally, the library’s collection includes sixty-seven volumes of Meiji-period illustrated books collected by Robert O. Muller (1911-2003) who also formed a superb collection of the early 20th-century Japanese prints, now in the Sackler Gallery’s art collection.
The Library’s collection of Japanese illustrated books from the Edo and Meiji Periods is an ideal complement to The Freer Gallery of Art’s recently digitized volumes in the Gerhard Pulverer Collection of Illustrated Japanese Books, one of the most important collections of Japanese illustrated books in the world.
A few highlights from the digital collection are:
Kōetsu Utaibon Hyakuban = (100 Noh Librettos designed by Hon’ami Kōetsu)
Available here: http://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/koetsu-utaibon-hyakuban
Kōetsu (1558-1637) was a multi-talented artist, craftsman, and designer who created beautiful works of pottery, lacquerware, and calligraphy. This 100-volume work includes the librettos for 100 Noh songs with calligraphic “font” by Kōetsu which was skillfully printed on luxurious mica embellished papers using wooden movable-type. In the images seen on our website, the mica appears as white or light-colored decorative patterns behind the text and on the covers of each volume. Mica was applied as a powder and produced a sparkling effect when holding the book at various angles relative to a light source.
Katsushika, Hokusai. Fugaku Hyakkei = (One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji)
Available here: http://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/fugaku-hyakkei
This title, in three volumes, is a masterpiece of Japanese book illustration depicting Mt. Fuji from many vantage points. Some views are unusual and even surprising – the ghostly outline of Mt. Fuji appears behind a spider’s web in the third volume, and in one image from volume two the mountain is merely suggested by a shape seen alongside a boat floating on choppy waters.
Katsushika, Hokusai. Haru no Fuji = (Mt. Fuji in Spring [New Year])
Available here: http://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/harunofuji00kats
This book was a special New Year’s publication of kyōka poetry (mad verses) collection commissioned by a private kyōka salon. The poetry is accompanied by two beautiful, color woodblock-printed illustrations prints by Hokusai – one depicting plum blossoms in front of the moon, the other showing three women in delicately colored kimono gathering spring herbs. The seventh day of the Japanese New Year is called nanakusa no sekku or the festival of seven herbs, and traditionally included eating a rice soup or porridge with seven healthy herbs. The word “New Year” is synonymous with “Spring” and Mt. Fuji is a good-luck image associated with the New Year’s celebration.
Utagawa, Toyokuni. Yakusha Sanjūrokkasen = (Thirty-six Popular Actors)
Available here: http://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/yakushasanjuyro00utag
Toyokuni III (1786-1864), also known as Kunisada was a prolific, and commercially successful producer of actor prints or yakusha-e which portrayed popular kabuki actors of his time. Yakusha Sanjūrokkasen was modeled after the tradition of “Thirty-six classical poets,” a theme frequently used in Japanese painting as early as the 13th century and later in prints.
See the full digital collection here!
Save
SaveThis article is about the 1977 song by Kansas. For the 1986 movie by Hou Hsiao-hsien, see Dust in the Wind (film). For the Todd Rundgren song, see Something/Anything?
"Dust in the Wind" is a song recorded by American progressive rock band Kansas and written by band member Kerry Livgren, first released on their 1977 album Point of Know Return.
The song peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of April 22, 1978, making it Kansas's only top ten Billboard Hot 100 charting single. The 45-rpm single was certified Gold for sales of one million units by the RIAA shortly after the height of its popularity as a hit single. More than 25 years later, the RIAA certified Gold the digital download format of the song, Kansas' only single to do so certified as of September 17, 2008.[2]
Background and writing [ edit ]
The guitar line for this song was written by Kerry Livgren as a finger exercise for learning fingerpicking. His wife, Vicci, heard what he was doing, remarked that the melody was nice, and encouraged him to write lyrics for it.[3] Livgren was unsure whether his fellow band members would like it, since it was a departure from their signature style. After he played the demo for the band, there was a "stunned silence" and the band asked him, "Kerry, where has this been?"[4][3]
The title of the song is a Bible reference, paraphrasing Ecclesiastes:[5]
“ I reflected on everything that is accomplished by man on earth, and I concluded: Everything he has accomplished is futile — like chasing the wind![6] ”
A meditation on mortality and the inevitability of death, the lyrical theme bears a striking resemblance to the well-known biblical passages Genesis 3:19 ("...for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.") and Ecclesiastes 3:20 (All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.) as well as to the famous opening lines of the Japanese war epic The Tale of the Heike ("...the mighty fall at last, and they are as dust before the wind.") and from a book of Native American poetry, which includes the line "for all we are is dust in the wind."[3]
Kansas also released a live version of the song on their album Two for the Show and a symphonic version on Always Never the Same.
Personnel [ edit ]
Chart performance [ edit ]
Weekly charts [ edit ] Chart (1978) Peak
position Australian Kent Music Report[7] 52 Belgian VRT Top 30[8] 29 Canadian RPM Top 100[9] 3 Canadian RPM Top Adult Contemporary[10] 1 Dutch Singles Chart[11] 19 French Singles Chart[12] 22 New Zealand Singles Chart[13] 36 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 6 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary 6 U.S. Cashbox Top 100[14] 3 Year-end charts [ edit ] Chart (1978) Rank Canadian RPM Top Singles[15] 24 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 39 U.S. Cashbox Top 100[16] 37 Certifications [ edit ] Country Provider Certification Canada[17] CRIA Gold United States[18] RIAA PlatinumBill Maher hammers Donald Trump and Ben Carson: 'Experience? Republicans avoid that like a gay son!' How else do you explain "Captain Carnival Barker" (Donald Trump) and "Sleepy McCrazy-Pants" (Ben Carson)?
Comedian Bill Maher nailed it on Friday night's "Real Time" in his monologue about Ben Carson. Following jokes about Donald Trump and Jeb Bush, Maher had the ultimate burn when he said, "If neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson really believes that somebody with zero governing experience is qualified to be president, he must first let someone with zero medical training operate on his brain."
Carson has long reiterated he's not a politician, which should set him apart from many other candidates running for the 2016 nomination. In a January 2015 interview with Fox News, Carson said, "I do make it clear that I'm not a politician and that I never intend to become a politician." Don't worry, no one would mistake you for it.
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Maher said that if there's one thing this election has shown us it is that amateur is the new black. "If there's one thing republicans can agree on, it's that the less the head of our government knows about government the better," Maher said. Perhaps this comes from their secret hatred of government and the desire to reduce the government as much as possible. How else to get someone on the side of smaller government than to make the public agree that a leader they just elected is a moron. Oh, if only they were that smart. "Experience? Republicans avoid that stuff like a gay son!" Maher declared.
This perfectly explains the GOP's two leading candidates who Maher calls "Captain Carnival Barker" aka Donald Trump and "Sleepy McCrazy-Pants" aka Ben Carson. Yes, that Ben Carson, "who says that the Ayatollah Khamenei and Vladimir Putin went to college together? Which no one can even find a source for, except, perhaps, Ambien."
This is the GOP frontrunner now? Maher isn't surprised. "Because 85% of Iowa Republicans say they find the total lack of government experience to be his biggest selling point. But if their kid needed brain surgery, would they say 'forget Ben Carson. He's a brain surgery insider.'" Maybe that's why the Iowa Caucus doesn't matter anymore—just ask Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee who never became the party's nominee.
Maher wondered where else in life does anyone apply the thinking that people who don't understand government should be the ones that run it? A plumber? No... "The shit's about to back up in here, what we need is an outsider," he joked.
This has prompted Maher to completely change his thinking on how long elections should be. He once thought our elections should be like the British who take only five weeks. "No, Americans are dumb. They need extra time."
Check out the video here:It's no question that Long Island got the most snow during Saturday’s snowfall with nearly six inches in parts of the area.
Plows pulled in and out of streets, however the Long Island Expressway was not plowed, and there was a handful of accidents and cars pulling over.
"It was terrible. It was a mess out there – cars were slipping,” said one driver.
Drivers had a difficult time on the roads Saturday afternoon with many underestimating the snowstorm.
Fox 5’s drive to Long Island was a slow and cautious one. A number of accidents on the Long Island Expressway were encountered.
Both the Long Island and the Clearview Expressway were not plowed.
Over in Suffolk County on Little East Neck Road, the conditions were the same. Drivers drove slowly – underneath, the hard snow and black ice.
"No matter what amount comes, we are ready to go," said Tom Stay, Commissioner of Public Works of the town of Babylon.
Tom Stay said they had 110 plows out on the roads, salting and plowing.
"Once the snow is about 3 inches, we have the trucks out there as quickly as possible," he said.
The Commissioner of Public Works of the Town of Babylon urged residents not to park their cars on the street so that the plows can do their job and clean curb to curb.TEHRAN – Certain neighbors of Iran had better end their policies of supporting extremist and terrorist groups, instead of leveling baseless accusations against Iran, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham on Sunday.
Afkham’s remarks came in response to Saudi foreign minister’s remarks on Saturday in which he said the U.S. president had assured Saudi King Salman about the authenticity of the nuclear agreement with Tehran but Riyadh should now look closely at what he called “the nefarious activities” of Iran in the region.Afkham said regional countries, in particular Saudi Arabia, should stop policies that have already set the region “on fire” and created waves of displaced people in Syria and Iraq, and the slaughter of innocent Yemenis.She also called for the adoption of a realistic and constructive approach toward regional issues, which can help bring peace and security for all.It is better that Saudi Arabia and some of its regional allies resolve issues through dialogue rather than being engaging in “dangerous military games.”She added, “Iran has always regarded the policy of good neighborliness and expansion of ties with all neighboring countries as priorities in its foreign relations, and has no conditions and limitations for deepening friendly relations with neighbors.”She further underscored the need for taking realistic and constructive stances to help maintain regional peace and security.MD/PNEW DELHI: Benchmark equity indices scaled record high levels on Thursday as soon as the opening bell rang, thanks to a sharp drop in retail inflation in June and dovish comments from US Fed Chair Janet Yellen in her testimony before the US Congress, where she hinted at slower-than-expected rate hikes going ahead.At 9.25 am, the BSE Sensex was trading 204 points, or 0.64 per cent, higher at 32,009. The index hit an all-time high of 32,020 in opening trade. The Nifty50 was trading 60 points, or 0.61 per cent, higher at 9,876.Major Asian markets were trading up to 1.2 per cent higher; while the dollar slipped against major global currencies.Among Sensex stocks, ITC advanced 1.63 per cent to Rs 334. Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and NTPC were up 1.55 per cent, 1.5 per cent, 1.45 per cent and 1.13 per cent, respectively.Losers included ONGC, which fell 0.37 per cent to Rs 162.25. Analysts are positive on ONGC’s prospects after the acquisition of HPCL. They believe the combined oil behemoth of HPCL, a refining and marketing company, and ONGC will help the combine entity tackle volatility in earnings caused by drop in oil prices, because refining margins tend to increase at such times, ET reported.So, what has really fuelled the surge in the benchmark indices on Thursday? Going by the buzz on Dalal Street, here is a list of top factors driving the market momentum.Asian as well as US markets reacted positively to Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony wherein she indicated that Fed would need to keep raising its benchmark interest rate gradually over next few years, but that rates won’t need to rise to levels seen in the previous cycles. This is a positive for the domestic market too. Asian peers Hang Seng, Nikkei and Shanghai were trading higher by 1.04 per cent, 0.03 per cent and 0.44 per cent, respectively, this morning.On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average index hit an all-time high after Yellen said the US economy was strong enough to absorb gradual rate increases over the next few years.HDFC Securities noted that the statement eased some of the rate hike concerns that surfaced last week, following the release of the FOMC minutes from June meeting that initially gave an impression that the Fed may press ahead with rate tightening, despite the persistence of below-target inflation data.Unabated inflows by foreign portfolio investors continued to support domestic equity markets. They have pumped over Rs 1,50,000 crore into the domestic markets since January 2017 on several factors, including expectations of accelerated pace of reforms. FPIs had invested around Rs 7,500 crore during the corresponding period last year.India’s foreign exchange reserve touched a new record high of $386.539 billion after it rose by $4.007 billion in the week to June 30, due to an increase in foreign currency assets (FCAs), the RBI said on Friday. In the previous week, the reserves had surged by $576.4 million to reach $382.53 billion.The country’s annual retail inflation eased in June to its slowest pace in more than five years, as food prices fell, building pressure on the central bank to cut interest rate when it meets for a monetary policy review on August 2.Pattern analysis showed the Nifty50 is moving past the resistance of a rising trend line successfully after a brief breach on the downside. Milan Vaishnav, CMT, Consultant Technical Analyst, Gemstone Equity Research & Advisory Services, said: “This rising line will continue to act as support for the market in the immediate short term. We will see buoyancy during the session on Thursday, but it is recommended that one should approach the market with caution and each fresh purchase should be monitored in a vigilantly.”Music Sounds Better With You
A few months ago, I misheard a Passion Pit lyric. Whilst listening to I’ll Be Alright, a brilliant modern popsong which juxtaposes ecstatic music with melancholy mid-breakup dialogue, I mistook the lyrics to the chorus, hearing the line ‘I won’t let you go unless I’ll be alright’ as ‘I won’t let you go loveless, I’ll be alright.’ A simple misunderstanding, but the two lines imply very different situations; I understood the song to imply its protagonist as still in love with his partner, but recognising that since she is no longer experiencing love, trying to continue the relationship would be pointless (like a reply to James Morrison’s Broken Strings). I subconsciously developed this understanding, due to my mistake and the fact that I was going through a similar situation at the time of listening.
However, this is post is not about breakup songs, as much fun as listening to me drone on about all my favourite heartbreak lyrics would be… No, this is about how music lovers experience music, and the implicit reason why music is my favourite medium of art. Whilst listening to that one Passion Pit song, I created my own meaning for it which became embedded in the music surrounding the lyrics, and though the situation I connected with the song was evidently very different to that which the song was actually written about, this realisation didn’t make my connection any weaker. Essentially, when you listen to music – and I mean really listen, not just appreciate the sounds – you interpret it in your own way, and create your own unique understanding and judgement of it, attaching it to things that you care about in your own life. The process is often subconscious, it facilitates an intense relationship between art and appreciator, and I believe that the best music is the perfect vehicle for it.
Some of my favourite artists clearly bear this process in mind; throughout countless interviews The XX have always refused to explain the specific situations of their lyrics so as not to ruin their fans’ empathy, as Romy XX once explained: ‘you give it out to the world and it becomes a meaning to everyone else’, saying that she wouldn’t ask her favourite artists to explain their lyrics to her if she could, for fear of being left ‘heartbroken, because it’s not my experience [anymore].’ Whilst I don’t believe that knowing the original ‘true’ meaning of a song necessarily prevents holding one’s own interpretation of it; (I still experience my own meaning of I’ll Be Alright when I listen to it), The XX’s refusal to concede their lyrics’ context shows an impressive dedication to the listening experience of their fans. This is a rich, intimate way of experiencing music, involving the listener viewing a song through the filter of one’s own experience, as if it is written from their perspective.
A less vivid and yet still significant version of the listening process may work when it comes to songs written in the second or third person. Between the release of his mixtape Nostalgia Ultra and his album Channel Orange, the most impressive way in which Frank Ocean matured as a songwriter was in how he was able to write objectively about others, painting vivid pictures of their experiences but yet still allowing his fans to pass judgement. All of the aforementioned mixtape’s songs were first person narratives, but the songs on Ocean’s latter album such as Sweet Life, Super Rich Kids, Pyramids and Monks moved the lyrical focus away from himself. In the same way that readers can choose whether to judge The Catcher in the Rye’s Holden Caulfield as a conflicted philosopher or a spoilt brat, listeners may decide whether Super Rich Kids’ eponymous protagonists are struggling with the fact that emotional support, not money, brings happiness (‘parents ain’t around enough’, ‘treat us like we can’t erupt’), or if they are just snobbishly ignorant to their blatant luxury and good luck.
This relationship between song and listener is why fans will often defend their favourite music with such vigour. A few weeks ago, I was hanging around with a friend of mine who I wouldn’t usually consider a serious music fan, and viewed an unexpected demonstration of this connection; whilst listening to a majesticcasual remix of Passenger’s Let Her Go, I carelessly but vehemently criticised the original track, as I find it to be winey and irritating. My friend suddenly seemed hurt to the extent of awkwardness, as if it was him I had insulted, not the song. It was not until much later that I realised I had insulted him; he associated that song with intimate emotions and found solace in sharing his feelings with its writer. He was hurt not because we disagreed about the quality of a song, but because I was attacking him at a very vulnerable point. There is a reason that music fans have such a prominent and aggressive presence on the youtube comments sections; it’s only natural to be protective when someone insults something that really means something to you.
I am not arguing that this process is exclusive to music; such intimacy can be experienced with any piece of art with emotional implications, be it film, literature, even video games (I’m referring more to The Last of Us than Fifa here), but I believe that popular music is the perfect outlet for it, due to the actual structure of a song. I am also not arguing that this process is the only way to enjoy or seriously appreciate music; many of my favourite artists such as Wild Beasts and Kendrick Lamar are capable of stoking obsession purely through the genius of their lyrical and musical arrangements. I simply find that the most pure, exciting way of enjoying music possible is through developing a relationship with it. When a song is connected to your memories, emotions or beliefs, that is when it really matters.
AdvertisementsAs a sports broadcaster, very few things can surpass commentating cricket in India.
In more than two decades at the ABC, I experienced multiple Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth Games and covered world championships in numerous sports.
But commentating cricket was my greatest passion, and commentating in India was always at the top of the list.
I was fortunate to broadcast three-Test series there – 2001, 2004 and 2008 – as well as the 2011 World Cup. For each series I worked alongside my great mate Jim Maxwell, the man whose voice was the soundtrack of the Australian summer.
Together we immersed ourselves in a cricket-mad nation in all its various guises.
We did so each time in the company of the great Harsha Bhogle, one of nature’s true gentlemen who carries rock star status in India and has become one of ABC Grandstand’s listeners’ favourites over the years.
India, as a country, is a total assault on the senses – sight, sound, taste and smell are all put to the test. The latter not always in the most pleasant of ways.
One morning in Chennai, Jim and I shared a taxi to the ground with renowned News Limited cricket journalist, Robert Craddock.
Unfortunately, “Crash” was not feeling on top of the world, having contracted a stomach bug. Breakfast that day consisted of a few slices of dry toast.
The M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai has the Buckingham Canal running alongside it. While sounding regal, it is anything but. It is effectively an open sewer flowing directly outside the main gates.
Upon alighting from the taxi, we were hit full force with the stench. Topped by an already hot and humid start to the day, sadly Crash’s breakfast reappeared.
Each afternoon around the tea break, when the wind changes direction and comes in off the sea, the canal’s contents assaults the olfactory nerve. At times, the stench has you almost dry retching.
India is a country of the unexpected.
While walking towards the airport terminal in Delhi one trip, we were amazed to see a cow walk up to the electronic sliding doors and saunter inside. On another occasion, driving pre-dawn out to Mumbai airport, we passed a naked body with a small sheet covering the head by the side of the road. It was a sobering sight.
Often when you think India, you think people. The streets teem with them. And wherever you see an Indian, cricket is not far away. In alleyways, on streets, in parks, the game is played with fervour.
The famous maidan in Mumbai, a massive open space, has hundreds of men and boys playing pick-up games from sunrise to sunset. It is where Sachin Tendulkar spent much of his youth.
One of the great challenges of broadcasting from India lies in the inevitable technical troubleshooting. Having a broadcast line installed is one thing. Getting it to work is another. It’s often an exercise in frustration.
On each tour of India, it was an issue and on numerous occasions, we were forced to call the game on either mobile or landline phones. On the opening day at Kolkata in 2001, we called the first two sessions on various phones. A task made more difficult by the fact we were commentating from an open balcony literally among the massive crowd.
At Nagpur in 2008, we spent almost the entirety of the opening day calling on our mobiles.
Eventually, well after the tea break, we were informed what the problem was. We had been given the wrong phone number to pass onto our master control in Sydney which was supposed to dial us in, and we could not dial out as they had placed an international bar on the line at the local exchange.
We queried the technicians who kept milling around our box for five hours about those possibilities but we were assured on each occasion that neither of those issues were the root cause and the problem lay with our equipment. When I say technicians, I mean multiple.
Sometimes they seem to multiply like the biblical loaves and fishes. It was not uncommon to have as many as five in the box – one seemingly working on the problem and the other four watching the action, if not outwardly barracking for the home side.
We used to often wonder if the constant line issues were because of the technicians’ desire to resolve things slowly so they could watch the game from our box.
Every time we were forced to call on a phone, our head of department back in Sydney had kittens as he worried about those up the management food chain potentially wanting us to abandon the call in favour of local programs back home due to the inferior sound of the broadcast. Somewhat oddly, many listeners rang the ABC to say how much more authentic the call sounded and that it fitted more with their idea of India.
One of the great features of the ABC’s coverage from India was our scorer, the incomparable Mr Subramanian. He ‘found’ Jim and Tim Lane when the national broadcaster commentated a series for the first time from the sub-continent in 1998.
I must admit, listening back home to that series, I was never sure whether he existed or if he was merely a prop that Jim and Tim were referring to in order to enhance the coverage. However, in the lead-up to the 2001 tour, Jim assured me he was the real McCoy and would be with us. And, lo and behold, come the first Test in Mumbai, he magically appeared as if he was wandering out of an Arthurian mist.
Mr Subramanian hails from Chennai and he informed us he had spent 20 hours on the train in order to fulfil his duties with us in Mumbai. He continued around the country on each of our tours on the vast and overcrowded Indian rail network. There was never cause to doubt his enthusiasm. However, the accuracy of his information was sometimes a different matter.
The day after our mobile phone episode in Kolkata in 2001, Mr Subramanian arrived at the ground with a sandalwood statue of the Hindu god, Ganesha, who, among other powers, was the god for removing obstacles. He remained in Jim’s luggage for every one of our subsequent tours to India. On occasions, Mr Subramanian, a devout Hindu, would perform a puja ceremony in the morning before play, placing flower petals and burning incense at the base of the statue.
Our Ganesha’s powers did not always save the day but he often became a point of reference throughout our broadcasts. Mr Subramanian was somewhat of a prophet as well as a scorer.
At Chennai in 2004 he amazed us all. At lunch on the third day, Australia was 4-230 after a patient opening session that saw Damien Martyn and nightwatchman Jason Gillespie survive unscathed. Just as play was resuming, Mr Subramanian commented to us that two wickets would fall in the middle session. I was behind the mic with around ten minutes to go before tea when I remembered his forecast. I ribbed him about the fact that a wicket was yet to fall.
I was never sure whether Mr Subramanian existed or if he was merely a prop that Jim and Tim were referring to in order to enhance the coverage.
He told me two would still fall before the tea interval. I asked him who would go first, Martyn or Gillespie? He confidently said Martyn, and the very next ball he was snapped up at slip by Harbhajan Singh for 104. Gillespie fell three balls later, Australia going to tea at 6-290.
The smile on Mr Subramanian’s face was priceless as the rest of |
stant breder sig til områder som europæerne ikke har bedt om, så slår briterne pjalterne sammen med UKIP og stemmer sig ud, mens danskerne holder i hånd med Enhedslisten, Folkebevægelsen og Dansk Folkeparti og et flertal af vælgerne siger ”nej tak” til noget så åbenlyst fornuftigt som internationalt politisamarbejde.
Frustrationen er forståelig. Og derfor skal der tages hånd om problemerne.
Den udvikling bliver de etablerede partier nødt til at tage seriøst. Hvis ikke vi skal ende i en situation med et sammenbrudt EU og Le Pen, Farage og Petry i spidsen for Europas stærkeste nationer, bliver centrum-partierne nødt til at tage sig alvorligt sammen og reagere på befolkningernes bekymringer.
Hvis ikke vi skal ende i en situation med et sammenbrudt EU og Le Pen, Farage og Petry i spidsen for Europas stærkeste nationer, bliver centrum-partierne nødt til at tage sig alvorligt sammen og reagere på befolkningernes bekymringer
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Særligt to problematikker skal centrum-partierne slå pjalterne sammen om, og finde konstruktive løsninger på:
I) Flygtninge- og Migrantkrisen. Europas befolkning vender sig i stigende grad mod den masseindvandring vi oplever fra Mellemøsten og Afrika. De parallelsamfund der bliver skabt, den kriminalitet der følger med, den terror vi ser, er alt sammen forbundet, på den ene eller den anden måde, med de massive flygtninge- og migrantstrømme, Europa har oplevet fra de her områder.
Hvis ikke Europas moderate ledere, hvad enten de er socialdemokrater, kristendemokrater, konservative eller liberale, får fundet nogle effektive metoder til at begrænse antallet af flygtninge- og migranter, der vælter ind over vores grænser, så har vi bestemt ikke set den øvre grænse for yderfløjenes popularitet. Det handler om effektiv ydre grænsekontrol, oprettelse af beskyttede lejre/byer i nærområderne og ikke mindst en fælles fornyelse af de internationale konventioner, der er håbløst forældede, og slet ikke giver os de nødvendige redskaber til at dæmme op for flygtninge- og migrantstrømmen.
Hvis ikke Europas moderate ledere, hvad enten de er socialdemokrater, kristendemokrater, konservative eller liberale, får fundet nogle effektive metoder til at begrænse antallet af flygtninge- og migranter, der vælter ind over vores grænser, så har vi bestemt ikke set den øvre grænse for yderfløjenes popularitet
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II) EU’s legitimitetskrise. Med EU-systemet forhandlede David Cameron en aftal, der tog spæde skridt til at gøre op med nogle af de elementer, der har skabt den stærkeste EU-kritik. F.x var der et begyndende opgør med fri bevægelighed for sociale ydelser og en ordning, der skulle gøre det lettere for nationalstater at blokere EU-lovgivning.
Desværre synes der ikke at være opbakning til, at man fortætter dette EU-reformspor, når nu Brexit er blevet en realitet. Men hvis vi for fremtiden skal have en velfungerende og effektiv union, ville det ellers være på sin plads, at Europas ledere lyttede lidt til kritikerne og påbegyndte disse reformer. Ellers kan man kun frygte, at skepsissen vokser og flere medlemslande vil begynde at tage deres medlemskab op til overvejelse.
Udviklingen skal tages meget seriøst. Jeg frygter for, hvad der vil ske, hvis ikke Europas centrum-partier tager ovenstående udfordringer seriøst. Europa er i forvejen dybt udfordret når det handler og vækst og udvikling. Det, sidste vi har brug for, er at vi spiller vores elskede kontinent i hænderne på en gruppe ekstremister – kun fordi de ansvarlige politikere ikke handlede i tide. ■
Hvis vi for fremtiden skal have en velfungerende og effektiv union, ville det ellers være på sin plads, at Europas ledere lyttede lidt til kritikerne
_______Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and other city and community leaders are set to kick off the 2017 Project Indy Summer Jobs Initiative. Representatives from EmployIndy, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee and FedEx will be on hand for the event, which will also serve as the launch for a new unified application portal.
The initiative aims to provide job training, internships and job opportunities for teenagers. The goal of Wednesday's event is to encourage young people to begin looking for summer jobs early. Hogsett's office says the new portal will make it easier for teens to connect with potential employers.
Project Indy launched last year and has received federal assistance after Indianapolis was chosen as a Summer Impact Hub by the U.S. Department of Labor. The kickoff event is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. Wednesday. Hogsett will be joined by Indy Parks Director Linda Broadfoot, EmployIndy Chief Executive Officer Angie Carr Klitzsch and Ross Dahlstrom with FedEx.Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who left the network amid allegations of sexual harassment against former network chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, has revealed she will testify before Congress on forced arbitration, a common TV contract clause that legally binds parties to settle resolutions outside of the court system.
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Carlson, who didn't have her contract renewed in June by the network, sued Ailes for sexual harassment shortly thereafter on July 5. Ailes resigned just two weeks after the suit was filed, and an internal investigation was launched.
Carlson eventually settled the suit in September for $20 million.
“It is a huge problem. Because it’s secret. And it plays into why we think that we’ve come so far in society and we probably really haven’t — because we don’t hear about it,” Carlson told Time magazine for a cover story published Friday. “The intent of the Supreme Court when they ruled on arbitration was to unclog the courts. It was not to put issues of discrimination and harassment into covert operations.”
When Carlson sued Ailes, her legal team didn't include Fox News as a defendant to avoid the forced arbitration designation in her contract. Ailes’s team argued at the time that Carlson had "no legal basis upon which she can rightfully assert that she was entitled to sue Defendant Ailes in court and sully his reputation in public."
“I think this is happening every single day to women in all walks of life and in all different types of corporations,” Carlson, a former Miss America, says in the interview. “I’ve heard from so many women, from Wall Street to a tiny little town in Alabama. It’s everywhere.”
Carlson’s testimony will be taken regarding anti-forced arbitration laws sponsored by Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph LeahySenate plots to avoid fall shutdown brawl Booker wins 2020 endorsement of every New Jersey Democrat in Congress The Hill's Morning Report - Can Bernie recapture 2016 magic? MORE (Vt.) and Al Franken Alan (Al) Stuart FrankenVirginia can be better than this Harris off to best start among Dems in race, say strategists, donors Virginia scandals pit Democrats against themselves and their message MORE (Minn.).Final Round 20 takes place this weekend, featuring many top players, multiple events, a large pot bonus, and more for Pokkén Tournament. Considering Final Round 19 played a major role in Pokkén's initial growth (as it was the first early access event outside of the invitational tournaments), it's fitting that Pokkén's one-year console anniversary will be celebrated at Final Round 20.
Read on for Final Round 20's schedule, some major storylines, and more.
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Schedule and Stream Info
The majority of the Pokkén Tournament action is currently planned to be streamed by Typo House Games. As Final Round has not officially announced the event's stream schedule, this is subject to change, so check back here for any potential updates. Below is the preliminary schedule for Pokkén Tournament at Final Round 20. Note that Friday and Saturday times are EST while Sunday times are EDT.
Friday, March 10
16:00 - 18:00: Allister's Wheel of Death
18:00 - 22:00: 2 on 2 Bracket
Saturday, March 11
16:00 - 18:00: Pools Wave J
18:00 - 20:00: Pools Wave K
20:00 - 22:00: Top 16
22:00: Bonus Round (Crew Battles, etc.)
Sunday, March 12
16:00 - 18:00: Top 8
You can find the full list of pools here.
Set To Destroy
Final Round 20 will be Allister "ALLISTER" Singh's first major tournament after being acquired by SetToDestroyX. The Canadian eSports organization made the announcement late last week, marking their first venture into Pokkén. After a third place finish at NEC 2017 last year, and now representing a new organization, it will be interesting to see how ALLISTER performs at Final Round.
Photo by Terrashock Gaming
Looking for a Repeat
With players from Japan and top players from other fighting games such as Justin "JWong" Wong in attendance, it was surprising to see who took second place in Pokkén at Final Round 19. Aleksandr "The Apple BOOM" Fritz surprised spectators by defeating JWong, Jevante "NG-Obscure" Flint and more to finish in second place, all while using... Pikachu? While The Apple BOOM started his Pokkén Tournament career with an impressive placing using Pikachu, he has established himself as a high-level Gardevoir player. While it is very unlikely, perhaps fans will see The Apple BOOM bring his Pikachu out of retirement for the one-year anniversary.
Photo by Robert Paul
Riding Momentum
Some of January and February's big Pokkén events included Smash Conference LXIX, Frosty Faustings, and Winter Brawl 11. The winners of these tournaments were Christian "Suicune Master" Patierno, Thomas "Thulius" McLaurin and Wesley "Cat Fight" Garland, respectively. It's safe to assume these three players are hoping to continue performing well as 2017 continues. While these three players aim to build off of some big 2017 wins, there are many, many other players who want to gain momentum themselves this weekend.
Photo by CEO Gaming
A Stellar Lineup
Final Round 20 will have some of Pokkén's best commentators to entertain viewers. Dan "Fumu" Good took to Twitter last month to announce the seven commentators who would be casting for Final Round:
Andrew "WhiteyWhite" Zaleski: Hitbox Arena's iconic "hype man", WhiteyWhite has been a well-loved commentator for much of Pokkén's lifespan.
Jake "Shippo" Simoni: Not only is Shippo an excellent commentator, he is also a high-level Braixen player. Expect entertainment from Shippo on the mic and in the game.
Quinlan "Rudafuda" Cantrell: Aside from the World Championships trio of D'Ron "D1" Maingrette, Daniel "DC" Coke and Vish Rajkumar, Rudafuda is probably Pokkén's most well-known and recognizable commentator.
Jonathan "Milln" Conaway: Fly Society's Milln brings experience and knowledge to the mic. Excellent at providing insight on storylines, matchups and more, expect Milln to teach you something during his time commentating.
Joharren "SilverSui" Stewart: A passionate member of the Pokkén community, SilverSui brings an infectious excitement to any event.
Alex "AngelDarksong" Stopher: One of the United Kingdom's most loved and well-known community members, AngelDarksong will entertain as both a player and commentator this weekend.
Michael "H2" Graf: Passionate, knowledgeable, and articulate, H2 has been an excellent commentator at some big Pokkén events, and he is sure to be an excellent commentator at Final Round.
Image by Fumu
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Are you excited for Final Round? Share your predictions in the comments below, and be sure to enter Burnside's #PokkenDraft!When Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, stood in front of the White House seal in the White House briefing room to join Fox & Friends Thursday morning, most people probably expected her to give an impassioned defense of the president’s policies. Instead, she took time to give what she called a “free commercial” for the president’s daughter’s clothing line.
If you think that doesn’t sound like something she’d be allowed to do in her official capacity as a senior advisor to the president, you are right. So we filed a complaint with the Office of Government Ethics and the White House counsel to address her apparent violation of federal law, ethics regulations, and traditional standards of conduct.
Conway’s pitch for Ivanka Trump’s business, which included telling Americans to “go buy Ivanka’s stuff…it’s a wonderful line…go buy it today, everybody, you can find it online,” comes on the heels of the president attacking Nordstrom on Twitter for its decision to no longer sell his daughter’s clothing line.
This was an unprecedented action by an American president—not just to attack an American company, but to do so for not engaging in business with his family. And it leads to a larger question about the priorities of this administration.
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The administration is less than three weeks old, but we are already deep into the selling of the presidency. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club doubled its membership fee to $200,000 five days after his inauguration. On Friday, he will host Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe there—at the club where he spends most weekends and which he has dubbed the “Winter White House”—instead of at a more traditional location like Camp David. All the news coverage of the meeting will serve as free advertising for his private club.
After a great outcry, the administration was forced to remove First Lady Melania Trump’s QVC line from her official White House biography. In a legal filing, her lawyers noted her great earning potential as First Lady. For any other administration, it would be unimaginable that the First Family would try to monetize its position.
But that is the essential conflict of the Trump administration, and it all comes back to the president’s unwillingness to part with his businesses. If he had sold his businesses as so many experts urged, he would have avoided many problems and set an entirely different tone.
As a result, we are forced to question even issues that should never need to be debated in the first place, like where the Department of Defense and Secret Service set up shop. With both agencies considering renting space in Trump Tower, it is hard to avoid raising questions.
Sadly, the threat of conflicts now permeates many key areas of national policy. If this White House appears to be so concerned with lining the pockets of the Trump family, what will happen when the president’s vast foreign business interests run up against American foreign policy?
That is already a significant concern as many countries accused of supporting or harboring terrorists were left off of president’s travel ban list, seemingly because he had business interests in those countries. Could he wield threat of an expanded travel ban to ensure his hotels and condos get preferential treatment overseas? If he needs to make the hardest decision a president can make, to put American troops in harm’s way, will he be thinking of their families or his own?
Every prior U.S. president came from a background of public service. President Trump did not, and we understand that this is new ground for him. It means it may be hard for him to get himself into a position where he places America’s interests before his own—something we’ve seen as he became the first president in decades not to release his tax returns or place his assets in a blind trust or widely held funds. But no one forced him to run for the presidency. He must recognize that public service takes sacrifice.
President Trump announced that his slogan is “America First.” It’s time he started applying that principle to his White House.
Noah Bookbinder is executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He served as director of the Office of Legislative and Public Affairs at the United States Sentencing Commission from 2013 to 2015. He served as chief counsel for criminal justice for the United States Senate Judiciary Committee from 2005 to 2013.
The views of contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.Daisy Ridley at the Empire Awards in London in March. Photo: Reuters
Daisy Ridley offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of her martial arts progress, two British princes are linked with cameo roles in Star Wars: Episode VIII, and R2D2’s true purpose is revealed by the franchise’s creator.
Daisy Ridley’s wushu magic
An instant superstar after her turn as lead character Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ridley is to reprise her role for December 2017’s Star Wars: Episode VIII and, presumably, Star Wars: Episode IX in 2019.
In a video posted to Instagram, and with Chinese stunt trainer Liang Yang holding the camera, Ridley demonstrated some of her newly acquired proficiency.
Yang played Finn’s melee-focused battlefield opponent in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and, according to the actress, is a “Wushu fricking master … I always try to get him to teach me things,” she said, praising both him and the 2017 film’s stunt team.
Royal cameos
British princes William and Harry recently visited the Episode VIII set, and even marked the occasion by dressing up as Stormtroopers.
The Daily Mail now reports, with spoilers for their scene’s details, that the siblings also have cameo roles for Episode VIII – though it won’t be easy to identify them behind those First Order suits of armour.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens had its fair share of cameo appearances, with Daniel Craig as its own not-so-secret celebrity Stormtrooper.
R2-D2, interstellar raconteur
Newly obtained information about the Star Wars universe claims that the entire epic is being retold by its enduringly faithful bacon-saving device, three-legged droid R2-D2.
That’s according to Chris Taylor, author of How Star Wars Conquered The Universe, recounting a conversation between Star Wars creator George Lucas and Episode III animation director Rob Coleman.
“The entire story of Star Wars is actually being recounted … a hundred years after the events of Return Of The Jedi by none other than R2-D2,” reads the excerpt recently retrieved by io9. – AFP RelaxnewsCLEVELAND — The Indians played a three-game series in September with a playoff spot on the horizon.
They played the Kansas City Royals, who might not be a “sexy” team but are a team chasing the same wild card spot.
Average attendance for the three games: 11,498.
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In September.
For a meaningful game.
Twice this September the Indians attendance was below 10,000 — a first in Progressive Field history. In both cases, the games were against teams the Indians are fighting for a playoff spot.
The numbers have garnered attention, from the players and the front office. One player was willing to speak about the low turnouts, but Michael Bourn did not criticize or rip anyone.
He merely expressed some of the confusion he and his teammates feel as they look at turnouts for meaningful September games.
Bourn was asked: Are you getting a lift from the home crowds?
“Y’all tell me,” Bourn said. “You’re asking the question. There’s a reason you’re asking the question. We would like to be supported a little bit more, if we could. We’re two games out. In the hunt for the second wild card. It’s been a long time since there’s been a team in the wild card here.
“Last year they didn’t make it to this point. That extra man is a good push to have. It gets your blood flowing a little bit. I don’t see why (fans) shouldn’t believe in us. It’s a totally different team, a totally different atmosphere in the clubhouse.
“We fought to this point. I think we deserve that chance until the last day is over. We’re not asking for too much. We’re just asking for them to come out and support us, that’s it.
“We try to give them a good show every time they come out. Last few games have been kind of disappointing to us. We’re going to still play … but you want that atmosphere to be rocking like they had in the 90s. I know they were the team at the time. But we’re trying to work to be a good team. So we need that support.
“Hopefully they come out and support us during the week, the weekend. We know the Browns play on Sunday. We’ll give them their time. They can go to the game then. We understand that. But the other days, they’re at practice.
“Come on out and watch us play. That’s all we want. That’s all we’re asking for.”Ospreys Team to play Cardiff Blues By Ospreys Rugby | 14/11/2013
The team to face the Cardiff Blues in the LV=Cup at the Liberty Stadium tomorrow has been named.
15. Jamie Murphy
14. Aisea Natoga
13. Tom Isaacs
12. Jonathan Spratt (c)
11. Dafydd Howells
10. Matthew Morgan
9. Tito Tebaldi
1. Marc Thomas
2. Matthew Dwyer
3. Dan Suter
4. Lloyd Peers
5. Rhodri Hughes
6. Graham Knoop
7. Arthur Ellis
8. Joe Bearman
Replacements:
16. Evan Yardley
17. Nicky Smith
18. Nicky Thomas
19. Sam Williams
20. Sam Lewis
21. Rhys Webb
22. Sam Davies
23. Ben John
Backs Coach Gruff Rees said on the derby:
"We're really excited by the opportunity Friday night to play a local derby at home in the Liberty Stadium in front of our fans and I hope that they can come out to support us.
We've had some great battles with the Blues over the last few years and we want who ever puts the shirt on to do it justice.
There's some good history in the derby in the Ospreys jersey but for me a good derby is also based on local derbies such as Swansea v Cardiff or Neath v Cardiff.
I hope these players realise that they're on the apex of pro rugby and that they can start to make a name for themselves in these kind of games."
The following players were unavailable for selection through injury:
Dmitri Arhip - Achilles
Dan Baker - Shoulder
Tom Smith - Knee
Aaron Jarvis - Groin
Duncan Jones - Neck
Forthcoming Fixtures:
Sat 23 Nov - KO 14.30 - Ospreys v Zebre - RaboDirect PRO12
Fri 29 Nov - KO 19.05 Ospreys v Glasgow - RaboDirect PRO12
Fri 13 Dec - KO 20.00 Ospreys v Castres Olympique – Heineken Cup
To get your tickets, call the Ticket Office 0844 815 6665 or visit www.ospreysrugby.com/buyticketsThe Autodromo del Mugello, which hosts the sixth round of 2016 MotoGP World Championship, offers attractive features. It’s not a particularly demanding circuit for the braking systems, with the exception of the first cut out after the finish line. According to the data supplied by Brembo technical team, when braking at the end of the slope before San Donato bend, speed slows down from max. 351 km/h to 91 km/h.
This manoeuvre takes 5,6 seconds in 318 metres. During this phase, the temperature of carbon brake discs reaches about 700°C. At the end of the official qualifying session, each team has supplied the telemetry data gathered. Thanks to the values obtained, the standings of the best “last of the late brakers” – i.e., those who begin braking closer to the chord point of San Donato bend – have been assessed..SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Sept. 13, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) — Two varsity football players from the University of Utah have been wounded in a campus area shooting.
Gephardt Daily has confirmed through multiple sources close to the investigation that the wounded players are running back Marcel Brooks-Brown, a freshman from Rio Linda, California, and sophomore tight-end, Lo Falemaka, from West Valley City, Utah.
Both players were shot in the torso, but are expected to survive.
The University of Utah confirmed the shootings Sunday via the following announcement:
SALT LAKE CITY–Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham has confirmed that two people shot last night in Salt Lake City were Utah football players. Sophomore tight end Lo Falemaka and freshman running back Marcel Brooks-Brown are both expected to recover from gunshot wounds to the torso. According to a statement from the Salt Lake Police Department, which follows, the suspects are still at large. Coach Kyle Whittingham issued this statement: “Obviously, our first concern is that both Lo and Marcel are going to be OK, which appears to be the case. We don’t have all of the details yet, but it is our understanding that they are the victims in this incident and we feel very fortunate that they are expected to fully recover. It is unknown at this time how soon they will be able to return to the football field, but we are optimistic it will be in the near future.” Under the medical privacy act HIPAA, both players are at an undisclosed area hospital and are not available for comment. No one on the coaching staff or team will be available for interviews today. Falemaka, from West Valley City, Utah (Cottonwood HS), walked on to the team in 2013, redshirting that season. He has since been placed on scholarship. He played on the scout teams last season and has appeared in both games this season on special teams. He has recently moved from the offensive line to tight end. Brooks-Brown, a running back from Rio Linda, Calif. (Rio Linda HS), is in his first season on the team and was expecting to redshirt.
According to Salt Lake City Police Lt. Greg Gleason, the shooting happened around midnight Saturday at a home located at 310 South 1300 East.
Police say the shooting took place at a party and at least three suspects are at large. They say numerous witnesses saw the shooting in a scene police described as “chaotic.”
The Salt Lake City Police Department released the following statement Sunday morning:
The shooting happened just before midnight (11:53 p.m.) on Saturday night (9/12/15) at 310 S. 1300 E. This was a private party with several people in attendance.
The male suspects showed up and were asked to leave by the host of the party. They didn’t want to leave and were asked again by the two victims to leave. An altercation occurred between two victims and suspects, that is when one of the suspects pulled out a gun shot the two victims. The suspects fled the scene on foot.
The two victims were both shot in the torso area, both are stable and expected to recover. One of them is 18 years old and the other is 20.
Suspects:
No. 1 – Male black in his 20s, 6-feet, wearing a baseball cap with red bandanna underneath and a red T-shirt.
No. 2 – Male black in his 20s, 5-feet-9-inches, with short dreadlocks, wearing a baseball cap and red t-shirt.
No. 3 – Male white in his 20s, heavy set, with facial hair.
Detectives are currently collecting evidence and looking for the suspects.
Ute players and coaches gathered at University Hospital throughout the night and into Sunday morning.
Monday, University of Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham spoke out about the shootings:
To hear Whittingham’s comments click on this link:Check out our Halsey Street story map for more articles and previews in this series, and stay tuned to Facebook, Twitter, and our homepage for updates on new stories.
“Forging lives through fire and glass”: it’s not just the phrase GlassRoots uses underneath their name on the organization’s website. The Newark-based glassblowing shop and education nonprofit puts the slogan to practice through its learning initiatives, providing an outlet for Newark youth to explore their creative side, develop career-molding skills, and become practicing entrepreneurs.
Located just off Halsey Street at 10 Bleeker Street, the nonprofit, which is funded by individual donors, foundation grants, and sales of glass products produced at the facility, has been serving the community for more than a decade now. The two-story facility features a flamework studio, a flat shop, and a glass melting shop.
But it’s not all about the glass, as was evident during a recent visit to their workshop.
“With all the pressures kids might have to deal with outside of this place…GlassRoots can be a fun, productive way for them to let loose a little bit,” said 25-year-old artist James Blake, reflecting on the influence Glassworks has had on the lives of his students, as he worked with three teenagers on their glass mosaics.
Blake said that when he graduated from Boston College with a degree in studio art five years ago, he had no idea at the time that he would later use those skills to transform kids’ lives.
Reflecting on his own experience as a student, Blake recalled not being the best at reading, writing, and arithmetic in the traditional sense. Instead, he found applications for all those skills in art, and hopes to pass that possibility onto the students. Blake believes kids don’t have to learn everything from a book. “It’s better to learn it by seeing it for yourself visually and doing it. You might make mistakes along the way, but that’s the challenge about it,” he explained.
GlassRoots’ focus as an institution is on providing a comprehensive “STEAM” curriculum: instructors use science, technology, engineering, arts, and math as the basis for teaching, and hope students who emerge from their program are college- and career ready, and gain skills that are transferrable to many life situations.
Glassroots was founded in 1999 by Pat Kettenring, an avid glass collector and former director of the Business and the Arts program at Rutgers-Newark Business School.
In 2001, Ketternring visited the Glass Museum of Tacoma, Washington. It was during that trip that she learned about a program that had been launched by people in the glass industry there. The program, called Hilltop Artists-in-Residence, provided homeless youth a path towards self-sufficiency through glassmaking and art.
GlassRoots provides instruction in the same vein to its student participants, but took the Hilltop program a step further by adding formal training in color, spatial concepts, learning skills, communication, and entrepreneurial know-how. As Executive Director Barbara Heisler explained, “We use the glass as a vehicle to teach other skills.”
One of those skills is focus. “When making a [glass] bead, it’s a very singular process. You’re sitting in front of a 2,200-degree flame. You have to be aware of what’s going on around you,” Heisler said. “In essence, you’re learning how to ‘pat your head and rub your tummy’ at the same time, because you’re making your hands do two very different things,” she added
The program also emphasizes teamwork. In the flatshop – the area where students make mosaic art out of glass – students often work in groups. “The flat shop is very collaborative…it’s not only [about] color and learning geometry. [There’s also] a lot of open communication… [and] problem solving,” Heisler said.
And in the hot shop located in the back of the studio, the teamwork takes on a new dynamic. “It’s almost intuitive,” said Heisler. “You have to anticipate someone’s needs.”
Back in the workshop session, the mosaics were coming together, and Jarod Carm, 16, was experiencing the satisfaction of making his first piece of mosaic art. “The people here are awesome. It’s not all work, work,” Carm said. “We get to express ourselves and make what we want,” he added.
Find GlassRoots on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr. Read about their programs and find glass products for sale at GlassRoots.org.
Photo credit: Andaiye Taylor
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commentsThe Royal Netherlands Air Force has launched an investigation after a Lockheed Martin F-16AM pilot accidentally strafed the control tower at the Vliehors range on the island of Vlieland during a training flight on 4 November.
During the incident, several live rounds from the aircraft's 20mm cannon caused minor damage to the tower. Two controllers who were inside the building at the moment of the attack were not injured.
Rex Features
The pilot had been supposed to hit a strafing target that was located approximately 500m (1,640ft) away from the control tower. It is not yet clear what the reason for the mistake was, with a security committee to investigate the incident.
Located to the north of the Netherlands, the Vliehors range is the only facility in the country where the air force can conduct live-fire training.
The recent incident is not the first such mishap to have been recorded at the Vliehors range. In 2001, the crew of a German air force Panavia Tornado hit the same control tower with cannon fire, while in 1992 a Royal Danish Air Force F-16 pilot fired an air-to-ground missile which resulted in one range staff member suffering minor injuries.20 Best U.S. Cities To Visit With Kids
Who says you have to travel far for the perfect escape? We’ve partnered with travel blogger (and mom of two!) Erin Bender of Travel With Bender to get her expert opinion on where to visit in the U.S. with your kids.
The desire for exciting international travel beckons everyday. You see it on dreamy billboards and in glamorous magazines. But sometimes a lack of time or financial restrictions limit your family vacation options. So, in those moments, you can turn to destinations that are on your doorstep.
While the theme parks around Orlando, Florida might be the first place that comes to mind, the United States is home to hundreds of kid-friendly getaways that the whole family will love.
Here are the 20 best cities and towns in the USA that will satisfy your itchy feet and help you #WanderWisely.
1) Nashville, Tennessee
The home of country music and some of the best food in the U.S. So why would kids love it? They can record and mix their own music at the Country Music Hall of Fame or create beautiful art at the Frist Center For The Visual Arts. Then indulge in a handful of locally-made treats at the Goo Goo Clusters flagship store!
2) Tallahassee, Florida
Florida is known for Key Lime Pie, Key West and Central Florida’s theme parks, but did you know some of the most amazing wildlife and nature in the state can be found in the capital, Tallahassee? Zip line over swamps at the Tree-to-Tree Adventure or take a jungle cruise at Wakulla Springs (the world’s largest and deepest freshwater spring) to see manatees, gators and more!
3) New York, New York
This isn’t just a big city for adults, but a wonderland for kids. From winter ice-skating in Central Park to eating $1 pizza slices on 7th Ave to the free Staten Island Ferry, there are plenty of low-cost attractions even in one of America’s more expensive cities. For a truly unique experience, try The Ride – part city tour, part comedy show, and part stage performance – all inside a talking bus.
4) Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Regularly rated as one of North America’s best ski slopes with top instructors to teach even the youngest kids. Also see wild bison and elk roaming the grasslands, or just build a snowman.
5) Fort Wayne, Indiana
With so many places to visit in Indiana, this is one of our favorites. Ride a giant slide at Science Central or maybe Mom just needs some retail therapy at the Vera Bradley factory. For something different, visit Genealogy Center for free and discover your family’s history.
6) Juneau, Alaska
Why would anyone head this far north? If pristine glaciers and wild black bears don’t convince you, then gold fever will! Pan for real gold at what used to be the world’s largest gold-producing mill within the city that birthed Alaska’s gold rush. That’s about as gold as it gets. This gorgeous port town also offers some of the best vistas in Alaska thanks to the Goldbelt Mount Roberts Tramway.
7) Rapid City, South Dakota
Most people come here for a night so they can visit Mount Rushmore, but in the Rapid City region you can dig for mammoth bones, explore Wind Cave (one of the longest in the world), try to escape the begging burros at Custer State Park or just get awestruck by the world’s largest drugstore (and world’s #1 roadside attraction).
8) Bloomington, Minnesota
Has the winter weather got you down? Then take an entirely indoor vacation in America’s biggest mall. You can scream your way down a thrilling rollercoaster at Nickelodeon Universe, try your hand at surfing at the Water Park of America, visit the aquarium and eat your heart out.
9) Louisville, Kentucky
Take a thrilling ropes course, then an underground zip line over a dark |
states sent very high-level representatives. It’s not the end of the road, it’s a step and you can’t skip it.”Two men are sitting drinking pints of ale in a Boston tavern. One is a strapping, full-faced young merchant given to loud laughter; the other has shoulders broadened by work in an iron forge, but is lame, asthmatic and a little unsure of himself in the big city. It’s 1774 and the men are meeting at the Bunch of Grapes, a patriot hang-out. They’re talking about war.
The scene is not documented but we know that something like it occurred. It was the beginning of the remarkable friendship between Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene. In the eighteenth century, bonds of friendship rivaled or surpassed those of romantic love in depth and intensity. Friendship was emotionally sustaining. It was a cohesive force in military and civilian organizations. Cicero, revered in the Revolutionary era, had written, “If you should take the bond of friendship out of the world no house or city could stand.”[1]
In spite of the military flavor of these two friends’ conversation, neither had known combat first hand. Knox, born in 1750, had been too young for the late French war. Greene, eight years older, came from a pacifist Quaker family in rural Rhode Island. It’s hard to imagine two men less likely to play leading roles in a war that would change the course of history.
The catalyst was knowledge. Theory and systematic thinking were having an impact on warfare during the Enlightenment, as they were on many fields. A grounding in the latest system for managing troops was essential for a commander. Artillery was growing more important in battle, and handling big guns required an understanding of mathematics, geometry and chemistry.
Knox had access to knowledge because he ran a bookstore and could indulge his interest in military science. Greene, with his brothers, had inherited a prosperous iron and trading business and could afford a substantial library of military volumes, the titles recommended to him by the more savvy Knox.
Living in the cockpit of revolutionary fervor, Knox had been studying war for some time. Greene, out in the provinces, had been jolted into political awareness in 1772 when one of his company’s ships was confiscated by the commander of the British revenue cutter Gaspee. An outraged Greene successfully sued over the injustice. He was not involved in the burning of the Gaspee by the Sons of Liberty–at least he had a solid alibi for the night of the attack. The incident focused his mind on the fraught tensions between the colonies and the Crown and made them personal.
They were two very different men. Knox was a fat, self-assured city boy. He had grown up on the raucous Boston streets, where his fists had been a match for those of tough sailors and dock workers. An apprenticeship in a book shop had given him the chance to indulge his wide-ranging intelligence. The boom of a cannon celebrating the king’s birthday in 1767 had drawn him to the intricacies of artillery. He had practiced with a militia unit, then started one of his own.
Into his late twenties, Nathanael Greene had been dominated by a strict, religious father. But Greene loved to read and after the Gaspee affair he had veered ever farther from the pacifism of his Quaker background. Under Knox’s tutelage he had filled his mind with military matters. Soon after the outbreak of violence at Lexington, Greene was writing, “As Marshal Saxe said once...”[2] He was showing off his familiarity with the writings of Maurice Comte de Saxe, a leading eighteenth-century authority on warfare. Knox had recommended Saxe’s book to John Adams and probably sold a copy to Greene as well.
The two friends reunited in camp during the siege of Boston. Knox must have been surprised to see Greene arrive at the head of the 1,500 troops sent from Rhode Island. Only months before, Greene had been denied a position as lieutenant in his local militia unit because of his limp. A combination of luck, political connections in the Rhode Island legislature and Greene’s deep book knowledge had catapulted him to the fore. He would soon be named the youngest brigadier general in the Continental Army.
Nathanael Greene, Knox would later write, “came to us the rawest, most untutored being I ever met with,” but in less than a year, the Rhode Islander “was equal, in military knowledge, to any General officer in the army, and very superior to most of them.”[3]
Knox’s rise was less meteoric but just as surprising. Having designed many of the fortifications for the force besieging Boston, he came to the attention of George Washington when the Virginian arrived to assert the authority of the Continental Congress over the ragtag army of New England militiamen. Washington, always an astute judge of men, appointed the twenty-five-year-old Knox over more experienced officers to head the American artillery corps and convinced Congress to raise the erstwhile bookseller to the rank of colonel.
Knox proved himself by pulling off one of the remarkable feats of the war: hauling many tons of ordnance overland from Fort Ticonderoga in New York to Boston. He oversaw the placement of guns on Dorchester Heights that drove the British out of the city in March 1776.
By the time New York became the principal theater of war later that year, Greene and Knox were both among Washington’s most trusted subordinates. Both had married in 1774, and their young wives, Caty Greene and Lucy Knox, accompanied them to the city. They hosted each other for dinner at their respective headquarters. Washington put Greene in charge of critical defenses on Long Island. Unfortunately, as the British invasion loomed, the Rhode Island general fell ill. He missed the subsequent battle, a defeat that almost extinguished America’s recently proclaimed independence.
At the Battle of Harlem Heights in September, Greene first experienced the exhilaration of combat that had long been fueling his imagination. But the real test of his generalship came two months later when he decided to defend what proved to be an indefensible Fort Washington. The British and Hessians captured more than 2,800 men in a few hours. Greene was responsible for the worst loss of the war so far and he knew it.
He was, he wrote afterward, in a “melancholy temper” over “the misfortune of loosing Fort Washington.” He felt “mad, vext sick and sorry.” He turned almost desperately to Henry Knox for solace. “Never did I need the consoling voice of a friend more than now. Happy I should be to see you.”[4]
Not only had Greene been in command, but he and Knox had laid out the general plans of the fort during the frantic preparations to defend New York. “I was afraid of the fort,” he told Knox. “The Redout you and I advised was not done.” He suggested that such dereliction might have been the reason for the fort’s sudden fall. As was his habit, Greene worried about his reputation. “Pray what is said upon the Occasion,” he demanded of Knox. “A line from you will be very acceptable.”[5]
It’s possible that Knox, who had become a close confidant of Washington, put in a word in his friend’s favor. In any case, the commander in chief retained his faith in Greene. Both Greene and Knox contributed to the surprising victory at Trenton in December. Knox performed the Herculean task of getting the troops and guns across the ice-clogged Delaware; Greene led the charge into the village.
Greene came to Knox’s support in the summer of 1777 when Congress considered replacing the portly artillery chief with Philippe Charles Tronson du Coudray, a veteran recruited from France. Both officers threatened to resign if du Coudray was confirmed. Knox, Greene wrote, was “as good an officer as we have in the service.”[6] Congressional delegates sputtered but held off. Du Coudray’s death in an accident rendered the matter moot.
Later that year, the friends enjoyed a rare break from the war: a shopping trip together to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Knox promised his wife he would “purchase some things for my dear, dear Lucy” during his visit to “this singularly happy place” beyond the reach of the war.[7] The arrival of General Howe and the British army at the head of Chesapeake Bay cut short the respite and brought the two officers hurrying back to Philadelphia.
When the grumbling over Washington’s leadership reached a crescendo during the Valley Forge winter following the loss of the capital, Knox and Greene joined to rally around the commander in chief. Their loyalty made them targets for criticism. “Gen’l Knox equally shares the censures of individuals,” an aide wrote to Nathanael Greene, “for having the ear of His Ex__y.” Another correspondent mentioned to Greene that Washington was being pilloried for his “Partiality to You and Genl K.”[8]
As the so-called Conway Cabal unfolded, Joseph Reed wrote to Greene that General Mifflin had claimed he did not “oppose the Commander in Chief, but his Favourites (yourself and Knox) who had an undue influence over him.”[9] Supported by his tight inner circle, Washington got the better of those who had, quite justifiably, raised questions about his ability to command.
With the 1778 campaign season looming, the problem of supplying the army had reached a crisis. Washington asked Greene to give up his field command and take on the duties of Quartermaster General. Reluctant to assume a position that would put himself outside the line of glory, Greene wrote to Knox, “I wish your advice in the affair, but am obligd to determine immediately.”[10] He chose to take on the onerous administrative role.
During the middle years of the war, the two friends made important and parallel contributions to the revolutionary effort. Greene applied his businessman’s mind to the intractable problems of supply and logistics that had brought the Continental army to the point where it must, Washington warned, “starve–dissolve–or disperse.”[11] Moving cannon and keeping gunpowder, muskets and ammunition flowing had long been central to Knox’s duties. Together, the two men played central roles in maintaining the Continental Army in the field.
The responsibilities of their respective positions were enormously burdensome. Only during winter camp did they have time to relax. In the winter of 1778-79, their New Jersey headquarters were five miles apart. In February, Knox hosted an “entertainment” for Continental officers, complete with “a very fine set of fireworks” and “a very splendid ball.”[12] The two men’s wives, along with Martha Washington, had become the leading ladies of the camps, offering solace to their husbands and a touch of domestic elegance appreciated by other officers and men.
Knox and Greene were reunited following the betrayal of Benedict Arnold in the autumn of 1780. Washington had left Greene in charge of the Continental Army when he, Knox and Lafayette had gone to visit French general Rochambeau in Hartford, Connecticut. Arnold’s plot came to light a few days later. When the alarm was raised, Greene led a corps of troops to the suddenly vulnerable post at West Point and Knox set to work reinforcing the works at that critical strongpoint.
Another crisis was already upon them. Congress had sent General Horatio Gates, the hero of Saratoga, to repel the advance of British General Cornwallis’s force in South Carolina. Gates’s army had been virtually obliterated in the battle of Camden. Referring to Gates’s long retreat after the battle, Knox, described as a “hearty and jolly” man, wrote to Greene, “G Gates is recalld to answer to Congress some matters respecting the Geography of the southern states.”[13] He was wryly referring to Gates’s 180-mile “retreat” after the battle.
Someone had to go south, reorganize the shattered army and find some way to stop Cornwallis. Who would it be? Washington selected Nathanael Greene. But although he longed to assume a field command, Greene did not relish the prospect of venturing into an unfamiliar, problematic part of the continent. The likelihood of falling victim to a superior British force and seeing his reputation permanently besmirched gave him pause.
He reportedly told Washington that his friend Henry Knox was the man for the job: “All obstacles vanish before him; his resources are infinite.”
“True,” Washington replied, “and therefore I cannot part with him.”[14]
When he arrived in North Carolina, Greene found the situation as desperate as he had imagined. His army was “rather a shadow than a substance, having only an imaginary existence.” Knox wrote him a sympathetic letter, quoting Gen. Alexander McDougall as saying, “By the laird Knox I pity our friend Greene. He must have had a choice of difficulties. Poor fellow!” He ended the letter by asking for a “line” to assure Knox he still had his friend’s “love.”[15]
Greene felt isolated in the South. “I cannot contemplate my own situation without the greatest degree of anxiety. I am far removed from almost all my friends and connections.”
But Nathanael Greene turned out to be the man for the job, just as Washington had suspected. His ability to out-maneuver of Cornwallis in the South became one of the most admired accomplishments of the war. His masterful command of a “weak force” to achieve victory, Knox wrote, established his friend’s “reputation on the most durable basis.” To John Adams, Knox said of Greene, “without Means, without anything he has performed Wonders.”[16]
It wasn’t long before Greene was returning the compliment, writing to Knox about his critical role in the victory at Yorktown in October 1781. “Your success in Virginia is brilliant glorious, great and important,” Greene declared. “I long to be with you, our spirits are congenial, and our principles and sentiments the same.”[17]
Knox replied that Lucy had just given birth to a son and that he would have named the boy after Greene “were it not for the confounded name given by your scriptural father.”[18] Greene’s Quaker parents had insisted on the Biblical spelling Nathanael, rather than the more common Nathaniel. Knox chose the classical name Marcus instead. Sadly, the boy, like ten of Henry and Lucy’s thirteen offspring, died in childhood.
Greene remained in the South until the peace became official in 1783. Knox wrote of his wish to see his friend. “I would fly to you with more rapidity than most fat men.” But while the war continued, he said, he was “linked in with the cursed cannon.”[19] During their long separation, Knox had berated himself for his “indolence in writing” to his friend. “I have no excuse.” After the last British troops sailed away, the two men were finally reunited in New York. Their meeting was an emotional one. “Your observation,” Greene later noted, “that you was rather affected than joyful was highly flattering to my feelings.” He went on: “My esteem and affection for you has never suffered diminuation and to merit and preserve your friendship and esteem is one of the first wishes of my heart.”[20]
Greene was talked about for the post of Secretary of War in the new government, but he preferred to “indulge the natural bent of my mind which is reading and retirement.”[21] The post went to Knox instead.
Knox personally procured the engraved cannon and the medal that Congress awarded to his friend, but Greene was hard pressed by practical matters. He had long neglected his own business, and he had guaranteed the debts of military contractors toward the end of the war, leaving his finances in shambles.
“I thank you for the polite attention you are paying to my public Trophies,” he wrote to Knox, “but I have been so embarrassed and perplexed in my private affairs for a long time past which originated in the progress of the War that I have but little spirit or pleasure in such subjects.”[22]
Trying to prosper on a farm that the state of Georgia had awarded him, Greene was again vexed by bad luck and demanding creditors. “My family is in distress and I am overwhelmed with difficulties,” he wrote to Knox, “and God knows when and where they will end. I work hard and live poor but I fear all this will not extricate me.” His young wife, he reported, was “transformed from the gay Lady to the sober house wife.”
“This,” Knox noted, “is the last letter I ever received from my truly beloved friend Genl Greene.”[23] Nathanael Greene died of a stroke in June 1786, less than three years after the end of the war he had helped win.
We cannot know how the course of the Revolutionary War might have differed if Nathanael Greene had never stepped into Henry Knox’s bookshop, or if the two men had not formed a bond at the Bunch of Grapes. Their friendship allowed them negotiate the many jealousies and fierce political infighting that plagued the high command in the early years of the war. It sustained them during repeated bouts of disappointment and defeat. Remembering their relationship offers us a human perspective on two of the most important figures of the war.Abnormally high water temperatures caused by you-know-what are being blamed for the worst coral die-off ever recorded along Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Dead table corals killed by bleaching, Northern GBR, November 2016. (Image: ARC Centre of Excellence For Coral Reef Studies)
Earlier this year, scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence For Coral Reef Studies warned that the Reef is in big trouble, with about 35 per cent of the coral in its northern and central areas either dead or dying. An updated survey conducted over the past two months, including investigations done from the air and underwater, shows that things have gotten considerably worse.
A scientist assesses coral mortality following a bleaching event. (Image: ARC Centre of Excellence For Coral Reef Studies)
In the northern regions, a 700km stretch of reef lost an average of 67 per cent of its shallow-water corals in the past nine months. In an area around Lizard Island in Far North Queensland, around 90 per cent of the coral had died. The scientists said the impact was far worse than anticipated following the surveys done back in April of this year.
Staghorn corals killed by bleaching on the Northern GBR, November 2016. (Image: ARC Centre of Excellence For Coral Reef Studies)
These die-offs, called coral bleaching, happen when high water temperatures persist for an extended period of time, causing corals to expel their zooxanthella, a colourful algae that lives in their tissue. During the first five months of 2016, sea surface temperatures across the Great Barrier Reef were the hottest on record — a full 1C higher than the monthly average. The resulting heat stress did a lot of damage, but the loss of photosynthesising zooxanthella triggered the lion's share of the die-offs, by causing corals to starve.
Average coral loss along each section of the Great Barrier Reef. (Image: ARC Centre of Excellence For Coral Reef Studies)
"Most of the losses in 2016 have occurred in the northern, most-pristine part of the Great Barrier Reef," noted ARC Centre scientist Terry Hughes in a statement. "This region escaped with minor damage in two earlier bleaching events in 1998 and 2002, but this time around it has been badly affected." Hughes says the increase in water temperature is being caused by carbon emissions, and warns that massive coral bleaching events could become an annual occurrence within two decades.
The good news, says Hughes, is that the southern two-thirds of the Reef escaped with minor damage. Regions to the south appeared much healthier, experiencing losses between one and six per cent. "The corals have now regained their vibrant colour, and these reefs are in good condition," said Andrew Baird, an ARC Centre diver who visited the reefs in October and November.
Coral bleaching, in addition to triggering tremendous losses of marine life, affects tourism along the Reef — an industry that brings in $5 billion annually and employs around 70,000 people. Reefs can recover from bleaching events, but it takes time for the algae to return. Should nothing be done to curb greenhouse gas emissions, and if Hughes is right about bleaching events happening each year, the Great Barrier Reef will never recover, putting an end to one of the most majestic biological structures on the planet.
[ARC Centre of Excellence For Coral Reef Studies]from the book “ Anything You Want ”: The day Steve Jobs dissed me in a keynote 2010-11-11
In May 2003, Apple invited me to their headquarters to discuss getting CD Baby’s catalog into the iTunes Music Store.
iTunes had just launched two weeks before, with only some music from the major labels. Many of us in the music biz were not sure this idea was going to work. Especially those who had seen companies like eMusic do this exact same model for years without big success.
I flew to Cupertino thinking I’d be meeting with one of their marketing or tech people. When I arrived, I found out that about a hundred people from small record labels and distributors had also been invited.
We all went into a little presentation room, not knowing what to expect.
Then out comes Steve Jobs. Whoa! Rock star.
He was in full persuasive presentation mode. Trying to convince all of us to give Apple our entire catalog of music. Talking about iTunes success so far, and all the reasons we should work with Apple.
He made a point of saying, “We want the iTunes Music Store to have every piece of music ever recorded. Even if it’s discontinued or not selling much, we want it all.”
This was huge, because until 2003, independent musicians were always denied access to the big outlets. For Apple to sell all music, not just music from artists who had signed their rights away to a corporation, this was amazing!
Then they showed us the software we’d all have to use to send them each album. The software required us to put the audio CD into a Mac CD-Rom drive, type in all of the album info, song titles and bio, then click [encode] for it to rip, and [upload] when done.
I raised my hand and asked if it was required that we use their software. They said yes.
I asked again, saying we had over 100,000 albums, already ripped as lossless WAV files, with all of the info carefully entered by the artist themselves, ready to send to their servers with their exact specifications.
The Apple guys said, “Sorry, you need to use this software; there is no other way.”
Ugh. That means we have to pull each one of those CDs off of the shelf again, stick it in a Mac, then cut-and-paste every song title into that Mac software. But so be it. If that’s what Apple needs, OK.
They said they’d be ready for us to start uploading in the next couple weeks.
I flew home that night, posted my meeting notes on my website, emailed all of my clients to announce the news, and went to sleep.
When I woke, I had furious emails and voicemails from my contact at Apple.
“What the hell are you doing? That meeting was confidential! Take those notes off your site immediately! Our legal department is furious!”
There was no mention of confidentiality at the meeting and no agreement to sign. But I removed my notes from my site immediately, to be nice. (You can still see a copy someone posted here.)
All was well, or so I thought.
Apple emailed us the iTunes Music Store contract. We immediately signed it and returned it the same day.
I started building the system to deliver everyone’s music to iTunes.
I decided we’d have to charge $40 for this service, to cover our bandwidth and payroll costs of pulling each CD out of the warehouse, entering all the info, digitizing, uploading, and putting it back in the warehouse.
5000 musicians signed up in advance, each paying $40. That $200,000 helped pay for the extra equipment and people needed to make this happen.
Within two weeks, we got contacted by Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, Napster, eMusic, and more — each saying they wanted our entire catalog.
Yes! Awesome!
Maybe you can’t appreciate this now, but the summer of 2003 was the biggest turning point that independent music has ever had. Until that point, almost no big business would sell independent music.
By iTunes saying they wanted everything, then their competitors needing to keep up, we were in! Since the summer of 2003, all musicians everywhere can sell all their music in almost every outlet online. Do you realize how amazing that is?
But there was one problem.
iTunes wasn’t getting back to us.
Yahoo, Rhapsody, Napster and the rest were all up and running. But iTunes wasn’t returning our signed contract.
Was it because I posted my meeting notes?
Had I pissed-off Steve Jobs?
Nobody at Apple would say anything. It had been months. My musicians were getting impatient and angry.
I gave optimistic apologies, but I was starting to get worried, too.
A month later, Steve Jobs did a special worldwide simulcast keynote speech about iTunes.
People had been criticizing iTunes for having less music than the competition. They had 400,000 songs while Rhapsody and Napster had over 2 million songs. (Over 500,000 of those were from CD Baby.)
Four minutes in, he said something that made my pounding heart sink to my burning stomach:
“This number could have easily been much higher, if we wanted to let in every song. But we realize that record companies do a great service. They edit! Did you know that if you and I record a song, for $40 we can pay a few of the services to get it on their site, through some intermediaries? We can be on Rhapsody and all these other guys for $40? Well we don’t want to let that stuff on our site! So we’ve had to edit it. And these are 400,000 quality songs.”
(Watch the video, here.)
Whoa! Wow. Steve Jobs just dissed me hard!
I’m the only one charging $40. That was me he’s referring to!
Shit. OK. That’s that. Steve changed his mind. No independents on iTunes. You heard the man.
I hated the position this put me in.
Ever since I started my company in 1998, I had been offering an excellent service. I could make promises and keep them, because I was in full control.
Now, for the first time, I had promised something that was out of my control.
So it was time to do the right thing, no matter how much it hurt.
I decided to refund everybody’s $40, with my deepest apologies. With 5000 musicians signed up, that meant I was refunding $200,000.
Since we couldn’t promise anything, I couldn’t charge money in good conscience.
I removed all mention of iTunes from my site.
I removed the $40 cost.
I changed the language to say we can’t promise anything.
I emailed everyone to let them know what had happened.
I decided to make it a free service from that point on.
The very next day, we got our signed contract back from Apple, along with upload instructions.
Unbelievable.
We asked, “Why now?”, but got no answer.
Whatever. Fucking Apple.
We started encoding and uploading immediately.
I quietly added iTunes back to the list of companies on our site.
But I never again promised a customer that I could do something beyond my full control.Sometimes the biggest victories are the ones that make the least noise. Lost amid all the excitement over the Rio trip, the anti-obesity campaign, and the March Madness picks was the revelation that Senate Democrats had
given up
any attempt to confirm Donald Berwick as chief of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). It seems that 42 Republicans had informed the Democratic majority by letter that they would vote for Berwick's confirmation when Hell froze over. (With Wisconsin, that makes two examples of Republicans acting as if they had spines in one month. Will wonders never cease?) Berwick was originally given a recess appointment, another example of Obama's Chicago method of doing things. But that means that he must now leave office by the end of the year.
This would be truly below the fold on Page 5 if not for one single factor: as CMS head, Berwick is Obama's point man on health care, the man tasked with putting ObamaCare into action. Now Obama is left having to start over again from square one. This is as serious a repudiation of ObamaCare as Judge Roger Vinson's decision, and possibly one with even greater ramifications.
Berwick's problem lies in his infatuation with the British National Health Service (NHS). Berwick spent several years in the UK attempting to reform the organization without notable success. All the same, he has publicly declared, "I am romantic about the NHS." As I have said elsewhere, he sings about the NHS the same way that Bryan Ferry sings about his ex-mistresses.
As is often the case with ex-girlfriends, there were a lot of blemishes that Berwick has chosen to overlook. Blemishes including filthy, uncleansed wards, the worst iatrogenic infection rate in Europe (Staffordshire hospitals alone recently lost over 1,200 patients to the hospital-borne staph infection MRSA), months- if not years-long waits for everyday operations, and a deteriorating survival rate for cancer, cardiac, and stroke patients. To these benefits we can add the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), which cuts off certain select patients from food and water while loading them up with sedatives in order to free up the beds. (Further insight into the NHS - and its relation to ObamaCare -- can be found in the Obama chapter of my Death by Liberalism.)
Berwick admires the NHS because health-care decisions are made "centrally," and not by ignorant and ill-educated patients themselves. One of the features of the NHS that impressed Berwick most is the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), a department that decides which treatments and drugs will be allowed the British people. A similar outfit is already operational in the United States.
The most telling statistic concerning the NHS is the number of accidental hospital deaths per year: 95,000. This is the highest in Europe and twice that of the U.S. which has six times the population. To put it into perspective, let's reverse the ratio to see how many accidental deaths the U.S. would have with an NHS-type system. The answer is 450,000 per year.
Little question exists that Obama intends an NHS for the U.S., a single-payer, government-run health care system in which all decisions are made by the bureaucracy (John Conyers admitted as much last week), and that Donald Berwick was supposed to lay the groundwork for it. This is why it is so important that Berwick was ousted before he completes his work. The event marks quite a setback for the administration. No wonder the legacy media failed to cover it.
It remains critical that Berwick actually leaves. Having twisted the rules to get him in, Obama is quite capable of doing the same once again. There's an old Chicago trick, pioneered by Richard J. Daley, in which Da Mare would hire unqualified pals, let them go just before the civil service exam requirements came up, then rehire them. That's how things were done in the Duchy of Chicago, a land Obama is at least as familiar with as he is Indonesia.
This will probably be worth drawing a line in the sand over. An effort that should feature speeches, manifestoes, press conferences, hearings and quite a lot in the way of public education as to exactly what Obama's health-care "reforms" actually have in store for us. In other words, everything that should have been done with Berwick and was not done due to Obama's trickery.
The other point is to undo whatever damage Berwick has already done.
The sad thing about all this is that Donald Berwick is a good man, the farthest thing in the world from one of Obama's purse-snatchers. He has spent a large part of his career devising training programs designed to increase the quality of hospital care and lessen the possibility of accidents. But he is also a seriously misguided man, as pure a case of ideological blindness as we're ever likely to see. He believes impossible things -- that one man can control a health system involving over 300 million people, that a world-class failure in the UK can somehow magically be transformed into a success in the USA, that wishing makes things so. I'm sure there is a worthwhile place for Donald Berwick in this world. But it is not the place that he holds now.Update: Back again if you missed it last time. One per account
Free Baby Welcome Box of Free Products For Babies and Parents. You must be an Amazon Mom member to get this. If you are not yet a member you can sign up for Amazon Mom Trial here, but you must remember to cancel after 30 days if you don't want to be charged. In order to get the box all you have to do is create a NEW Free Baby Registry, No Purchase Required. IF YOU ARE AN AMAZON PRIME MEMBER YOU CAN UPGRADE TO AMAZON MOM FREE BY CLICKING HERE
Click on each category on the top then click on Mark Items Complete as circle above. Then click on select all then save
Do this for each category for a total of 10 times. After you do it you will the blue circle turn green Checkmarks. IF AFTER YOU ADD THE ITEM YOUR CATEGORY DOESN'T TURN GREEN that means you didn't check them all, go back and check them all
Click here After you do all 15 items refresh the page. On the left side under Baby registry welcome Box should be a claim button. Click the claim button and head to checkout.Look, mister, there’s… two kinds of dumb, uh… guy that gets naked and runs out in the snow and barks at the moon, and, uh, guy who does the same thing in my living room. First one don’t matter, the second one you’re kinda forced to deal with.
-George, “Hoosiers”
No question, Mike Pence and the state legislators who voted for the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) are the second kind of dumb. In my previous post, I laid out my belief about why this law was passed. Here, I’ll discuss why this law is just so stupid, unnecessary, and hurtful to everyone.
RFRA is stupid.
Republicans regularly paint themselves as the party of the job creators and of small government. Well, is this law helping or hurting job creation? Our state is losing millions of dollars in potential conventions, sporting events, business travel, and other opportunities. The damage to the hospitality industry in Indianapolis won’t be known possibly for years. It’s not irreparable (I hope), but it is an incredibly stupid self-inflicted wound that serves no real purpose.
As for Indiana Republicans’ small-government mantra, it was only a few weeks ago that Governor Pence tried to develop his own state-run news service before being shamed into abandoning it shortly after it was announced. The RFRA debacle is just another misstep for a party that continues to shoot itself in the foot.
If you truly believe in small government, there should be a compelling reason to pass a new law. After all, it only makes sense that passing unnecessary laws would not be consistent with a small-government philosophy.
Yes or no: Is there a compelling reason for RFRA?
No. (See what I did there?)
Why do I say there’s not a compelling reason for this law? Well…
RFRA is unnecessary.
This law is not seeking to address any actual, real-world problem. There are no cases in Indiana that lack a process to resolve disputes. With all the obsessive attention lavished on this law, I have yet to hear of a single case in Indiana that this law purports to address.
I do however, know of an instance very recently in Indianapolis where a company did in fact deny a gay couple service due to their religious objections. What happened?
The couple wanted to celebrate their love with a commitment ceremony in April. Mike called 111 Cakery downtown to order a cake. “[The owner] said, ‘We don’t do that. If I can help you with anything else, but we don’t discriminate.’ That was the end of it,” he said. “It’s disappointing.” “…We found someone that will do it for us so we’re going to focus on the good,” said Mike.
This is how Hoosiers often solve our problems. Our goal is not to bend others to our will through sheer force but to believe in the goodness of each other and trust that those who don’t exhibit these qualities won’t be around long. (Indeed, 111 Cakery is no longer in business, although the owners stress their closing is unrelated to this incident.)
As I said, this law is unnecessary. But when a law like this is passed, people no longer default to their more informal ‘live and let live’ agreements. Some feel emboldened to put their new-found ‘religious freedom’ to the test just to prove they can. These disputes now become a battle of wills instead of a burden of conscience. It becomes a question of whether or not you can discriminate instead of whether or not you should discriminate.
That means lawyers and at that point we all lose. Stupid and unnecessary (or at least it has been unnecessary to this point in history).
And that brings us to this…
RFRA is hurtful to everyone.
Most Hoosiers got along just fine before this, relatively speaking. Now, we have been forced to choose sides. As proud citizens of Indiana, we are left to explain why, if we are not intolerant people, we choose representatives who pass legislation like this.
Good people who have sincere, thoughtful objections to homosexuality have been painted as uncaring, hateful bigots. Communities that have long accepted the LGBT community as their own have been forced to explicitly proclaim they are not intolerant. They feel the need to do so to avoid being caught up in the maelstrom caused by legislators who insist on fighting culture wars at the government level instead of helping our state’s economy and letting the culture address its issues privately, individually.
Our state legislators have accomplished a rare feat. They have somehow managed to piss off nearly everyone in the country (from all sides), potentially lose millions of dollars in business, divide Hoosiers against each other, and gravely damage the meaning of ‘Hoosier Hospitality.’
And for what? To reassert something that was never an issue in the first place? To remind the LGBT community that some will always see them as second-class citizens? Oh, right. None of this is about discrimination. Except it is. The legislature was warned about this poorly written law by the legal community but they pushed it through anyway.
These legislators are the second kind of dumb and now |
figures that created it.
Deep operations during World War II [ edit ]
The abandonment of deep operations had a huge impact on Soviet military capability. Fully engaging in the Second World War (after Winter War) the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, the Soviets struggled to relearn it. The surprise German invasion (Operation Barbarossa) subjected the Red Army to six months of disasters. The Red Army was shattered during the first two months. Thereafter it faced the task of surviving, then reviving and maturing into an instrument that could compete with the Wehrmacht and achieve victory.
Soviet military analysts and historians divide the war into three periods. The Red Army was primarily on the strategic defensive during the first period of war (22 June 1941 – 19 November 1942). By late 1942 the Soviets had recovered sufficiently to put their concept into practice. The second period of war (19 November 1942 – 31 December 1943), which commenced with the Soviet strategic counteroffensive at Stalingrad, was a transitional period marked by alternating attempts by both sides to secure strategic advantage. After that deep battle was used to devastating effect, allowing the Red Army to destroy hundreds of Axis divisions. After the Battle of Kursk the Soviets had firmly secured the strategic initiative and advanced beyond the Dnepr River. The Red Army maintained the strategic initiative during the third and final period of war (1944–1945) and ultimately played a central role in the Allied victory in Europe.[37]
Moscow counter offensive [ edit ]
Deep battle plan [ edit ]
Operation Barbarossa had inflicted a series of severe defeats on the Red Army. German Army Group North was besieging Leningrad, Army Group South was occupying most of Ukraine and threatening Rostov-on-Don, the key to the Caucasus, and Army Group Centre had launched Operation Typhoon and was closing in on Moscow. The Stavka was able to halt the Northern and Southern Army Groups but was confronted with the German forces approaching the Soviet capital. The Soviet strategy at this point was the defence of the capital and if possible, the defeat and destruction of Army Group Centre. By late November the German pincers either side of the capital had stalled. The Stavka decided to launch a counter offensive. The operational goals were to strike into the enemy operational rear and envelop or destroy the German armies spearheading the attack on Moscow. It was hoped a thrust deeper into the German rear would induce a collapse of Army Group Centre.
Outcome [ edit ]
Soviet rifle forces penetrated German tactical defenses and pursued into the operational depths on foot at slow speed. They were, however, deficient in staying power. Soon growing infantry casualties brought every advance to an abrupt end. Soviet cavalry corps reinforced by rifle and tank brigades also penetrated into the German operational rear. Once there and reinforced by airborne or air-landed forces, they ruled the countryside, forests, and swamps but were unable to drive the more mobile Germans from the main communications arteries and villages. At best, they could force limited German withdrawals, but only if in concert with pressure from forces along the front. At worst, these mobile forces were themselves encircled, only to be destroyed or driven from the German rear area when summer arrived.
No encirclements ensued, and German forces halted the Soviet advance at the Mius River defenses. South of Moscow, the Red Army penetrated into the rear of Second Panzer Army and advanced 100 kilometers deep into the Kaluga region. During the second phase of the Moscow counter offensive in January 1942, the 11th, 2nd Guards, and 1st Guards Cavalry Corps penetrated deep into the German rear area in an attempt to encircle German Army Group Center. Despite the commitment into combat of the entire 4th Airborne Corps, the cavalry corps failed to link up and became encircled in the German rear area. The ambitious Soviet operation failed to achieve its ultimate strategic aim, due largely to the fragile nature of Soviet operational mobile forces.
Rzhev–Vyazma offensive [ edit ]
Deep battle plan [ edit ]
The Stavka correctly judged that these operations had failed because of the Red Army's lack of large, coherent, mechanized, and armored formations capable of performing sustained operational maneuver. To remedy the problem, in April 1942 the Soviets fielded new tank corps consisting of three tank brigades and one motorized rifle brigade and totaling 168 tanks each. The Stavka placed these corps at the disposal of army and front commanders for use as mobile groups operating in tandem with older cavalry corps, which by now had also received a new complement of armour. The Stavka employed these new tank corps in an offensive role for the first time in early 1942.
During this time, The Germans launched Operation Kremlin, a deception campaign to mislead the Stavka, that the main German attack in the summer would be aimed at Moscow. The Stavka were convinced that the offensive would involve Army Group South as a southern pincer against the Central Front protecting Moscow. To preempt the German assault, the Red Army launched two offensive operations, the Rzhev–Vyazma strategic offensive operation against Army Group Centre, and the Kharkov offensive operation (known officially as the Barvenkovo-Lozovaia offensive)[38] against Army Group South. Both were directly linked as a spoiling offensives to break up and exhaust German formations before they could launch Operation Blue.[39] The Kharkov operation was designed to attack the northern flank of German forces around Kharkov, to seize bridgeheads across the Donets River north east of the city. A southern attack would be made from bridgeheads seized by the winter-counter offensive in 1941. The operation was to encircle the Fourth Panzer Army and German Sixth Army as they advanced towards the Dnepr river.[40] The operation led to the Second Battle of Kharkov.
The battlefield plan involved the Soviet South Western Front. The South Western Front was to attack out of bridgeheads across the Northern Donets River north and south of Kharkov. The Soviets intended to exploit with a cavalry corps (the 3rd Guards) in the north and two secretly formed and redeployed tank corps (the 21st and 23rd) and a cavalry corps (the 6th) in the south. Ultimately the two mobile groups were to link up west of Kharkov and entrap the German Sixth Army. Once this was achieved, a sustained offensive into the Ukraine would enable the recovery of industrial regions.
Outcome [ edit ]
In fact, primarily due to Stalin's overriding his subordinates' suggestions, the Stavka fell for the German ruse. Instead of attacking the southern pincer of the suspected Moscow operation, they ran into heavy concentrations of German forces that were to strike southward to the Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus, the actual aim of Operation Blue.
Although the offensive surprised the Wehrmacht, the Soviets mishandled their mobile forces. Soviet infantry penetrated German defences to the consternation of the German commanders, but the Soviets procrastinated and failed to commit the two tank corps for six days. The corps finally went into action on 17 May simultaneously with a massive surprise attack by First Panzer Army against the southern flank of the Soviet salient. Over the next two days, the two tank corps disengaged, retraced their path, and engaged the new threat. But it was too late. The German counterattack encircled and destroyed the better part of three Soviet armies, the two tank corps and two cavalry corps, totaling more than 250,000 men.[41]
The Kharkov debacle demonstrated to Stalin and Soviet planners that they not only had to create larger armoured units, but they also had to learn to employ them properly.
Operation Uranus and Third Kharkov [ edit ]
Deep battle plan [ edit ]
Operation Uranus, which achieved great success in its initial stages
The Battle of Stalingrad, by October 1942, was allowing the Soviets an ever tighter grip on the course of events. Soviet strategy was simple; elimination of the enemy field army and the collapse of Army Group South.
In operational terms, by drawing the German Army into the city of Stalingrad, they denied them the chance to practice their greater experience in mobile warfare. The Red Army was able to force its enemy to fight in a limited area, hampered by the city landscape, unable to use its mobility or firepower as effectively as in the open country. The German Sixth Army was forced to endure severe losses, which forced the OKW to strip its flanks to secure its centre. This left its poorly equipped Axis allies to defend its centre of gravity—its operational depth. When Soviet intelligence had reason to believe the Axis front was at its weakest, it would strike at the flanks and encircle the German Army (Operation Uranus). The mission of the Red Army then, was to create a formidable barrier between the cut off German army and any relief forces. The aim of the Soviets was to allow the German army to weaken in the winter conditions and inflict attrition on any attempt by the enemy to relieve the pocket. When it was judged the enemy had weakened sufficiently, a strong offensive would finish the enemy field army off. These siege tactics would remove enemy forces to their rear.[29]
Having practised the deep battle phase which would destroy the enemy tactical units (the enemy corps and divisions) as well as the operational instrument, in this case the Sixth Army itself, it would be ready to launch the deep operation, striking into the enemy depth on a south-west course to Rostov using Kharkov as a springboard. The occupation of the former would enable the Red Army to trap the majority of Army Group South in the Caucasus. The only escape route left, through the Kerch peninsula and into the Crimea, would be the next target. The operation would enable the Red Army to roll up the German's southern front thereby achieving its strategic aim. The operation would be assisted by diversion operations in the central and northern sector to prevent the enemy from dispatching operational reserves to the threatened area in a timely fashion.
Outcome [ edit ]
Third Kharkov. The shallow penetration was destroyed. The Soviets had not practised deep operations properly.
Operation Uranus, the tactical deep battle plan, worked. However, the General Staff's deep operation plan was compromised by Joseph Stalin himself. Stalin's impatience forced Stavka into offensive action before it was ready. Logistically the Soviets were not yet prepared and the diversion operations further north were not yet ready to go into action.
Nevertheless, Stalin's orders stood. Forced into premature action, the Red Army was able to concentrate enough forces to create a narrow penetration toward Kharkov. However, it was logistically exhausted and fighting an enemy that was falling back on its rear areas. The lack of diversionary operations allowed the German Army to recognise the danger, concentrate powerful mobile forces, and dispatch sufficient reserves to Kharkov. With the Red Army's flanks exposed, the Germans easily pinched off the salient and destroyed many Soviet formations during the Third Battle of Kharkov.
The concept of the deep operation had not yet been fully understood by Stalin. However, Stalin recognised his own error, and from this point onward, stood back from military decision making for the most part. The defeat meant the deep operation would fail to realise its strategic aim. The Third Battle of Kharkov had demonstrated the importance of diversion, or Maskirovka operations. Such diversions and deception techniques became a hallmark of Soviet offensive operations for the rest of the war.
Kursk [ edit ]
Deep battle plan [ edit ]
The battle of Kursk combined both the defensive and offensive side of deep battle. The nature of Soviet operations in the summer, 1943 was to gain the initiative and to hold it indefinitely. This meant achieving permanent superiority in the balance of forces, in operational procedure and maintaining initiative on the battlefield.[42]
The Soviet plan for the defence of the city Kursk involved all three levels of warfare coherently fused together. Soviet strategy, the top end of military art, was concerned with gaining the strategic initiative which would then allow the Red Army to stage further military operations to liberate Soviet territory lost in 1941 and 1942. To do this, the Stavka decided to achieve the goal through defensive means. The bulge in the front line around Kursk made it an obvious and tempting target to the Wehrmacht. Allowing the Germans to strike first at the target area allowed the Red Army the opportunity to wear down German Army formations against pre-prepared positions, thereby shaping the force in field ratio heavily against the enemy. Once the initiative had been achieved and the enemy had been worn down, strategic reserves would be committed to finish off the remaining enemy force. The success of this strategy would allow the Red Army to pursue its enemy into the economically rich area of Ukraine and recover the industrial areas, such as Kiev, which had been lost in 1941. Moreover, Soviet strategists recognised that Ukraine offered the best route through which to reach Germany's allies, such as Romania, with its oilfields, vital to Axis military operations. The elimination of these allies or a successful advance to their borders would deny Germany military resources, or at least destabilise the Axis block in the Balkans.
The operational method revolved around outmanoeuvring their opponents. The nature of the bulge meant the Red Army could build strong fortifications in depth along the German axis of advance. Two rifle divisions defended the first belt, and one defended the second. A first belt division would only defend an area of 8–15 kilometres wide and 5–6 kilometres in depth.[43] Successive defence belts would slow German forces down and force them to conduct slow and attritional battles to break through into the operational depths. Slowing the operational tempo of the enemy would also allow the Soviet intelligence analysts to keep track of German formations and their direction of advance, enabling Soviet reserve formations to be accurately positioned to prevent German spearheads breaking through each of the three main defence belts. Intelligence would also help when initiating their own offensives (Operation Kutuzov and Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev) once the Germans had been bogged down in Soviet defences. The overwhelming contingent of Soviet armour and mechanised divisions were given to the operational reserves for this purpose.[44]
The tactical level relied heavily on fortified and static defences composed of infantry and artillery. Anti-tank guns were mounted throughout the entire depth of the defences. Few tanks were committed to the tactical zones and the nature of the defences would have robbed them of mobility. Instead, only a small number of tanks and self-propelled artillery were used to give the defences some mobility. They were distributed in penny packets to enable localised counterattacks.[45] Such tactics slowed the Germans, forcing them to expend strength and munitions on combating the Soviet forward zones. The Soviets had counted on the Germans being stopped within the tactical zones. To ensure that this occurred, they distributed large numbers of anti-AFV (armoured fighting vehicle) and anti-personnel mines to the defences.
Outcome [ edit ]
The Germans began their offensive, as predicted, on 5 July 1943, under the codename Operation Citadel. The Soviets succeeded in limiting them to a slow advance. In the north, the German 9th Army advanced south from Orel. The Germans failed to breach the main defence lines, stalling at the third belt. The German armies had been forced to commit their mobile reserves to the breakthrough. This allowed the Soviets to conduct the operational and offensive phase of their plan; Operation Kutuzov. Striking the 2nd Panzer Army, the Soviet's fresh operational forces, heavily mechanized, threatened to cut off the German 9th Army. Had they succeeded, nothing would have stood between the Red Army and the strategic depth of German Army Group Centre's front. However the Germans were able to stem the advance by committing their mobile reserves and organize a withdrawal. Still, the two German armies had been worn down, and the Soviet forces in the north had won the strategic initiative.
In the south, the Soviet plan did not work as effectively and the contingency plan had to be put into effect. The German formations succeeded in penetrating all three Soviet defence belts. This denied the Soviets the opportunity to pin them down in the tactical defence belts and release their operational reserves to engage the enemy on favourable terms. Instead, operational forces for Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev that were intended for the southern counteroffensive, were ordered to at and near Prokhorovka. This led to the Battle of Prokhorovka. While the tactical deployment and operational plan had not worked as flawlessly as it had in the north, the strategic initiative had still been won.
Other campaigns [ edit ]
With improved material means and tactical aptitude enabling complicated large-unit maneuvers, the following later campaigns were able to exhibit an improved application of the Deep operation doctrine:
Cold War [ edit ]
Central Europe [ edit ]
The Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies used their massive superiority in numbers and the idea of Deep Battle to intimidate NATO over the Inner German Border. Some Western observers predicted that the Warsaw Pact could use a mixture of speed and surprise to overrun Western Europe in around 48 hours. While massive air strikes using enormous numbers of aircraft would devastate NATO infrastructure and reinforcements, VDV (airborne units), Spetsnaz ("special purpose troops", i.e. special forces) and naval infantry would clear the way for the torrent of tank and motor-rifle divisions that would soon cross the border. The forward units of these tank and motor rifle divisions would be given the task, rather unusually, of avoiding engagements with the enemy and simply to advancing as far and as fast as possible, therefore enabling a victory before any replacement aircraft and REFORGER units came to Europe from America.
Asia [ edit ]
Ever since the 1960s when the Sino-Soviet alliance came to an abrupt end, the Soviet High Command considered invading China by deep battle offensive operations, envisaging a rapid drive deep towards the latter's main industrial centers before they could have a chance to mount a credible defense or even stage a counterattack. However, the extremely vast numbers of the Chinese Army and their knowledge of the terrain, coupled with their then-recent possession of nuclear weapons, made such a drive the Soviets were to execute extremely unlikely. Although both sides nearly went to war in three separate occasions in 1968, 1969 and 1979 respectively, the Soviets were rather hesitant to go to war and invade China, thanks to the fact that both possessed huge armed forces and nuclear weapons at their disposal.
Major proponents [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Citations [ edit ]Michael Hirsh is national editor for Politico Magazine.
There were, in retrospect, clear signs of what was to come—signs that if Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders did not appear on the scene, someone else like them would have. We’ve had decades of forewarnings as the top income earners —the “one percent”—began taking bigger shares of our economy starting in the 1980s: The anti-globalization protests of the late 1990s. The rise of Ross “NAFTA-will-suck-our-jobs-away” Perot and Pat “Pitchforks” Buchanan against the GOP establishment. The brief but intense Occupy Wall Street movement. The adoration of Elizabeth Warren. The warnings from superstar economist Thomas Piketty in recent years that the United States was suffering the worst income inequality in the developed world, worse than anything since the 1920s—and that it was not sustainable.
Above all, there was the drip-drip-drip social acid of stagnating middle-class income—interrupted by the false dawn of the mid-2000s mortgage mania, when the poor felt rich but in truth were only more indebted—and the simultaneous self-isolation of our increasingly uber-wealthy class over three long decades. All without any effective policy response from Washington to redress the widening income gap.
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On the contrary, from Washington there was only the all-too-self-confident movement of both political parties toward a full-on embrace of policies that further promoted the brutally unequal society that America is today. First, the Republicans became ardent free traders, then the Democrats under Clinton, with Obama following suit. Even the Democrats—having become deficit-slashing “Eisenhower Republicans,” in Bill Clinton’s tart phrase—responded with mostly harsh trickle-down medicine: “Workfare.” Unfair tax policies, with capital-gains earners (read: plutocrats) getting most of the breaks. Rubinomics. Greenspan worship. And all the while we in the media listened—in hushed awe of their genius—to the economists who told us that of course there were inequities and a lot of people would be left behind, but globalization and ever-freer markets were still good for most of us, overall anyway, sort of, we think. … And besides, what’s the alternative?
The only wonder, perhaps, is that it took Trump and Sanders this long to get here.
True, both men may fail in their respective insurgencies against the establishment. After his weekend thumping in South Carolina and facing long odds on Super Tuesday, Sanders could fade quickly as a candidate. Trump, meanwhile, still faces a sharp backlash from Republicans, some of whom are already saying publicly they can’t support him as their party’s nominee. But make no mistake: The message that Sanders and Trump are bringing to the stump isn’t going away soon, not until the two parties acknowledge the deep flaws in the economic paradigm that got us to this place of inequality, but which neither the Democratic nor the Republican leadership have questioned deeply.
Trump and Sanders are thus in many ways the yin and yang of America’s present discontent; both address, in different ways, the seething sense of unfairness, of inequality in Americans. Their supporters tend to be angry, somewhat less educated, more-industrial-age-than-information-age-skilled Americans—and in other cases, insecure young people just out of college, for whom unemployment until the age of 30 still averages 12 percent—who believe their political parties no longer represent them. Trump emphasizes shutting down job-stealing immigrants and getting “better” deals from the world; Sanders, imprisoning wealth-gobbling, spoiled Wall Streeters and getting “fairer” deals from the world. Both candidates plainly appeal to people who feel that no one is really standing up for them and what used to be known as their middle class; people who want more of the pie than they’ve been getting for a long time, and people who realize that their political parties are at best half-hearted about doing anything about that.
For some economists out of the mainstream, like Harvard’s Dani Rodrik, who issued one of the earliest warnings against the idea of the free-market-as-panacea in his book Has Globalization Gone Too Far? nearly two decades ago, this merciless crushing of the middle class at the hands of a mere economic theory has been a “slowly growing cancer” that has gone untreated by politicians. Today, he says, the Trump-Sanders phenomenon is plainly the long-awaited political reckoning for 30 years of errant policy and too-facile belief in the wonders of markets: the wild-talking building magnate on the right and the wild-haired socialist on the left have met up at the same intersection, one bounded by the four corners of anti-globalization, anti-free-trade, anti-immigration and anti-Wall Street sentiment.
“I don’t want to sound like the economist who called 10 out of the last five recessions, but yes, this is the populist backlash that unremitting globalization has historically unleashed and I had warned about,” he says. “When mainstream politicians are unable to generate meaningful responses to inequality, social exclusion and insecurity, populists of various ilk gain ground.”
The United States, which once idealized itself as a classless society, has become more socio-economically stratified than the aristocratic “old Europe” of the pre-World War I period, says Piketty. Much of this is the unintended consequence of untrammeled globalization, which has enriched the masters of capital, especially at the expense of blue-collar labor. In the global system, investment capital moves at blinding speed, while labor still must go by boat, train and plane—and that’s if it’s lucky, since immigration restrictions are much harsher than they used to be. All this helps to explain why U.S. labor is at the mercy of vicious competition abroad and Wall Street has the whip hand over corporate performance; why the gap between executive and worker pay has widened to record levels; why even incompetent executives enjoy golden parachutes while high-performing employees can be laid off without explanation or apology.
Above all, globalization has disrupted our national narrative in profound ways, says Rodrik. “The sense that we’re all in this together as one nation, a common society and a common policy, has been disrupted by globalization. Now, there is a greater realization that the benefits of globalization accrued disproportionately to the professional classes, the higher skilled, the ones who had the mobility and access to capital.”
Nothing underlined this divergence of fortunes between rich and poor more than the Big Crash of ’08, which caused a calamitous drop in Americans’ median net worth. According to the Federal Reserve, a broad group of Americans loosely defined as the middle class saw its net worth plummet from a median of $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010. Thus we came out the other side of the Great Recession a very different economy altogether. “The recovered wealth—most of it from higher stock prices—has flowed mainly to richer Americans,” The Associated Press reported. According to Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez, the wealthiest 1 percent of the country actually made out better, in percentage terms, during Obama’s “recovery” than they did from 2002-07 under George W. Bush.
By 2012, according to Saez, the top 1 percent were earning 23 percent of the nation’s income, almost the same ratio as in 1929. “My guess is that was one of the last straws that led to Trump and Sanders, but things had been building for a while,” says Frank Levy, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who co-authored a much-cited 2007 paper concluding that labor began losing the fight to capital and Wall Street in the late 1970s, leading to greater inequality than in the days of what Levy calls the “Treaty of Detroit”—a consensus that supported high minimum wages, progressive taxation and other New Deal policies.
Cue Bernie and Donald, both of whom convey a message that Americans have every right to be angry about a rigged, big-money-corrupted economic system. According to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll, nearly three-quarters of voters likely to head to the polls in November’s election say they think the United States is on the wrong track, and these disaffected people make up a majority of the base for both Trump and Sanders—87 percent and 54 percent, respectively.
Both Democratic and Republican leaders, meanwhile, are still kidding themselves that their respective bases are … basically OK with their economic agendas, when plainly the numbers show they aren’t. On the GOP side, there were those who thought the tea party was libertarian, but nothing could have been further from the truth, as Rand Paul discovered when his presidential bid crashed and burned. Even a conservative in the maltreated middle class doesn’t want less help from government; instead the tea party backlash was anti-immigrant and anti-Obama—not so much opposed to government per se as to how government redistributes wealth. The Democratic establishment from Obama to Hillary Clinton has been continually surprised by the anger and sense of betrayal within its progressive wing, which is why so few people took Sanders seriously at first (including the Clintons).
Thus what we have now is an emerging ideology with no party to speak for it. Among those claiming vindication is Pat Buchanan, who told the Washington Post recently that the “revolution” he predicted (the pitchforks in other words) was finally at hand: “What’s different today is that the returns are in, the results are known. Everyone sees clearly now the de-industrialization of America, the cost in blood and treasure from decade-long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the pervasive presence of illegal immigrants.”
***
We can debate the causes of inequality; and certainly whether Sanders and Trump have any real solutions or are just making empty promises. What is not debatable is that growing inequality is a major, society-shaking problem—one that, as Rodrik says, has actually made America less cohesive, and neither Democrats nor Republicans are doing much about it. Here too we’ve had years of warning: Real wages for most U.S. workers have been relatively stagnant since the 1970s, while those for the top 1 percent have increased 156 percent, and those for the top 0.1 percent have increased 362 percent, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute. Thus, the Harvard Gazette reported earlier in February, the poorest 20 percent of Americans received just 3.6 percent of the national income in 2014, down from 5.7 percent in 1974. The upper 20 percent, meanwhile, received nearly half of U.S. income in 2014, up from about 40 percent in 1974, according to Census Bureau statistics.our far flung correspondents draft hothamwater28 Oct 15th, 2012 161 Never 161Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 20.30 KB DATESEALAND.COM -or- OUR FAR FLUNG CORRESPONDENT By D Back in the spring, a real reporter at a real news bureau with a real computer published a phony April-Fool's article saying that the EU Copyright Court was relocating to Sealand due to the micro-nation’s unique position of diplomatic impartiality. The editors at my office didn't recognize the piece as a farce, and the prank resulted in my instillation as the Akron Evening Beacon's first foreign correspondent. The conversation leading to my deployment, if I remember correctly, went as follows: “Lewes, you're young and you're hungry for a good beat, right?” The Editor-in-Chief at the Beacon, Carl Sanderson, was the closest thing one could find to an honest-to-God and wholly deranged living caricature of J. Jonah Jameson. This is actually how he communicates with other human beings. “Of course si-” “How'd you like an assignment overseas?” “I'm not sure I can do that with my coursel-” “It's in Sealand; you know, that little oil platform or fort or whatever that declared independence or some shit like that-” “No, I don't kno-” “Anyways, apparently they're moving the EU Copyright courts out there, and no one's on this beat-” “Sir, I don't know if covering Sealand is a sound investment of ou-” “Lewes, you sonuvabitch, you've got a mouth on you, and I love ya for it, but I've got a gut, and that gut never lets me down, and that aforementioned gut is pointing its nose at this beat!” “Well, even so, sir, I can't-” “Horseshit; of course you can. You're young! You're hungry for a good beat! I don't see where this doesn't fit into the equation!” “Sir, I c-can-” “I knew you'd come around! You're a real go-getter, y'know, you've got that stuff, that right stuff. The right stuff, dare I say.” “Sir, I don-” “Now get out of here and get packed up, kid, you're flying out of Cleveland bright and early in the morning.” And that was how I dropped out of graduate school. -------- While Sealand claims a double-digit populace, I share the re-purposed fort on a day-to-day basis with the lone naturalized Sealandian still residing in his adopted homeland: his Honorable Sir Gerald McDermott, Official Sealand Palace Guard, Caretaker, Press Secretary, Engineer, Secretary of the Interior, and 1992 Recipient of the Silver Anchor Medal for exemplary service to God and Platform. We interacted three times a day: in the morning for the daily Sealand Palace Press Conference, at sundown for the lowering of the Sealand colors, and in passing as we returned to our respective, adjacent quarters for the night. Aside from these contexts, McDermott's cabin door never opened, and he never ventured outside of it. By the grace of Sealand's techno-utopian trappings, the platform has internet access, so I'm not in a vacuum, and every so often a mail-boat will come out here and I'll hitch a ride back to shore for the weekend, shirking my duties as the foreign correspondent to the principality of Sealand. I don't know anyone in the entire United Kingdom, though, so its not worth the effort most of the time, except for when I run out of liquor. Aside from these occasional detours, however, I never fail to submit my daily news brief to the Beacon, and regardless of their reliable banality, Sanderson publishes every single one of them. It was in late April that I got the email telling me my term of correspondence here had been extended indefinitely; Sealand loved the press, and my Sealand features were relatively popular with the Beacon's readership, so I suppose it was inevitable. The email read as follows: “Jake- Sealand's offered to keep you stowed away-- on the house. I figure this is a great opportunity to corner the market on Sealand News. If anything ever breaks in this place, they'll have to pick us up nationally. All you have to do is wait, maybe throw us a few gimmicky bones once in a while, and when something happens, my boy, it'l be grand. It'l be quite grand. You'd better not miss anything, because this could be grand. Keep toughin' on, soldier. -C.S.S. EIC@AEB.BIZ” And that was how I broke up with my girlfriend. ------ Like clockwork, every morning at ten-fifty-five GMT, Press Secretary McDermott takes his place at the podium in the small conference room with garish bruised-purple wallpaper and begins his daily debriefing, whether I am there or not. The news was typically somewhat slow around these parts; the day's announcements typically revolved around the more noteworthy individuals to purchase a title of Lordship from the principality on a given day. Last week, the entire twenty-minute press conference was devoted to the news that Gwyneth Paltrow was now an official Countess of Sealand. Today was a busy day, as the official Sealand Roller Derby team-- composed entirely of British Nationals, most of them Welsh-- arrived on the platform, along with his eminence himself, his Royal Highness Prince Regent Michael Bates I, to pose for photos before their first competition this Saturday. I've met the Prince Regent a few times. He's a decent fellow; fifty, balding, and exceptionally portly, he's otherwise devoid of the aristocratic trappings others may have with such a title, though it does help that his nation commands no standing army. We've shared a drink or two, and small talk whenever he comes to visit. The Prince Regent is convinced that expanding Sealand's athletic presence is key to expanding its chances at diplomatic legitimacy-- “Whatever that means for our fine principality”. As such, the announcement of the Sealand Defilers' Roller Derby team is a big deal around here; in his Press Release, Prince Regent Michael declared it “the newest, most exciting chapter in Sealand's burgeoning history”. The People's History of the Principality of Sealand reads in reverse as follows: -Sealand is bringing an online casino to the platform in December, but that will consist of nothing more glamorous than a few massive computer servers and an extra satellite dish. -Sealand caught on fire in 2006. They rebuilt it, of course, this time around painting the exterior of the new steel palace solely in shades of black and red, in a misguided attempt at nationalism. -The founder of Sealand, Prince Roy Bates, retired to the UK with his wife about fifteen years ago; Prince Regent Michael also lived on the mainland, exercising the most relaxed and uncontentious reign-in-exile since the dawn of recorded history, serving his birthright from his living room. -Back in 1977, self-proclaimed Prime Minister of Sealand Alexander Achenbach tried to stage a military coup of the platform, for God knows what reason. It was wildly unsuccessful.1 -In 1967, Prince Roy Bates declared the abandoned HM Fort Roughs to be the sovreign principality of Sealand. Meanwhile, obnoxious college kids and fifty-year-old dads discovering the internet buy Sealand titles and t-shirts, and the Principality's economy supports itself through the merits of its own mere existence. That's about the whole of it. ------ The Sealand Defilers stood in a single row, ten-strong in their forest-green tank top uniforms, directly behind Press Secretary McDermott. A couple of them clearly struggled to stifle a few chuckles at the absurdity of the honors they were there to receive in the company of the cold, soundless seas and its lone diligent correspondent; they all had their different coping stratagems, some shuffling their feet sheepishly, others biting their lips, all of them taking care to avoid contact with the six other eyes in the room. McDermott cleared his throat, and began, “In 1967, the year of our Lord, our brave Patriarch, His Eminence Prince Roy Bates I, founded this nation with a vision of a community whose thresholds of acceptance were as broad and all-encompassing as the seas themselves.” McDermott had a particular affinity for his own concept of pageantry, which mostly consisted of throwing regal-sounding words at a page until he was content with the end result. Sometimes it worked out alright for him. More often than not, the end result resembled this: “In Sealand's grand millennial ascendance to a state of greater global significance, we have championed our penchant for existing on the cultural zeitgeist, a grand beacon for the great global world in which our Principality was built to thrive. It is with this, then, that I am pleased to proclaim to the masses of this great planet, the official formation of the Grand Principality of Sealand's Micro-National Roller Derby Association!” The Press Secretary paused, his hands aloft, awaiting the applause he felt such an announcement deserved. McDermott was in his mid-seventies by now, and the tradewinds showed their wear on his every tortured wrinkle. I broke the silence with a golf clap, and McDermott deemed this sufficient enough recognition to continue, “And now, without further adieu, here to present the members of the SM-NRDA's very first Roller Derby club, his Royal Highness, the Prince Regent, Sir Michael Bates I, his holy see, and philosopher-king of the great empire of Sealand!” McDermott crouched behind the podium, and pressed “ |
-industrial complex, and in return the military-industrial complex funds the neocons. One arm works with the military, the other works with Washington, and both arms work together to keep America in a state of endless warfare and imperialism.
You don’t need to live in fear anymore, America. You deserve better than this. You deserve to have a government that cares more about you than about Raytheon profit margins. You deserve a massive peace dividend. Demand it. Don’t put up with another neoconservative administration dominated by Council on Foreign Relations members. Demand real change and take what’s yours.
— — —
I’m a 100 percent reader-funded journalist so if you enjoyed this, please consider helping me out by sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, or throwing some money into my hat on Patreon.Natural number
6174 is known as Kaprekar's constant[1][2][3] after the Indian mathematician D. R. Kaprekar. This number is notable for the following rule:
Take any four-digit number, using at least two different digits. (Leading zeros are allowed.) Arrange the digits in descending and then in ascending order to get two four-digit numbers, adding leading zeros if necessary. Subtract the smaller number from the bigger number. Go back to step 2 and repeat.
The above process, known as Kaprekar's routine, will usually reach its fixed point, 6174, in at most 8 iterations.[4] Once 6174 is reached, the process will continue yielding 7641 – 1467 = 6174. For example, choose 3524:
5432 – 2345 = 3087 8730 – 0378 = 8352 8532 – 2358 = 6174 7641 – 1467 = 6174
The only four-digit numbers for which Kaprekar's routine does not reach 6174 are repdigits such as 1111, which give the result 0000 after a single iteration. All other four-digit numbers eventually reach 6174 if leading zeros are used to keep the number of digits at 4.
Other "Kaprekar constants" [ edit ]
Note that there can be analogous fixed points for digit lengths other than four, for instance if we use 3-digit numbers then most sequences (i.e., other than repdigits such as 111) will terminate in the value 495 in at most 6 iterations. Sometimes these numbers (495, 6174, and their counterparts in other digit lengths or in bases other than 10) are called "Kaprekar constants".
Other properties [ edit ]
6174 is a Harshad number, since it is divisible by the sum of its digits:
6174 is a 7-smooth number, i.e. none of its prime factors are greater than 7.
6174 can be written as the sum of the first three degrees of 18:
18³ + 18² + 18 = 5832 + 324 + 18 = 6174.
The sum of squares of the prime factors of 6174 is a square:
2² + 3² + 3² + 7² + 7² + 7² = 4 + 9 + 9 + 49 + 49 + 49 = 169 = 13².These days the discourse in the Indian media is high on “freedom”. Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious and cultural freedoms, academic and intellectual freedoms. I can open any English language newspaper today and read about how Modi has wrecked press freedom. I can hear them shouting from the rooftops that their voices have been stifled.
Whatever virtues the Indian media might have, irony is clearly not their strong suit.
The voices have recently grown louder with the CBI raid on Prannoy Roy. In a clear violation of press immunity, the CBI raided residence of NDTV founder-promoter Prannoy Roy in connection with an alleged financial fraud.
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Oops! Did I say “press immunity”? I meant “press freedom”. I always struggle with these concepts of having immunity vs having freedom. Anyway…
But there is one voice that I cannot hear. A voice that is gone forever. All that we have left is a few screams on tape.
That’s the job of a journalist. Asking questions. And Jagendra Singh wanted to ask why “they” had to burn him alive? On his death bed, the helpless man wanted to ask why the “minister and his goondas” – which included police officers – could not have given him a lesser punishment, such as beating him up.
Who is Jagendra Singh?
Well, there are journalists who are burnt alive and have to beg for the more merciful “punishment” of being beaten up. And then there are journalists who have to be rushed to TV studios and Thinkfests with severe third degree injuries from getting trolled on Twitter.
Jagendra Singh belonged to the former category. His journalism was a no-frills operation, for he ran a mere Facebook page called “Shahjahanpur Samachar” – basically he did not even have a proper job, but he had a passion for journalism.
For those who don’t know, Shahjahanpur is one of those sleepy little towns in Uttar Pradesh that never make the news. Shahjahanpur is definitely a bigger town than Dadri, though, but I digress.
On the Facebook page of Shahjahanpur Samachar, this man Jagendra Singh ended up writing extensively about alleged corruption of one Ram Murti Singh Verma, a minister in the then Akhilesh Yadav government of Uttar Pradesh.
So, a journalist accuses a minister of corruption. The next thing, the journalist is burnt alive and leaves behind a dying declaration (caught on video, no less) accusing people in power of burning him. (the video contains strong words and visuals, discretion advised).
Jagendra Singh was taken to a hospital. Apparently a police officer told the doctors not to tend to Singh and just let him die. The doctors did not listen to this ‘advice’ and transferred the grievously injured o Lucknow hospital, but Jagendra died of his burns a week later, back in June 2015.
What happens next? Does the Press Club hold an emergency meeting to begin a nationwide movement for justice to this journalist? Do intellectuals start returning heaps of awards to stir the national conscience?
No, of course not! The minister in question was secular, a member of the Samajwadi Party. The state of Uttar Pradesh was ruled at the time by the “Achche Ladke” team headed by Akhilesh Yadav.
Lutyens crowd was more interested in discussing Gajendra (Chauhan) than Jagendra.
So, nothing happens. Intellectuals keep their awards. Journalists keep raising awareness against the scourge of internet trolls. And activists demand FTII be saved.
Nothing to see in Shahjahanpur. A few months later, Dadri would go on to happen in “Modi’s India”. That’s when the cameras came, crying aloud for freedom.
Meanwhile the family of Jagendra tries to fight back, alone. They don’t get prime time television slot that may shake the conscience of the nation.
But the law had to take the case to its logical conclusion. Something had to be done about the complaint lodged by Jagendra Singh’s son.
Oh thank god! Jagendra Singh’s sons had earlier lodged a complaint against the minister. That was before they had a chat with their mother and discovered that his father had planned to threaten self-immolation all along. So nice of these two upright young sons to come forward and actually “demand a clean chit” for the minister.
Lest I am accused of not acknowledging good work by the Akhilesh government, let me also tell you that earlier the then state government announced 30 lakh rupees as compensation and two government jobs for the believed family. All of these just a day before media reports suggested a suicide angle. Kaam bolta hai, you see.
Who says that “ghor kaliyug” has come? It is moments like these that restore our faith in humanity.
Fortunately, the alleged sole eyewitness in the alleged murder of the alleged journalist (hope I have used “alleged” sufficiently many times) also remembered just in time that it was actually a self-immolation. What an awful misunderstanding that could have hurt the image of one very upright individual minister in the secular government of Akhilesh Yadav.
Here ends the story of Jagendra Singh. You won’t hear him telling his wild stories ever again. His Facebook page has not been updated since then.
His voice was not silenced. His freedom was not curbed. He did not need a press conference at the Press Club of India in Lutyens’ Delhi.
Abhishek Banerjee is a math lover who may or not be an Assistant Professor at IISc Bangalore. He is the author of Operation Johar – A Love Story, a novel on the pain of left wing terror in Jharkhand, available on Amazon here. https://dynastycrooks.wordpress.com/
Share This Post and Support:It’s easy to criticize the theories and interpretations of a society long gone– not because we know more, but because our context is radically different. Regardless of what you think you know, the “language” of our culture makes previous cultures’ understandings just sound… stupid.
Every paradigm is informed by its contemporary society, even if they seem unrelated. The go-to example of this is Freud’s theories, from which we derive “pent up” and “release” and “drives” and “pressures”– all of which are the language of the turn-of-the century steam industrial world. Whether Freud was right or not isn’t the point– he just sounds wrong because we don’t use steam engines and the brain doesn’t look like an engine anymore.
The point here is that we acknowledge the ideas of prior cultures relied on their context, but we willfully ignore our own immersion in our context. I read this in The Economist (which, BTW, features this ad on the back cover:)
However, unlike Freud’s unconscious (a hot, claustrophobic place full of repressed memories and inappropriate sexual fantasies about one’s parents) the modern unconscious is a place of super-fast data processing, useful survival mechanisms and rules of thumb about the world that have been honed by millions of years of evolution. It is the unconscious, for instance, that stitches together data on colour, shape, movement…
Note that this isn’t merely a metaphor or analogy to modern computers– it is an earnest but uncritical assumption of an actual similarity.
I’m often asked what books I draw inspiration from, and I regularly refer to Notes From The Underground, Fear And Trembling, and, of course, Interpretation Of Dreams– but the reason I rely on them for the blog is because they are so “wrong” for our contemporary society. They don’t fit our language, our science, our values or our desires, they are anachronistic– and so applying them to today is bound to either be insane or insightful.
This is the problem with omnivores of contemporary media, the people who are constantly reading every magazine that comes out or every new book on X. Even the best stuff still suffers from its immersion in 2012. If you want to see things differently, you have to approach them from radically different contexts.
No related posts.The police and Black Lives Matter may seem like strange bedfellows, but that’s not the case, claims longtime journalist Steven Waldman. In fact, Waldman thinks the two should join forces against “the most anti-police organization in America”: the National Rifle Association.
“Both police and African Americans feel under siege,” wrote Waldman in a Monday article for The Washington Monthly. “The issue that can best unite these communities is one of the most divisive: gun control…For years, the NRA has fought restrictions on ‘cop killer’ bullets…They’ve opposed most gun control measures requested by police…The widespread availability of guns also invariably will put police more on edge…A world where more people carry guns is a world with more hair-trigger police decisions and more accidental killings.”
Waldman suggested that the NRA also has repeatedly and systematically belittled the men and women in blue: “They peddle the lie that America’s police are so ineffective…that regular people must arm themselves. That’s at the heart of the increasingly dominant notion…that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good civilian guy with a gun. Think about it: the answer used to be that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a policeman with a gun. No more. The NRA’s big message: the police are not the answer.”
According to Waldman, the alliance he’s proposing would require cops to understand who’s really on their side:
While the NRA is substantively anti-police, they seem culturally in sync. Some progressives are the reverse — culturally alienated from police but actually supportive of the policies that will save lives of law enforcement. The National Law Enforcement Partnerships to Prevent Gun Violence, which includes the International Association of Chiefs of Police and other law enforcement groups, has a strong gun control agenda… What a statement it would make if the leadership of Black Lives Matter stood side by side with the heads of the Law Enforcement Partnership to push this agenda.
Waldman has been, among other things, a Washington correspondent for Newsweek; the co-founder of the religion-themed web site Beliefnet; and a senior adviser to the Federal Communications Commission for two years during President Obama’s first term.If you've got a case of the dreaded midweek slump, this commercial might help startle you awake.
(Get the kids out the room first. This one comes with a health warning. We're not joking.)
Japanese tire company Autoway Tires took an unconventional approach — horror-movie tactics — to showing the importance of having great tires in dangerous and unpredictable road conditions.
How scary? The opening message reads: "Not for the faint of heart."
Then comes the warning:
"Please refrain from watching the content if any of the following applies to you: Have any mental or physical health concern and may have to see a doctor regularly."
Autoway continues: "We shall not be liable for any injuries, illness, and damages claimed to be caused by watching the contents."
The warning hasn't stopped more than 1.8 million people from watching it on YouTube.
Turn up the volume, turn down the lights and watch the commercial — if you dare. (And be thankful that worst you'll have to face this winter is scary weather.)What does it mean to be anonymous on the internet? Is the age of privacy over, or is there still a chance to turn the tide of public apathy on the issue? Is anonymity even possible? Join us today as we explore these issues on Corbett Report Radio.
Works Cited:
Facebook’s Zuckerberg Says The Age of Privacy is Over
Is Microsoft eavesdropping through Skype for the feds?
NSA offering ‘billions’ for Skype eavesdrop solution
Skype makes chats and user data more available to police
Site Leaks Microsoft Online Surveillance Guide, MS Demands Takedown Under Copyright Law
Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks
NSA refuses to disclose its links with Google
Facebook: Tracking Your Web Activity Even After You Log Out?
Researchers say computer programme can help predict Afghanistan war
The EyeOpener- Sentient World Simulation: Meet Your DoD Clone
Changing the way the internet is governed is risky
US resists control of internet passing to UN agency
High-Traffic Colluding Tor Routers in Washington, D.C.
Filed in: VideosIn Mac OS X, you’ll spend much of your time in the Finder, the part of your operating system that manages files and such. While you might think you know all there is to know about it, the Finder is a complex and wonderful app — with its own special tricks to master.
Here are 10 essential Finder tips that will help you get the most out of your time working or playing on your Mac.
Make Quick Look even cooler
Surely you’ve used the Finder’s Quick Look to see a document or image up close on the fly without having to open the associated app. (You do this by simply hitting the space bar when you have a file or files highlighted in the Finder.)
Even cooler? Getting a full-screen slideshow, complete with available index sheet, by hitting Option-space bar with several files selected. You’ll be able to scroll through them all with the arrow keys, either onscreen or on your keyboard, and if you click the little Index button, you’ll see all your selected files on one screen. Click on the one you want to see full-size, or hit Esc to get back to the Finder.
Show your Home Directory in the Sidebar
Your Home folder contains all your stuff, including documents, photos and music. It makes sense to show it in the Finder’s Sidebar, which is itself a collection of all the things you use often.
To make the Home folder show up, simply choose Preferences from the Finder menu (or hit Command-comma when you’re in the Finder). Then click the little checkbox to the left of your Home folder’s name. Then open a Finder window and drag and drop your Home folder wherever you’d like it. I like to keep it near the top of my sidebar items.
Show the Status and Path bars
These two bars reside at the bottom of any Finder window, giving you important info about your Mac. The Status bar will show you how many items you have in a specific folder as well as how much free storage you have left on your hard disk, while the Path bar will show you the folder path of any highlighted file or folder in the Finder.
Both are useful, and both can be enabled in the View menu. Simply select Show Path Bar or Show Status bar from the View menu in the Finder, or hit Command-/ or Option-Command-P to show and hide them, respectively.
Master the menubar status icons
If your menubar is loaded with a ton of status icons, you can reorder them and even make them disappear.
To rearrange them, simply hold down the Command button on your keyboard, then drag and drop the icons into the order that most pleases you. This applies to the Apple-provided ones, mostly, as third-party apps don’t necessarily allow this trick.
If you want to get rid of the icons, simply Command-click and drag one of the menubar icons toward the middle of the screen. When you let go, the menubar icon will disappear in a cute little puff of simulated smoke, just like when you drag an icon off the Dock. Nice, huh?
If you want them back, simply find the relevant preference pane in System Preferences and click “Show in Menubar.”
Theme your screen your own way
OS X’s look has gotten flatter and less skeuomorphic these days, but if you have a need for an even sharper, more contrasty look, you’re in luck. Simply launch System Preferences, click on Accessibility, and then click on Display in the left pane.
Click the checkbox next to Increase contrast to get a more OS 9-like look, complete with darker colors and lighter backgrounds. If you want to kick up the contrast another notch, head to the General section of System Preferences and check off the “Use dark menu bar and Dock” option, just under the Appearance drop-down menu.
Make smarter folders
Smart Folders can be super-useful, as they collect files or apps into one folder according to specific criteria set up by you. To make one, simply choose New Smart Folder from the File menu in the Finder. You can also hit Command-Option-N on your keyboard, then type in a topic, phrase or other parameter into the search field.
Pro tip: just like when you’re searching in a regular window in the Finder, you can limit the search to only the names of files by choosing “Name matches” in the menu that appears, and clicking on Name, then Filename.
Rename more than one file at once
You know when you have 47 different files, all named Screenshot? Well, it’s super-easy to rename them all to something better, like Cat Pictures, right in the Finder.
All you need to do is select all the files you want to rename, then right-click (or Control-Click) on any of them. Next, click on the contextual menu item “Rename X Items,” where X is the number of files you’ve selected. Then you can do a simple replace text rename, add text to the end of the current file name, or append a number, counter or date at the end using the pop-up menu provided. It’s pretty robust — give it a try.
Relaunch the Finder
There comes a time when even the hardiest app on your Mac, the Finder, will freeze or crash. You can always reboot at times like this, or shut down with a long press and hold to your power button, but try to relaunch the Finder first.
It’s just like Force Quitting any other app — simply hit the Option-Command-Esc key combination to bring up the Force Quit dialog box. You may need to Command-Tab your way to a different, non-crashed app first to see it. Once you see the dialog, highlight the Finder in the list and click Relaunch. This can save you some valuable time as an alternative to rebooting your whole Mac.
Customize Finder window toolbars
There’s a wealth of helpful widgets and buttons at the top of any Finder window, and for the most part, the default set will do you just fine.
If, however, you want to add or delete anything up there, all you have to do is right-click (or Control-Click) on an empty space in the toolbar itself and choose Customize Toolbar from the contextual menu that pops up. Then drag and drop to your heart’s content, or — to reset it — drag the default set up from the bottom of the panel.
Pro tip: Choose Icon only, Text only or Icon and Text for a more- or less-informative look to the set of icons in the toolbar.
Set your default folder
When you open a Finder window, it defaults to a specific folder (usually Home). If you want a different folder to appear when you open a new Finder window, click on the Finder menu, then Preferences (or hit Command-Comma when in the Finder). You’ll be able to choose any folder from the drop-down menu “New Finder windows show” item.
When you click there, you’ll get some suggestions, like your hard disk, your Home folder and All Files. Or you can choose Other and navigate to whatever folder you want. Like a boss.The Hughes Flying Boat—the largest aircraft ever built—is piloted by designer Howard Hughes on its first and only flight. Built with laminated birch and spruce, the massive wooden aircraft had a wingspan longer than a football field and was designed to carry more than 700 men to battle.
Howard Hughes was a successful Hollywood movie producer when he founded the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932. He personally tested cutting-edge aircraft of his own design and in 1937 broke the transcontinental flight-time record. In 1938, he flew around the world in a record three days, 19 hours, and 14 minutes.
Following the U.S. entrance into World War II in 1941, the U.S. government commissioned the Hughes Aircraft Company to build a large flying boat capable of carrying men and materials over long distances. The concept for what would become the “Spruce Goose” was originally conceived by the industrialist Henry Kaiser, but Kaiser dropped out of the project early, leaving Hughes and his small team to make the H-4 a reality. Because of wartime restrictions on steel, Hughes decided to build his aircraft out of wood laminated with plastic and covered with fabric. Although it was constructed mainly of birch, the use of spruce (along with its white-gray color) would later earn the aircraft the nickname Spruce Goose. It had a wingspan of 320 feet and was powered by eight giant propeller engines.
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Development of the Spruce Goose cost a phenomenal $23 million and took so long that the war had ended by the time of its completion in 1946. The aircraft had many detractors, and Congress demanded that Hughes prove the plane airworthy. On November 2, 1947, Hughes obliged, taking the H-4 prototype out into Long Beach Harbor, CA for an unannounced flight test. Thousands of onlookers had come to watch the aircraft taxi on the water and were surprised when Hughes lifted his wooden behemoth 70 feet above the water and flew for a mile before landing.
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Despite its successful maiden flight, the Spruce Goose never went into production, primarily because critics alleged that its wooden framework was insufficient to support its weight during long flights. Nevertheless, Howard Hughes, who became increasingly eccentric and withdrawn after 1950, refused to neglect what he saw as his greatest achievement in the aviation field. From 1947 until his death in 1976, he kept the Spruce Goose prototype ready for flight in an enormous, climate-controlled hangar at a cost of $1 million per year. Today, the Spruce Goose is housed at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.Get the biggest football stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Steve Bruce fears his Hull side's impressive start to life back in the Premier League is in danger of being undermined by mounting injury problems.
The newly-promoted Tigers have already lost centre-back James Chester and former Slovenian international midfielder Robert Koren for two months each with a torn hamstring and a broken foot respectively.
Now, Republic of Ireland winger Robbie Brady is facing a spell on the sidelines with a hernia problem which may need surgery.
Boss Bruce, who has picked up seven points from the opening five fixtures, is hoping the former Manchester United man can continue to play through the pain at least until next month's international break.
He said:"Robbie has a problem that will obviously need to be sorted out sooner or later.
(Image: Action Images)
"We shall continue to monitor him and see how he goes and, at this stage, it is touch and go whether or not he will need an operation.
"The last thing you need after just coming up from the Championship is injuries to key players - and we have already got two key men ruled out for lengthy spells.
"Losing these lads is a big blow, but now we have just got to get on with it and hope we don't have any more bad luck on the injury front."Micropasts is a web platform that hosts crowd-sourced collaborative research projects focused on archaeology, history, and heritage. The admirable goal of Micropasts is, in their words, to “improve how people traditionally distinguished as academics, professionals and volunteers cooperate with one another.” To this end, the website hosts a variety of projects that allow for contributions from enthusiasts, scholars, and the interested public on a wide variety of different topics. It is jointly run by the UCL Institute of Archaeology and the British Museum with support by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.
A relatively straightforward example of how the website works is a project that seeks to transcribe diaries kept by the noted Egyptian archaeologist, Sir Flinders Petrie. The project page includes a tutorial on how to contribute, which can involve either transcribing material directly from the scanned document, or reviewing the work of others to ensure its accuracy. A somewhat more complicated project is one by the British Museum that involves photo-masking medieval Pilgrim badges to create 3D models of the artifacts. All of the projects use the same simple interface which makes it easy to understand how you can help out, and there is a useful ‘Statistics’ tab for each that traces how the overall project is progressing.
There are a wide variety of different and salutary projects that users can contribute to, but we mention here because of a recently-launched numismatic one called the Roman Imperial Coin concordance.
This project was formulated by Daniel Pett of the British Museum and Ethan Gruber of the ANS to facilitate the addition of Roman coins catalogued in the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) to the NEH-sponsored ANS database Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE). The tutorial explains just how the process works, but the essential task is for users to try and identify more precisely what the RIC (Roman Imperial Coinage) number for a given coin drawn from the PAS database is. If and when a more precise identification of the RIC number is made and confirmed, it can then be integrated into the larger OCRE database. The PAS, which is a voluntary program that records small archaeological finds by the public in the UK, presently has over 200,000 Roman coins in its database so it is a potentially rich resource for additional coins and data for OCRE.
Of course, objects like the denarius above can only be integrated into OCRE when they have been properly identified so if you have time to lend a hand, head over to the project website!Is a new G-Unit mixtape on the way? If Young Buck is to be believed, than quite possibly. Recently, the Nashville, Tenn. rapper teased a brand new G-Unit offering in an Instagram post promoting his recently released 10 Toes Down project.
The caption for the post, which features an image of Buck reclining in his whip, reads, "#10ToesDown AVAILABLE NOW!!! #linkinbio ‼️ #BackOnMyBuckShit VOL.3 COMING SOON..PROD BY ( @drummaboyfresh )!!! BUT DIGG DIS??....#TheUnit MIXTAPE "POWER" COMING AT ANYTIME!! HOSTED BY: ( @djwhookid ) @tonyyayo @kiddkiddrllnr9 @lloydbanks @unclemurda @50cent NAW FRFR....#PowerUp‼️ GET AT @charlie1080p FOR #TheUnit BOOKING INFO (Serious BagsOnly)!!"
So based on his caption, it appears the alleged G-Unit project will be hosted by DJ Whoo Kid and called Power. Is the tape's title a reference to Power, the show 50 Cent created and executive-produces for Starz? It's unclear, but it's definitely a possibility.
G-Unit, a crew composed of Buck, 50, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Kidd Kidd, has had their ups-and-downs since dropping Beg For Mercy and Terminate on Sight (T.O.S.) years ago, but they now appear as united as ever.
Last year, the clique released a project called The Lost Flash Drive, a mixtape featuring previously unreleased cuts from the group. If the Unit does drop some new music, we hope it's just as dope as their last body of work.
Check out Buck's Instagram post below. The new G-Unit tape doesn't have a release date quite yet.Story Highlights At 38%, Clinton's favorable rating is one point from her record low
Trump's favorable rating is worse, at 34%, but still above his low
Blacks' views of Clinton have slipped since pre-convention period
PRINCETON, N.J. -- After sinking in August from their convention highs, the favorable ratings for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton show little to no positive momentum as the campaign passes the symbolic Labor Day milestone. Clinton's current 38% favorable rating essentially ties her personal low of 37%, first reached during the GOP convention. Trump's latest rating, at 34%, is just a bit better than where he stood at the close of the Democratic convention (33%).
Today's low favorable ratings for the major party candidates mean that their unfavorable ratings are correspondingly high: 58% for Clinton and 62% for Trump. Clinton's unfavorable rating matches her campaign high, recorded during the Republican convention. Trump's is slightly below his record high, 66%, last reached in April during the competitive phase of the Republican primaries.
These trends are based on seven-day rolling averages of Gallup Daily tracking interviews with U.S. adults. The latest figures are based on interviews conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 6, 2016.
Both candidates' images changed slightly during the convention period in the second half of July, showing improvements during their own party's convention and declines during the other. But those changes proved fleeting, and neither candidate is much better off today than before the party conventions.
The following charts detail each candidate's key subgroup ratings in the first half of July, prior to the back-to-back conventions, and in the most recent seven-day tracking period of Aug. 31-Sept. 6.
Clinton's overall favorable rating is the same, at 38%. Her current ratings among men and women, all age groups, and all party groups are within a few percentage points of their pre-convention levels.
The notable exception to her subgroup stability is her favorable rating among blacks, which, at 63%, is seven points below where it stood in the first half of July. It is also her lowest weekly favorable rating among blacks this year, after occasionally dipping to as low as 65%.
Hillary Clinton Favorable Ratings Pre-convention period compared with most recent weekly averages July 1-17 Aug. 31-Sept. 6 Change % % (pct. pts.) U.S. adults 38 38 0 Men 34 32 -2 Women 43 43 0 18 to 29 34 33 -1 30 to 49 39 40 +1 50 to 64 41 38 -3 65+ 39 39 0 Non-Hispanic whites 28 29 +1 Non-Hispanic blacks 70 63 -7 Hispanics 59 56 -3 Republicans 7 6 -1 Independents 30 30 0 Democrats 77 79 +2 Gallup Daily tracking
Trump Still at Square One With Key Demographic Groups
Trump's current 34% rating among national adults is just slightly better than his average 32% rating in the first half of July -- the same as his average since January. At the same time, like Clinton's, most of Trump's subgroup ratings are remarkably similar to where they were before the start of the conventions -- most within two points of his July 1-17 scores. The one notable change is a five-point increase in his rating among Republicans, which helps account for his two-point overall increase in favorability between the two periods.
Donald Trump Favorable Ratings Pre-convention period compared with most recent weekly averages July 1-17 Aug. 31-Sept. 6 Change % % (pct. pts.) U.S. adults 32 34 +2 Men 37 39 +2 Women 27 28 +1 18 to 29 18 18 0 30 to 49 29 31 +2 50 to 64 39 43 +4 65+ 42 44 +2 Non-Hispanic whites 41 44 +3 Non-Hispanic blacks 7 8 +1 Hispanics 14 12 -2 Republicans 69 74 +5 Independents 28 27 -1 Democrats 7 6 -1 Gallup Daily tracking
Bottom Line
As noted previously on Gallup.com, the slight boost the conventions provided to the candidates' national images -- pushing Clinton's favorable rating to 43% and Trump's to 38% -- were short-lived, and neither has since picked up as the calendar moves past Labor Day. Clinton remains near her record-low favorability, with the added concern that her favorability is slumping among blacks. Trump's 34% favorable rating is better than his 2016 low of 27%, recorded in April, but remains near the 32% to 34% range seen throughout August and still lags Clinton's current rating.
Rather than offering a sign that voters are finally warming up to one candidate or the other, the latest ratings underscore the historic nature of this year's election as one featuring the two most unpopular nominees since the advent of scientific polls.
Historical data are available in Gallup Analytics.
Survey Methods
The results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Aug. 31-Sept. 6, 2016, on the Gallup Daily tracking survey, with a random sample of 3,561 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Results based on subgroups are associated with higher margins of error. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.
Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
Learn more about how Gallup Daily tracking works.This week, I am in Japan teaching a course on business and law in a digital world. To prepare the next generation for the future, it is necessary to think about recent developments in technology. We cannot avoid it.
But we don’t hear much from Japan these days (compared to the late 80s when Sony, Nikon, Toshiba and other amazing Japanese businesses were dominant).
Yet, for various technologies, companies in Japan are still innovative and important.
Take robots.
Japan approaches robotic technologies in a different way from other technology regions, such as Silicon Valley. The focus is not on “man versus machine”, but on “man living with machine”. Japan’s robots come with stories surrounding them; a seamless blending of robotic technologies into everyday life.
This is the perfect starting point for the course:
What should we be doing to prepare for a world where we have to co-exist with intelligent machines?
How can we live in “harmony” with these machines?
And, what should we — as educators — be teaching students to give them the best chance of success in the future?
The World as Experienced Today
But before we start to predict the future, think about the world as we experience it today. People feel stuck and confused. We are at a crossroads.
Here is why.
The Exponential Growth of New Technology
This is the single biggest difference between the world of today and the world of my childhood. We have always experienced technological innovation, but these days the innovations appear to accelerate each other: artificial intelligence, big data, robotics, etc.
All of this new technology makes life easier, more efficient and creates new opportunities.
But, the acceleration of technology is often experienced as threatening and the source of tremendous uncertainty. People are anxious about its effects.
For a start, there are concerns about the loss of privacy and control.
People also worry about whether they are going to be “replaced” by machines. Lawyers, for example, see many simple tasks being automated and this leads them to wonder about what will be left for the “lawyer of the future” to do.
This is especially true for |
, not just TV.”
Indeed, Sony expects a 180 billion yen impairment charge for its mobile phone business after struggling to compete with cut-price Asian rivals and failing to close the gap with Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co in high-end smartphones.
The same predicament forced Nokia to sell its mobile phone business to Microsoft and Sony’s former JV partner Ericsson to sell its stake in 2012.Nike’s sub-two-hour marathon attempt is next weekend and the quest for a 1:59:59 (or faster) will be led by some of the greatest distance runners in the world.
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As race date, May 6, approaches, information about the pacing strategy and the pacers is being revealed. This past Monday, a list, in part, was posted to Twitter showing some of the names involved in the sub-two-hour project.
There will be a number of different groups who will pace Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge, two-time Boston winner Lelisa Desisa and half-marathon world record holder Zersenay Tadese at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza F1 track in Italy. There, the three accomplished distance runners will be aided by the pace makers and the Nike VaporFly Elite, a controversial shoe designed specifically for the marathon attempt.
The current world record, 2:02:57, will need to be improved by more than two per cent if any of the three runners hope to go under two hours. The average pace per kilometre necessary for a 1:59:59 marathon is 2:50 whereas the current world record averages out to 2:55 per kilometre.
Some very interesting pacemakers on the weekend for #breaking2 & this list is not all of them! pic.twitter.com/wRBGfl4rQ9 — Cuan Walker (@runwithcuan) May 1, 2017
The recently-revealed team of pacers, which Cuan Walker posted to Twitter, features top Nike athletes. Walker says that the list is not exhaustive. Perhaps the most intriguing name on the list is five-time Olympian Bernard Lagat, who retired from professional track last year. The Kenyan-born American, who at the time of retirement said he would continue running on the roads, is the second fastest ever over 1,500m and is a two-time Olympic medallist. His half-marathon lifetime best is 1:02:33.
Bernard Lagat gets a pacing gig at Breaking2. An old neighbour of Eliud Kipchoge and his coach Patrick Sang. Smart move. — Ed Caesar (@edcaesar) May 1, 2017
Other notable names include IAAF World U20 champion Selemon Barega, two-time Olympian for Australia Collis Birmingham, 2016 Toronto Waterfront Marathon champion Philemon Rono and many others.
There was a briefing on the pace strategies today, which one Twitter user called “pacing school.”
As can be seen in the tweet, pacing groups will be subbed in and out at given intervals. That means runners will be rested for each of their assigned duties. Note that the circuit on which the sub-two attempt is being held is 2.4K, meaning the marathon is 17.5 laps.
It appears that there will be six, possibly more, pacers at a time in front of the three Breaking2 athletes. Canadian Running will be on-site for the race and will be providing updates as often as possible.
Known pacers
Red pacing group
– Chris Derrick (27:31.38 10,000m)
– Sam Chelanga (27:08.49 10,000m)
– Andrew Bumbalough (13:12.01 5,000m)
Green pacing group
– Teklemariam Medhin (27:16.69 10,000m)
– Nguse Tesfaldet (2014 African 10,000m champion)
– Aron Kifle (Silver in the 10,000m at the 2016 IAAF U20 Championships)
Blue pacing group
– Dejene Debela (2:10:13 marathon)
– Abayneh Ayele (Fourth at the 2016 IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships)
– Tadu Abate Deme (1:00:46 half-marathon)
Purple pacing group
– Collis Birmingham (Two-time Olympian)
– Selemon Barega (2016 IAAF U20 5,000m champion)
– Alex Oloitiptip Korio (59:28 half-marathon)
Purple pacing group
– Gideon Kipketer (2016 Mumbai Marathon champion)
– Stephen Sambu (26:54.61 10,000m)
– Stephen Mokoka (2016 African 10,000m champion)
Yellow pacing group
– Bernard Lagat (Five-time Olympian, two-time world outdoor champion)
– Philemon Rono Cherop (2016 Toronto Waterfront Marathon champion)
– Abdi Nageeye (11th in the marathon at the 2016 Olympics)It had become something they just had to do: whenever the main shopping street in Baghdad's Karrada district was bombed, Hussein al-Fatlawi and his brother would rush to help.
When the Islamic State jihadist group set off a car bomb on Karrada Dakhil street shortly before midnight on September 5, 24-year-old Hussein was halfway up the stairs to his flat.
"I was about to reach my home when I heard the explosion... I pulled out my phone and called my brother Ali to get him to meet me so we could run to help the victims," he said.
Ali, 26, did not pick up and Hussein had a bad feeling. Instead of going to the bomb site, he started searching for his brother and eventually found him at the morgue, dead. 1
Iraqi musicians perform at a concert at the opening of a cafe-cum-bookshop in Baghdad's Karrada Dakhil (photo by: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP)
Ali and Hussein had been among the first to reach the nearby site of a July attack, the bloodiest to ever hit Baghdad, that killed at least 323 people.
The massive blast set fire to two shopping arcades on either side of Karrada's busy thoroughfare, burning many people alive.
The 40-day mourning period is over and the charred bomb site is being cleaned. But everyone in the neighbourhood knew at least one, sometimes many, of those killed and Karrada is still in shock.
"We used to rush out as soon as we heard a bombing and head to the site to help out with transporting the dead and wounded to hospital," said Hussam, the Fatlawi brothers' uncle. 2
Karrada Dakhil is a favourite spot for many Baghdadis, but also a prized target for the IS group's bombs (photo by: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP)
"Since these bombings started, Ali felt a lot of empathy for the victims. Whenever there was a blast, he and his brother were always the first among the volunteers," he said.
Countless bombings
A busy shopping area on the east bank of the Tigris River, Karrada has seen countless bombings since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Karrada Dakhil is a favourite spot for many Baghdadis to go for coffee or shop with friends and family, but also a prized target for the Islamic State group's seemingly endless supply of bombs.
There were phases, before IS swept through Iraq and tried to set up its Islamic "caliphate", during which several large bombings would rock Baghdad every day. 3
Iraqis watch a concert at the opening of a cafe-cum-bookshop in Baghdad's Karrada Dakhil street (photo by: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP)
On the street, the number of times a cafe or restaurant has been destroyed in bombings is almost part of its pedigree.
Many people avoid the terraces of Karrada during periods of perceived heightened risk, such as major holidays or weekend nights.
But after the tragedy of the July bombing, some made a point of showing they would not be cowed into submission and went about their business as usual.
The authorities recently turned to a type of US-made vehicle scanner on Karrada Dakhil to further secure the area. 4
British businessman James McCormick was jailed for selling fake bomb detectors to Iraq and other countries (photo by: Justin Tallis/AFP/File)
That was done partly in response to a public outcry over the continued use of the infamous "magic wands", fake hand-held bomb detectors sold to Iraq by a British conman who was jailed for fraud three years ago.
In late August, an attractive ca fe-cum-bookshop offering espresso and iced coffee was inaugurated with a concert. Ahmed Saadawi, Iraq's rising literary star, also read from his latest novel.
Days away from departure
"This is great for young people who want a place that isn't noisy, where you can speak freely, buy books and drink coffee," said Muhannad al-Husseini, 25.
"Karrada is bouncing back, especially now that they've cleared the site of the bombing and re-opened the street."
Another bombing, the one in which Ali al-Fatlawi was killed, rocked the neighbourhood a week later and the main street was closed to traffic again.
Saeed Alaa Adel, 27, sitting in the same newly opened cafe, said the latest IS bombing was predictable and argued residents' resilience would be tested again.
"It's very nice to see people getting on with their lives, and I hope more will turn to these kind of cultural activities," he said.
"But government and parliament are part of the problems that cause terrorism, and until that changes, we should be prepared for the next bombing."
Despite his dedication to his neighbourhood and readiness to help bomb victims, Ali al-Fatlawi likely harboured similar feelings and had recently focused his hopes on exile.
When he was killed, he was days away from moving to the United States.
Having briefly worked for a US private security company, his application for emigration had just been approved.
"His dream was to have children and it was about to come true in America," his father Hassan said, sitting in their Karrada home, choking back tears.
Ali had been married for five years, but he and his wife had been unable to have children and were eager to try medically assisted procedures in the US.ORLANDO, Fla. — With dozens of survivors of the massacre at a gay nightclub here still hospitalized, some of the wounded on Tuesday gave gripping accounts of terror and pain on a night that turned in an instant from joyous to deadly.
The survivors told of fleeing, hiding, using their phones to plead for help, watching friends die — and thinking that they would also — as a man with an assault rifle and a handgun went through the Pulse nightclub, firing more shots than they could count. The slaughter early Sunday left 49 victims dead, in addition to the gunman, and 53 wounded — the worst mass shooting in American history.
“The guilt of feeling lucky to be alive is heavy,” said Patience Carter, who was shot in the legs and saw her friend Akyra Murray killed. “I was begging God to take the soul out of my body because I didn’t want to feel any more pain, I didn’t want any more shots.”
More than 30 of the wounded remained in hospitals on Tuesday, including at least six who were in critical condition. All of the dead had been identified, and most of the autopsies were completed.
As the injured and the doctors who treated them told their stories, the F.B.I. continued looking into the actions of the gunman, Omar Mateen, 29, who died in a shootout with police, seeking evidence of a motive and any possible accomplices — in particular, whether his wife may have known he was planning the assault. His wife, Noor Zahi Salman, has told investigators that she once drove him to the nightclub, that she was with him when he bought ammunition, and that she tried to talk him out of mounting an attack, law enforcement officials said.
Mr. Mateen had voiced hatred of gays, minorities and Jews, and had claimed links to Islamist terrorist groups; during the siege at the nightclub, he declared allegiance to the Islamic State. But investigators were also looking into reports that he might have been gay himself.
His ex-wife, Sitora Yusufiy, said that Mr. Mateen had told her that he had frequented nightclubs before their marriage, but had not described them as gay clubs.Giselle from director Dan Chen manages to do something that very few shorts get right: it nails the feeling of a particular state of mind, of a particular moment. In this instance, it’s about a man dealing with the aftermath of a break-up. But, I know what you’re thinking: this isn’t one of those sort of films—a mopey picture centered around a guy feeling sad about being dumped. You see, Jamie, the protagonist, is the one who did the dumping. And, yet, he still feels an overwhelming sense of heartache.
And, so, with just a simple set of cinematic collateral (an apartment, a small crew, a few actors), Chen adroitly captures this feeling of loss and regret. He examines the idea that in a break-up, really, there are no winners—both parties are subjected to pain and a yearning for the other. To put it succinctly: there are no clean breaks.
“We wanted to capture that weird blend of regret and confusion, and invite the viewer to think about their own life experience, whether they’re the one who wants to make that phone call or they’re the one who’s hoping for the phone to ring.”
Chen further explains his motivations behind the film: “I use films to work through whatever issues I’m having in my life at the moment. Giselle is about those nights when you want to call the ex whose heart you broke. We wanted to capture that weird blend of regret and confusion, and invite the viewer to think about their own life experience, whether they’re the one who wants to make that phone call or they’re the one who’s hoping for the phone to ring.”
The performances Chen captures are lived-in and honest. Both leads (Emily Rowan as Giselle and Chasen Bauer as Jamie) have great chemistry. And, Chen’s filmmaking is subtle, yet accomplished. The short was shot in quite a unique way. Chen’s cinematographer, Phillips Shum worked directly with a group of glass cutters to make his own proprietary camera system. Essentially, he uses Hasselblad lenses to focus the image onto a piece of ground glass, which is then captured by a digital camera. The result is a grainy, square sort of framing that makes every shot look like a portrait—something that really works well for a character piece such as this.
Fresh off their successful web-series, Us, but without much cash left over, Chen and his writing partner, Nick Adams, conceived Giselle as a sort of a low-budget chaser to their previous project. Whereas Us is about modern coupledom, Giselle is about the modern break-up. The result is a “yin/yang” type of thing that fits quite well with one another as a double feature.
Chen is hard at work on his next projects. He’s currently directing an independent pilot called Just Dougie, which follows the Quixotic struggles of a Korean American actor in LA, written by and starring Douglas Kim. He’s also writing his next short and developing his first featuring film, both of which are set in the American midwest.Every year at CES, LG gives us a look at its craziest ideas for the future of display technology. At a press conference earlier today, the company showed off its refreshed OLED televisions, regarded by many as the best on the market. In a private briefing at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Gizmodo was shown LG’s bold concepts for the future of displays, which are (unbelievably) getting thinner and brighter. They are among the most lifelike displays I’ve ever seen.
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The first of the big reveals in the briefing was a new 77-inch OLED Wall Paper display that is ridiculously thin. This is the same exact technology used in the W7 TV we covered this morning. The prototype was suspended on the wall and looked totally insane, as if just floating in the air all by itself.
Next up we were shown a “Crystal Sound OLED” that was by far the most innovative new piece of technology at the LG showcase. These new Crystal Sound TVs embed a sound system directly into the display panel, using the bezel of the television as a speaker casing. That means the screen vibrates imperceptibly to play sound.
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To show off this technology, LG placed hundreds of tiny, colorful little beads on one of the display panels and turned the volume way up. The sound was pretty damn loud (certainly loud enough for most living rooms) and the beads vibrated around, showing that the TV screen was actually being used as a speaker. It’s also important to note that the loud volume did not distort the image on the screen in any way.
You’d think the sound quality would be terrible, but it was amazingly clear. I’d buy a a Crystal Sound OLED in a heartbeat—if I could afford the (presumably) insane price tag.
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Last in the OLED concepts was a prototype I can’t imagine using in my own home, but might come in handy for specific business applications, like perhaps a car window.
The OLED display is about 40 percent translucent, which means you could stick your hand behind the glass and see your jiggling fingers. Images on the display still show up, but you see your hand in the background.
In the photo of the prototype below, you see a bouquet of flowers, which are actually about a foot behind the TV. The outline of a car and the words “facial recognition auto door unlock” are being shown by the display. All of it was super clear and even though it was hard for me to imagine where this could be used, it was definitely an exciting look into the future of what LG is developing.
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Obviously, these are just concepts at the moment, and there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see them in the wild. We can, however, hope that at least some of this mind-blowing technology trickles down to ordinary people like you and me.
We’re on the ground at CES 2017 in Las Vegas! Follow all of our coverage of the latest and greatest in tech here.Posted on ·
This is a bit of Medical MacGyverism that I have tried in the past and failed, but got right recently.
Here is the case – could be any day in our shop…
The ambulance have arrived in ED with a young man who was “found down” on the sidewalk with no witnesses to the preceding events. The handover is: “he’s just paraletic…”
En route he has received oxygen, IV fluids and some jaw-lift to support his airway. There is a bit of vomitus on his shirt but no cough or tachypnoea.
Obs on arrival: GCS = 3, no response to pain, no localising signs
BP = 110/50, HR 65/min SpO2 = 98% on 6L/min and RR = 14. His finger prick BSL is 10 (180 for the Americans..)
A line is placed and a VBG shows a mild respiratory acidosis with pCO2 = 50, otherwise normal numbers.
Just as we are contemplating the next move and searching for any overt injuries / scalp lacerations etc our pavement paedestrian starts to vomit and gag, he is suctioned aggressively and is tolerating a Yankauer in the upper airway a little too easily.
This is looking like he is requiring a definitive airway to protect his lungs and maintain oxygenation – we still don’t have a clue as to why he is unconscious. Sure, it is Broome – therefore alcohol is top of the list… however, it would be folly to narrow the diagnostic curtains so early.
The Police arrive at this minute to try and assist with identification and they report witnesses did see a bit of shadow-boxing and argumentation occurring an hour before he was “discovered” on the ground. Maybe trauma is on the cards?
OK – we need to exclude a brain injury, we need a CT. He needs a tube… so we do a brain-sparing intubation (see Clinical Case 135). He passes through the doughnut of death unharmed (aside from a few milliSeverts). And….. the CT is …[drum roll] … completely normal.
So what is going on? Wouldn’t it be great to know his alcohol levels? Yes, it would. But we have no way of measuring plasma alcohol levels in the bush and he is smoking a “blue cigar” – so how can we get a breath analysis done?
well after a few failed attempts to do this over the years I think I have cracked it. I am not sure if this is described elsewhere, and I apologise if I have stolen / plagiarised this from others..
Here is how we do it step-by-step…
Put the FiO2 up to 100% for a few minutes to give adequate reserve. Recruit 2 friends to help – this is a 3-person job Get the trusty breath-alcohol analyser (or steal the Police’s if you don’t have one in your ED) and attach the mouthpiece. Loosen the tube connector so that you can disconnect quickly. You need to disconnect at the tube connector, not at the 3/4inch circuit connection. Team member 2 can now give a big inspiratory breath (use a self inflating bag or hold the vent / circuit manually to fill the lungs Quickly disconnect the tube connector and put your thumb over the end to prevent the breath escaping. Count 1-2-3… place the mouthpiece over the end of the tube as best you can to get a seal. Ask team member ‘number 3’ to give a lateral chest squeeze to empty out as much of the residual volume as possible to allow the device to register its automatic volume to perform analysis. reconnect the tube once you have your breath, make sure it is tight and your end-tidal CO2 is reading again. Bingo – you have a breath-alcohol level on an unconscious / ventilated patient in the bush.
In our patient we got a reading of 0.42% – which is rather high, even for Broome. So now we need to decide what we should do with this information. Be very careful. There is a big risk of “confirmation bias” and “early diagnostic closure” in this setting.
My rule: the sicker the patient, the broader that you need to think. Keep all the cards on the table until they show improvement.
In this case there is a reasonable predictable course we might expect if this is really “just the grog”. Any deviation from that course, unexpected results, change in status should make us reconsider our position.
Hope that makes sense.
Let me know if you have a better way to do this, or have a protocol to follow for this sort of patient.
CaseyWhat is it: Gov. Chris Christie yesterday vetoed a bill -- approved overwhelmingly in both the Senate and Assembly -- that would have required middle schools and high schools to create advisory committees to help develop alternate menus for school lunch, including options for vegetarian or vegan students.
What it means: The final bill in itself was a compromise measure to provide, at minimum, for an advisory committee to seek student input, and it had widespread and bipartisan support. That apparently wasn’t enough, although Christie stressed he wasn’t against the intent, just the means.
What Christie said: “While school districts should endeavor to provide nutritious meal options that their students prefer, the bill would unnecessarily burden hundreds of school districts in New Jersey. The burden includes the creation, distribution, and review of food surveys to every student enrolled in a middle school or high school and the formation of an eleven-member food advisory committee if even one student in the entire district expresses any displeasure.”
Sponsor’s intent: The bill was spearheaded by state Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt (D-Camden), who said one of her friend’s daughters had faced ridicule in her school lunch line when asking for vegan meals.
“We are seeing more and more students who are growing up vegan or vegetarian,” Lampitt told NJ Spotlight last fall. “We are just asking schools to look at the menus and how to adapt them for these children.”
Personal experience: In her day job, Lampitt oversees food services for the University of Pennsylvania.
Not universally backed: As it traveled through the Assembly, the bill drew the scrutiny of school district lobbyists and advocates who questioned whether the requirements were too onerous.
Passed overwhelmingly: The bill still passed the Assembly 58-16, and the Senate 34-5. The Legislature’s leadership gave no indication yesterday as to whether it would seek an override.
Final word, for now: “In light of the many challenges school districts already encounter in order to provide an education worthy of our children’s future, I cannot support the additional costs and burdens this bill would impose,” Christie wrote in his veto.
“Instead, local school officials should be encouraged to work constructively with students and parents to offer meal options that reflect their students’ dietary preferences. In the event students and parents are dissatisfied with the responsiveness of school officials, they can raise their concerns to the local board of education or elected officials.”In an essay titled Bourgeois and the Samurai written between 1906 and 1907, Sri Aurobindo lamented that of the two nations to have come under strong European influence, Japan had become one of the mightiest powers in the world, whilst India had squandered its great past to end up weak and dependent. Indian Nationalists have long been united in their admiration for Japan, both before the Second World War and after, marvelling subsequently at Japan’s postwar mobilization and reconstruction effort. Little surprise then, that with the right-wing nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) favourite to lead a coalition and form India’s next national government under Narendra Modi in a month’s time, analysts are making a case for what could be the defining Asian strategic partnership of the 21st century.
India-Japan relations have strengthened consistently, since diplomatic relations were first established in 1952. In the 1990s, with the opening up of the Indian economy, the end of the Cold War and the beginning of India’s “Look East” policy, Japan and India had new opportunities to forge closer ties. The initial beneficiary of this was business. Today, Japan is India’s largest aid donor and India is the largest recipient of Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA). Bilateral trade between the two countries has nearly tripled in recent years, from $6.5 billion in 2005-06 to $18.43 billion in 2011-12 and retains huge potential for growth.
In 2006 however, with the declaration of the Japan-India Global and Strategic Partnership, the nature of the relationship began to change. Ties were not just strengthening but were crossing new frontiers as Japan and India started to unmistakeably identify each other as a strategic partner, both wary of Chinese power and looking to assert their role in Asia. Today, Japan is the only country in the world aside from Russia, with which India holds a bilateral annual strategic dialogue. It is in the process of negotiating the purchase of 15 amphibious aircraft from Japan in what would be Japan’s first sale of military hardware since 1967 and has invited Japan to join the Indo-US Malabar naval exercises this year, the first time since such an endeavour in 2007 attracted formal protests from China. Even the nuclear issue, so often a ceiling to ambitions for closer relations, shows signs of slowly receding with negotiations on a civilian nuclear deal – unthinkable in the early 2000s after India’s Nuclear Weapons tests in 1998 – continuing to progress.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) coalition is likely to continue to build on the new landscape provided by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the last decade, but expecting as some political commentators do today that the well-documented Modi-Abe friendship, which goes back to 2007, and their shared nationalist, conservative credentials to deliver a tremendous uplift to the Indo-Japanese relationship is perhaps overreaching. The fact remains that India has been at pains to consistently assert that the India-Japan partnership is no strategic threat to China, and will always remain under pressure to demonstrate that. Moreover, cautious quietism remains central to Indian foreign policy thinking. Indian foreign policy also changes minimally from government to government, the “Look East” policy that began in 1991 for example was vigorously followed by the NDA in its first stint in power (1998 – 2004) and then by the UPA in the subsequent decade. Even the upswing in India-Japan relations, a hallmark of Manmohan Singh’s UPA government in the last decade, was only possible because of the initiatives started by the Vajpayee led NDA in 2000.
Modi will certainly build on his personal connections with the Japanese business community, cemented during his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat, to further Japanese investment in Indian infrastructure and continue to pursue the strategic partnership that has gained momentum in the previous decade. That he and Abe might share a common weltanschauung might help and expedite initiatives, but always remains second to regional security imperatives for both countries that are shaped by China.
Lastly, while India has much to gain from Japan both in terms of developmental aid, military and civilian technology and a strategic alliance, Japan will slowly want to up the pressure for Indian support on crucial issues such as the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, which India has thus far been reluctant to spell out. Though India’s well known reticence in world affairs may have been grudgingly accepted so far by its partners as the country pursues its many domestic exigencies, in the coming years any strategic partner of India will want to see an active, engaged and willing nation. How far a prospective government under Narendra Modi is willing to buck the trend and reorient Indian foreign policy thinking, in pursuit of its promised developmental agenda, will be interesting to see.
Aniruddh Mohan is a Research Intern at the Institute for Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, India and a graduate of the University of Cambridge with an MPhil in Nuclear Energy.Spies are everywhere these days, from the 10 Russian agents nabbed recently here in the United States to the more glamorous Hollywood variety, such as is Angelina Jolie. In the movie Salt, Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer accused of being a Russian spy.
With so many secret agents--both real and fictional--these days, we thought it might be helpful to examine a short list of modern-day high-tech spy gear. After all, who knows when you'll need invisible ink, or a code to pass messages in, or just the right bag to swap in a stairwell?
But before we get started on our surveillance, we must offer a big disclaimer about this collection of sneaky hardware (and software): Using any of this spy gear may be illegal or unethical, depending on how and where you use it. If you're unsure, check the laws in your state and consult your conscience. By linking to the Websites hosting additional information about the products mentioned in this article, we do not mean to endorse them.
To view an abbreviated, slideshow version of this article, see "Spies Like Us: Spy Gear for Your Inner Secret Agent."
In this story you can click any of the images below to enlarge it.
Remote Monitoring
What do these household items have in common? They're bugged! The Small B/W Wall Clock Camera, model C1390B24 (lower left, $276) has a black-and-white camera hidden inside, while the Air Freshener 3G Camera, model CX300MC-A (lower middle, $720) has a color camera inside plus a SIM card that lets you watch the live video feed on a 3G phone. The Power Strip Hidden Audio Monitoring Device (upper left, $1209) is also rigged with a SIM card and a microphone, so you can dial in and listen to conversations. For $100 more, you can get a version that calls you when it detects voices in the room.
Spy Cams
Tiny cameras that record on the sly can be hidden in all sorts of objects. Here we see (left to right) we seethe Spy Pen Camera ($30), which lets you download 640-by-480 video and audio recorded on the built-in 4GB memory straight onto your computer; the Button Camera ($129), featuring three styles of button covers with matching real buttons for the rest of your jacket or shirt; the Key Ring Spy Camera ($102) with built-in microphone; and the dressy Tie Camera ($252), which can share a power supply with the optional Covert Video Recorder ($389).
Cellular Jammers
Need to scramble a cellular signal and thereby render nearby cellphones' calling capabilities useless, so your evil-empire nemesis can't deliver his latest intelligence update to the homeland at the appointed hour? The High Power Portable Jammer (left, $205) isn't covert, but it can scramble signals at distances of up to 60 feet away. The 3G Mini Cell Jammer (right, $199) promises to scramble cell signals for 3G, UMTS, CDMA, and GSM networks within a range of up to 32 feet.
Keyloggers
When you can't crack the encryption code on some secret plans locked away in a computer file, your only other option is to identify the user's password and use that to access to the information in unencrypted form. That's when spies (and paranoid spouses) turn to keyloggers, which record every keystroke that a user enters on a specific computer.
The PS2 Keylogger (upper left, $71) works with older keyboards, while the KeyKatch USB keylogger (right, $130) connects between the keyboard cable and a USB port on newer computers. Ultimate Keylogger software (lower left, starting at $26) can monitor not only keystrokes, but also applications and visited Websites. The Ultimate Keylogger program can also send encrypted activity reports via e-mail.Britain's stylish saviours are back in action; check out our round-up of the critics' comments...
Available to buy and download now, The Avengers – Steed and Mrs Peel: The Comic Strip Adaptations Volume 1 comprises four full-cast audio adventures of the crime fighting duo that brought stylish spills and theatrical thrills to ITV in the 1960s!
Julian Wadham and Olivia Poulet star as John Steed and Mrs. Emma Peel, specialist agents dedicated to defending the United Kingdom from the world's most colourful criminals. This new box-set presents four escapades adapted from the classic comic strips of Diana magazine; pitting our heroes against miserly megalomaniacs, dastardly dressmakers, vicious Vikings and pernicious pirates! Listen to the trailer below:
Since its release earlier this month, reviewers have been enjoying the new-box set – read some of the comments below!
'In these gripping tales we get strange Scottish ghosts, mysterious spies, a new meaning to the idea of a sleeper train, blackmail threats to London’s banks and maddest of all actual Vikings on the Norfolk broads. Steed is suave, Peel is an action hero, fully capable of besting any number of petty thugs, and life is sunny afternoons, open top cars and enjoyment. Happy days!' 5/5
Tony Jones, Cultbox
'The exceptional writing captures the mood, pace tone and setting of the original show and adds a slightly modern twist, which lends The Comic Strip Adaptations an almost timeless quality. Then there’s the magnificent performances all of which are more than worthy of mention, but are, as expected, led by Julian Wadham’s suave, sophisticated and determined Steed and Olivia Poulet’s confident, debonair and forthright Mrs Peel. The whole thing is… Well, it’s simply astounding. And that’s that.' 10/10
Tim Cundle, Mass Movement
'Authenticity is the watchword with this set, from the chemistry between Steed & Peel, to the “We're Needed” scenes to the “tag” scenes at the end of the episodes - everything is as it should be... Big Finish have taken the comic books off the page, made them three dimensional and given them heart, soul & joy - just as they should be. Now excuse me whilst I furl my brolly, crack open a bottle of Bollinger 1934 and award this exceptional box set 10/10 - Mrs Peel, were needed and with this sort of quality I hope that Wadham & Poulet are needed for a VERY long time.'
Ed Watkinson, Planet Mondas
'Director Ken Bentley keeps everything moving at a cracking pace, with the requisite speed for the repartee nailed. Alistair Lock and Steve Foxon’s sound design and music are spot on (particularly the reworking of the various Scottish folk tunes into the score). It’s very late night on Channel 4 in 1982 again (oh alright, early evening in 1966 for those who weren’t three or less at the time), as the Bowler Hat and Leather Booted pair make a very welcome return in this excellent opener.'
Paul Simpson, Sci-Fi Bulletin
Featuring Julian Wadham, Olivia Poulet, Shelia Reid, Simon Greenall and Jacqueline Pearce, The Avengers – Steed and Mrs Peel: The Comic Strip Adaptations Volume 1 is available to buy and download today!
A free 17-minute preview of the release is also available to download now, lifted from Simon Barnard and Paul Morris' The Miser. Download the preview here, or listen via the player below:
The box-set can also be enjoyed alongside Volume 2 and a graphic novel collection of the original strips (both due for release in November 2016). Click here to order all three titles as a bundle. Don't forget, when you purchase the CD version of this Big Finish release, you'll also receive a complimentary digital download you can access as soon as it's available!
The Avengers - Steed and Mrs Peel: The Comic Strip Adaptations Volume 1 is available now exclusively to the Big Finish website. It will be available through other retailers from May 31st 2016.
The earliest days of the Avengers can also be found with our Lost Episodes box-sets; audio recreations of the missing first TV series, starring Anthony Howell as Dr David Keel and Lucy Briggs-Owen as Carol, alongside Julian Wadham as Steed.A woman in Massachusetts is suing FedEx, alleging that the shipping company mistakenly delivered a box containing marijuana to her address, then proceeded to provide her name and address to the package’s intended recipient.
According to a write-up on CourthouseNews.com, the woman signed for a package on Oct. 20, believing it to be a birthday present |
and the resources they have. --------end of email--------- On how to submit a refund request : http://bit.ly/1QpP4nI Further proof on what you may include inside you complaint in support of the refund : http://community.kabam.com/forums/showthread.php?617615-A-Response-Letter-to-the-2-Dans-%28and-the-rest-of-the-development-team%29 http://community.kabam.com/forums/showthread.php?617599-On-Communication-Intent-And-Transparency-Comments-Welcomed-Nov-15
RAW Paste Data
I succeeded (after checking the bank) in getting a refund from Kabam. Here is a copy of what I wrote. Did you know too Kabam is worth USD 1b? Dont get me wrong. I am an extremely loyal hardcore player from one of the top Cartels but enough is enough. I would not request a refund from honest hard working independent indie game studios but for a corporate the size of Kabam with 800 employees, I believe they should not short change their own community. Don't copy point blank but add in what you feel to be important also. --------start email--------- Dear Apple Staff, I feel that the'very sudden' recent changes to the game has made me come and request for a refund. Kabam has misled me into buying items which are no longer useful. They implemented changes (with really no notice whatsoever) rendering what I paid for useless overnight. I am a big fan of free to play games and occasionally reward developers by buying content but in this scenario enough is enough. I really tried hard reaching out to them but got no response whatsoever leading me up to having to do this. So to sum it all up, I feel that I have been misrepresented. I paid for in game content that was essentially rendered useless and no longer wish to play anymore. Not to mention the numerous bugs and 'cartel assault' exploits that went unfixed. Going forward I believe that all this could be avoided if Kabam had more transparency and openness in how they treat their loyal community. Especially given how big they are and the resources they have. --------end of email--------- On how to submit a refund request : http://bit.ly/1QpP4nI Further proof on what you may include inside you complaint in support of the refund : http://community.kabam.com/forums/showthread.php?617615-A-Response-Letter-to-the-2-Dans-%28and-the-rest-of-the-development-team%29 http://community.kabam.com/forums/showthread.php?617599-On-Communication-Intent-And-Transparency-Comments-Welcomed-Nov-15— Five members of the Sex Money Murder faction of the Bloods street gang were sentenced today for their roles in the 2009 drive-by shooting that led to the death 13-year-old innocent bystander Tamrah Leonard. The gang planned the shooting as retaliation against an attack by the Gangster Killer Bloods. Two gang members opened fire on a block party on Martin Luther King Boulevard in June 2009, killing Leonard in the process. Bernard Baines, 22, one of two shooters involved in the drive-by was sentenced to 21 years in prison for aggravated manslaughter. Baines, who did not fire the shot that killed Leonard, reached a plea deal last year that called for a 25 year prison term. Superior Court Judge Mark Fleming said he decided on a shorter sentence because Baines was the first member of the group to cooperate and had shown significant remorse. Lamar Warren, 22, was the other gunman in the drive-by and fired the fatal shot that killed Leonard.
. The four other gang member sentenced today had various roles in the planning of the shooting and the attempts to cover it up. James James, 24, was identified as a leader in the planning of the shooting after a member of the Sex Money Murder gang was shot and injured the day before, Assistant Prosecutor Stephanie Katz has said. James was sentenced to 12 years in prison for conspiracy to commit murder. “In a cowardly and callous manner, he gave his approval, his direction to have a drive-by shooting take place that resulted in the death of an innocent victim,” Fleming said. Rashead Miller, 35, scouted the area of the block party to confirm that the members of the rival gang were present, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit assault and received an eight-year sentence. Robert Humphrey, 25, provided Baines and Warren with the guns they used to carry out the attack, prosecutors said. Humphrey pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and received a 10-year sentence. Michael Jennings, 31, received the gun after the killing and made it more it difficult for investigators to find, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty to a weapons charge and was sentenced to eight years in prison. The seventh and final defendant in the case, Keith Warren, the 25-year-old brother of Lamar Warren, who drove the car that was used in the drive-by, had his sentencing postponed because his lawyer was not able to attend today's hearing. Warren pleaded guilty to manslaughter last year in a deal that calls for him to receive a 20-year prison sentence.
2 trchristie HINDASH.JPG
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on TwitterFedora fonts: The Font Strikes Back
Updated: July 8, 2017
If you happen to be a person who finds the Linux font rendering to be good enough for your ocular sensors, you are a happy bunny. If you are like me, then it's only Ubuntu that gives you the right sharpness and contrast, and all other distros be heavily lacking in this space. Fedora, first and foremost, which is why I've spent months trying to perfect its layout and reading clarity.
I ranted about the whole font problem in Linux some time ago, and then we also discussed the use of Ubuntu fonts on top of Fedora a couple of months back in another OCS-Mag article. Now, I want to revisit the topic for a third time, and see if we can somehow improve on Fedora's stock Gnome look, and the way it draws text on the screen. Let us commence hence forth.
What we've done so far
For those impatient or not willing to read the two linked articles, I tried playing with hinting and anti-aliasing with virtually no results. Infinality, Xdefaults, no luck either. It was only when I applied the Ubuntu fonts that things improved. But we can hopefully do better than that. So let us, and again, this without touching the default theme, which also can significantly affect the results, as we've seen in my Mint Serena review.
New fonts
Now, you may not like the direction I'm heading... in. I am going to apply several new fonts, to see whether the overall clarity and contrast can be improved. This may be a rather subjective exercise, tuned to my taste and eye skillz, which is why you might not find the results as palatable as I do.
Droid Sans fonts are the first obvious choice. We talked about them in my first article on the fonts subject, and in my early encounter round the time of Fedora 12 and Moblin, they did wonders. They still remain one of the nicer fonts around. Definitely a top choice for improving Fedora, ideology and proprietary thingie notwithstanding.
Droid Sans top, Ubuntu bottom; click for a full view.
A second choice - Noto - a worthy option, but it does not transform Fedora in a way that is desirable or contrastful enough. Therefore, a third choice is required, Myriad Pro. These fonts offer a more Windows-like look. Applying hinting and anti-aliasing makes no difference, again.
Droid Sans top, Myriad Pro bottom; click to enlarge.
I compared Droid Sans to Myriad Pro, and I believe, having gone through dozens of options, that the latter is probably the most optimal offering around. Of course, the display quality and clarity will also depend on your screen size, resolution, pixel lighting, color calibration, refresh rate, viewing angle and distance, and other factors, but on a typical mid-range laptop screen (1366x768px), this font wins big time.
Baseline
However, it is not all vague and un-scientific. My Lenovo G50 laptop runs a range of operating systems, so comparison under identical conditions is easily doable. The resident Windows 10 has none of the artifacts, nor the Ubuntu 16.04 or Ubuntu 16.10 setups. With Kubuntu, the default fonts are somewhat pale, but you can tweak the color and contrast rather easily, as I've written in my State of Plasma report. The issue mostly crops up when I fire up Fedora.
Furthermore, I tested the results on the older LG RD510 machine and the HP Pavilion system, the former set to 1200x800px resolution, the latter just like the G50 machine, both with Nvidia cards and official drivers installed, and the results are pretty much in line. So it would seem the sub-optimal behavior is specific to the desktop environment, the system, and fonts in general rather than any hardware-dependent minute details. And there's another, time-dependent reason, but we will discuss that in a second.
I still am quite intrigued as to why changing the hinting and anti-aliasing values makes little to no difference, as this same exercise in other systems, like Linux Mint, does the job. Moreover, I would also like to know why the Infinality + Xdefaults trick fails to make any improvement, either. And mind, we're talking Xorg (legacy) not Wayland.
dnf -y install freetype-freeworld
Already done, long time ago.
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings hinting slight
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings antialiasing rgba
Equivalent to changes through Gnome Tweak Tool, to be frank.
echo "Xft.lcdfilter: lcddefault" | tee ~/.Xresources
Does nothing at all in Fedora 24/25. Diddly squat.
Ze catch
Now, the really interesting observation is that things have changed some in the past few releases of Fedora. If we look at Fedora 23, it shipped with font hinting set to medium, and where this made the difference (indeed Fedora 23, blimey, with Nvidia drivers), the effects were significant and noticeable.
And here we go, side by side. Something definitely went wrong on the way to the forum. But then, it's not like the last year has been regression-free in the Linux world, now has it. Plus, most of the people using Linux are young, with sharp eyes and zero awareness to ergonomics. This isn't meant as an insult. Go into any IT shop, be it a small crowded office or a glamorous open space with a fountain in the middle. Most techies work with dark screen, less than ideal lighting, very large screens, and IDE, which usually only have code, so the contrast there is decent, but this does not extend to the final product. This is not how ordinary people spend their time in front of a computer. The UI considerations are secondary, it would seem, and it's only getting worse.
Do note that I've upgraded this particular instance of Fedora 23 to Fedora 25, and as you can expect, the settings that used to work and actually make a difference, for better or worse, now do nothing at all. Regressions? In my Linux? Never!
From left to right: No AA, slight hinting, medium (default) hinting. Worked in Fedora 23. Does nothing in Fedora 25.
And here's another proof - font color
Now, recently, I've written an article showing you how to edit Gnome themes. This isn't trivial, and you will need a basic level of HTML and CSS knowledge, but if you possess those, you can tweak the default look & feel of your selected theme. This also includes font color. Now, take a look at what Gnome Breeze looks like with default pale-gray font color and then when that color is changed to black.
Click to enlarge and see for yourselves. Enlighten yourselves!
And a sweet GIF for you:
Why bother?
Well, if you want to be using your system for extended periods of time, you want the screen to affect your vision as little as possible. Less fatigue, more fun. Plus, we are deep in the pimping zone, so we want our Fedora to be as good as possible. After I opened up my chakras with Fedora 24 and then also version 25, I did a whole range of pimping and taming and tweaking, and fonts are yet another critical aspect.
Conclusion
I think I shall bring this article to a graceful end. After many weeks spent fiddling with fonts and trying to make Fedora look and behave professionally, I've come to a conclusion that the font management system has a long, long, long way to go - and a short time to get there. It's not even the fine differences between distributions, the quality, the consistency, or everything else implied from this. Nope.
This is all about making Fedora look fresh and crisp, with the best clarity and contrast. There will always be an element of free vs. proprietary that Fedora cannot resolve on its own, but the same way we used external repos to enrich the system, some level of focus on this aspect of desktop usage is required. Big focus. At the very least, system commands should work and exhibit noticeable differences.
I also think, in general, that Fedora - and many other distros - err on the side of its typical audience, younger people and software developers, who like things small and dark, just like their cubicles. But the text needs to be bigger and sharper and made for normal people. Writing code and reading text are two different activities. The default theme just does not have the right level of contrast - true for 99% of distros out there. The text is too pale, the background too dark, the font too small. So, here you have a little article and recipe for what is needed. Perhaps we will get there, some day. Tweak on.
Cheers.Two years ago, I quit my full-time, salaried with benefits job to pursue self-employment as an independent freelance graphic designer. (This is maybe the most cliche statement to read online these days.)
Since then, the reactions I’ve received have all been pretty similar. People marveled at the fact that I took this big, life-changing leap. I’ve gotten messages like “Wow you’re so brave and courageous” and “That’s so great you’re pursuing your passion” and “I wish I could be my own boss”.
At first I didn’t know what to think of it. There were other personal things going on at the time that impacted me enough to quit my full-time job. But after getting the same reaction plenty of times, and reading the same “I-quit-my-job-and-started-my-own-business!” overnight success stories online everywhere — I started to accept it. Believe it for myself. It became a part of my story.
It became easy to identify with a lot of things young entrepreneurial people were saying. I hustle my ass off to work enough contracts in a month to make ends meet. I deal with fear and anxiety of the instability every day. I battle constant future-tripping, wondering how long I can realistically sustain myself on this route. But I also get paid to do something I love (which is supposed to outshine anything else apparently). Not gonna front, it's been fun and fulfilling. I was proud to be pursuing my passion and I pat myself on the back for making it work. But then another part of me couldn’t disagree more with the sentiment. Being your own boss is tough as shit. You have no one to blame but yourself if things go awry. It's not always what it's cracked up to be. But what bothers me most is how we prop up the entrepreneurial class to be inherently brave and courageous. Let's set the record straight.
I am no more brave than the migrant worker picking your strawberries to send remittances to family in their home country. I am no more courageous than the recently-graduated millennial who works in a cubicle 9 hours a day to pay off massive student loans. I am no more of a boss than the working class mother with three jobs who feeds her children.
Nowadays we are bombarded with messages that life could only be meaningful if we do what we love (which is subjective anyway). Quitting full-time jobs to travel the world. Giving up everything to be your own boss. Leaving routine to build something from scratch. We are offered online classes, webinars, books and podcasts of advice from professionals. We are marketed to with apps that promise the ease of starting your own business. We are told that the sacrifice will be hard but it will all be worth it. You just have to quit your job, give it your all, buy my e-book of advice for $20, and have the passion to persevere.
We praise people that are “courageous” enough to quit their 9-to-5 and dive into the deep end of the exciting unknown. We idealize and romanticize the idea of being our own boss and being in charge of our own schedule. To take a risk and reap the bountiful benefits. Yet no one talks about the real sustainability or self-sufficiency of this formula when the playing field is never even.
Quitting your job to pursue your passion is bullshit. This messaging is only beneficial for privileged people and very dangerous for working class people.
The statement alone reeks of privilege. It confirms you had a full-time job to begin with. It confirms you had time to develop a passion (that you can capitalize off of, enough to meet your cost of living). It confirms you had the option to pursue something different because you feel like it. There are more challenges to being self-employed than just mental perseverance and grit. We are predatorily luring working class people into an entrepreneur lifestyle as the answer to living a meaningful life and loads of money. It’s the new American Dream.
From my own experience, I personally did not quit my full-time salaried with benefits job to be courageous and pursue my passion. I did not quit spontaneously, nor did I take a "big leap of faith". I quit because I was faced with new and challenging responsibilities in my personal life that required more of me mentally and emotionally than I had anticipated. I quit because I was depressed. I quit because I couldn’t keep up with a 40-minute commute, working 9–10, sometimes 12 hours a day, and pretend nothing was changing at home. I quit because I had freelance work to fall back on, not because I just wanted to do freelance work full-time. I quit because I weighed out my options every day for 7 months before making a final decision.
I am privileged to not have any student loans to repay. (I guess dropping out of college finally paid off haha.) I am privileged to have paid off most of my credit card debt while I was working full-time. I am privileged to be in a relationship with a partner that was working full-time. That I had a partner who I could live with. I quit my job because I was dealing with a family emergency with long-term responsibilities I had to wrap my head around. I quit my job because I had the privilege to do so.
I don’t want to perpetuate this false narrative of quitting a job because I was brave enough to pursue my passion. I don’t want anyone who works a 9-to-5 to feel like a fool for staying at a stable job, or feel wrong if they actually enjoy it. I want people to know that nearly all the overnight entrepreneur success stories in the spotlight leave out the privilege afforded to them in the first place. Not everyone can, or should, just quit their job in hopes of finding happiness or meaningful work. Passion can fuel your drive but sometimes isn't enough to pay the bills and no one should feel shitty for not being able to fit this mold that's been created. The concept is ideal for all, but not realistic for many.
And I’m not saying working class people can’t be successful entrepreneurs. I’m just saying if you haven’t read something that mentions the privileges of the self-employed, inspiring, brave, courageous entrepreneurial class that pursues their passion, then here it is.Story highlights Quake is upgraded to magnitude 6.3 by U.S. Geological Survey
30 people are injured 200 miles away in Peshawar, Pakistan
Quake was centered fairly deep some 175 miles northeast of Afghan capital of Kabul
(CNN) At least 30 people were injured in a magnitude-6.3 earthquake Friday that shook northeast Afghanistan where it borders Pakistan and Tajikistan, officials said.
The injuries occurred in various localities of Peshawar, Pakistan, about 200 miles from the quake epicenter, according to Peshawar District Officer Muhmand Asim Khan and other officials.
The epicenter is in Afghanistan's Ishkashim district, a mountainous area where the majority of homes are made with mud and are prone to earthquakes. People living in this area are mainly impoverished farmers, Khan said.
More precisely, the quake struck some 25 miles west-southwest of Ashkasham, Afghanistan, and 175 miles northeast of that country's capital, Kabul, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The global seismic network GEOFON reported on its website that the tremor was slightly stronger as a magnitude 6.3. The USGS, which initially listed the quake at magnitude 6.2, later classified it a 6.3.
Read MoreBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Sep. 19, 2014, 10:06 PM GMT / Updated Sep. 19, 2014, 9:43 PM GMT
After a 10-month-long, 442 million-mile journey to Mars, it's do or die time for NASA's Maven orbiter — with India's Mars Orbiter Mission following close behind.
Both orbiters are designed to study the Red Planet's upper atmosphere, and both are scheduled to execute crucial engine burns to go into Martian orbit. If the engines don't fire correctly, either or both of the probes could end up veering off into space, as Japan's Nozomi spacecraft did in 2003 — or crashing into the surface, as NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter did in 1999.
"I'm all on pins and needles," Jim Green, the director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters, told reporters this week. "This is a critical event."
Maven's moment of truth comes at about 9:50 p.m. ET Sunday, when the orbiter is due to fire its engines for 33 minutes, 236 miles (380 kilometers) above the Martian north pole. The firing is designed to pull the bus-sized spacecraft into a wide-ranging elliptical orbit — which will be adjusted over the following six weeks.
NASA TV is airing coverage of the buildup to orbital insertion starting at 9:30 p.m. ET Sunday. To follow the big event via social media, look for the hashtags #MAVEN and #JourneytoMars. Twitter updates are being posted via @NASA, @MAVEN2Mars and @NASASocial.
The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft, also known as MOM or Mangalyaan (Hindi for "Mars-Craft"), blasted off from India's Satish Dhawan Space Center in November 2013, a few days before Maven was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. But it took a slightly more circuitous route to Mars — which means MOM's 24-minute orbital insertion burn is set for about 10 p.m. ET Tuesday.
"Confidence is high," V. Koteswara Rao, scientific secretary at the Indian Space Research Organization, told Reuters. "All the operations done so far are successful, and all the parameters measured are normal."
What the orbiters will do
Maven takes its name from a slightly tortured acronym: Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN. The $671 million mission's objective is to help scientists figure out how the Red Planet's environment changed from a warm, moist place into the chilly wasteland it is today.
The orbiter's nine sensors are designed to monitor solar radiation hitting the top of Mars' atmosphere, gauge the rate of atmospheric loss, and map the planet's localized, jumbled-up magnetic fields. The results will be factored into models to reconstruct how the space environment might have stripped away Mars' air over the course of billions of years.
There's at least one big question about Mars' atmosphere that Maven wasn't designed to address: What's the source of the methane that previous orbiters have detected? Are those trace amounts created through geological processes, or could they be coming from microbial activity deep in the Martian soil?
Fortunately, MOM's scientific instruments could shed light on the methane question, and the teams behind the two missions plan to share their results with each other. MOM will also monitor Mars' weather, take color pictures of the surface and map the planet's mineral composition.
Both orbiters will be in position when Comet Siding Spring passes within 82,000 miles (132,000 kilometers) of Mars on Oct. 19. At one time, scientists wondered whether the comet would actually hit the planet, but now mission managers say there's little risk of damage to any of the spacecraft at Mars.
Maven's principal investigator, Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado, says the spacecraft should be able to analyze how debris from the comet affects Mars' atmosphere. "I'm told the odds of having an approach that close to Mars are about one in a million years, so it's really luck that we get the opportunity here," Jakosky told reporters.
In addition to its scientific instruments, Maven is carrying a DVD encoded with 100,000 digitized names, 377 student artworks and more than 1,000 haiku poems, including this one: "Martian atmosphere / Awaiting discovery / What secrets lie here?"
What the missions mean
Maven is the latest addition to a fleet of NASA spacecraft working at Mars, including rovers (Curiosity and Opportunity) as well as orbiters (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey). The orbiters serve as vital communication links for the rovers, and Maven is designed to take over the relay duties in case MRO or Mars Odyssey fails.
Green emphasized that Maven was one link in a chain of NASA missions that would continue with its 2016 InSight lander, its 2020 rover and other probes. The space agency's decades-long robotic campaign is aimed at setting the stage for astronauts' trips to Mars in the 2030s or later.
"For humans to go to Mars, it's not like 'Star Trek.' It's not like 'go where no man has gone before,'" he said. "It's really the planetary scientists that are blazing the trail for us to understand everything about Mars that we need to for humans to be able to land safely on Mars, and explore and journey around the planet."Image copyright McLaren Image caption The tongue-in-cheek plan for a "glamorous" F1 circuit in Woking
An "absurdly ambitious plan" for a Grand Prix circuit on the streets of McLaren's hometown has been unveiled by the Formula 1 team.
Woking in Surrey would join the ranks of Monaco and Singapore as one of F1's "most glamorous and iconic race locations", McLaren said, with tongue firmly in cheek.
The Woking International Circuit would be one of the world's "fastest and most demanding" tracks, it claimed.
Woking council welcomed the news.
Image copyright Geograph / David Howard Image caption Could Woking soon rival Monaco, Melbourne and Abu Dhabi for F1 excitement and glamour?
McLaren said it was "a bit scared" about the authority's reaction to its "absurdly ambitious plan" given there would need to be extensive and costly re-profiling of many roads and local landmarks.
But in a hard-to-believe official statement, Jonathan Neale, McLaren's chief operating officer, said: "Why not? Why not bring Formula 1 to the streets of Woking?
"Obviously, aside from the huge social and financial commitment needed to set up the infrastructure, re-profile roads, re-lay Tarmac, fit miles of Armco, build grandstands, pay for race-hosting fees and gain approval and sign-off from the FIA, we don't see any barriers to our vision."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lewis Hamilton won his fifth British Grand Prix at Silverstone this year
The circuit would take "full advantage of the market town's winding streets and fast multi-carriageways", with the paddock on floatable pontoons anchored along the Woking-Basingstoke canal.
Silverstone has been the permanent home of the British Grand Prix since 1987 but its future is uncertain after its owner confirmed it had activated a break clause to cease hosting the race after 2019.
If a Grand Prix is held in Woking, it would not be the first time that it will have seen the world's fastest drivers on its streets.
In 1998, F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen drove his McLaren car on a lap of honour around the town after clinching the title in Japan.
Zak Brown, executive director, said that event "lit a spark that started a fire that turned into a dream that we converted into an idea: to host a round of the Formula 1 world championship on our doorstep, in Woking".
Ray Morgan, Woking Borough Council's chief executive, said: "We look forward to receiving McLaren's proposal which would reinforce Woking's position on the world stage.""Heavy, draining barrels are something you forget about from May to August," giggles Outer Banks pro Brett Barley. "But this summer is proving to be different, considering we've gotten three days of spitting barrels in June. Although, yesterday was by far the best." North Carolina, yesterday -- the best day of the summer...so far. Photo: Brad Styron
The Wrightsville/Ocean Isle crew came in hot: Ben Bourgeois, Ross Stevens, Nick Bland, Ben Powell...and this guy, Nick Rupp. Once Debby spotted the boys in North Carolina, flirting with her only required a mere tickling of the wall. Photo: Brad Styron
Guion Lee has an eerie connection with this spot. Six hours of tubes like this resulted in a grotesque gash on his big toe. As he limped back to the boat, assisted by a buddy and his foot sealed in a plastic bag, Debby started disappearing. Photo: Matt Lusk
"It was well worth it," laughed Guion, who would've been skipping had he not been limping. Photo: Brad Styron.
Oh, you better believe there were rights, too. Nick Rupp leaves his rails alone for a moment. Photo: Brad Styron
Ben Powell thought he was gonna get doughnuts on this wave but only got the creamy filling instead. Sequence: Erik Schub
"This was the first'real' waves in months for South Padre," said Texas photographer Erich Schlegel. "I drove into the night, got to Port Isabel from Austin at 1:00am, slept in the car and was at the jetties by 6:00am. The first three waves made the drive worth it!" Rachel Gore. Photo: Erich Schlegel
Tropical Storm Debby on Sunday morning over the NE Gulf of Mexico. Debby managed to bring copious amounts of rainfall to the state of Florida. Fortunately, the tropical storm was also a swell producer that set up waves for both the Panhandle and West Coast. Image courtesy of NRL
"At this one Panhandle spot," said local photog Cameron McNeill, "there was two other guys out with these lefts were wrapping in, hitting the sandbar and barreling down the beach. It looked like a pointbreak, with three to four barrel sections on each wave. It would crumble on the outside and just drain on the inside sandbar for about 100 yards. We surfed it for eight hours with no drift. One of the best days I've surfed in Florida!" Photo: Leon Legot
"I wasn't expecting much with the ever-changing forecast," added Barley. "I was planning on doing turns all day. So when it turned into a barrel fest, I was psyching to say the least." So were the locals. Kiley Hanford. Photo: Brad Styron
No one surfs this spot as well as Fisher Heverly. Okay, maybe Ben Bourgeois could. But no goofyfoot surfs this spot as well as Fisher Heverly. Good enough claim? Photo: Brad StyronWillie Nelson is just one of the artists rushing to cancel gigs at SeaWorld after seeing Blackfish, the documentary about killer whales who have attacked their trainers.
Heart are an unlikely bunch of revolutionaries. But the American soft rockers' decision to cancel a concert at SeaWorld in Florida may mark a turning point in the relationship between humans and one of the most magnificent mammals of the ocean. The band this week joined Willie Nelson and Barenaked Ladies in cancelling shows at the Orlando theme park because they had watched Blackfish, a film about Tilikum, a five-tonne male orca that has been involved in the deaths of three people. This modest yet riveting documentary has made ever-bigger ripples across the pond since its premiere at Sundance earlier this year, with an audience of 20 million recently watching it on CNN. It is now on the Oscar longlist.
Tilikum's plight – enduring violence from other captive whales and forced to entertain crowds in return for fish ever since he was captured in the wild in 1983 – is vividly depicted by former trainers. The film's conclusion is inescapable: we have no business keeping such large, intelligent mammals in such crippling confinement. We too might get a little psychotic, it suggests, if we were imprisoned in a bath for 30 years.
Blackfish, a Native American term for the orca or killer whale (actually a member of the dolphin family), began with an innocuous premise: Gabriela Cowperthwaite, the director, wanted to examine how people relate to large predators. As Cowperthwaite, who lives in California, stresses, she is not an animal rights activist and did not intend to make a controversial film. "I couldn't have been more naive about the situation in SeaWorld," she says. She regularly took her twin boys there as a treat. "I'd see hundreds of children smiling and think, 'How can something that makes people so happy be such a bad thing?' All of us are complicit, starting with myself."
SeaWorld is the slickest of what Cowperthwaite now views as aquatic circuses. The company owns 12 US theme parks and its shtick – orcas leaping to lights and music alongside their trainers – may make many adults cringe, particularly in Britain, where there are no dolphins in captivity. But in the US, more than 11 million people visit a SeaWorld each year.
When Cowperthwaite read news stories about the death of Dawn Brancheau, an experienced trainer killed while performing with Tilikum in 2010, she was stunned by a barely reported fact: Tilikum had been involved in two earlier deaths. "This story was hiding in plain sight. Once you learn the truth, it becomes your mission to tell it. The facts are so indisputable. This is an industry that has operated untouched for 40 years and it governs itself. There's no true oversight of places like SeaWorld."
Blackfish has belatedly provided a window into the aquarium. The story of Tilikum's life – and Brancheau's death – begins with traumatic footage of orcas being captured in the wild to establish parks such as SeaWorld Orlando, founded in 1965. Although wild capture was outlawed in the US in 1972, orcas continued to be seized in foreign waters: Tilikum was caught, aged two, off Iceland in 1983. His early life was spent in a cramped Canadian park. When part-time trainer Keltie Byrne slipped into the pool containing Tilikum and two female orcas in 1991, she was killed. The park was closed and "Tilly" was snapped up by SeaWorld, eager to buy a new male for breeding.
Tilly's life performing (and providing sperm for the creation of 21 other captive orcas) is poignantly recalled by trainers who mostly started working at SeaWorld as idealistic, animal-loving teenagers in the 1990s. John Jett, who now teaches environmental science at university, spent four years there in the 1990s. "He has no life," he says of Tilly. "He gets beat up and he floats like a slob all day – attacked by mosquitoes by night and sunburnt by day."
In the wild, orcas swim 100 miles in a day; here, they live in relatively tiny pools. Individuals from different social groups are thrown together and fight badly, raking each other with their teeth. In small pools, there is no escape from the fighting and, as a big male, Tilly was continually attacked by naturally dominant females.
Dawn Brancheau pictured at Sea World Florida in 2009. The following year she was killed in front of horrified onlookers during one of the park's killer whale shows. Photograph: Barry Bland/Barcroft Media
Blackfish is not a balanced film, and its ending, implying we should watch whales in the wild instead, is problematic, since too many whale-watching boats have a negative impact on cetacean welfare. But Blackfish is chiefly unbalanced by SeaWorld's decision to refuse Cowperthwaite's repeated interview requests. While big corporations' standard strategy is generally to lie low (McDonald's didn't aggressively confront Morgan Spurlock over Super Size Me, for instance), SeaWorld called Blackfish "shamefully dishonest, deliberately misleading, and scientifically inaccurate" after its release, and accused the film-makers of exploiting the "tragedy" of Brancheau's death.
In a detailed rebuttal to film critics, SeaWorld argued that Blackfish wrongly asserted that captive orcas were "bullied", when fighting was natural in the wild; incorrectly portrayed SeaWorld "callously" breaking up orca families, when it tried to keep groups together; and inaccurately implied SeaWorld used punishment-based training when it only "reinforced" the "natural range of behaviours" of orcas. Most fundamentally, SeaWorld disputed the claim that Tilikum killed after being "driven crazy by his years in captivity" and argued that "all the evidence" suggested the orca was interested in Brancheau's ponytail, grabbing it and pulling her into the water where she drowned.
There is, however, credible evidence contradicting claims that Brancheau was pulled into the water by her ponytail. Former trainers view SeaWorld's theory as an |
the site that spring at 15 schools. But it never gained anywhere close to the critical mass of user adoption that Facebook did. Today, 400 million people visit Facebook each month while ConnectU exists only in the Internet archives.
Nevertheless, during 2004, Mark Zuckerberg still appeared to be obsessed with ConnectU. Specifically, he appears to have hacked into ConnectU's site and made changes to multiple user profiles, including Cameron Winklevoss's.
At one point, Mark appears to have exploited a flaw in ConnectU's account verification process to create a fake Cameron Winklevoss account with a fake Harvard.edu email address.
In this new, fake profile, he listed Cameron's height as 7'4", his hair color as "Ayran Blond," and his eye color as "Sky Blue." He listed Cameron's "language" as "WASP-y."
Next, Mark appears to have logged into the accounts of some ConnectU users and changed their privacy settings to invisible. The idea here was apparently to make it harder for people to find friends on ConnectU, thus reducing its utility. Eventually, Mark appears to have gone a step further, deactivating about 20 ConnectU accounts entirely. Mark appeared to be worried about the risk of his actions, but reasoned that ConnectU's developers wouldn't notice a succession of account deactivations coming from the same IP address. He took comfort that Apache logs didn't reveal that type of activity either. Mark also figured that if ConnectU developers did notice anything, their most natural conclusion would be to think that someone had emailed people convincing them to deactivate their accounts.
It is not clear how Mark accessed these accounts. (In an earlier hack of the email accounts of two Harvard Crimson editors, he used login information stored in Facebook's servers.) It does appear that he retained access to ConnectU's servers for quite some time.
When we reviewed the details of this story with Facebook, the company had this comment:
"We're not going to debate the disgruntled litigants and anonymous sources who seek to rewrite Facebook's early history or embarrass Mark Zuckerberg with dated allegations. The unquestioned fact is that since leaving Harvard for Silicon Valley nearly six years ago, Mark has led Facebook's growth from a college website to a global service playing an important role in the lives of over 400 million people."
We're certainly not questioning the latter fact: Facebook's success -- and Mark's role in it -- have been awe-inspiring.
Given the significant concerns about online privacy and ethics, however, it seems reasonable to ask what the company's reaction -- and Mark's current reaction -- is to the reported behavior above.
A source close to the company suggests that it was the fallout from early behavior like this -- fallout that has included reputational damage to Mark Zuckerberg and expensive and prolonged litigation with ConnectU -- that has shaped Facebook's current privacy policies. We imagine -- or at least hope -- that these searing early mistakes have also a profound influence on the now 25-year-old Mark Zuckerberg.Washington D.C., Dec. 5, 2008 — Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, announced a moratorium on defaults today. “We have been considering a moratorium on foreclosures,” said Paulson, “but a moratorium on defaults will be much more effective.”
While other lawmakers are still considering foreclosure moratoriums, Paulson is convinced a default moratorium is a better approach. He hopes others in State and Local legistlatures will follow his lead. “We want to keep people in their homes,” said Paulson, “and we need to keep our lending institutions healthy.”
When asked how a default moratorium would help, Paulson had this to say, “Foreclosures are the result of defaults, and defaults are also causing lenders to take write-downs on mortgage loans. By putting a moratorium on defaults, we solve both problems.” Paulson provides clear guidance on how the program would work, “Homeowners need to keep making their payments. That will put an end to the housing crisis.”
Experts agree that falling home values are not the root of the problem. Paulson goes on, “But let me emphasize that we do not need a system-wide solution for the vast majority of loans where a homeowner temporarily has negative equity. Negative equity does not affect borrowers’ ability to pay their loans. Homeowners who can afford their mortgage payment should honor their obligations.”
When pressed for more details on how such a moratorium would be implemented when so many homeowners cannot afford their payments, Paulson responded, “We are still working on the details. We may provide direct government assistance. The American people are kind and generous. They certainly won’t mind helping out their fellow citizens with tax dollars as necessary.”
When confronted with the possibility of creating a moral hazard, Paulson scoffed at the notion, “Homeowners need this help to stay in their homes. It would be immoral to throw them out on the street.”
You’re gonna realize that
Some of my lies are true
Some of My Lies Are True — Huey Lewis and the News
I have been getting some practice writing press releases lately.
When our various politicians propose foreclosure moratoriums, do you think they are serious? I believe most of them are simply pandering to their constituents that want to believe they are doing something about the housing price crash. If you give the idea of a foreclosure moratorium even a moment’s thought, you realize it could never accomplish anything. We just had a defacto foreclosure moratorium here in California when we instituted a new 30-day waiting period for lenders to contact borrowers to try to work something out. Of course, this only delayed the inevitable, but perhaps it gained some homeowners in foreclosure an extra month of free rent from the bank. I suppose the idea isn’t any crazier than subsidising mortgage interest rates at 4.5%. Why not zero percent? Why not pay people to live in homes? That would probably reduce the inventory. Any thoughts on what half-baked idea they will come up with next week?
Today’s featured property is another HELOC abuser who won’t get bailed out.
WTF?
Asking Price: $463,900
Income Requirement: $115,975
Downpayment Needed: $92,780
Monthly Equity Burn: $3,865
Purchase Price: $420,000
Purchase Date: 8/29/2003
Address: 24 Rockrose Way, Irvine, CA 92612
Beds: 3 Baths: 2 Sq. Ft.: 1,660 $/Sq. Ft.: $279 Lot Size: 4,928 Sq. Ft. Property Type: Single Family Residence Style: Cottage Year Built: 1966 Stories: 1 Area: University Park County: Orange MLS#: P667046 Source: SoCalMLS Status: Active On Redfin: 1 day New Listing (24 hours) New Listing (24 hours)
EXCELLENT OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE IN UNIVERSITY PARK IN A SINGLE LEVEL
ATTACHED HOME WITH ONLY 1 COMMON WALL! END OF CUL DE SAC LOCATION AND
BACKING TO GREEN BELT. VOLUME CEILINGS, FIREPLACE, CERAMIC TILE AND
WOOD FLOORING, ONE OF THE LARGEST LOTS IN THE ENTIRE TRACT! OVERSIZED
FRONT AND REAR YARDS! NO MELLO ROOS, LOW HOA THAT INCLUDES POOLS, SPAS,
AND TENNIS! BANK OWNED!
Can anyone tell me what the second picture is showing me?
Backing to green belt? Yeah, and siding on to the 405.
Well, this person didn’t double their mortgage. they didn’t own it long enough. So what did they do?
The property was purchased on 8/29/2003 for $397,000. The owner used a $336,000 first mortgage, an $84,000 second mortgage, and a $0 downpayment.
On 10/29/2004 he opened a HELOC for $120,000.
On 9/21/2005 he refinanced with an Option ARM with a 1% teaser rate for $528,000.
On 4/26/2007 he opened a HELOC for $24,847.
Total property debt was $552,847.
Total mortgage equity withdrawal was $152,847.
Is it any wonder kool aid intoxication is so strong? This guy put no money down, and he managed to extract $152,847 in spending money over a 3 year period. Who wouldn’t want some of that?
If this property sells for its asking price, and if a 6% commission is paid, the IndyMac (now the US taxpayer) will lose $116,781.
I hope you have enjoyed this week at the Irvine Housing Blog. Come back next week as we
continue chronicling ‘the seventh circle of real estate hell.’ Have a great weekend.
🙂
{book}
Say you wanna be a friend of mine
See me all the time
You don’t care what I do
But it all sounds the same to me
Hey, can’t you see
It’s just like I told you
I know you think that I’ve
Been stringing you along
And that I’ve told you a few, but
(Chorus)
Sooner or later when you say I love you
You’re gonna realize that
Some of my lies are true
I never told you that I was the one
Said it just for fun
You know, you knew it too
So why so much on the telephone
I’m never home
It’s just like I told you
Because it’s real the way you used to make me feel
It makes it so hard to say
But nothing can change the way I feel today
Don’t you see that
Sooner or later when you say I love you
Your gonna
Realize that some of my lies are true
Some of My Lies Are True — Huey Lewis and the NewAs the government prepares for a federal private health insurance review, Australian health funds have stepped up pressure for major changes to curb the rising costs of healthcare and policy premiums in the country. The health funds include Medibink Private, Bup and nib.
These health funds are urging federal Health Minister Sussan Ley to take urgent steps to review the prosthesis pricing policy which Bupa Health Insurance Managing Director Dr Dwayne Crombie finds “ridiculous.” They also want the government to take initiatives to encourage Australian youth to go for private health insurance.
The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Crombie as saying that insurers were paying as much as $1.7 billion every year for medical devices and prostheses. Crombie cites the findings of an external consultancy, commissioned by the Australian healthcare industry, to reach this conclusion. The actual cost, he says, should be about half a billion less. Crombie suggests passing on the excess amount, currently floating around in kickbacks and rebates that manufacturers of medical devices and hospitals split between themselves, to the public through a more reasonable pricing policy.
The health funds also want an amendment to the existing insurance rules to provide discounts and incentives to people under 30 to encourage them to take private insurance policies. Nib Managing Director Mark Fitzgibbon says there’s consensus on the need to promote “lifetime healthcare loading in reverse.” He has also warns Ley against any attempt to do away with the rebate on ancillary health services, which he says are an important value proposition for youngsters.
The insurance review comes at a critical time in the Australian healthcare system. The federal government has already postponed any change to the Medicare safety net until 2016 after failing to get the necessary Senate support. Psychiatric, oncology and IVF have strongly opposed the proposed changes in the safety net, which are aimed at lowering the thresholds for availing the benefits of out-of-hospital services. The government has also proposed a cap on the amount for individual services. The changes, if implemented as planned from Jan 1, 2016, would have saved the government $266.7 million over five years, according to an earlier Sydney Morning Herald report.
Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au or tell us what you think belowThis article appears in Anarchy Archives with the permission of the author.
GREEN PERSPECTIVES
Newsletter of the Green Program Project
P.O. Box 111
Burlington, VT 05402
No. 1 January 1986
THE GREENING OF POLITICS:
Toward a New Kind of Political Practice by Murray Bookchin
There are two ways to look at the word " politics."
The first -- and most conventional -- is to describe politics as a fairly exclusive, generally professional ized system of power interactions in which specialists whom we call "politicians" formulate decisions that affect our lives and administer these decisions through governmental agencies and bureaucrats.
These "politicians" and their "politics" are generally regarded with a certain measure of contempt by many Americans. They come to power partly through "parties," which are highly structured bureaucracies, and profess to "represent" people -- at times, one person for vast numbers of people such as Congressmen and Senators. They are "elected" and belong to "the Elect" (to translate an old religious term into a "political" one), and, in this sense, form a distinct hierarchical elite however much they profess to "speak" in "the People's" name. They are not "the People." They are its "representatives" at best, which sets them apart from the people, and its manipulators at worst, which often sets them against the people. Quite often, they are very offensive creatures because they engage in manipulative, immoral, and elitist practices, using mass media and normally betraying some of their most basic programmatic commitments to "serve" the people. Rather, they tend to serve special interest groups, usually well- heeled monied ones, who are likely to advance their careers and material well-being.
This professionalized, elitist, often immoral, and manipulative system of "politics," which usually makes a mockery of the democratic processes we associate with our traditions, is a relatively new political conception. It arose with the Nation-State several hundred years ago, when the Absolute monarchs of Europe like Henry VIII in England or Louis XIV in France began to centralize enormous power in their hands, forming the hierarchical states we associate with "Government" and carving out those distinct large-scale jurisdictions we call "nations" from more decentralized jurisdictions such as free cities, confederations of localities, and a variety of feudal domains.
Before the formation of the Nation-State "politics" had a meaning that was very different from the one it has today -- and the "powers that be" are doing everything they can to erase the memory of this meaning from our minds. At its best, it meant that people at the community level -- in villages, towns, neighborhoods, and cities - managed the public affairs that have since been pre-empted by politicians and bureaucrats. They managed these affairs in direct, face-to-face citizens' assemblies such as we still encounter in New England town-meetings. At most they elected councils to administer policy decisions which the citizens formulated in their own assemblies. And the assemblies were careful to closely supervise the administrative activities of the councils, recalling "deputies" whose behavior became the object of public disapproval.
Moreover, political life extended beyond citizens' assemblies to include a rich political culture: daily public discussions in squares, parks, street-corners, educational institutions, open lectures, clubs, and the like. People discussed politics wherever they came together, as though they were preparing themselves for the citizens' assemblies. Politics was a form of education, not mobilization; its goal was not only formulating decisions but building character and developing mind. It was a self-formative process in which the citizen body developed not only a rich sense of cohesion but a rich sense of personal selfhood -- that indispensable self-development so necessary to foster self-administration and self- management. Finally, the concept of a political culture gave rise to civic rituals, festivals, celebrations, and shared expressions of joy and mourning that provided every locality, be it a village, town, neighborhood, or city, with a sense of personality and identity, one which supported individual uniqueness rather than subordinated it to the collective.
Such politics, in effect, was organic and ecological rather than "structural" in the top-down sense of the word. It was a continual process, not a fixed and limited "event" such as we encounter on "election days." The citizen developed personally as a result of his or her political involvement because of the wealth of discussion and interaction it entailed and the sense of empowerment it engendered. Citizens correctly believed that they had control over their destinies and could determine their fate -- not that it was predetermined for them by people and forces over which they had no control. This feeling was mutualistic: the political domain reinforced the personal by giving it a sense of power, and the personal domain reinforced the political by supporting it with a sense of loyalty. In this reciprocal process, the individual "I" and the collective "we" were not subordinated to each other, but each nourished the other. The public sphere provided the collective base and soil for the development of strong personal characters and the latter united together to form the contours and domain of a strong public sphere.
It remains to emphasize that such free communities did not always or necessarily dissolve into self-contained, mutually exclusive, and parochial units. They often networked with each other to coordinate their decisions in a cooperative way. They confederated -- initially on the equivalent of what we, today, would designate as a "county" level; later, in many cases, on a regional (perhaps equivalently, in the U.S., on a statewide) level. We have a rich history of such municipal confederations, in some cases structured around grassroots, even neighborhood, control that have yet to be given the study they deserve -- and in the U.S. no less than in Europe. In some cases, too, confederal councils coordinated decisions made by local assemblies which at all times formulated policies, while recallable, carefully supervised councils administered them in a purely technical way. Wherever experts were needed to provide strictly technical alternatives, they were organized into advisory boards and, lacking any decision-making powers, advanced various alternatives for consideration, modification, and determination by the citizens' assemblies in villages, towns, neighborhoods, and cities. And where differences existed, they were simply adjudicated by conference committees or arbitration boards, such as they still are today when different, often conflicting variations of the same law are passed by the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
#
The modern version of what we call "politics," today, is really statecraft. It emphasizes "professionalism," not popular control; the monopoly of power by the few, not the empowerment of the many; the "election" of an "Elect" group, not face-to-face democratic processes that involve the people as a whole; "representation," not participation. We use "politics" to mobilize "constituencies" to achieve preselected goals, not educate them into the self management of society and the formation of the strong selves that make for genuine individuality and personality. We deal with the people as a passive "electorate" whose "political" task is to ritualistically vote for "candidates" who come from so-called "parties," not for deputies who are strictly mandated to administer the policies formulated and decided by active citizens. We stress obedience, not involvement -- and even distort words like "involvement" to mean little more than a spectatorial stance in which the individual is lost in the "mass" and the "masses" are themselves fragmented into isolated, frustrated, and powerless atoms.
This image of "politics," as 1 have indicated, is a fairly recent phenomenon that emerged in Europe in the sixteenth century and made its way into popular consciousness in fairly recent times. It was still not the accepted notion of "politics" in the last century. Quite to the contrary: the Nation-State in France, Spain, Germany, and Italy -- and perhaps most significantly, in the United States -- still had to make every effort to assert its authority over localities and regions against massive popular resistance. In America, this process is perhaps less Complete than most European countries. Our Revolution, two centuries ago, gave enormous powers -- initially complete power -- to regional and local areas (I refer to our first constitution, The Articles of Confederation, which gave the original thirteen states pre-emptive authority over the national government -- a constitution, I may add, that favored the farmers and urban poor over the wealthy, hence its "ignoble" place in our history texts) and structured our defense around a citizen's militia, not a professional army.
The reality of early politics persisted for generations even after the Nation-State began to assert itself juridicially. 'That is to say, regions and municipalities retained enormous de facto power and provided vital political arenas despite the enactment of laws to diminish their activities and place them under the Nation-State's sovereignty. The American tradition, often in marked contrast to the European, stresses this ideal of local autonomy and the dangers of excessive State power. That tradition emphasizes the rights of the individual to assert himself or herself against authority, the desirability of a relative degree of self-sufficiency, the claims of the community against corporate power -- the "inalienable" rights of human beings to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," an expression that is notable for the absence of any emphasis on property. Washington's remoteness as a "national capitol" has been an abiding feature of American political rhetoric and an emphasis on regionalism and localism an abiding ideal.
We have permitted cynical political reactionaries and the spokesmen of large corporations to pre-empt these basic libertarian American ideals. We have permitted them not only to become the specious "voice" of these ideals such that individualism has been used to justify egotism; the "pursuit of happiness" to justify greed, and even our emphasis on local and regional autonomy has been used to justify parochialism, insularism, and exclusivity -- often against ethnic minorities and so-called "deviant" individuals. We have even permitted these reactionaries to stake out a claim to the word "libertarian," a word, in fact, that was literally devised in the 1890s in France by Elisée Reclus as a substitute for the word "anarchist," which the government had rendered an illegal expression for identifying one's views. The propertarians, in effect -- acolytes of Ayn Rand, the "earth mother" of greed, egotism, and the virtues of property -- have approporiated expressions and traditions that should have been expressed by radicals but were willfully neglected because of the lure of European and Asian traditions of "socialism," "socialisms" that are now entering into decline in the very countries in which they originated.
It is time, at long last, that we developed a politics that is not statecraft -- a statecraft that the American people already view with deep and justifiable suspicion. It is time, too, that we begin to speak to the American people in the vocabulary of homegrown American radicalism, not German Marxism or Chinese Maoism, a vocabulary that is waning even in Germany and China. Finally, it is time that we develop an organic politics -- an ecological politics - - not a statist politics structured around parties, bureaucracies, political specialists, and elites. Organic or ecological - in a word, Green -- means literally the evolution of a politics of the organism in the very real sense that we begin with the cellular level of social life: the community, be it the neighborhood, city, town, or village, not the abstract "nation" with its imperatives of national parties, bureaucracies, "executives," and the like. Green politics means that we apply ecological principles and processes to our ways of functioning politically -- at grassroots levels in face-to-face, democratic, and popular assemblies. It means an intimate politics that is based on education, not simply mobilization, such that we help to create active, politically concerned, participatory citizens, not passive, privatized, and spectatorial "constituents" who have no control over their destinies. The terrain for this politics is the municipality: neighborhood assemblies, town meetings, community meetings that will turn our own localities into a confederated, inter-linked, and well-organized network of localist institutions -- institutions that will act as a countervailing force to the ever-growing centralization and bureaucratization of the Nation-State. Its basic program will be: let the people decide! And it is a program that stems from a distinctly American radical tradition, not a borrowed and refurbished one from abroad.
Weak as they may be, these parallel local institutions in the U.S. are still very much in place. They exist as a democracy within our republic and as a form of indigenous radicalism within our democracy. Our demand should be:Other big publishers have begun increasing their investments in e-sports in recent months. In December, Electronic Arts, the publisher of the Madden and Battlefield franchises, formed an e-sports division and appointed Peter Moore, its former chief operating officer, to run it. Last year, Microsoft increased its investments in a professional tournament for players of Halo, its science-fiction shooter game.
But no publisher has been more successful at fostering a large e-sports audience than Riot Games, whose October championship match for its arena battle game, League of Legends, was viewed by as many as 14 million people at one time, up from 11 million the prior year.
For the most part, publishers like Riot have viewed e-sports as a way to energize their fan bases by showcasing the talents of the most highly skilled players. The competitions are not generally big sources of profits on their own but benefit publishers indirectly by improving sales and increasing the online purchases that occur within games.
Mr. Kotick, of Activision, said that he saw similar benefits for his company’s games, but that he believed organized competitions would become a big business in their own right, as corporate sponsors and advertisers become more familiar with the category.
Activision is hardly the first company to consider the broadcasting of e-sports competitions as a crucial piece of the e-sports business. Twitch became a streaming powerhouse by allowing professionals and amateurs to broadcast matches, and it was eventually acquired by Amazon for nearly $1 billion. YouTube, which is owned by Google, has also turned itself into a popular destination to view gaming videos of all kinds.
Much of the gaming content on Twitch and YouTube is contributed by users, though these platforms also broadcast professional competitions. Mr. Kotick thinks an e-sports network singularly focused on premium content — including slickly produced competitions and news shows akin to “SportsCenter,” on ESPN — will be able to attract more interest from advertisers.
“We think user-generated-content networks are great and widely available,” he said. “This is really focused on premium content.”The Steam Gauge value of my account is waaaaaay more than I actually paid for my games! You may have noticed that Steam Gauge only returns the Steam store price of a game, and not the amount you actually paid for it. This is because Valve does not allow access to your Steam transaction history as they do for your account profile and games. However, Valve does provide a tool for viewing total spend on your account (it does not include payments to external storefronts for products that redeem on Steam): https://help.steampowered.com/accountdata/AccountSpend
To see a detailed breakdown of your account spending, visit https://store.steampowered.com/account/history.
You may view other types of data about your account that Steam stores here: https://help.steampowered.com/accountdata
What is "OldSpend" and "PWSpend"?
While "TotalSpend" represents all funds spent on the Steam Account, "OldSpend" represents the subset of that which was spent before Valve's 2015 implementation of "Limited User" account restrictions and "PWSpend" represents funds spent on "Perfect World Entertainment" apps in Steam.
Why does this page exist?
Until June 2018, Valve did not provide users with a total summary of their spending on Steam. Because of this, Steam Gauge provided a javascript bookmarklet that summarized your account spend data quickly and easily.
Since Steam now provides this natively, Steam Receipt is no longer maintained. If you're interested in the project code, you can find it here.After testing it out in classrooms and other educational settings, modder Daniel Ratcliffe and the folks at TeacherGaming have released a mod for Minecraft, ComputerCraftEdu, that aims to teach players basic programming skills.
Given the remarkable sway Minecraft currently holds over the world's youth, the release of this mod has an outsized impact on the state of basic programming education. Microsoft itself recently launched its own hub for educational uses of Minecraft, and TeacherGaming co-founder Joel Levin says the company has been working in conjunction with Microsoft.
ComputerCraftEdu is a streamlined version of Ratcliffe's extant ComputerCraft mod that's designed so that parents and educators can teach young players fundamental coding concepts like loops, conditions, and the nature of debugging.
Players start out by dragging and dropping single commands onto programmable turtle robots in-game, then gradually begin creating more complex sequences of commands and eventually move on to writing and editing actual (simple) code in an editor.
ComputerCraftEdu is free to download and works with any copy of Minecraft or the made-for-classrooms MinecraftEdu on Windows, Mac and Linux.This isn't a brand new idea, but it could be more important now that it appears on its way into the next collective agreement.
The NHL is obviously out to get what it calls "long-term front-loaded back-diving contracts," with deputy commissioner Bill Daly calling a term limit "the hill we will die on" and the league proposing a heavily punitive system on existing deals that met that criteria back in October.
As per the league's release now nearly two months ago on the controversial potential rule change:
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"We are proposing that all years of existing long-term contracts in excess of five (5) years be counted against a Club's Cap regardless of whether or where a Player is playing. While such contracts (and Cap charges) can be traded during their terms, in the event a Player subsequently retires or ceases to play, the effective Cap charge would revert to the Club that originally entered into the contract."
That passage drew a lot of attention when the proposal came out, as it would do things like apply Roberto Luongo's cap hit to the Vancouver Canucks if he retired five years from now - even if he'd played for three different teams in the interim.
Or punish the Philadelphia Flyers should Jeff Carter retire early.
This idea has fallen to the back burner as other topics have come forward, but it was discussed last week and penalizing existing long-term deals (when players retire early for any reason other than injury) remains a key part of Item No. 2 on the league's three main outstanding issues list.
(Those being: 1. CBA length, 2. Getting rid of long-term deals that circumvent the cap and 3. Having no compliance buyouts or other means of "off the cap" transition measures.)
In response to the league's call for such an alteration, the NHLPA devised something called a "cap benefit recapture formula," which would punish teams with players who retired early on long-term deals by putting the money they saved over the term of the deal on their cap after they've retired.
This notion has been around for a while, but the change that came last week was that the PA offered to apply this formula to any new contracts that are seven years or longer OR existing deals with seven years or more remaining.
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Another change to the PA's previous proposal is that instead of allowing the post-retirement cap penalty to be spread over twice the length remaining on the deal it can only be spread over the number of years that the player didn't play.
And there's not an insignificant number of those existing deals out there.
According to Tyler Dellow, who has done some interesting work on the subject of long-term deals, as many as 32 players are on contracts with seven or more years remaining,
That, of course, includes the identical 13-year deals signed by Zach Parise and Ryan Suter by the Minnesota Wild this summer in free agency.
The CBRF, as I like to call it, is a bit complicated, so it calls for an example here just to give a better idea of how it'd function. Let's say Parise and Suter both retire three years early (and not due to injury), which isn't unreasonable given they'll be in their late 30s by that point.
Those deals are structured with a ton of money at the front, with $12-million in the first two years, $11-million in the third, $9-million over the next five years, $8-million in the ninth year and $6-million in the 10th.
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The final three years pay just $4-million total.
That means that Parise and Suter, if they retire after the 10th year of the deal, will have been paid $94-million in that span - which averages out to $9.4-million.
Their cap hit, however, for the length of the deal is just $7.538-million because of the low final years.
The CBRF would take the difference between $9.4-million and $7.538-million over the first 10 years of the deal – $18.6-million – divide it by three and charge that $6.2-million to the cap the next three seasons.
So there could, in theory, be a couple anchors on Minnesota's cap in 2022.
Retirement Salary paid Cap hit Benefit CBRF penalty After Year 9 $88-mil $67.8-mil $20.2-mil $5-mil x 4 After Year 10 $94-mil $75.4-mil $18.6-mil $6.2-mil x 3 After Year 11 $96-mil $82.9-mil $13.1-mil $6.5-mil x 2 After Year 12 $97-mil $90.5-mil $6.5-mil $6.5-mil x 1
Now, the thing is, the NHL will likely be under a new CBA by that point, and who knows how that agreement will treat these deals. And who knows if a $6.2-million cap penalty in 2022-25 will be considered a significant punishment for having benefited for the 10 previous years from a lower cap hit under a lower cap.
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The formula also doesn't yet address what would happen if a player is traded and much of that cap benefit went to a team other than the one the player was on when he retired.
But what is clear is that there's likely to be some sort of punishment on existing long-term contracts whenever an agreement is signed, as the PA has put such a measure on the table, at least in the sense I've outlined above.
So what the CBRF will look like in its final iteration isn't certain. That it'll exist in some form certainly seems to be.After more than five years as host of Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues," Steve Burns is passing the leash to his successor and passing the mic to himself.
Burns, who along with animated canine Blue has solved nearly 100 puzzles since the children's show premiered in December 1996, is now facing a quandary that has baffled just about anyone who ever wanted to form a career around picking up a guitar: how to get signed.
The 28-year-old Brooklyn, New York, resident has recorded 11 tunes, some of which are posted on www.steveswebpage.com, for an LP titled Songs for Dustmites. That was the easy part. The hard part is getting a label to release his stuff, which combines the sweeping orchestration of the Flaming Lips, whose Steven Drozd assisted in the album's production, with the DIY-aesthetic and detached spookiness of Chicago's homegrown indie rock.
"I really don't care who puts it out," Burns said. "At the end of the day, I just want people to like it. I want as many people to hear it as possible, and I hope it finds a happy home somewhere."
Music isn't a new direction for Burns, who's played in bands since high school, when he was a member of Sudden Impact. From there, he rocked with Nine Pound Truck and the Ivys, his "Morrissey rip-off band." "It's back when I wanted to be [guitarist] Johnny Marr, 'cause you gotta do the Manchester shoe-gazing thing," he explained.
He had been working on material for Songs for Dustmites for nearly two and a half years, ever since he got a computer with sound recording and editing capabilities. His method for making the album was similar to the way he took up playing music as a teen: he just messed around, trial-and-error style, until he found something he liked.
"When I was 14 I would pick up my brother's bass guitar, and I would just pound on it, having no idea how to play it," he said. "I would just pound on it until I sounded like Fugazi. And I do the same thing on the computer. I pound on it until I sound like... Boards of Canada. I just beat on it until I get it to comply."
The Steve Burns who no longer spends his mornings being shown up by a little blue beast hardly resembles the Steve Burns who did. For starters, he shaved his head the day after his final episode was in the can. It was something he'd wanted to do for years, but "Blue's Clues" wouldn't let him. And it's highly improbable that he'd be caught wearing khakis and that trademark green rugby shirt at his local indie-rock watering hole. Now Steve is closer to being a guest on MTV2's "120 Minutes" than any program broadcast on Nickelodeon.
The opportunity to work with Lips drummer/multi-instrumentalist Drozd was an amazing experience, said Burns, who first heard the band's most recent album, 1999's The Soft Bulletin, at a party and immediately left the shindig to purchase the LP. While recording his own album, on which he plays most of the instruments, Burns figured he'd at least ask the Oklahoma City band for some advice, but what he got in return was a dream come true.
"I started trying to do my own music at home, and I was like, 'You know what, I can play the guitar, sort of. And I can do these things, sort of. And I can make these crazy noises on my computer, sort of. But I need a ridiculously good drummer. I need someone to help me with string arrangements,' Burns said in a rhetorical fashion similar to the way he thinks aloud on "Blue's Clues," though in a hoarse, breathier tone.
"I was thinking, 'Who would be first to choose from? Well I would like to work at Tarbox Road Studios with the Flaming Lips.' I made a couple phone calls and it happened. We hit it off instantly.... We |
implications for the way we use our computers, but there are some important drawbacks as well.
Let’s break it down.
What exactly is an Always Connected PC?
The ‘Always Connected’ bit is basically a marketing term Microsoft is using for a new batch of Windows PCs running on processors with ARM architectures – the same type of super-efficient chips on our mobile devices.
These PCs will have two primary claims to fame over the ‘x86’ type processors in current PCs: constant cellular connectivity, and ridiculously long battery life – over 20 hours on a charge. For comparison most Windows Ultrabooks are in the 12-hour range.
In particular, the company is partnering with Qualcomm, which makes the processing platform used in the vast majority of Android devices, including the Snapdragon 835 in the Galaxy S8/Note 8 (in the US), the Pixel 2, the OnePlus 5, the LG V30, etc.
It’s possible the company might work with other ARM partners in the future, but Qualcomm is getting the first go at it. The first couple of Always Connected PCs will use the same chipsets as those phones.
The idea is that by combining super-efficient processors with constant connectivity, PCs will be as convenient as our smartphones. With battery life over 20 hours, you won’t ever have to think about carrying a charger. Like your phone, they’ll instant wake from sleep. With constant LTE connectivity, you won’t have to scramble to find a hotpost.
How is that different from existing PCs with cellular connectivity?
Let’s be clear: Always Connected PCs won’t do anything you can’t already do with existing PCs, and there are already plenty of PCs on the market with constant LTE connectivity. But they might do some things better.
The smaller and more efficient processors allow for bigger batteries with lower power drainage; think of how powerful and efficient our smartphones are. It also means computers could get smaller and lighter while still providing solid battery life.
The Surface Pro now comes in an LTE model, and has good battery life, but doesn’t earn the ‘Always Connected PC’ moniker because it doesn’t have an ARM chip
Meanwhile, Qualcomm is already a major player in the mobile industry with major clout with phone carriers. That combination of factors could mean that cellular connectivity on PCs will become the norm, rather than a niche.
On a related note, it’s not clear whether the Always Connected PC branding will be exclusive to ARM processors, or whether they will apply to Intel and AMD chips that meet certain criteria.
What are some models on the way?
So far, only two Always Connected PCs have officially been announced: The Asus NovaGo and the HP Envy X2. Qualcomm said Lenovo would be announcing its own entry at CES in January.
We went hands on with the Asus and HP models here. But TL;DR – they’re typical 2-in-1s, except with the promise of incredible battery life. Of course, we need to put those claims to the test once the devices start shipping next year.
The first batch of Always Connected PCs are expected to launch in Spring of 2018, so you have some time to prepare your wallet.
Will they be able to run regular Windows programs?
Yes, but with some restrictions. The two PCs mentioned above come preloaded with Windows 10 S – the version of Windows limited to apps from the Microsoft Store.
Always Connected PCs should be able to run any apps available on the Microsoft Store, but that’s still a pretty limited selection. In my very brief testing, these seemed to run as smoothly as the typical Ultrabook.
Should you upgrade to Windows 10 Pro or Home, you will still be able to run most traditional software, so long as it comes with a 32-bit (x86) version. Software that are exclusively 64-bit will not work (unless it was designed specifically for ARM processors) but those are pretty rare. According to a Microsoft Spokesperson:
The emulation technology supports x86 applications. We do not emulate 64-bit applications, the majority of which are AAA Games. Additionally, the emulation technology does not emulate applications that require kernel-mode drivers (e.g. some anti-virus applications). We are working on an ARM64 SDK that will enable developers to author applications for ARM64 and we’ll have more news to share in the future.
However – and this is an important caveat – it remains to be seen how well x86 emulation runs. You should be able to run Photoshop, for instance, but we can’t say how smoothly it will run until we can spend more time with an ARM-powered device.
Lastly, there’s the simple fact that these are still mobile processors at the end of the day. It’ll be a while before we get Always On PCs that can match the performance of high-end Windows Laptops.
What’s the point?
Unless your laptop has truly marathon battery, chances are you take your charger with you for all but short outings. Chances are you’re constantly struggling to find an internet connection unless you’re at work home.
Always on PCs could change that. We’d start to treat our computers more like our phones, generally not worrying about power or connectivity. For Microsoft, that means you’ll be taking your PCs to many more places.
Again, PCs with LTE connectivity and solid battery life already exist, but Qualcomm and Microsoft are doubling down on the concept. Over the next few years, it could very well become normal to get a cellular plan for your PC to go along with your smartphone – or perhaps even sharing a plan. The move will also likely push Intel into producing even more efficient and powerful processors. Competition fosters innovation.Sean "Diddy" Combs' Instagram post of a photograph he allegedly copied from the account of @cole_younger_ and published without attribution.
Update, 8/27/2014: @cole_youner responded with a comment: “It upsets me because I have such a passion for my work,” the photographer tells Pop Photo in an email, pointing out a similar incident from one week ago when Snoop Dogg also used one of his images on Instagram without attribution. “I consider both of them very creative and you think they both would have more insight on the lack of courtesy to give me my due.”_
Last night, a photo by photographer @cole_younger_ showed up on the Instagram account belonging to rapper and media mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs (@iamdiddy). Sadly, what wasn't included was proper attribution.
Combs captioned the image in question, a stunning, digitally enhanced eclipse hanging over the LA skyline, with the hashtag “#diddyView,” but had not attributed the photographer who claims the rights to the image on his own feed where it was first published two weeks ago.
Combs’ post, which is lower resolution than the original and bears the telltale sign of a hasty screengrab and crop — a few-pixel-wide white line along the bottom of the image — has garnered over 46,000 likes and hundreds of comments, many of them calling him out for the alleged infraction of intellectual property rights and the app’s terms of service.
Combs has not yet responded, removed or offered to attribute the image, but he has shared several posts with his nearly 4 million followers since the incident, including two straight advertisements for his mid-shelf pineapple-flavored vodka sponsor revealing the account as largely another marketing arm of his commercial brand.
Neither party has responded to a request for comment from Pop Photo at the time of this writing.#30 The Guardian
Stipulation: Blindfolded. Start with Spear of Destiny, Holy Grail and Punching Bag. Start with Isaac's Heart attached to Punching Bag.Treasure Room? NoGoal: Beat Mom's Heart/It Lives!Reward: Blank RuneTactic: This is a high risk, very difficult, luck-based run because Punching Bag (PB) loves running headlong into enemies, explosions, spikes, fire, literally anything that can kill him (and by extension, you). You'll want to stay on top of PB most of the time, blocking incoming shots and providing cover, but don't be afraid to go all out against rooms with easy/slow enemies. Rooms with traps are basically a timer with PB trying to kill you, so dash for contraptions/exits as fast as possible. Your damage sucks, but there's a trick to near-double your damage potential. Spear of Destiny works like an unfirable Mom's Knife, and as such it has the same capability to be "flailed" around. Hold down a firing direction and then begin repeatedly pressing any other direction to make Isaac quickly "slash" in an arc. The arc becomes wider but slower if you press the opposite direction (e.g.: holding "Fire Left" and mashing "Fire Right"), so go for smaller arcs to slash your foes to pieces. This is useful to clear rooms full of enemies, but the technique shines against stationary bosses such as It Lives!. Be sure to increase your red heart containers, but don't forget soul/evil hearts are a cheap way to survive. Grabbing Gimpy and The Jar will increase your survivability by providing a way to carry health and produce health on kills, while also replenishing soul hearts when hit. Be patient with this challenge, it's doable. Reroll the floor for a Basement if you're having trouble getting the starting tailwind.Two U.S. states — Virginia and Idaho — have now passed laws to allow delivery robots to operate statewide.
The new laws, both of which were passed this year, were written with the help of Starship Technologies, a delivery-robot company based in Estonia that was founded by Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis, two of the co-founders of Skype.
While Starship isn’t currently working in Virginia or Idaho, the company can now legally operate its robot in those states — without a person controlling it — on sidewalks and crosswalks. Starship’s 40-pound robots are designed to deliver things like meals, groceries and other on-demand goods. Similar legislation is now being proposed in Wisconsin.
But other robot-delivery companies might not be able to take advantage of the new laws.
That’s because the policies that Starship has helped to champion only permit robots under a certain weight to operate autonomously in each state — and Starship’s potential competitors don’t all make the cut. In Virginia, the law states that ground robots have to weigh under 50 pounds to operate legally. In Idaho, the weight limit is 80 pounds.
But Marble, a robot-delivery company that started bringing people take-out in San Francisco earlier this month, uses a rover that weighs more than 80 pounds. (The company wouldn’t specify the exact weight of its robot.) Another ground robot — the Gita rover from the makers of Vespa — is designed to follow a person around to carry their bags, and weighs 70 pounds. Though Gita isn’t necessarily for making deliveries, it is supposed to be able to rove autonomously and carry things in areas it has already mapped.
“Marble’s robots are built around the form factor of modern-day electric mobility scooters,” CEO Matt Delaney said in a statement to Recode. Delaney said he doesn’t think the weight limits that are being written into the new statewide robot laws are reasonable. Marble is currently in talks with the San Francisco City Council around future robot-delivery regulations in the city, according to a company spokesperson.
Starship says it didn’t intend to push for laws that keep competitors out, even if that is what’s happening now.
“When we launched our first public affairs efforts, our competitors were still in stealth mode. We still do not know their operational parameters,” Allan Martinson, Starship’s chief operating officer, said in an email.
Martinson says that the weight limits are “not random but based on safety estimates.”
“The 50-pound limit came about in discussion about what would be the most approachable and safest route that a pedestrian would feel safe with this robot traveling next to them,” said Rep. Ron Villanueva from Virginia, one of the lawmakers who championed the state’s new robot policy.
In Wisconsin, a bill about legal operation of autonomous ground-delivery robots is now in committee discussions, and currently proposes an 80-pound weight limit.
A spokesperson for state Sen. Chris Kapenga, one of the sponsors of the Wisconsin bill that’s making its way through the state legislature, said that they arrived at the 80-pound weight limit by doubling the weight of Starship’s robot.
Both the Virginia and Idaho laws, as well as the Wisconsin bill, have provisions that allow for municipalities to change the law to meet their local needs, like if the robot isn’t allowed on the sidewalks during certain times of the day, or if a city wants to change the weight limit.
But creating a local exception would require city officials to make that decision, and that could be a whole process itself.
Starship is not currently operating in any of the states where it has worked to pass the robot laws. But a spokesperson from Senator Kapenga’s office told Recode that he couldn’t see why the company would be coming to Wisconsin if it didn’t expect to eventually bring its technology to the state.
None of the states that have so far passed laws permitting the use of autonomous robots are major population centers. But if Starship continues to try to pass more laws in more states across the country — like the bill that was filed in Florida with a 50-pound weight limit — Starship’s competitors might want to start pushing back.Bosnians hunting cartoon critters in augmented reality run the risk of their play being interrupted by very real land-mine blasts, a Bosnian group has warned.
Demining charity Posavina bez mina said on its Facebook page that users of the hit cellphone app Pokémon Go are straying into dangerous territory while trying to “catch them all,” the ultimate goal of the game developed by Niantic. As of last year, Bosnia and Herzegovina still had an estimated 120,000 undiscovered landmines and pieces of unexploded ordnance left over from the early 1990s war, the BBC reports.
“We received information that some users of the Pokémon Go app in Bosnia were going to places which are a risk for mines, in search of a Pokémon,” the BBC’s translation of the warning reads. “Citizens are urged not to do so, to respect demarcation signs of dangerous mine fields and not to go into unknown areas.”
[BBC]
Write to Simon Lewis at simon_daniel.lewis@timeasia.com.Nic Bonczyk (CEO: Mantikore-Verlag) and Joe Dever proudly present Lone Wolf 18 Dawn of the Dragons English language Collector’s Edition at the RPC in Cologne on June 1st, 2013. This publication marks the achievement of an important milestone in Joe Dever and Mantikore-Verlag’s commitment to the continued publication of the Collector’s Series. It is in the same format as the Mongoose Collector’s Edition books 1-17.
“I am absolutely delighted with this edition,” said Joe, “It’s everything I hoped for and more! Mantikore have delivered on their promise to publish LW18 in time for the RPC, and here it is, and with no compromise on quality whatsoever!”
Lone Wolf 18 Dawn of the Dragons is the largest of the Collector’s Series so far, weighing in at a whopping 560 pages. Its bonus adventure – “The Dead of Chrude” – is a 250 section solo adventure written by Nic and Joe. The story is set in the war-torn land of Palmyrion, shortly before Lone Wolf undertakes his perilous journey from Lencia to Sommerlund to protect the Kai Monastery from impending attack.
Lone Wolf 18 is now available by mail order from the Mantikore-verlag website.All Hail The King!
Year Lev W L % ERA G GS IP H ER HR BB SO WHIP HR/9 BB/9 SO/9 2011 A+ 9 8.529 3.92 20 19 108.0 98 47 7 43 79 1.306 0.6 3.6 6.6 2011 AA 1 2.333 4.71 7 7 36.1 33 19 4 13 22 1.266 1.0 3.2 5.4 2012 AA 5 5.500 3.52 15 15 87.0 83 34 3 38 68 1.391 0.3 3.9 7.0 2012 AAA 1 2.333 2.60 6 5 27.2 26 8 0 13 24 1.410 0.0 4.2 7.8 2013 AAA 7 4.636 3.29 18 17 93.0 74 34 5 50 93 1.333 0.5 4.8 9.0
God Bless #5 & #7
Jarred Cosart has made Houston Baseball history. Not only has he lived up to his billing as one of the Astros' top pitching prospects, he has done so in a manner that has only been done once before in 100 years. 100 years ago, it was 1913, and in 1913, prizes were first put in Crackerjack boxes, Federal Income Tax took effect, Houston had a population of 80,000, and the British House of Commons rejected Women's right to vote.Cosart is only the second man in 100 years to toss 6+ innings, with one or fewer runs in his first four big league starts. Let that sink in for a second. This isn't a fluke, either. Throughout his minor league tenure, he doesn't have as high of a K/9 (7.8) ratio as you would imagine from a pitcher with his arsenal, but his insane ability to keep the ball in the park, and on the ground, have and should continue to generate positive results. Through his first four big league starts, his ground-ball percentage is 57.1%, and judging by his minor league track record, that number is sustainable. Cosart's ability to stay low in the strike-zone not only heavily influences his high ground-ball percentage, but it also is the main contributing factor to his astronomically low HR/9 of.4...yes, ZERO POINT FOUR. Although his walk percentage is a tad higher than desired, by keeping the ball in the park and producing ground-outs at a steady rate, he's been able to mitigate damage done by the extra traffic on the basepaths. Cosart has surrendered an outstanding.189 avg against in the bigs thus far, and although there will be some regression, his low H/9 ratio of 7.8 in the minors alludes to continued success at the big league level.Brought over to The Good Guys in the Hunter Pence trade of 2011, along with our favorite future First Base stud, Jon Singleton, Cosart has proven himself on the field in Corpus Christi and Oklahoma City, but there have been questions about his "makeup" off the field by many in the baseball writer establishment. They question his maturity and humility, but this is grossly blown out of proportion. The mentality that Jarred Cosart carries and brings with him into a very young Astros clubhouse is exactly what will bring him, and the team, success in the near and distant future. These young Astros have been brought up with a winning mentality through the minor leagues, and a little cockyness and confidence will fuel their aggressive approach in the box, on the mound, and on the basepaths.Jarred Cosart's homecoming into the friendly confines of Minute Maid Park, the jewel of the Houston Skyline and the Sistine Chapel of Bagwell-Biggiolicism, signals an Astros changing of the guard not seen in over a decade. His big league debut symbolizes the beginning of the end of one of the most painful, and powerful, rebuilds in baseball history. We are ecstatic, and you should be as well, because help is on the way, the cavalry is coming...from Lancaster, Quad Cities, Corpus, and OKC. They're good, they belong, and they know it...just ask Morgan Ensberg. All hail King Cosart.In May, 2015, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General ( CAG ) tabled in Parliament revealed a shocking truth—if India went to war, it would have run out of most of its ammunition in just 10 days.The CAG report slammed the defence establishment for the dismal management of ammunition in the Army, expressing shock that there was total "disregard" of the policy to hold ammunition for 40 days of "intense" fighting. "In 50 per cent of the types of ammunition, the holding was critical or less than 10 days in March 2013," said CAG.The Army faces severe shortage in ammunition, mainly for artillery guns, tanks, air defence and certain infantry weapons, which will make it very difficult to fight an intense short war.But now the Army is ready to take this challenge head on. The Centre has given Army vice-chief Sarath Chand full financial powers to procure critical ammunition and spares to maintain an optimum level to fight a short intense war following "critical voids" in capabilities of the Army.The major decision means procurement process of such ammunition and equipment that would take months would be completed much faster.Today, a short war with Pakistan or China cannot be ruled out. Even if there is no possibility of a war, it is highly important for the defence forces to have minimum required reserves of ammunition.The alarming CAG report had covered the status of ammunition reserves till March 2013. The NDA government had already started making for the shortfall.The then defence minister, Manohar Parrikar, had highlighted several steps initiated by the government such as placing second Five Year Ammunition Roll on indent for the period 2014-19 on Ordnance Factory Board and approving a road map on ammunition which envisaged procurement ex-import and ex-trade to build up adequate targeted stocks in addition to training requirement.By giving full financial powers to the Army vice-chief, the procurement can be done faster. According to a top defence ministry official, this is the revenue route for in-service equipment and there will be no need to head to the Defence Acquisition Council (headed by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley) or the Cabinet Committee on Security, for procuring such critical equipment.The direct route will reduce the time taken in procuring equipment and ammunition considerably.KEMMERER, Wyo. — A father and son who had been called "persons of interest" in the death of a Utah Transit Authority worker were officially charged with murder Tuesday in Wyoming.
Dereck James "DJ" Harrison, 22, of Centerville, and his father, Flint Wayne Harrison, 51, of Pinedale, Wyoming, were each charged with murder in the first degree in the killing of Kay Porter Ricks, 63, of American Fork. Ricks' body was found in a remote area about 16 miles south of Kemmerer on May 17.
The charges carry a potential death sentence in Wyoming.
The 14-page affidavit filed for each defendant in the Circuit Court of the 3rd Judicial Court in Lincoln County, graphically outlines a brutal death caused over an 18-minute period that included Ricks' face being smashed with a blunt force object to the point he was no longer recognizable and his neck slashed three times before he was dumped under a sagebrush and left to die.
"The sheer brutality of the way in which Kay's life was taken is shocking to the soul. And it's going to take many, many years to process that. And I don't think you ever get that out of your head once you read that affidavit," said Richard Massey, a spokesman for the Ricks family.
"I had some things shared with me before, but nothing like this," he said. "My jaw clenched. My fists clinched, and I was angry."
Massey said Tuesday that he was not looking forward to sharing the details of the affidavit with Ricks' family.
The Harrisons were charged Tuesday with murder in the first-degree for killing Ricks with "premeditated malice," as well as a second count of murder in the first-degree for killing Ricks "while perpetrating the crime of kidnapping," according to charging documents. In addition, they were each charged with kidnapping and wrongful taking or disposing of property.
The Harrisons already face charges in Davis County of kidnapping and assaulting a Clinton woman and her four children the day before they allegedly kidnapped and killed Ricks.
Lincoln County Attorney Spencer Allred said Tuesday that for now, Davis County prosecutors will proceed with their case first before the Harrisons are brought to Wyoming to face murder charges. He declined to comment on whether any federal charges may also be pending.
Investigators say the Harrisons' violent trek began May 10 when they lured a woman and her four teenage daughters to a house in Centerville, claiming they were inviting them to a barbecue. Once there, the men allegedly led the women into the basement where police say they had a shotgun, a baseball bat, zip ties and duct tape already ripped into strips in preparation for their arrival. The women were tied up and beaten before breaking free and calling 911 as they ran out of the house.
After fleeing the Centerville home, investigators believe the Harrisons got a ride to a Ramada Inn, 2450 S. State in South Salt Lake, early on the morning of May 11. On the afternoon of May 12, Ricks and his UTA vehicle went missing. The maintenance truck was last spotted in the parking lot at the UTA's Ballpark Station, 180 W. 1300 South in Salt Lake City, between 5 and 5:10 p.m. that day, but officials could not confirm who was driving at that time.
According to charging documents filed Tuesday, just before 5 p.m. on that day, "a commotion was transmitted" over Ricks' radio, "which was followed by his radio being turned off at 5 p.m."
"The male sounded hurried and higher pitched as if someone was stressed," the charges state.
Investigators believe that after kidnapping Ricks, the Harrisons drove along I-80 and crossed into Wyoming just before 6:30 p.m. Ricks suffered an injury to his right temple that was inflicted "well-prior to his death," according to court documents.
By approximately 7:17 p.m., they arrived in the secluded Muddy Creek area where Ricks was murdered, the charges state.
The UTA vehicle was next spotted about 7:48 p.m. in Diamondville, Wyoming, by employees of a fast food restaurant. The fast food employees saw only two people in the UTA vehicle. Other witnesses at the restaurant later identified Flint Harrison as the driver and DJ Harrison in the passenger seat, which was reclined, according to the charges.
The Harrisons had tried to use fluorescent green spray paint to cover the UTA logos on the vehicle. according to charging documents.
Flint Harrison was arrested near his home in Pinedale, Wyoming, on May 14 after surrounding to authorities. DJ Harrison was spotted and arrested later that night about 10 miles away in the Half Moon Lake area.
Ricks' body was located on May 17.
"It appeared K. Ricks had sustained significant impact trauma to his head, which rendered the nose, eye sockets and facial features indistinguishable," according to charging documents.
Investigators also noted that it appeared as though Ricks' body had been moved under sage brush "to conceal his location."
"A blood covered utility knife was recovered from under K. Ricks' left foot. The knife was of a folding style with a replaceable blade," the charges state.
A Utah medical examiner concluded that Ricks was killed by "severe crushing facial injuries" caused by three or four blows to the face by a rigid object, according to the charges.
The next day, the UTA truck was located about 100 miles away in the Half Moon Lake area. Approximately 92 items of evidence were seized from the vehicle, police say, including DNA evidence. The DNA evidence was collected in the area where Ricks' body was found as well as from the Harrisons themselves after they were arrested.
Allred would not say Tuesday whether he would seek the death penalty if the father and son are convicted.
Massey says the Ricks family is not concerned about what penalty the Harrisons receive, just as long as they are never free again.
"The family is not hoping or searching for anything. The family has expressed that their only wish is that whoever is responsible for this, who we believe for the time being is those two men, that they never see the outside of a jail cell ever again. How that is chosen to be accomplished by law enforcement, the family is in full support of that," he said.
Massey praised the efforts of investigators and the sensitivity they have shown the family. He noted one example of Wyoming authorities driving all the way to American Fork to visit with the family for 30 minutes to make sure they knew what was happening with the case.
No one from the Ricks family attended Tuesday's announcement of criminal charges, and Massey said it is unlikely they will attend any of the court proceedings in Utah or Wyoming. The family is having a "difficult time" with the death, he said, adding that they do not want the likely lengthy court proceedings to be another "burden" in their lives.
"With something like this you don't have closure," he said.
In the Centerville case, the Harrisons each face five counts of kidnapping, a first-degree felony; five counts of aggravated assault, a third-degree felony; possession of a controlled substance, a class A misdemeanor; possession of drug paraphernalia, a class B misdemeanor; and three counts of interrupting a communications device, a class B misdemeanor.
Flint Harrison is also charged with use of a firearm by a restricted person, a second-degree felony. Dereck Harrison faces the same charge, but as a third-degree felony. Dereck Harrison recently entered not guilty pleas at an arraignment after waiving a preliminary hearing earlier this month. He is next scheduled to appear in court Aug. 22, almost two weeks after an Aug. 9 preliminary hearing is scheduled for his father.
Contributing: Nicole Vowell
Editor's note: The following charging documents include graphic descriptions of violence.
Charging documents:
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Related Storiesclick to enlarge Photo by Theo Welling
If Donald Trump only knew my true intentions when I attended his rally in St. Louis on Friday, he probably would have had me arrested upon arrival.
It's not that my plans were particularly malicious — go to the event, see the sights, craft a snarky article upon my return. It's more that Trump has a markedly adversarial relationship with the media. He's expressed a desire to "open up those libel laws" as soon as he enters office — Trumpspeak for "attacking the constitutionally assured freedom of the press." He keeps reporters corralled at his rallies, referring to us as "scum" — the same word he uses for ISIS. Recently, security at one of his events even choke-slammed a Time photographer for daring to step out of the assigned press area.
click to enlarge Photo by Theo Welling
click to enlarge Photo by Theo Welling
click to enlarge Photo by Theo Welling
Photo by Daniel Hill
click to enlarge Photo by Theo Welling
click to enlarge Photo by Theo Welling
click to enlarge Photo by Theo Welling
On top of that, I'm a complete smartass with no love for the guy. I'd surely have a target on my back by virtue of my mere existence.I decided I'd better go incognito, clad in a Goodwill-purchased NRA hat and a shirt with a bald eagle on it. I packed a flask full of Jack Daniels to calm my nerves (and also to lubricate myself while waiting in line for hours).Now, I fancy myself a seasoned expert in the art of consuming alcohol, but 8:30 a.m. is generally a little early even for me to break into the whiskey. But standing in line outside of the Peabody Opera House in a sea of Donald Trump supporters, I was glad I had the foresight to bring a flask.Attendees numbered in the thousands and mostly represented a diverse crowd of both youngold white people. I took my place in line between a fresh-faced, well-dressed young man named Kevin, who had skipped class at Parkway South to be here, and an older guy in a Cardinals jacket named Joe, who walked with a cane/folding chair hybrid that afforded him both assisted mobility and a portable seat."Well that's handy," I remarked, trying to make friendly conversation. "It's necessary," Joe shot back gruffly, before immediately turning his attention away from me again., I thought.A swig from the flask steadied my hand once more.A pair of overweight men selling Trump merchandise walked down the line, hawking their wares. "Buy American," one said. "None of that commie stuff."Kevin told me that before the day was over he was definitely going to get one of Trump's "Make America Great Again" hats, with the stated intention of wearing it to school and seeing how many "liberal teachers" he can make angry. "Take that to your unions," he laughed derisively.Kevin went on to share that a classmate told him she was never talking to him again when he said he was going to the rally. He replied, "Have fun with your 90 percent tax rate under Bernie. I'm gonna get a real job."He insisted to me, "I'm one of the only people coming from my school to listen. Everyone else wants to protest."Soon Kevin's dad showed up, himself a living, breathing tribute to khaki-colored clothing and sensible shoes. Meanwhile the numerous other people arriving to wait in line displayed remarkable and, at times, conflicting fashion sensibilities. A kid in Black Lives Matter shirt looked out of place walking with his family, who were sporting Trump hats. A Young Republicans-type bro strolled by in a button-up shirt and suit jacket/American flag short shorts ensemble. Some ladies in line behind me expressed quiet disapproval of a mother clad in both a Black Flag shirt and a Trump hat, who'd dressed her toddler in a sundress and no jacket for the occasion, despite the fact that it was about 40 degrees outside. "It's too cold," they agreed. (Frankly, I found both mother and daughter's outfits to be confusing.)Kevin started telling his dad about the sick Trump swag he wanted. Dad warned him not to buy any Chinese-made bootleg merchandise. "Trump hats will be the last thing still made in America," Dad declared with pride, ignoring the fact that Trump has a well-documented history of outsourcing the manufacture of his clothing to China "Can I have two bucks to buy a button?" Kevin asked. "Oh yeah," Dad replied. "We're gonna buy you all that stuff." I'm pretty sure Dad might be incrementally ruining this poor kid's life.As a chant of "Build that wall! Build that wall!" started behind us in the line, three teens clad in varying amounts of real-tree camouflage — presumably in the event of a deer sighting inside the rally — walked up and joined Kevin in line. It turned out they are classmates. One of them, named Ben, was the most camouflaged of all, with both hat and T-shirt rendering his upper half virtually invisible.As he arrived, he surveyed the scene."I didn't know so many city slickers supported Trump," he said, eyes pointed in my general direction. It wasn't until he made some remarks concerning the Black Lives Matters protesters on site — specifically, "They need to learn their places.are the masters" — that I noticed the Confederate-flag themed lanyard hanging out of his back pocket. Another long pull off my flask eased my despair for the youth.Around this time, another very overweight man walked by, also selling overpriced Trump stuff. "If anybody's hungry I got a Hillary KFC special," he pitched. "Two fat thighs, two tiny breasts and a wing." The crowd laughed and cheered.More high school friends arrived, joining the group in front of me. (Trump fans, at least the young ones, apparently have no issues with cutting in line.) One was black, and he was friends with the real-tree trio, including Confederate Ben. He began musing that he should take a picture of himself at the rally. "Like, see, black peoplelike Donald trump," he aimed to prove. "He'sa racist." (Though it certainly would have livened up my morning, I opted not to tell him about the horrifying shit his pal was just saying moments before about "masters" and "places." They'll have a lifetime of friendship to sort that mess out, I suppose.)"You're an honorary Republican," one of the other real-tree kids said, which was confusing for a number of reasons (none of these kids are old enough to vote/why not just "Republican"/why would being black make him "honorary"?). But he didn't address these issues, instead raising some equally important points about the things he doesn't understand about the Grand Ol Party: namely "chaw and camo — I just don't get it. I don't get what it means.""You'll learn," one friend confidently assured him.Ben then remarked on the appeal of Trump over Hillary Clinton, revealing his formidable political acumen."Yeah, Trump has said some mean things," he admitted. "But Hillary has killed millions of people. It's not the same thing." Distracted by a man with long hair walking by with a "Make Donald Drumpf Again" sign, he then turned and yelled "Go back to Russia you commie!" before resuming conversation with his comrades. I started to wonder if there was a nearby liquor store where I could refuel.Close to 10 a.m., the line finally started to move as people filed slowly into the Peabody. As we got nearer to the front of the building, a throng of protesters became visible. One, dressed in a "Fuck the Police" shirt and a red Guy Fawkes mask, dropped an American flag on the ground and began dragging and trampling it with his feet.The Trump crowd, predictably, became incensed. Several broke from the line, yelling at the man to "pick that flag up right now!" Police stepped in and separated the groups before anything got too ugly; meanwhile the crowd still in line engaged in a deafening "Donald Trump! Donald Trump!" chant. (More on that whole incident here.)Finally approaching the entrance around 11:45 a.m., I slyly crotched my flask — to the uninformed, I probably just looked like a guy scratching his balls outside of a Trump rally. Certainly not the strangest sight on the scene.Problems arose, though, when I stepped foot through the door: metal detector problems. Unwilling to miss this spectacle over something so stupid as smuggled alcohol (and plenty buzzed anyway from coping with the journey to this point), I opted for the safe route. Un-slyly, I pulled the flask out of my underwear at the front of the line and took |
one of the minions in the Lizard camp, for example); useful when you clear the enemy's jungle. (Rebonack 3)
Shift-K removes names. (GetMad 4)
When your inventory is full, if you buy an elixir it auto-uses it (was introduced a few patches back. (Donutninja 4)
An Ace means the whole enemy team was killed and no one is left standing (scoring an ace merely means you killed the last man standing). (Milkness 5)
Enemy champions have a yellowish "glow" when targetting you. (LSoreli, 5)
The opponents death timers can be seen on the scoreboard (Tab). (Qualm, 6)
You can tell if you'll be blue (bottom left) or purple (upper right) team on the champion select screen (subtle, but the YOUR TEAM and ENEMY TEAM is colored). On the loading screen too; the top team on the load screen will be bottom, and vice-versa (and they're color-coded, too). (tanc, 6)
Smartcast : holding shift while hovering an enemy target will cast on them without you having to mouse-click. (Aekero, 6)
The silver bar under wards, shrooms and other placed on the ground thing's hp represents how much longer they will be up. (Mensuri, 7)
Whispers are back! They worked prior to season 1, got broken, and now are back. You can message someone out of game with /w Name Blablabla, or reply to an incoming whisper with /r Blablabla. (Mr Archer, 8)
C will open a character sheet that lets you see all your stats (arpen, mpen, mp5, etc) (DarkLaw, 9)
CTRL+R,W,E,Q allows you to train a skill without your mouse (start the game, say you want to level your Q, press CTRL-Q). (grpgm, 9)
The "L" key toggles health bars on minions and enemy minions (2-3 states, press it a few times). (Veztai, 10)
Annie has a "glow" around her when her stun is up (Energized) (Ajaxanon, 10)
Outta sight, outta mind; the champs's health you see when hovering over their portrait on the minimap only shows last known values, you have to "see" them on your screen to update it. (Orthoclase, 11)
Alt+Left click pings, so does the G key. (Soul01ZodiacX, 11)
Pressing S stops your character, spam it a few times (the timing is a tad buggy according to a red) makes your champion stop autoattacking (useful for last hitting). (Stwarlord, 11)
Spacebar centers your camera on your champion. (Nivkk, 11)
In draft mode, if no one on the enemy team has a certain champion, it won't be available for you to ban, but your team will be able to pick it, obviously. (Ajaxanon, 12)
You can "queue" abilities. For example, on Leblanc, hit Q out of range, click an enemy, and while running in, use W to close the gap; your champion will do your Q after the W. (Fullburn, 12)
Janna's shield can be placed on turrets. (Ajaxanon, 13)
F1 to F5 centers camera on you and your teammates. (Bulletr0k, 13)
You cannot teleport to an inhibitor; you can, however, teleport on minions, wards and shrooms, not only turrets. (Vecuu and Felover3, 14)
Instead of always clicking, you can hold down the right mouse button (ala Diablo) to move your champion. (14)
The red buff (Lizard) applies a DOT on your target as well as a slow. (JayGoody, 15)
Fiddle's ult channels, then flashes you to target location. (Irelia, 15)
Holding H prevents your champion from autoattacking. (kurnis, 15)
On support champions, to target a spell on an ally, you can press the ability's hotkey, then press F1 to F5 to cast it on a teammate (say on Kayle, press R then F3). (Destabilizator, 16)
Oracle can be important, even if the enemy's team doesn't have an invisible champion (to destroy wards, shrooms, etc). (Deucey, 16)
Red numbers in an ability's tooltip means it scales with AD, green is AP, yellow is Armor, Blue is either mana for Ryze or self-scaling for Nasus and Veigar (abilities that scale with last hits made with them). (AllenTheGreat, 16)
Only dealing damage to an enemy will draw turret's aggro; you can still use Exhaust on someone and not draw the turret's aggro. (Moxius, 16)
Killing dragon gives XP and gold to everyone map-wide, not just to you. (Gamble7, 18) NOTE : This has changed a few patches ago, now gives global gold, but local XP.
Shift+Enter makes you talk in /all chat. (Malurth, 18)
You can buy while you're dead. (Injustice, 18)
Items with an ACTIVE portion can be activated using the 1 through 6 keys (1-2-3 first row, 4-5-6 second row). (ammayhem, 20)
If a tower kills someone while you had it upgraded through Fortify, you get the kill. (Avisston, 20)
ALT allows you to self-cast a spell (a heal, or shield, for example). (NotoriousMandog, 21)
You can distinguish a clone (Shaco, Leblanc) by clicking on it, and see if it has items (the clone doesn't have items). (killsteel, 21)
The mousewheel lets you allocate/remove points in the mastery trees when you hover over a mastery. (Apoteosis, 22)
The chatbox window can be moved by pressing ENTER then dragging the top bar (Ratiosu, 22)
You can command pets (Tibbers, Morde's pet, etc) by pressing ALT then using the right mouse button) (Singularity 3, 22)
To destroy the Nexus, at least one inhibitor has to be down. (Phoenix Garcia, 24)
Clairvoyance will give you sight within a bush even if placed outside. (noisulli, 26)
Flash drops projectiles spells coming towards you. (noisulli, 26) NOTE : I think this was removed a few patches ago.
You can rename the rune page by clicking its name (Page 1, Page 2, etc) (Drakoni, 27)
You can teleport in Anivia's eggform. (HArain, 27) NOTE : THIS IS NO LONGER TRUE (6/16/2011)
Ping Shaco/Leblanc before they pop their clone, and you'll be able to see which one is the real one easier. (frisch, 28)
Shaco makes a backflip out of his clone's back when he summons him. (Hannor, 29)
Putting a rune on a runepage doesn't mean it's not available for another rune page (it doesn't "use" them, meaning that you only need to buy 9 Arpen runes even if you want your 10 pages of runes to have them in reds). (Arhenius, 31)
There's an XP bar on the lower left corner of the screen. (Leemor64, 32)
Tower damage is incremental over 6-7 hits. (Wanyo, 32)
You can Teleport to towers by clicking on them on the minimap; not minions, though. (dismemberedalive, 33)
There's an assist pool, worth around 45-55% of the killing money; therefore, a kill without assists gives the team less gold than a kill with an assist. (Heely, 34)
You can move items in your inventory by left clicking and dragging ("aim" your mouse cursor, not the item). NOTE : That doesn't work while the store is open, though. (Rippedface, 34)
You can stop channeled ults (Nunu, Fiddle, Pantheon's, for example) by pressing S. (Collect3825, 35)
/j, /l /t and /d work to /joke, /laugh, /taunt and /dance. (sams0n, 35)
Boots's speed properties don't stack; their passive do, though. (Glink, 36)
A blue circle under your feet means you're on a killing spree. (Infinitar, 37)
Nexus's turrets, inhibitors, and the Nexus itself regenerates health. (Zerg Overmind, 37)
You can double click items to buy them (no need to press the BUY button in the store). (Apocarypse, 38)
The more you kill an enemy champion without him getting kills (aka he's going 0-5) the less money he is worth. (noisulli, 38)
That you cant reduce the enemy Armor under 0 with just ARP.You need to reduce them with debuffs (Tyion, 55)The Resolution class was a class of four nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) built for the Royal Navy as part of the UK Polaris programme. Each submarine was armed with up to 16 UGM-27 Polaris A-3 nuclear missiles.
The class comprised Resolution, Repulse, Renown and Revenge. They were built by Vickers Armstrong in Barrow-in-Furness and Cammell Laird in Birkenhead between 1964 and 1968. All four boats were based at HM Naval Base Clyde (HMS Neptune), 40 km (25 mi) west of Glasgow, Scotland.
The Resolution class was the launch platform for the United Kingdom's strategic nuclear deterrent from the late 1960s until 1996, when it was replaced by the Vanguard-class submarine carrying the Trident II.
Background [ edit ]
During the 1950s and early 1960s, the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent was based on the RAF's V-bombers. But in the early 1960s developments in radar and surface-to-air missiles made it clear that bombers were becoming vulnerable, and would be unlikely to penetrate Soviet airspace. Free-fall nuclear weapons would no longer be a credible deterrent.
To address this problem, in May 1960 the British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan arranged a deal with US President Eisenhower to equip the V bombers with the US-designed AGM-48 Skybolt. The Skybolt was a 1,000-mile (1,600 km) range ballistic missile that allowed the launching bombers to remain well away from Soviet defences and launch attacks that would be basically invulnerable. With this range, the V bombers would have to fly only a few hundred miles from their bases before being in range for an attack on Moscow.
Under the agreement the UK's contribution to the programme was limited to developing suitable mounting points on the Avro Vulcan bomber, installing the required guidance systems that fed the missiles updated positioning information, and development of a British version of the US W47 warhead to arm it, the RE.179 [1].
The Skybolt crisis [ edit ]
The incoming Kennedy administration expressed serious doubts of both Skybolt and the US deterrent force in general. Robert McNamara was highly critical of the US bomber fleet, which he saw as obsolete in an age of ICBMs. Skybolt was seen simply as a means of continuing the existence of a system he no longer considered credible, and given the rapidly improving capabilities of ICBM inertial guidance systems, a precision strike capability with free-fall bombs would no longer be needed. McNamara was equally concerned about the UK also having its own nuclear force, and worried that the US could be drawn into a war by the UK. He wanted to bring the UK into a dual-key arrangement.
McNamara first broached the idea of cancelling Skybolt with the British in November 1962. When this was reported in the House of Commons, a storm of protest broke out. A meeting was arranged to settle the issue, and Macmillan stated in no uncertain terms that the UK would be retaining their independent deterrent capability, no matter what the cost. With development of their Polaris-derived warheads well along, a suitable launch platform would be developed, if need be.
Faced with a clear failure in policy terms, Kennedy gave up on the idea of strong-arming Britain into accepting a dual-key arrangement. By the end of the series of meetings, the UK had gained the much more impressive Polaris system, and would start development of a new submarine to launch it. The SSBNs would then take over the nuclear deterrent role from the RAF's V bombers from 1968 onwards.
Construction [ edit ]
Two pairs of the boats were ordered in May 1963 from Vickers Shipbuilding Ltd, Barrow in Furness and from Cammell Laird and Co. Ltd, Birkenhead. The option of buying a fifth unit, planned as Ramillies,[a] was cancelled in February 1965. Traditional battleship names were used, signifying that they were the capital ships of their time.
Vickers Armstrong in Barrow-in-Furness constructed Resolution and Repulse and Cammell Laird in Birkenhead constructed Renown and Revenge. The construction was unusual in that the bow and stern were constructed separately before being assembled together with the American-designed missile compartment.
The design was a modification of the Valiant-class fleet submarine, but greatly extended to incorporate the missile compartment between the fin and the nuclear reactor. The length was 130 metres (430 ft), breadth 10.1 metres (33 ft), height 9 metres (30 ft) and the displacement 8,400 long tons (8,500 t) submerged and 7,600 long tons (7,700 t) surfaced. A Rolls-Royce pressurised water reactor (PWR1) and English Electric Company turbines gave them a speed of 25 knots (46 km/h) and they could dive to depths of 275 metres (902 ft). Sixteen Polaris A3 missiles were carried, in two rows of eight. For emergencies there was a diesel generator and six 533-millimetre (21 in) torpedo tubes located at the bow, firing the Tigerfish wire-guided homing torpedoes. The submarines put to sea with a crew of 143.
According to former head of the Royal Corps of Naval Constructors R.J. Daniel, the Resolution-class SSBNs possessed five features that were envied by the United States Navy: the machinery loading hatch, automated hovering system, welded hull valves, standardised valves, and raft-mounted propulsion machinery.
Construction programme [ edit ]
Pennant Name (a) Hull builder
(b) Main machinery manufacturers Ordered Laid down Launched Accepted
into service Commissioned Decommissioned Estimated
building cost[4] S22 Resolution (a) Vickers Ltd, Shipbuilding Group, Barrow-in-Furness
(b) Vickers Ltd, Engineering Group, Barrow-in-Furness
(b) English Electric Co Ltd (turbines)
(b) Rolls Royce and Associates Ltd.[5] 8 May 1963 26 February 1964 15 September 1966 October 1967[5] 2 October 1967 22 October 1994 £40,240,000[5] S23 Repulse (a) Vickers Ltd, Shipbuilding Group, Barrow-in-Furness
(b) Vickers Ltd, Engineering Group, Barrow-in-Furness
(b) English Electric Co Ltd (turbines).[7] 8 May 1963 12 March 1965 4 November 1967 October 1968[7] 28 September 1968 1996 £37,500,000[7] S26 Renown (a) Cammell Laird & Co (Shipbuilders and Engineers) Ltd, Birkenhead
(b) Vickers Ltd, Engineering Group, Barrow-in-Furness
(b) English Electric Co Ltd (turbines).[7] 8 May 1963 25 June 1964 25 February 1967 December 1968[7] 15 November 1968 1996 £39,950,000[7] S27 Revenge (a) Cammell Laird & Co (Shipbuilders and Engineers) Ltd, Birkenhead
(b) Vickers Ltd, Engineering Group, Barrow-in-Furness
(b) English Electric Co Ltd (turbines).[8] 8 May 1963 19 May 1965 15 March 1968 December 1969[8] 4 December 1969 May 1992 £38,600,000[8] Ramillies[a] Cancelled 1965.
Operational service [ edit ]
A training trigger for the Polaris missile system
The first to be completed was Resolution, laid down in February 1964 and launched in September 1966. After commissioning in 1967 she underwent a long period of sea trials, culminating in the test firing of a Polaris missile from the USAF Eastern Test Range off Cape Kennedy at 11:15 on 15 February 1968. Resolution commenced her first operational patrol on 15 June 1968, beginning 28 years of Polaris patrols. The class were part of the 10th Submarine Squadron, all based at Faslane Naval Base, Scotland.
All four of the class underwent conversion during the 1980s so that they could be fitted with the Polaris A3TK missile which was fitted with the British-developed Chevaline MRV system.
As the newer Vanguard-class submarines entered service, the Resolution class was eventually retired and all boats laid up at Rosyth dockyard with their used nuclear fuel removed. All four will eventually be disposed of via MOD's Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP). This project will begin in 2016 with Swiftsure as the first submarine to prove the technique. The selected method will first remove all Low-level radioactive waste from the vessel, followed by the more radioactive intermediate-level waste. All non-radioactive material in the remainder of the vessel will be recycled for re-use by conventional ship-breaking techniques.
Refits [ edit ]
Resolution in 1983. Polaris missile launch fromin 1983.
New methods of project management were used in the refits of the Resolution class, including:[9]
"The appointment of a senior officer of two star rank and with the title of Assistant Controller (Polaris), working under the joint superintendence of the Controller of the Navy and Chief of Fleet Support, whose responsibilities will include the oversight of the preparations for refits of Polaris boats, and their completion;" [9]
"The delegation to a designated officer (Director, Project Technical Submarines) of the responsibility for drawing up the "work package" for each refit, which will include full design information and documentation;" [9]
"The use of a fully integrated refit management team at Rosyth, and" [9]
"The full use of available management techniques and aids, including computers."[9]
See also [ edit ]
Fictional submarines [ edit ]
The 1971 book The Fighting Temeraire by John Winton features a fictional British Polaris submarine, HMS Temeraire, which is used on a spying mission in the Black Sea.
by John Winton features a fictional British Polaris submarine, HMS which is used on a spying mission in the Black Sea. The 1987 book Skydancer by Geoffrey Archer features a fictional British Polaris submarine, HMS Retribution.
by Geoffrey Archer features a fictional British Polaris submarine, HMS. In the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me, the fictional Polaris submarine HMS Ranger is hijacked by the film's main villain.
, the fictional Polaris submarine HMS is hijacked by the film's main villain. The novel The Penthouse Conspirators by Chapman Pincher features HMS Retaliation, HMS Reprisal, HMS Resolve and HMS Retribution.
References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
a In the book "Silent Deep", Peter Hennessy describes discussion of the R names and states that Royal Sovereign and not Ramillies was the name chosen for the planned fifth boat.The view from above. Greenpeace USA photo
Last Monday, the Obama administration conditionally approved plans for the Royal Dutch Shell company to conduct exploratory drilling missions in the Chakchi Seas, a body of water north of Alaska. In 2013, the last time the Chuchki Seas where explored for drilling, a Royal Dutch Shell rig ran aground because of alleged blunders by both corporate management and barge operators. This, along with other incidents, forced Shell to suspend operations in the area three years ago. Now it looks they are set to return to the Chuchki Sea.
Defend the arctic! Greenpeace USA photo
The Port of Seattle commissioner leased a pier to Shell. This pier will operate as a home base for two oil rigs that will be sent to the arctic. The local environmental community was aghast over the decision to lease the pier, seeing the decision as a direct contradiction to the reputation of the city.
In response a coalition of self-proclaimed "activists, artist, and noisemakers" started the organization ShellNo. ShellNo's first event, the "Paddle in Seattle," consisted of thousands of canoeists, kayakers, and paddle boarders. They paddled down the Duwamish River, swarming the first of two oil rigs to be stored in Seattle, the Polar Pioneer.
Kayakers swarm the Polar Pioneer. Seattle Times photo
The dangers of drilling in the arctic are abhorrent. The Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) released their Environmental Impact Statement for this project, reporting “a 75% chance of one or more large spills”. Based on statistical data at least "two large spills of crude, condensate, or refined oil are assumed to occur during the Development and Production phases" of drilling and exploration. With the environmental risks apparent and obvious, it is a refreshing to see this community rally to this cause.
Related: America's Most Polluting Mountain TownsPage Content
Luxembourg sets out to become a global hub for the utilization of space resources
“Art.1. Space resources are capable of being owned.”1
By recognising this legal principle through the adoption on 20 July 2017 of the Act on the Exploration and Use of Space Resources (the Space Resources Act), Luxembourg has drawn significant international attention. It is the first adopter in Europe of a legal and regulatory framework for the space mining industry, describing in particular the authorization and supervision procedures for missions aiming to explore and use natural resources in space. These procedures have been largely inspired by those applicable to the financial sector.2
While the Space Resources Act also recognizes – at least implicitly - the rights that companies acquire during their space missions, the question of ownership in space will need additional clarification, as the domestic legislation will ultimately have to be complemented by international accords and cooperation.
Spaceresources.lu is an open and global oriented approach to commercial space utilization
Luxembourg is a pioneer in regulating and investing in the utilization of space resources. To date only the United States provides for a legal regime on space resources with the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 (the U.S. Space Act). Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Russia, have wide-ranging statutes on the licensing of space activities, but none of them have specific provisions governing the utilization of natural resources in outer space.3 Moreover, the United Arab Emirates is also planning to enact a statute on commercial activities in space, including space mining.4
Contrary to the U.S. framework, however, Spaceresources.lu presents itself as a more open and global oriented approach to commercial space utilization. In particular, export controls on space technology in Luxembourg and in the European Union are generally considered to be less stringent and less costly than their American counterparts.5 In fact, ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) has been repeatedly criticized for stifling the U.S. space industry by making it difficult for U.S. companies to sell their products, such as commercial satellites or spacecraft components, outside the United States or to employ non-U.S. citizens to work on their complex and highly-technical projects.6 The growing market for “ITAR-free” technologies indicates that governments and companies are increasingly trying to find ways to lawfully address the long arm of U.S. export controls.7 The Luxembourg framework should hopefully open new market opportunities and ease the hiring process for spaceflight companies.
Legal clarification through international cooperation
The Space Resources Act is, however, not without controversy. As noted by the Luxembourg Council of State, it is not clear whether international space law allows for a country to grant property rights to natural resources extracted in space.8 The governing treaty in that regard is the 1967 Outer Space Treaty,9 which has been ratified by all the major spacefaring nations and is legally binding on 105 countries, including Luxembourg.10 While the Outer Space Treaty does not explicitly forbid the appropriation of space resources by private actors, Article II nevertheless raises concerns as to what extent a country may permit such appropriation by providing that “[o]uter space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means.”11
The academic literature is split on the question of ownership of space resources. While some authors consider private property rights in space to be legal by application of what seems to be the Lotus principle (i.e. what is not explicitly prohibited is permitted),12 others conclude that the appropriation of space resources may only make sense if the purported right is enforced, which would inevitably entail a national claim of sovereignty over a celestial body.13 Other authors again try to resolve the apparent contradiction by trying to draw parallels with the legal regime applicable to natural resources in the high seas.14 Either way, most seem to agree that the utilization of space resources needs a legal clarification on an international level.15
In that regard, Luxembourg has already signed several memoranda of understanding with other countries on the legal aspects of space mining and participates in numerous other international initiatives, such as “The Hague Space Resources Governance Working Group.”16 Furthermore, since the United States has taken a clear position – although with a slightly more nationalistic vision - in favour of private ownership of space resources with the adoption of the U.S. Space Act, Luxembourg should not be alone it its efforts to promote commercial space utilization.
Luxembourg ready to further invest in the space industry
Besides the legal framework set by the Space Resources Act and Luxembourg’s political engagements on an international level, space companies should also benefit from the unique ecosystem the Grand Duchy has to offer. As early as the 1980s, Luxembourg decided to invest in space by taking a major share in Société Européenne des Satellites (SES). Today, SES is one of the world’s leading communication satellite providers and owns over 50 satellites presently on orbit. In continuation of the country’s existing expertise in the sector, Luxembourg intends to launch, under the aegis of the Spaceresources.lu initiative, a fund offering financial support for innovative start-ups, as well as more mature companies in the space resources industry, with a commitment of 100 million euros.17 A number of industry players, such as Planetary Resources, Deep Space Industries, Kleos Space, GomSpace or ispace have to date availed of this possibility and have entered various agreements with the Luxembourg government. Further collaborations are expected and with the new legal framework provided by the Space Resources Act, it increasingly appears that in Luxembourg not even the sky is the limit.
1 Loi du 20 juillet 2017 sur l’exploration et l’utilisation des ressources de l’espace [Law of July, 20 2017 on the Exploration and Use of Space Resources], Mémorial A, n° 674, July 28th 2017, art. 1 (Lux.) (emphasis added).
2 Rapport de la commission de l’économie précédant la loi du 20 juillet 2017 sur l’exploration et l’utilisation des ressources de l’espace [Report of the commission of economy preceding the Law of 20 July, 2017 on the Exploration and Use of Space Resources], Doc. parl. 7093/06, 2016-2017, p. 2 (Lux.).
3 See Ram S. Jakhu, Joseph N. Pelton, Yaw O.M. Nyampong, Space Mining and Its Regulation, 138-143 (Springer, 2017).
4 Lucy Barnard, UAE to finalise space laws soon, The National (March 7, 2016, 4:00 AM), https://www.thenational.ae/business/uae-to-finalise-space-laws-soon-1.219966
5 See N. Tushe, US Export Controls: do they undermine the competitiveness of U.S. companies in the transatlantic defense market?, 41 Pub. Cont. L. J. 57, 67-69 (Fall 2011).
6 See id., at 70-72; P.J. Blount, The ITAR treaty and its implications for U.S. space exploration policy and the commercial space industry, 73 J. of Air L. and Com. 705 (Fall 2008); Jeff Foust, One Nation, Over Regulated: Is ITAR Staling the New Space Race?, 17 Ad Astra 14 (Fall 2005).
7 See Sandra I. Erwin, Export Rules Under Fire for Eroding U.S. Space Industry, National Defense (June 1, 2009), http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2009/6/1/2009june-export-rules-under-fire-for-eroding-us-space-industry.
8 See Conseil d’État [C.E.] [Council of State] April 7, 2017, No. 51.987, http://www.conseil-etat.public.lu (Lux.), p. 5.
9 Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, Jan. 27, 1967, 610 U.N.T.S. 205 [hereinafter Outer Space Treaty].
10 The 1979 Moon Agreement, on the other hand, should only provide marginal reference as it has neither been signed by Luxembourg, nor indeed by any major spacefaring nation. The Moon Agreement has only been ratified by 17 countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela) versus the 1969 Outer Space Treaty which has been ratified by 105 countries, including the U.S., Russia, and China. See Comm. on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Status of Int’l Agreements relating to activities in outer space as at 1 January 2017, U.N. Doc. A/AC.105/C.2/2017/CRP.7 (2017); Richard B. Bilder, A Legal Regime for the Mining of Helium-3 on the Moon: U.S. Policy Options, 33 Fordham Int’l L.J. 243, 269 (2009-2010) (“[T]he agreement should be given little weight as evidence of developing customary law.”); C.E., supra note 9, at 1 (“The Moon Agreement should be considered a failure.”).
11 Emphasis added.
12 E.g. Richard B. Bilder, supra note 11, at 275; Int’l Inst. of Space Law, Position Paper on Space Resource Mining (December 20th, 2015), at 3.
13 E.g. Virgiliu Pop, Who Owns the Moon? – Extraterrestrial Aspects of Land and Mineral Ownership, 72 (Springer, 2009); See Andrew R. Brehm, Private Property in Outer Space: Establishing a Foundation for Future Exploration, 33 Wis. Int’l L.J. 353, 361 (2015); Ram S. Jakhu, Joseph N. Pelton, Yaw O.M. Nyampong, supra note 3.
14 E.g. Ian B. Perry, Law of Space Resources and Operations on Celestial Bodies: Implications for Legislation in the United States, Astropolitics, 15 The Int’l. Journal of Space Politics & Policy 1, 5-8 (2017); cf. Ram S. Jakhu, Joseph N. Pelton, Yaw O.M. Nyampong, supra note 3, at 126.
15 E.g. Andrew R. Brehm, supra note 14, at 378; Richard B. Bilder, supra note 11, at 297-299.
16 Supra note 2, p. 2.
17 Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy, Luxembourg to Launch a Fund Offering Financial Support for the Space Resources Industry, Press release (April 13, 2017), http://www.spaceresources.public.lu/content/dam/spaceresources/press-release/2017/2017-04-13-mission-us-press-release.pdf.Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption The time it took to announce action, sparked anger amongst social media users.
Thirty-seven people have been arrested in eastern China over a huge vaccine scandal, state media report.
It comes after police in Shandong announced last month they had arrested a mother and her daughter accused of buying and selling vaccines illegally.
The estimated $88m (£61m) worth of vaccines were not properly refrigerated or transported.
The illegal vaccine ring, said to have been in operation since 2011, has sparked widespread anger in China.
The scandal has led to a crackdown, with checks ordered on vaccine makers, wholesalers and buyers.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Counterfeit and improperly stored medicines are a problem around the world
The vaccines were bought from a variety of sources, both licensed and unlicensed, then sold on to both illegal agents and legal local disease control and prevention centres at inflated prices, reported the Xinhua news agency.
The ring is alleged to have involved hundreds of people across 20 provinces, it said.
Though authorities had known about it since April last year, they only made the news public late on Friday when they issued a call demanding that suppliers come forward to help them trace potential victims.
The delay has angered many people in China who questioned why the authorities had not alerted the public earlier.
Local authorities have now been given a deadline of Friday to identify who bought the medicines.
Three pharmaceutical companies are being investigated, Xinhua reports, citing people handling the case. One, Shandong Zhaoxin Bio-tech Co, has been ordered to suspend operations, it added.
The China office of the World Health Organization (WHO) said vaccines needed to be handled properly or they can become less effective.
But it stressed that improperly kept vaccines did not in themselves present much danger.
"It is important to note, however, that improperly stored or expired vaccine seldom if ever causes a toxic reaction. Therefore there is likely to be minimal safety risk in this particular situation,'' the WHO said.COLOGNE, Germany —
United States coach Jurgen Klinsmann has left out World Cup stalwarts Geoff Cameron and Jermaine Jones from his 35-player preliminary roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The absence of the duo punctuated the initial choices revealed on FOX Sports 1 during the broadcast of the friendly between the U.S. and Germany on Wednesday afternoon, though the inclusions of DaMarcus Beasley and Brad Davis plus the return of in-form target man Alan Gordon also received attention.
Article continues below...
Cameron misses out on the Gold Cup after Klinsmann opted to experiment with other defensive options this year. Jones sits out the tournament after he sustained a groin injury with the Revolution on May 31 and pulled out of the squad to face Netherlands and Germany as a result.
Klinsmann permitted Matt Besler, Omar Gonzalez and Graham Zusi to stay with their club teams for this pair of friendlies, but the World Cup trio all warrant a place in the provisional squad here. They are joined by Houston Dynamo duo Beasley and Davis with Beasley’s presence a particular surprise given the fact that he announced his retirement from international duty in December.
The tournament could also mark the revival of Gordon’s international career after the Galaxy forward impressed during the early stages of the MLS campaign. The 33-year-old forward last featured in the squad for the Gold Cup triumph two years ago, but he did not play in that tournament.
Stanford Univ. forward Jordan Morris also keeps his place after scoring against Mexico and setting up Bobby Wood for the winner in Amsterdam on Friday, but U.S. under-20 duo Rubio Rubin and Gedion Zelalem are not named in the pool. Wood is one of three players — including Miguel Ibarra and Danny Williams — to miss out on the Gold Cup after featuring on the roster to face Netherlands and Germany.
U.S. Soccer submitted the preliminary roster to CONCACAF on Friday, pursuant to CONCACAF regulations. Klinsmann must cull this initial group to 23 players before submitting his final roster to CONCACAF 10 business days before the start of the tournament. He may make up to six changes to his roster between the group stage and the quarterfinals, but he may only select from players named on his preliminary roster.
United States preliminary roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup
Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Bill Hamid (D.C. United), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake), William Yarbrough (Club León)
Defenders: Ventura Alvarado (Club América), DaMarcus Beasley (Houston Dynamo), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), Timmy Chandler (Eintracht Frankfurt), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders), Greg Garza (Club Tijuana), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Michael Orozco (Pubela), Tim Ream (Bolton Wanderers), Brek Shea (Orlando City), DeAndre Yedlin (Tottenham Hotspur)
Midfielders: Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Mix Diskerud (New York City FC), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Perry Kitchen (D.C. United |
’t they have their own? Everyone knows how smart dolphins are. As for prairie dogs, at least they’re mammals like us. But chickens? Too many people dismiss them as stupid.
At Melissa Caughey’s coop in Osterville, her flock has invented a name for her. It sounds like: Ba-BA-Ba-BAAAA!
That’s a big mistake. Chickens — like most animals — are much smarter than we give them credit for. Scientific experiments show they easily recognize the faces of at least 100 individual chickens; remember the past and anticipate the future; and have excellent spatial memories.
Caughey suggests that my flock may have a name for me, too, and that our hens probably have names for each other as well as for their humans. We wonder what other species do this: elephants, wolves, crows? What about fish? In coming years, we predict, we’re likely to hear similar discoveries about these animals, too.
“Animals will share their wisdom,” Caughey promised. “But you have to listen.”
As for me, I’m staying tuned to the baby monitor. I’ll let you know what I find out.
Sy Montgomery is the author of 20 books on animals for adults and children. Send your questions on animals to syandlizletters@gmail.com ; keep up with Melissa’s flock at her blogDomhnall Gleeson portrays General Hux in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy; a Hitler-esque leader of the villainous First Order, with charismatic hate speeches to match.
With J.J. Abrams giving him the role in The Force Awakens and now announced as returning for Star Wars: Episode IX, it is clear that Gleeson has a lot of respect for his past and future director.
Speaking with IGN about his new role in Tom Cruise’s American Made, Gleeson had this to say about Abrams’ return: “With J.J., he’s a great director. I think that he did a brilliant job on the first one and it makes absolute sense why after they parted company with Colin Trevorrow that was the place they looked and I think it’s very exciting for the fans of the film that he’s back.”
Of course, Gleeson will first have a role to play in the next film in the franchise, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson.
In Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks age-old mysteries of the Force and shocking revelations of the past.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is set for release on December 14th in the UK and December 15th in the States and sees returning cast members Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Leia Organa), Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), Lupita Nyong’o (Maz Kanata), Domhnall Gleeson (General Hux), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Gwendoline Christie (Captain Phasma), Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix), Andy Serkis (Supreme Leader Snoke), Peter Mayhew and Joonas Suotamo (Chewbacca), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb), Simon Pegg (Unkar Plutt), and Warwick Davis joined by new additions Jimmy Vee (Pan) as R2-D2, Kelly Marie Tran (Ladies Like Us) as Rose, and Benicio Del Toro (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Laura Dern (Jurassic Park).GLADSTONE, Ore. – Dive crews recovered the body Tuesday of a 19-year-old man who drowned after he went underwater at High Rocks Park in Gladstone on May 23 and never resurfaced.
Gladstone police identified the man as Said Osman of Portland. The Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said Osman's family is requesting privacy.
Reports of the possible drowning came in at around 7:30 p.m. May 23.
A witness said Osman was with a friend when he jumped off the rocks on the east side of the Clackamas River.
Once in the water, the witness said Osman tried to swim to shore when he began flailing and disappeared.
"He started drifting toward the center and he fought with all his might to try to swim to either one of the shores but he was caught in the middle and it just kept pulling him," said Christine VanHorder. "And he went under and he kept screaming and that's when I said, 'Call 911 now.'"
Crews suspended their search for Osman at around 9:15 p.m.
On Wednesday, diving was determined to be too dangerous for searchers, due to swift currents. Clackamas County deputies used jet skis while firefighters used a boat to search the water.
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From the footbridge, family and friends of Osman watched. They said Osman was a good young man, a Kenyan by birth and part of the tight-knit Somali refugee community. They said Osman had lived in the Portland area for about a decade, had graduated high school and was looking forward to continuing to live the American dream.
"He drowned and the family right now is mourning his death. And our main focus now is to recover the body so we can give it a proper rest," said 26-year-old Omar Shayoma.
Osman's longtime friend, Mariah Green, was hoping to find closure. She said Osman was a loyal friend.
"He was to himself to an extent but once you got know him, he was upbeat and would always walk around singing songs and dancing," Green said. "That was him. Everyone knew it."
Authorities want people to be aware that although the weather is warming up, the Clackamas River is faster and colder than it typically is this time of year.
More: River dangers especially high this Memorial Day weekendAaron Favila/AP Photo
As the Philippines assesses the havoc caused by Typhoon Haiyan, which according to some reports has killed as many as 10,000 people, speculation is heating up as to whether the disaster might be a manifestation of climate change. Speaking today on the first day of United Nations climate talks in Warsaw, the head of the Philippines delegation, Yeb Sano, said that he will stop eating until negotiators make "meaningful" progress.
But can the devastating storm be linked to the changing global climate? Nature wades into the evidence.
Was Haiyan the strongest storm ever measured?
Apparently, yes. With sustained wind speeds of more than 310 kilometres per hour, Haiyan was the most powerful tropical cyclone to make landfall in recorded history. The previous record was held by Hurricane Camille, which hit Mississippi in 1969 with wind speeds of just over 300 kilometres per hour.
It is the third time that disaster has struck the Philippines in less than 12 months. In August, Typhoon Trami caused massive flooding on the island of Luzon. And in December 2012, Typhoon Bopha killed up to 2,000 people and caused some US$1.7 billion in damage on the island of Mindanao. Haiyan could easily surpass that figure: its total economic impact could reach US$14 billion, according to a report by a senior insurance analyst at Bloomberg Industries, a data company in New York.
Haiyan's death toll might have been much bigger had so many people in the Philippines not heeded storm warnings and fled at-risk areas.
What’s the difference between a cyclone, a typhoon and a hurricane?
They are just different names for the same type of extreme weather phenomenon occurring in different parts of the world. These storms are called hurricanes in the Atlantic and northeastern Pacific oceans, typhoons in the northwestern Pacific and cyclones in the south Pacific and Indian Ocean.
Are such storms getting worse in a warming world?
This is the million-dollar question, but there is not yet a scientific consensus on how to answer it.
Storms receive their energy from the ocean, so it would seem logical that they would get stronger, and perhaps also more frequent, as the upper layers of tropical oceans get warmer. The potential intensity of tropical storms does increase with warmer sea surface temperatures. However, the effect of warming seas could be counteracted by the apparent increase in the strength of shearing winds — winds blowing in different directions and varying in strength at different altitudes. Shearing winds tend to hinder the formation of storms, or tear them apart before they can reach extreme strength.
On balance, many climate researchers think that it is plausible that tropical-storm activity will rise as the planet warms. There is some evidence1 that storm intensity has increased over the last three decades, but reliable data are limited to the north Atlantic, where observations are most abundant. In other places, the evidence is not yet conclusive2.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its latest report cautiously summarizes the current state of knowledge:
“Time series of cyclone indices such as power dissipation, an aggregate compound of tropical cyclone frequency, duration, and intensity that measures total wind energy by tropical cyclones, show upward trends in the North Atlantic and weaker upward trends in the western North Pacific since the late 1970s, but interpretation of longer-term trends is again constrained by data quality concerns.”
What are the models saying?
Global climate models are too coarse to resolve relatively small-scale atmospheric disturbances such as tropical storms — despite how prominently these phenomena feature on weather maps. Scientists therefore need to infer the effect of global warming on storm activity from general patterns of atmospheric circulation.
For example, hurricane researcher Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge has used3 a technique to simulate large numbers of tropical cyclones in climate models. When applied to scenarios of historical and future climate described by six state-of-the-art climate models, his method predicted that both the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones will increase during the twenty-first century in all tropical ocean regions, except the southwestern Pacific. Emanuel’s study was published too late for inclusion in the latest IPCC report.POLITICO's analysis of where the Democratic candidates stretched the truth, steered around some inconvenient facts, or just plain got it wrong.
Clinton pushes bankruptcy law a little too far
In response to a question about Puerto Rico's crippling debt burden, Hillary Clinton said, "I have been calling for months that the Congress must give authority to Puerto Rico to restructure its debts, just like it has enabled states and cities to restructure their debt." The implication is that the troubled territory should be allowed to go through bankruptcy. The only problem is that states don't actually have this right. What she's talking about is a more complicated issue that has bedeviled the bailout efforts: In U.S. states, public corporations (like water companies) can declare chapter 9 bankruptcy, but thanks to an oversight in the legal code, that can't happen in Puerto Rico. Many policymakers, including Clinton and Jeb Bush, have been calling for Congress to change the law so Puerto Rico isn't excluded. But even if they did, and public corporations in territories like Puerto Rico were afforded the same rights at state, it wouldn't go as far as Clinton suggests.
— Danny Vinik
Break up the banks? They're both wrong on this one
At the Democratic debate Wednesday night, Hillary Clinton promised she could break up the big banks if they pose a threat to the financial industry. "We have Dodd-Frank and we will break up banks that pose a systemic threat to our economy," she said. Bernie Sanders has made a similar promise throughout his campaign. But the Dodd-Frank financial reforms don't give the president that power. The law does give the government the ability to break up big banks if the Federal Reserve board of governors votes that the institutions pose a "grave threat to the financial stability of the United States," and if two-thirds of the Financial Stability Oversight Council agree with that finding. But that's a process the president controls only remotely, by appointing people over the years who'd be more inclined to be tough on banks. So while it's a promise that enthuses Democratic voters, it's a huge stretch to imagine either candidate could suddenly make it happen.
— Danny Vinik
Clinton mentions "low" in border apprehensions, but ignores their upward bounce
Hillary Clinton claimed that border apprehensions are at a 40-year low, a talking point that Obama made good use of in his 2013 State of the Union speech. Obama's claim was true when he made it, but since then apprehension numbers have bounced up, especially in 2014, when there was an uptick of almost 70,000 border apprehensions compared to 2013, bringing the year's total to 486,651. Last year the number dropped again; and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson released a statement today noting that border apprehensions are increasing slightly this year. The 2014 numbers were triggered by serious political conflict south of the US border, and as PolitiFact noted in 2014, it's hard to compare border patrol statistics in general over a 40-year window, since economic conditions and border-security measures vary so much in different political contexts.
— Noah Weiland
Goldman's behavior not as "illegal" as Bernie says
Bernie Sanders said Goldman Sachs was one of the financial institutions whose "illegal behavior” led to the financial crisis. A lot of people may believe what the firm did was wrong, but it wasn't found guilty of any crimes. Goldman Sachs agreed to a civil settlement with the Justice Department (albeit, at $5 billion, the largest ever) but did not admit wrongdoing. The same was true of its earlier settlement with the SEC.
— Isaac Arnsdorf
Actually, Sanders did vote to protect the Minutemen
When Hillary Clinton charged that he voted to protect the anti-immigrant border “vigilantes” known as the Minutemen, Bernie Sanders defended himself by saying Clinton was cherrypicking one piece of a bigger bill to make him look bad. But the issue in question was a specific amendment, specifically written to protect the Minutemen: in the words of its sponsor, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), "What my amendment does is simply says that the U.S. Government cannot tip off the Mexican officials as to where these folks are located." In June 2006, Sanders voted in favor.
— Isaac Arnsdorf
Clinton torques the facts on emails
Under questioning about who gave her permission to use a private email server while Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton claimed the practice was “not prohibited” and “not in any way disallowed”—but that exaggerates the degree to which State Department policy permitted employees to use personal email. While the policies did not prohibit all use of private email for official business, they did declare that “normal day-to-day operations [should] be conducted on an authorized” official system. Clinton also repeatedly said the government has “retroactively” classified many of her emails, but the intelligence community claims at least some of the most sensitive emails should have been treated as classified from the day they were written. The State Department is contesting some of those claims.
In her defense, Univision’s Jorge Ramos also overstated Clinton’s involvement in a 2011 cable that urged State employees to “avoid” using personal email for security reasons. The message went out with Clinton’s name at the bottom, but that is standard protocol for all such cables sent from State Department headquarters, and doesn’t signal that she “personally” approved the missive.
— Josh GersteinIt blames the Fed & Bernanke; the dark side of “healing” the housing market.
The housing collapse during the Financial Crisis keeps on giving. On Friday, Invitation Homes, a creature of private-equity firm Blackstone, and largest landlord of single-family rental homes in the US, filed with the SEC to raise up to $1.5 billion in an IPO. Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, BofA Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and RBC Capital Markets are the joint bookrunners and get to cash in on the fees.
Invitation Homes, founded in 2012, now owns 48,431 single-family homes, according to the filing. It bought them out of foreclosure and turned them into rental properties, concentrated in 12 urban areas. Revenues for the nine months through September 30 rose 11.4% to $655 million, producing a net loss of $52 million. It lists $9.7 billion in single-family properties and $7.7 billion in debt.
Blackstone was a pioneer in the post-Financial Crisis buy-to-rent scheme, including issuing the first rent-backed structured securities in November 2013. The collateral for the $479-million deal was rental income from 3,207 homes. Blackstone paid rating agencies Moody’s, Kroll, and Morningstar to rate the bonds; so nearly 60% of the debt was rated AAA. Other tranches carried lower ratings. The overall cost of capital to Blackstone from the securitization of these rents was about 2.01%. Cheap money! Thank you hallelujah QE and ZIRP.
Rent-backed securities have since become a common funding mechanism.
Other players in the buy-to-rent scheme have already gone public. American Homes 4 Rent, which owns about 48,000 rental houses in 22 states, went public in August 2013. It has produced a net loss every year since, sports negative EPS of -25 cents and a negative PE ratio of -84.
Starwood Waypoint Residential Trust was spun off from Starwood Property Trust Inc. and started trading in February 2014. In 2016, it merged with Thomas Barrack’s Colony Capital and changed its name to Colony Starwood Homes. Colony is now the third-largest single-family landlord. It too has lost money every year since going public, has negative EPS of -47 cents and a negative PE ratio of -62. Colony founder Barrack is now chairman of Trump’s inauguration committee.
But there’s a drawback: 32% of Colony’s properties in Atlanta and adjacent suburbs have eviction filings, by far the highest rate among the Wall Street landlords, according to a study by the Atlanta Fed on the impact of Wall Street landlords on surging “housing instability.”
The report doesn’t name names, but Ben Miller, co-author of the report, filled in the blanks for Bloomberg. Next in line in eviction rates: American Homes 4 Rent, HavenBrook, owned by Pimco, and Invitations Homes. The percentage of properties with eviction filings in Atlanta by the largest Wall-Street landlords:
The report indicated that eviction rates in some other cities are lower. But this being the Atlanta Fed, it focused on Atlanta, one of the hotbeds of the buy-to-rent scheme. And it focused on single-family rentals because Wall Street’s muscling into this space is new and perhaps a generational shift in the US housing market.
So how did this Wall Street landlord nirvana – and the ensuing “housing instability” – come about after the housing bust? The report blames the Fed, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke:
In unwinding their bank-owned properties, the GSEs [Fannie Mae, Freddy Mac, etc.], U.S. Treasury, and Federal Reserve innovated new structured transactions for disposing of hundreds of thousands of bank-owned homes, also known as real estate owned (REO). The Federal Reserve was the first to suggest that private equity firms were the one group with cash on hand to invest in foreclosed homes (Bernanke, 2012). In 2012, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), conservator of the GSEs, issued a pilot to develop structured transactions that could be used to sell its REO homes in bulk. The private market followed by developing and standardizing financial instruments to allow broader market investment in converting foreclosed homes into single-family rentals. Rental housing, traditionally the purview of mom-and-pop landlords, caught the attention of large financial firms. Nationwide, an estimated 350,000 homes were purchased by institutional investors from 2011 to 2013, and these were spatially concentrated in cities like Atlanta with high numbers of bank-owned homes and the prospect of future home price appreciation. Today there is high concentration in the single-family rental business, with an estimated 170,000 single-family rental homes owned by the seven largest firms.
“My hope was that these private equity firms would provide a new kind of rental housing for people who couldn’t – or didn’t want to – buy during the housing recovery,” Elora Raymond, the report’s lead author, told Bloomberg. “Instead, it seems like they’re contributing to housing instability in Atlanta, and possibly other places.”
Evictions are cheap in Atlanta: about $85 in court fees and another $20 to have the tenant ejected, report co-author Michael Lucas told Bloomberg, which added: “With few of the tenant protections of places like New York, a family can find itself homeless in less than a month.”
The report points at the broader implications beyond poor neighborhoods: While “evictions are highly correlated with neighborhood characteristics such as education levels, change in the employment-population rate, and racial composition,” Wall Street landlords still filed for evictions at higher rates than smaller landlords after accounting for “property and neighborhood characteristics.” Why? The report:
One possible reason large corporate landlords backed by institutional investors may have higher eviction filing notices is that they may routinely use eviction notices as a rent collection strategy.
Bloomberg adds:
In interviews and court filings, renters and housing advocates said that some investment firms are impersonal and unresponsive, slow to make necessary repairs and quick to evict tenants who withhold rent because of complaints about maintenance.
“They want to get them out quickly if they can’t pay,” explained Aaron Kuney, a former executive of HavenBrook and now CEO of PE landlord Piedmont Asset Management in Atlanta. “Finding people these days to rent your homes is not a problem.”
Then there’s the expense of housing, which has soared, thanks to the Fed’s efforts to “heal” the housing market. According to the report, 53.4% of renters were “cost burdened in Atlanta” in 2014. More generally, homeownership has declined to a 51-year low, and “demand for rentals has caused urban rents to increase sharply”:
During the 2010 to 2014 period, low-cost rentals in Atlanta declined by more than 15%. Gentrification, or the influx of wealthier residents accompanied by rising property prices and the displacement of existing, lower-income residents, can be a factor in evictions.
The effect of evictions is “housing instability or insecurity”:
Families with insecure or unstable housing may move frequently, suffer eviction, or otherwise be at increased risk of homelessness. Evictions can result in personal loss of property, trigger job loss, and lead to underperforming schools and poor student outcomes. Even an eviction filing that is resolved can mar a tenant’s credit record and bar that person from renting elsewhere or accessing public assistance. At the neighborhood level, high eviction rates are associated with poor housing conditions, high rates of school turnover, and neighborhood and community instability.
But it’s not just Atlanta, according to the Atlanta Fed: “There is increasing documentation of an ensuing high rate of evictions in U.S. cities, partly due to tenants’ inability to afford higher rents.”
So is the Fed having second thoughts about its efforts to encourage Wall Street to muscle into the single-family home market in big urban areas, drive up housing costs around the country, and turn rents in to a finanzialized product? I doubt it. Bernanke, the engineer of all this, has moved on; and the Fed, credited with “healing” the housing market, never has second thoughts about its actions.
But the Fed is worried about “real wage” increases. It’s about cheap labor. Read… The Thing in the Jobs Report that Gives the Fed the Willies
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Klain started off the frenzy of misinformation when he suggested that President’s Trump firing of FBI Director James Comey was detrimental to the investigation into possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign:
What made it potentially criminal is when the President then fired the FBI director and acknowledged that it was for the purpose of obstructing the Russian investigation. That is, Jim Comey was proceeding with the investigation, notwithstanding the comments from President Trump, until the President took one additional step, which was to fire the FBI director.
In response, Schlapp correctly pointed out that the firing most likely had no effect on the investigation:
The only thing I would say back to that, Ron, is that you now have the person running the FBI who is saying that the White House has done nothing to impede any of these investigations....it didn't impact any of the operations in the FBI with all of these officers and these field agents who were doing a good job.
If anything, the firing helped the investigation. The acting FBI director, Andrew McCabe, is married to former Democratic Virginia state Senate candidate Dr. Jill McCabe. It was the Clinton ally and current Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe who pushed her to run for the state Senate seat.
Later, in the segment, Camerota channeled her inner pundit imitation, complete with a snarky tone:
So Matt, it's general sloppiness when the President divulges classified information, but not when Hillary Clinton has three e-mails that she sends that are mislabeled with a “C” and she sends to her own staff? How is that possible?
Klain then jumped in to state that what Trump did was much worse than Clinton because, “there is no evidence that anything Secretary Clinton did ever led to the release of classified information to adversaries.”
That claim is almost laughable. The servers on which Hillary Clinton kept her e-mails on, which did contain classified material and had less effective security than a commercial account (Gmail, AOL, etc.). This meant it was more vulnerable to be hacked. Even the New York Times was forced to admit that she was most likely hacked. She likely even compromised the name of CIA personnel. An article published by the Associated Press stated:
At least 47 of the emails contain the notation “B3 CIA PERS/ORG,” which indicates the material referred to CIA personnel or matters related to the agency. And because both Clinton’s server and the State Department systems were vulnerable to hacking, the perpetrators could have those original emails, and now the publicly released, redacted versions showing exactly which sections refer to CIA personnel.
On Special Report with Bret Bair, Charles Krauthammer torched the Democrats on Fox News Tuesday night for their hypocrisy on this issue. He told the panel: “Their candidate for the presidency had been spilling classified information, some of the highest level for a year, a-year-and-a-half, and the Democrats pretend it wasn’t a problem or that it should be ignored..”
Back to CNN, this reality did not stop Camerota from coming to the defense of Kain saying, “Absolutely. This was to her staff.”
Klain then went on to proclaim that Trump has aided Iran by his actions:Donald Trump handed Israeli intelligence to the patron of its arch enemy, Iran, a Russian client state. There could be nothing more damaging to Israeli security than giving Israeli intelligence to Iran’s principal client.
First, he made this claim with no evidence. Second, maybe he forgot that, under President Obama, the United States unfroze billions of dollars of Iranian assets as part of a deal that put Iran in a better position to develop a nuclear weapon.
The full transcript is below:Lawmakers around the world “unjustifiably” treat illicit drugs as if they were a greater public health concern than alcohol, according to a report published online Wednesday in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Alcohol is at least as harmful as illicit drugs, according to Jan van Amsterdam of the Laboratory for Health Protection Research in the Netherlands and psychiatrist Wim van den Brink at the University of Amsterdam. In their report, van Amsterdam and van den Brink call for a “more balanced drug policy” that focuses on harm reduction and doesn’t neglect alcohol abuse.
All things considered, excessive alcohol consumption is more harmful to public health than illicit drug use, the two researchers said. However, this is due to “the high absolute number of problem drinkers,” van Amsterdam told Raw Story in an email. “One should realize that if people would use marijuana or ecstasy as much as they drink alcohol, we would also have a significant problem.”
Alcohol has been linked to neurological problems, cardiovascular disease, cancer, liver diseases, and gastrointestinal disorders. Additionally, alcohol has been associated with worker absenteeism, violent crime and relationship conflicts, among other social ills.
The two researchers noted that alcohol addiction was also a significant public health problem.
“Indeed, much more people (absolute number) have an alcohol disorder [compared to other substance abuse disorders], and 80-90 percent of those in addiction clinics are alcohol dependent subjects,” Amsterdam told Raw Story. “Alcohol is potentially very addictive; as addictive as nicotine and heroin, though most people (quite a large number) manage to drink socially without relevant problems. So, we should not criminalize alcohol either.”
When an expert panel in 2010 ranked alcohol, tobacco, and 17 other illicit drugs from most to least harmful, alcohol came in fourth place after crack cocaine, heroin, tobacco. The expert panel concluded that alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than many illegal drugs, with the exception of heroin and crack. A similar study, published in 2007, also found alcohol to be one of the most harmful recreational substances.
Yet, significant discrepancies exist between the scientifically-established harms associated with recreational drugs and their legal status. Two of the most harmful drugs, tobacco and alcohol, are legal, but less harmful drugs like marijuana and LSD are prohibited.
“[W]orldwide policy makers are primarily concerned about public health effects of illicit drug use and the prohibition of illicit drugs, whereas there is little political interest in the reduction of societal costs due to alcohol use,” van Amsterdam and van den Brink wrote in their study.
From a public health perspective, van Amsterdam told Raw Story that prohibiting recreational drugs like marijuana is “more or less a waste of money.”
“The focus must be harm reduction, not criminalization.”
— —
[Alcoholic woman via Shutterstock]A former official with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says Americans will have to “adjust” to a new country where terrorism is routine because halting immigration is “not who we are.”
Former Assistant Director for Counterintelligence at the FBI C. Frank Figliuzzi writes in a piece for NBC News that terrorism in the United States is changing quickly to a strategy where terrorism is merely mitigated and contained.
Rather than halting immigration from particularly dangerous and terrorist-sanctioned regions of the world, Figliuzzi says Americans may have to change the way they live, noting how Americans in the car rental business and hotel industry are now subject to “rigorous training” on terrorism-related issues.
But just as officials are adjusting their perspective, it may be time for the public to adjust as well. Terrorism task forces around the nation already have rigorous training and awareness programs for truck rental personnel, hotel staff, and a host of other groups who may find themselves suddenly on the front lines of our war against terror. If we cling to the old view that any successful attack represents a counterterrorism failure, we must also be ready to accept a new way of life. Do we want to view anyone from a different country, with a different set of beliefs, as no longer welcome here?
While Figliuzzi admits that it’s Americans who will have to suffer, he argues that current legal immigration — whereby more than one million foreign nationals enter the U.S. every year — trends must continue, no matter if they might expose Americans to more terrorist threats.
I would argue we do not. Today, the White House is already calling for even more stringent constraints on immigration policy. Taken to its illogical extreme, this approach to counterterrorism will preclude anyone from anywhere from entering the U.S. if any of their fellow nationals has ever committed a terror act. That’s not who we are.
Immigration to the U.S. was most recently tied to terrorism when 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov allegedly mowed down pedestrians in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City, killing at least eight individuals. Saipov entered the U.S. in 2010 from Uzbekistan under the Diversity Visa Lottery, Breitbart News reported.
The Diversity Visa Lottery gives out 50,000 visas every year to foreign nationals from a multitude of countries, including those with known terrorist problems – such as Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Yemen, and Uzbekistan.
Since 2012, roughly 30 percent of all foreign nationals who have entered the U.S. through the Diversity Visa Lottery program in the last five years came from terrorist-sponsored nations, Breitbart News reported.Jason “Mayhem” Miller’s reputation rested easy in 2012. He captured Internet attention around the globe as a mixed martial arts (MMA) superstar, MTV show host and willing subject for provocative photographs. But the last four years have brought Miller a flood of negative publicity stemming from allegations of domestic violence, resisting arrest, vandalism, assaults and DUI. There’s no denying the stories are sensational enough to grab TMZ’s attention, prompt local prosecutors to hail him “a danger to the community” and cause the Orange County Register to, without attribution, call him “notorious” in the first sentence of a news article.
In reaction to the hype, an outraged Register reader commented, “Is there a judge who is strong enough to put him away?” Another wrote, “Sentence him on some of his pending felonies.” A third observed, “Is it only in OC that we play these games with people like this?”
Given such angry fervor, you might guess Miller’s rap sheet is loaded with proven victims and guilty verdicts. It isn’t. While he’s been convicted in the court of public opinion, the government has yet to win any of five pending cases against him.
“I understand human nature,” Miller told the Weekly just 13 hours after a five-day stint in the Orange County Jail for a vandalism arrest that has so far cost him $200,000 in bail to win his freedom on March 20. “If you read the newspapers, you probably think I’m just an idiot and that I’m some kind of evil person because all you get is this one-sided story from the cops.”
There’s little doubt a straight-laced prosecutor would recoil in fear at the sight of Miller, who is unquestionably rebellious. During our meeting, he sported a pink Mohawk, khaki shorts, a lime-green T-shirt, black fingernail polish, un-matching George H.W. Bush-style striped socks, a thick gold neck chain and jumbo-sized Air Jordans.
His tender side is definitely there, but Miller can instantaneously produce menacing facial expressions or howl as if he’s a state mental-hospital patient. Perhaps most intensely, his aura screams of a rare, self-made man who is genuinely fearless. He is the antithesis of a politically correct conformist, which, so far, hasn’t been banned by the ever-swelling California Penal Code.
If public opinion presently dictates he’s an airhead, a casual conversation quickly undermines the assumption. He speaks coherently, laughs easily—especially at himself—and tackles questions without pausing to ponder calculated answers. His biggest concern is being falsely labeled a “wife beater.”
In August 2013, Miller’s girlfriend, a gym enthusiast herself, told authorities he assaulted her. He says she threatened him and he merely took defensive steps to disarm her, claiming, “I had to wrestle a knife out of this woman’s hand.”
Cameron Talley, Miller’s defense lawyer and, until recently, a high-ranking Orange County prosecutor, doesn’t accept the woman’s story. Talley has predicted a courthouse victory, noting the ex-girlfriend waited 10 days to complain—and did so only after his client refused to rekindle their relationship.
Whatever the truth, Miller sees the episode as the beginning of a nightmare that has cops hounding him because he’s considered the region’s poster boy for domestic-violence offenders. He recalled that another MMA fighter, Jonathan Paul Koppenhaver (a.k.a. War Machine), is facing charges for beating his then-girlfriend, Christy Mack, a porn star. Mack suffered 18 fractured bones, a lacerated liver and two broken teeth in the 2014 attack in Las Vegas. (Miller made a memorable appearance during an HBO Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel segment on the case.)
“My ex is saying I did those same type of strikes to her that Christy Mack had done to her,” says a frustrated Miller, who lives in Mission Viejo.
In contrast to Mack’s wounds, Talley says, the purported victim’s injuries “were virtually nonexistent—a slight scratch over her eye and some bruises on her legs—but who knows when or how they happened?”
Miller believes the lack of trauma supports his innocence. “You have to understand I’m an expert at hurting people,” he says. “There’s nicer ways of saying it: I’m a martial artist. I’ve shattered men’s faces many times [during MMA matches]. I’ve knocked teeth out. I’ve seriously hurt people.”
An Orange County Superior Court judge tentatively scheduled an April 11 trial, but the three-year delay has, Miller says, already “totally wrecked” his career: “[No fight promoters] want to sign a guy to a contract [who] has domestic violence as a hot button issue.”
He also says the mess turned powerful individuals against him.
“If there’s a public perception that you’re a bad guy, it snowballs,” he explains. “Suddenly, you’re always fighting the cops off you. You’re getting stalked by the police. They’re waiting outside your house. I’m not kidding.... Every time they run into me, they find a reason to charge me with some kind of crime.... It’s ridiculous.”
He says it’s time “for a truce” with law enforcement, but only after they stop trampling his constitutional rights.
“I’m not afraid of the cops,” Miller declares. “My dad fought for the values of this country and my mom was also in the army. The Millers have been fighting for this country since before it was America. I know my history, and I know my rights. So, every time the cops come and harass me, I just tell them in no uncertain terms go fuck yourselves. And they don’t like that. I don’t like to live in a society where everybody |
it is the responsibility of an honorable person to try to think of alternatives, like your father. What is even more honorable than that is taking ownership for one’s deeds and following through with the consequences till the very end. I hope you forgive me lecturing you and I honestly wish you can respect my words”.
Kamal opens the book with a brief synopsis – ‘A young and hot headed knight seeks to break himself and his people free from the gods' authoritative rule by the only mean available to him, defiance! However, the path that he sets upon is hindered by overwhelming odds. His only hope in achieving his goal might be a mysterious sword that he receives early in his adventure. Furthermore, his quest is complicated by a band of rebels, will they aid him or do they have their own goals? Deities, magic, monsters, fantasy, legend and myth! The knight's journey is only beginning and his actions will have untold consequences on his beloved land and the whole world. Will he be able to bear the responsibility for his decisions?’
The pleasure of reading Kamal’s prose is perhaps best found in the near musical interludes that dot the canvas of this story. ‘Interlude 1 – ‘In his sleep, Faris dreamt that he saw himself half immersed in darkness and half immersed in light. He looked up into the distance at the vertical horizon where darkness and light clashed with each other. But as the light shinned brighter, the darkness grew dimmer and as the darkness stretched outward, the light pushed inwards. He then witnessed a great explosion right at the middle, and from it sprang forth all life. Everything came out of the big bang, all matter of things and all forms of life sprang forth. Among these new creations, he saw the silhouette of a grand creature passing over the landscape stretching upward and outward. He saw people of all kinds and shape, white, black, red, brown, yellow, dark and light, all speaking different tongues not being able to understand or communicate with each other. There were many strange beings as well that he never saw or heard of. And once all the races laid their eyes on him, he sensed through the look they wore on their visages that they were scared of him. They started running away from him into the gaping maw of the silhouetted creature. He turned and he saw himself on the pan of a large balance scale with a single feather falling ever so slowly towards the second pan. Inexplicably, he felt apprehensive for no particular reason that he could think of. As the feather was about to land on the opposing pan, he closed his eyes and felt his heart leaping out of his chest and that ended his state of trance.’
We will watch for the next book form this anonymous author, as there is promise here. September 17
This book is free to borrow from Kindle UnlimitedPaul opposes Yellen’s nomination to head the Fed, but said he would get out of the way if the Senate agreed to hold a vote on his legislation to fully audit the central bank. If not, he’s prepared to slow the process as much as possible. “We’ll try to slow it down or stop it as much as we can,” he said. “We’ve told them that we will allow it to move forward and expedite it if they give us a vote on ‘Audit the Fed.’”
Sen. Rand Paul likes ruining Christmas. He wanted to ruin Christmas for the millions of long-term unemployed, saying extending their benefits would be a "disservice" to them. Now he wants to ruin Christmas for his fellow senators, saying that he will force the Senate to use the full 30 hours of debate time on Janet Yellen's nomination to the Federal Reserve unless he gets a vote on his bill to fully audit the Fed.Nice use of the royal "we" there, Rand. He can't actually stop the nomination, he doesn't have the votes. So all he can do is be a thorn in the side of all of his colleagues (Ted Cruz has apparently decided to retire from that role after the whole shutdown debacle) by keeping them in Washington for as long as humanly possible. Given that dynamic, Reid should give him his vote. Good luck to him in getting 60 of his fellow senators, who he has effectively taken hostage, to get his bill to a final vote.
On the other hand, given that whole unemployment benefits thing, having their Christmas ruined is exactly what the Senate deserves.Subaru Corp. is considering electric versions of its existing models for the car maker's first foray into the technology, as it joins peers around the world in pouring cash into battery-powered vehicles amid tightening emissions rules.
The Japanese company, which plans to make record investments in research and development in this financial year, is weighing installing electric powertrains in current models rather than designing an all-new car, chief executive officer Yasuyuki Yoshinaga, 63, said in an interview on Friday. The move would allow Subaru to capitalize on its reputation for safety while eliminating the need to partner with another auto maker, he said.
Such a strategy would contrast with the approach of other manufacturers like Daimler AG's Mercedes-Benz. The luxury-car maker has bundled its electric-vehicle technology, including charging boxes and energy storage, under the EQ sub-brand, giving it more visibility to better compete with Tesla Inc. Mr. Yoshinaga sees advantages in sticking with a single nameplate.
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"If there's already an attractive Subaru model, for example the XV crossover, and if a customer in Beijing wants one but is only allowed to buy an electric vehicle, if there's no electric version then he can't buy it," he said at the auto maker's headquarters in Tokyo. "Providing the choice of an EV means the customer can still desire the same Subaru."
Subaru is prioritizing spending on electrification over other technologies, like autonomous driving and connected cars, as it races to bring a plug-in hybrid model to market next year and an all-electric vehicle by 2021. The company is budgeting ¥134-billion ($1.6-billion) on research and development in the 12 months through March, 2018, more than double what it spent in the year ended March, 2014.
Still Subaru's spending on R&D is lot less than the big Japanese auto makers that are also stepping up efforts to produce electric vehicles. Toyota Motor Corp., which owns a 16.9 per cent stake in Subaru, plans to spend ¥1.05-trillion on R&D in the current fiscal year and Honda Motor Co. will invest ¥750-billion.
Toyota aims to introduce a global electric vehicle model and Honda has said it plans to set up a joint venture with Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd. to develop and produce motors for electric cars. Toyota in 2014 sold some of its stake in Tesla and decided to end sales of the jointly developed electric version of the Japanese automaker's RAV4 sport utility vehicle.
While Mr. Yoshinaga said he's not against a partnership, adding an electric powertrain to one of Subaru's existing vehicles would make a tie-up unnecessary. Instead the key will be the selection of suppliers for the battery and motor. A decision on this will have to be made in about a year, he said.
Subaru can take this approach because what defines the brand now is safety, not the boxer engine that is currently found in its entire lineup of only gasoline-powered vehicles, according to Mr. Yoshinaga.
The XV crossover, called the Crosstrek in the United States, and the Impreza sedan were awarded the top prize this year with the highest score ever in the state-run Japan New Car Assessment Program, which included tests for crashworthiness and pedestrian protection.
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Driver Assist Subaru's EyeSight driver-assist system comes a close second in terms of R&D spending, although Mr. Yoshinaga said he would seek to limit any increase in the price of the technology to enable the carmaker to offer the same safety suite across all models.
EyeSight is the first driver-assist setup to use only stereo cameras to detect objects such as vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, according to the company. It's due to be updated this year with plans to add functionality for autonomously following a car on congested highways, with a further upgrade in 2020 to add fully autonomous highway driving, including the capability to change lanes.
The auto maker is considering Autoliv Inc.'s cameras for EyeSight as it looks for options beyond Hitachi Automotive that has been a supplier for almost a decade, people with knowledge of the matter said this month.
Subaru needs to cast a wide net when looking at suppliers to find the best balance of quality and cost, said Mr. Yoshinaga. In the connected car space in particular, the CEO said he favours forming partnerships with companies in the United States, because the technology there is more highly developed.
"We need to work with parts makers on joint development right from the start," said Mr. Yoshinaga. "If we don't, we won't be able to keep up in this era of rapid change."Arjen Robben has poked fun at big-spending Paris Saint-Germain on the eve of Bayern Munich's key Champions League away match in the French capital.
Bayern and PSG for top spot
With Anderlecht and Celtic also in the pool, the PSG-Bayern clash at Paris' Parc de Princes on Wednesday could well decide the winner of Group B.
'Paris have certainly given out a few more euros than us, but money doesn't score goals, quality on the pitch scores goals, good teams score goals,' said veteran winger Robben before the team jetted to Paris.
PSG signed Neymar from Barcelona for a world record 222 million euros ($264m) and recruited Kylian Mbappe from Monaco last month on an initial loan deal which is set to be made into a permanent move for 180 million euros next year.
Full screen Team ethic | Bayern Munich's Dutch midfielder Arjen Robben celebrates scoring with his team-mates against Mainz 05. GUENTER SCHIFFMANN (AFP)
Team not players for Robben
But when asked about PSG's star-studded MCN attack - Mbappe, Edinson Cavani and Neymar - Robben was unphased: 'The important thing is the performance of the team, not just to focus on particular players'.
Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is convinced Bayern can get a good result in the French capital.
'I know our team, they are highly motivated and concentrated for games like this,' said the former striker. I am convinced we can get something out of this game.'
Full screen Draw despair | Paris Saint-Germain's French forward Kylian Mbappe reacts during the French Ligue 1 game with Montpellier. PASCAL GUYOT (AFP)
Mbappé, Cavani, Neymar test
Nevertheless, the biggest test for Bayern's shaky defence -- which threw away a two-goal lead at home to struggling Wolfsburg in a 2-2 draw last Friday -- will be to contain 'MCN'.
'Of course, that is an attack with world-class players, we have to control that, but we have more experience,' countered Rummenigge.
Bayern president Uli Hoeness launched a thinly-veiled attack on PSG's spending policy in an interview on Monday, but Rummenigge focused on the football.
'This is a prestige game, but one thing is clear: the Champions League is not decided, we want to create the conditions to become group-winners.'July 11, 2016
by Laura Kane, The Canadian Press
VANCOUVER—The owner of the Mount Polley mine in British Columbia’s Interior has sued two engineering firms for damages over a disastrous dam collapse two years ago.
Imperial Metals has filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court alleging negligence and breach of contract by Knight Piesold and AMEC, now Amec Foster Wheeler.
None of the allegations has been proven in court and neither company has filed a statement of defence.
The lawsuit alleges a flawed tailings storage facility was designed and monitored by Knight Piesold from the late 1980s to 2011, and then by AMEC until its collapse in August 2014.
“Each of the defendants failed to undertake necessary, proper and reasonable investigation of the subsurface conditions underlying the (tailings storage facility) prior to and during its phased construction and operation,” the suit says.
As a result, the suit alleges, the facility had an inadequate safety standard, despite both companies repeatedly providing Imperial Metals with reports that claimed it was safe.
“Those reports were in error,” the suit contends. “The conduct of each of the defendants was negligent, was in breach of the applicable contracts and caused the ultimate failure of the (facility).”
The dam failed on Aug. 4, 2014, spilling 24 million cubic metres of waste and water into nearby lakes and rivers and forcing the gold and copper mine to close until recently.
A spokeswoman for Amec Foster Wheeler said the company could not comment on a matter that is before the courts.
“We continue to work with industry partners, professional organizations and regulators to ensure that the future of British Columbia mining prioritizes safety, accountability, and environmental responsibility,” said Lauren Gallagher in an email.
Knight Piesold did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
B.C.’s mines minister said last month that senior staff had authorized the mine to go back into full production, one year after it was approved for restricted operations.
In January 2015, an independent engineering panel appointed by the B.C. government concluded the dam failed because the strength and location of a layer of clay under the dam wasn’t taken into account during the design process.
The lawsuit was also launched on behalf of the Mount Polley Mining Corp., of which Imperial Metals is the parent company.
The company doesn’t specify the amount of damages sought, but alleges it continues to incur losses as a result of the dam failure, including lost profits, the costs of laying off employees and reduced share values.
The lawsuit says the province has already found the Mount Polley Mining Corp. liable to pay $3.2 million to cover the costs of the engineering panel and spill clean-up, and wants compensation from the two companies.
Another independent investigation into the disaster, led by the B.C. Conservation Officer Service, is still ongoing. The RCMP and federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans are also part of the investigation.An ousted Democratic state representative can't keep suing the Republican who unseated him for libel because he missed a court filing deadline, a state Superior Court panel ruled Thursday.
In fact, Jesse White missed that deadline by 12 days, Judge Jack A. Panella found in the state court opinion.
White, a lawyer by trade, filed his lawsuit over what happened during the 2014 election for the 46th House District.
He claimed his GOP opponent, Jason Ortitay, Ortitay's campaign committee, the state Republican Party and the House Republican Campaign Committee cost him re-election by publishing false campaign materials that said he favored a 40 percent tax increase for the middle class.
White filed an appeal after a Washington County judge dismissed his libel suit. That judge gave him 21 days to file a concise statement of matters complained of on appeal. However, White waited 33 days to file that required statement.
Panella found that White's failure to meet the deadline means he has waived all of the issues he wanted to appeal.
White, 38, of Cecil, served four terms in the House representing parts of Washington, Allegheny and Beaver counties before being unseated by Ortitay.
In March, the state Supreme Court suspended White's law license after his mother sued him, claiming White had impersonated her to run up nearly $28,000 in debt. White denied those accusations.The national suicide hotline has received an influx of calls relating to the government's postal survey on same-sex marriage, according to internal sources.
Last year a leaked screenshot from the database of the national suicide hotline Lifeline showed that a new category, "2016 Marriage Equality Plebiscite", was created when the plebiscite was first proposed. New categories are created when there is an increase in the number of calls relating to a particular subject.
Lifeline staff told BuzzFeed News they are asked to enter the "main reason" for each call they receive into the Lifeline computer system, and that recently there has been a spike in the "2016 Marriage Equality Plebiscite" category.
The category remained dormant after the government lost a vote to hold a compulsory plebiscite, but is being used again after the "yes" and "no" campaigns for the postal survey began.
A number of Lifeline's trained suicide prevention workers told BuzzFeed News that since the government embarked on its postal survey on same-sex marriage, they have been counselling callers affected by the heated debate over same-sex marriage, LGBTI rights, and LGBTI people more broadly.
This debate includes the Neo-Nazi anti-gay poster reportedly spotted in Melbourne and the Coalition for Marriage's "You Can Say No" ad, in which one parent claims her son was told he could wear a dress to school the following year, and that year 7 students were being asked to role play being in a same-sex relationship.
Mothers of transgender children told BuzzFeed News they are scared for their kids after viewing the "You Can Say No" TV ad, which they say wrongly conflates same-sex marriage with gender identity, and exposes their already-vulnerable children to hate.
Lifeline, which receives more than 2,000 a day, would not confirm the exact increase in postal survey related calls.When a Muslim uses the name of Muhammad, they tag on the expression Alayhis salaam (“peace be upon him”). In written English, “Peace be upon him” is abbreviated “PBUH”. “PBUH” is thus a mandatory tagged-on honorific salutation called a “salwat“. PBUH is also used for the other great prophets recognized by Islam (Jesus, Moses, Jacob, Noah, Adam, Solomon, David, Jonah, etc…).
There has been lots of recent blogging discussions about whether Jesus was real or a myth. Atheists are divided on this issue. But even the non-mythicist atheists are tip-toeing when they speak of Jesus in order to let their fellow mythicists Atheists know that they realize that Jesus may have been totally or even largely a fictitious invention. But such caveats are often verbose and break the flow of the posts.
So to make it easy for atheists to acknowledge possible validity of mythicist’s arguments while keeping their writing fluid, I suggest we create a salawat to acknowledge that Jesus was possibly not real.
Please give us suggestions for a salawat in the comments. For example, let me start with one:
Jesus (ihweritfp) = “if he was ever real in the first place”. Nah, you see, that is too long.
I will add your good suggestions to this list. Thanks.Four different approaches to run WildFly Swarm in OpenShift
WildFly Swarm 1.0.0.Final was released this week at DevNation. It allows the developer to package his application and a JavaEE runtime in a “fat-jar” file. To execute the application, the developer will only need a Java SE Runtime installed and have access to the “fat-jar”. No other downloads or configurations are needed.
Besides being a well known (and consolidated) Java EE runtime, WildFly Swarm is also an excellent choice for Cloud-native Java apps through the “built-in support for third party apps and frameworks like Logstash and NetFlix OSS projects like Hystrix and Ribbon“.
OpenShift v3 is Red Hat‘s PaaS based on Linux containers and Kubernetes. It’s an amazing cloud platform that is capable of managing containers based on pre-existing Docker images or creating images from the source-code of your application in a process called S2I (Source-to-image).
This post will show 4 different approaches to deploy a WildFly Swarm application in OpenShift v3.
CDK – Container Development Kit
To explore these approaches, the developer should be able to have access to an OpenShift 3 environment. The Red Hat Developers community provides the Red Hat Container Development Kit that is basically a Vagrant box that creates a virtualized environment with Docker, Kubernetes and OpenShift running in RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux).
If you want to try these 4 approaches yourself, go to the CDK Getting started page and follow its instructions to install CDK and download the CLI.
Login in OpenShift and create a new empty project.
$ oc login 10.1.2.2 -u openshift-dev -p devel Login successful. Using project "sample-project". $ oc new-project wildflyswarm Now using project "wildflyswarm" on server "https://10.1.2.2:8443".
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The example application
As an example app, we will use the “hello world” WildFly-Swarm microservice called “hola” that returns “hello world” in Spanish. This example also shows how to integrate with Hystrix, Feign, Zipkin and Swagger.
Obs: For a complete MSA (Microservices Architecture) example that integrates technologies like WildFly Swarm, Spring-boot, Vert.x and NodeJS, browse the documentation available at: https://github.com/redhat-helloworld-msa/helloworld-msa
The source-code for the “hola” microservice is available in the following Github repository: https://github.com/redhat-helloworld-msa/hola. Clone it to your workspace.
$ git clone https://github.com/redhat-helloworld-msa/hola
Approach 1 – S2I (Source-to-image)
This approach requires an builder image provided by the WildFly Swarm community. Let’s install it using the following command:
$ oc create -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wildfly-swarm/sti-wildflyswarm/master/1.0/wildflyswarm-sti-all.json buildconfig "wildflyswarm-10-centos7-build" created imagestream "swarm-centos" created imagestream "wildflyswarm-10-centos7" created
OBS: This builder image is only available in the “wildflyswarm” project. To make it available to all projects, the resources should be installed under with administrative privileges under an internal “namespace/project” called “openshift”.
You can follow the build process of the builder image with the following command:
$ oc logs bc/wildflyswarm-10-centos7-build -f... Successfully built 3bffc608e3fa I0619 06:34:21.276883 1 docker.go:93] Pushing image 172.30.67.31:5000/wildflyswarm/wildflyswarm-10-centos7:latest... I0619 06:36:08.596055 1 docker.go:97] Push successful
Once the build is complete, you finally an OpenShift application (we called it as “approach1”) using this Builder image with the following command:
$ oc new-app --name approach1 wildflyswarm-10-centos7~https://github.com/redhat-helloworld-msa/hola... --> Success Build scheduled, use 'oc logs -f bc/approach1' to track its progress. Run 'oc status' to view your app.
Approach 1 characteristics:
The developer will need to install the builder image previously.
The available version of the builder image uses CentOS7 as Operational System.
The developer don’t need to know anything about Dockerfile syntax
The developer don’t need Java or Maven installed locally. This is provided by the builder image.
The maven repository is download again in every build.
The developer don’t need to download the source code locally since you can use the git url as parameter of the builder image.
Openshift displays the commit information.
Approach 2 – OpenShift binary builds
This approach assumes that some steps provided by the builder image will be realised by the developer. The developer will be responsible to create the “fat-jar” and also the Dockerfile. OpenShift will read the Dockerfile and create the image for you.
Some extra commands are necessary in this approach:
# Create a binary build - This will generate the ImageStream $ oc new-build --binary --name=approach2... # Create the fat jar with Maven $ mvn package # Start the build using local resources (fat jar and Dockerfile) $ oc start-build approach2 --from-dir=. --follow Uploading "." at commit "HEAD" as binary input for the build... Uploading directory "." as binary input for the build...... I0619 07:07:37.501658 1 docker.go:93] Pushing image 172.30.67.31:5000/wildflyswarm/approach2:latest... I0619 07:09:17.039484 1 docker.go:97] Push successful # Create the Openshift application $ oc new-app approach2... --> Success Run 'oc status' to view your app.
Approach 2 characteristics:
The developer will be responsible to create the fat-jar and the Dockerfile
The build time is reduced given that the fat-jar is built using the developer pre-cached Maven repository (~/.m2)
The developer needs to have the sources locally. In fact it could use the fat-jar and the Dockerfile in a git repository, but it’s not a good-practice to store any jars in the git repository, specially this with more than a thousand megabytes.
OpenShift doesn’t show the commit that originated the build.
Approach 3 – Use Fabric8 Maven plugin
Fabric8 has a great community that “provides an opinionated open source microservices platform based on Docker, Kubernetes and Jenkins“. For that reason, many support tools are available to help the developer to work with Kubernetes and OpenShift.
This approach uses Fabric8 Maven plugin that generates a docker image and the Kubernetes JSON files that will be applied in Openshift.
To use this approach, the Maven file of the application has to be customized. You can browse the pom.xml file of the example “hola” application to see the configurations of the Fabric8 Maven plugin.
It requires that the developer have access to the Internal Docker registry of OpenShift so he can publish the image there. To have the environment pointing to the internal OpenShift registry, CDK provides a Vagrant plugin called service-manager. We just need to execute the following command in the same folder of the Vagrantfile.
$ cd <CDK-PATH>/cdk/components/rhel/rhel-ose $ eval "$(vagrant service-manager env docker)"
This command will export the DOCKER_HOST, DOCKER_CERT_PATH and DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY environment variables that will be used to publish the docker image internally. After that, the deploy becomes as simple as:
$ mvn clean package docker:build fabric8:json fabric8:apply
Approach 3 characteristics:
The developer needs access to the docker registry of OpenShift.
The developer doesn’t need to run any OpenShift commands.
Most Java developers are familiar with Maven.
There’s no DeploymentConfig created by Fabric8 Maven plugin.
Fabric8 Maven plugin automatically creates OpenShift Services and Routes.
All OpenShift configuration is performed in the pom.xml
The readinessProbe and livenessProbe can also be configured in the pom.xml
Approach 4 – Use a pre-built image from docker registry
The blog post “How to run Java fat-jars in Docker, Kubernetes and OpenShift” contains a complete description to easily craft a docker image to run “fat-jars”. The Dockerfile for the “hola” application is simple as:
FROM fabric8/java-jboss-openjdk8-jdk:1.0.13 ENV JAVA_APP_JAR hola-swarm.jar ENV AB_OFF true EXPOSE 8080 ADD target/hola-swarm.jar /app/
The docker image of the “hola” application is published in Docker hub as redhatmsa/hola, which allows OpenShift to create an application as simple as:
$ oc new-app --name approach4 redhatmsa/hola
Approach 4 characteristics:
A simple command creates the OpenShift application
It needs a pre-built image in the docker registry
Any changes in the source code requires the image to be rebuilt and published again
Conclusion
Each one of these 4 approaches has its own advantages and disadvantages due to its individual characteristics. This blogs presents the characteristics of each one allowing the developer to choose the one that is most suitable for his needs.
About the author: Rafael Benevides is a Director of Developer Experience at Red Hat. In his current role he helps developers worldwide to be more effective in software development, and he also promotes tools and practices that help them to be more productive. He worked in several fields including application architecture and design. Besides that, he is a member of Apache DeltaSpike PMC – a Duke’s Choice Award winner project. And a speaker in conferences like JUDCon, TDC, JavaOne and Devoxx. Twitter | LinkedIn | rafabene.com
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For more information about Red Hat OpenShift and other related topics, visit: OpenShift, OpenShift Online.Story highlights "Whatever mistakes I made -- and I certainly made them -- probably wouldn't have changed the outcome," Bush said
Bush also had harsh words for whom he labeled Trump's "accomplice" -- the press
Washington (CNN) A reflective Jeb Bush said he had no regrets Thursday about his failed presidential bid, saying in his first interview since leaving the race that Donald Trump could still lose the nomination fight.
"There's a possibility that he won't get 50% on the first ballot," Bush told CNN's Jamie Gangel, giving his first television interview exclusively to CNN after dropping out of the presidential race in February. "And if he doesn't do that, there are a whole lot of people who don't believe he's the proper guy."
Bush, who has endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for president but been largely invisible as a surrogate, wouldn't say whether he would support Trump as the nominee in November, though he added there's no way he would vote for Hillary Clinton. When asked repeatedly how he would vote if Trump became the nominee, Bush responded, "I'm hopeful he won't be."
The former governor said only two people could win the nomination, seeming to not recognize the argument made by Ohio Gov. John Kasich that he could emerge as the nominee.
Bush said he observed Trump's foreign policy speech Wednesday with bewilderment, saying, "I don't think he is a serious person."
Read MoreThe ship for Syfy's new series "Nightflyers," which will have a 10-episode first season. It may premiere as early as July 2018.
Science fiction meets horror in "Nightflyers," a new series on Syfy channel inspired by a story by author George R.R. Martin. Martin, whose "A Song of Ice and Fire" was adapted into the ultrapopular series "Game of Thrones" on HBO, shared more information about the upcoming series in a blog post.
"Nightflyers" is based on a 23,000-word novella (which was later expanded into 30,000 words) that Martin first wrote in 1980, according to an article on Syfy Wire. It was adapted into movie form in 1987, and will return again with a 10-episode first season, Martin revealed. The series' premiere date has not yet been announced, but Martin said if all went according to schedule, it would debut in late July.
"The inspiration for ['Nightflyers' and a previous novelette 'Sandkings'] was a statement I read somewhere by a critic, to the effect that SF and horror was opposites, and fundamentally incompatible," Martin wrote in a LiveJournal entry. "As a lifelong fan of both, that assertion struck me as nonsense, so I set out to prove it wrong by blending the two genres together." [The Best Scary Movies That Take Place in Space]
"Nightflyers" follows a ship's crew journeying to meet the alien Volcryn, according to Syfy Wire, but things quickly go off the rails.
Note that Martin offers spoilers for the end of the "Nightflyers" novella and movie in the paragraph below.
"At first I was baffled as to how they hoped to get a series out of my story, since at the end of the novella (and the film) pretty much everyone is dead (it was a horror story, after all)," Martin said. "But in May, [the production company] UCP got me a copy of [show creator] Jeff Buhler's script, and I saw how he'd dealt with that. It was a good read, and yes, I came away with a better idea of where they'd find a few seasons."
Okay, end of spoilers.
Buhler and showrunner Daniel Cerone met with Martin the week before Thanksgiving in Los Angeles to discuss the show and show off their set design — including the Nightflyer ship's design itself. Martin said that the show has a high enough budget for its look to appeal to modern audiences.
Martin added one particular tidbit that might intrigue "Game of Thrones" fans as well: "Nightflyers" will be shot on soundstages in Limerick, Ireland, which will give them access to some of the Irish and British actors who have been the mainstays of the HBO show.
"Considering how many characters we've killed, a lot of them should be available," Martin said.
The new series would debut on Syfy channel in the U.S. and via Netflix worldwide.
Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.The wild card is the Trump administration, and Trump's executive orders and deal making.
It's silly to assume that Canada's soft leverage of cultural likability or proximity will have any effect on Trump. As a businessman, Trump routinely demonstrated a zero-sum approach to deal making. Often, it was his business partners who got burned the worst. Trump's idea of a good deal is, he wins and everyone else loses.
When Trump says he wishes to 'tweak' NAFTA, it sounds innocuous, but David Cay Johnston's book "The Making of Donald Trump" doesn't describe a man who tweaks anything. It's hard to imagine something positive for the Canadians coming from Trump, a disingenuous player lacking a sense of fairness.
Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported Trump plans to change the way trade deficits are calculated. Assets of integrated manufacturing under NAFTA — say, the auto industry — would be tracked as imports as they move through America, but not as exports as they move out. This will artificially inflate the American trade gap with Mexico and manufacture the illusion of a trade deficit with Canada.
This is Trump preparing to tweak.
Recent polling, sponsored by Canadian daily The Globe and Mail, shows that Canadians wish their government would push back strongly against U.S. efforts toward import tariffs or reduction of labor free movement. But how effective could this be?
The size and opportunity the U.S. market represents to Canada are immense. Moreover, Canada-U.S. balanced trade shows that it is a mutually effective relationship. But only the United States truly stands to gain from re-litigating NAFTA.
The recent U.S. election showed an overwhelming desire for change, and a mandate was given to Trump, who — it cannot be argued — had the primary message of disrupting the status quo. For generations, Canada and the United States have had a mutually enriching trade relationship. It has grown as time passed. This is because it works, and the two countries work well together.
As NAFTA is "tweaked" to death and the Better Way comes to pass, the best Canada can do is collaborate with the 35 U.S. states with the closest relationship to Canada. It deconstructs traditional international trade relationships. But it's Canada's best chance to penetrate the insularity of the new USA.
— By Jason Martin, CEO of iotum, a SaaS collaboration company with offices in Toronto and Los Angeles, and a member of the CNBC-YPO Chief Executive Network.
About YPO
CNBC and YPO have formed an exclusive editorial partnership consisting of regional "Chief Executive Networks" in the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific. These Chief Executive Networks are made up of a sample of YPO's global network of 24,000 top executives from 120 countries who are on the front lines of the economy and run companies that collectively generate $6 trillion in annual revenue.With the North Carolina primary just days away, speculation is rife on why former N.C. Sen. John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, have not yet endorsed a presidential candidate. The speculation has settled on three possibilities:
A. Honest broker: Edwards, Al Gore and other neutral parties are holding back on endorsing so that, if need be, they can step in and help settle the nomination.
B. Wants to be AG: Edwards is hedging his bets because he wants to be the next Democratic attorney general fears if he endorses now he’ll pick the loser. There is also a rumor in North Carolina that he’s holding out for the VP slot.
C. The Edwards are split: Most of John Edwards’ former supporters in Congress have given their super-delegate endorsements to Obama, but Elizabeth Edwards is said to support Clinton. She endorsed Clinton’s healthcare plan over Obama’s (and McCain’s) earlier last month.
As John McLaughlin would say — the answer is A and C, but not B. Both Clinton and Obama have already picked their fantasy cabinets by now, and most presidents prefer to nominate an attorney general from within their inner circles.Click image to open high resolution PDF
A full-page ad in The New York Times protesting the Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby ruling June 30 is being sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national state/church watchdog representing over 20,000 nonbelieving members. It's expected to run in the front news section Thursday, July 3.
Featuring an arresting portrait of birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger, whose motto was "No Gods — No Masters," the ad criticizes the "all-male, all-Roman Catholic majority" on the Supreme Court for putting "religious wrongs over women's rights."
FFRF had previously submitted a friend of the court brief written by noted First Amendment scholar Marci Hamilton, urging the Supreme Court to declare the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) unconstitutional. Christian entrepreneurs running large chains challenged the contraceptive mandate of the Affordable Care Act, contending their corporate "religious rights" were violated under RFRA if their women employees chose |
he's a great supporter of multiculturalism.
"I'm a product of the great Australian experiment called multiculturalism. I want to be a champion of multiculturalism in the parliament. It's taking a beating at the moment. I think the debate on terrorism and refugees means that... um... that the multiculturalism issue needs a champion. And I'm going to be that champion."
At the moment the party has 10 seats in the Senate and is hoping to pick up more, especially because of the changes to how people are elected to the upper house.
Also, double-dissolution elections generally make it easier for minor parties because it halves the quota of votes senators need to get elected.
However, opinion polls are indicating that the election could go either way, with Labor and the Coalition garnering almost equal voter support.
If accurate, a clear decision on who will lead the country after the election may be impossible.
Both Labor and the Coalition have ruled out a powersharing deal with the Greens if the July election should result in a hung parliament.
But Senator Di Natale remains confident of the role the Greens would play in that eventuality.
"It makes much more sense to enter into a responsible power sharing arrangement and I think that's what you'll see. You'll see both sides of politics after the election talk to the Greens and independents and hopefully what we end up with then is an outcome where we get multi-party government, which I've said on a number of occasions will be the future for Australia."
Richard Di Natale says while it'll be a party decision, he personally wouldn't want to form a minority government with the Coalition.
He says it's inconceivable the Coalition would be supported to have another term.
"The Greens have already said that we would negotiate responsibly in the event of a hung parliament. But we have also said that given this government's record on global warming and preventing the action that is necessary there, on the cruel and harsh treatment towards innocent people seeking refuge and asylum, on so many issues. On the arts for example, cutting funding to the arts sector. This has been a terrible government for the country."
But it's the Senate where the Greens would wield real power if successful.
The race for Senate seats appears to be still wide open with new analysis showing 12 seats will hold the key to the balance of power.
Analysts are predicting the Coalition to win at least 30 out of the 76 Senate seats, while Labor should pick up 25, the Greens nine or ten and the Nick Xenophon Team three.The new platform can also "self-destruct" encryption keys the moment there's any tampering, and quickly encrypts the programming interfaces that tie apps and services together. And the Z is faster overall, regardless of the task at hand: there's three times the memory (a hefty 32TB), three times faster input/output and much lower lag when talking to a storage area network. The hardware should juggle many more transactions (like purchases at an online store) even as it boosts their overall security.
Naturally, there are catches to this utopian vision of internet security. While IBM plays an important role in online commerce (its transaction engine handles 87 percent of credit card payments), many companies would likely have to upgrade before you'd see the benefit. Any mass migration would probably take years, if it happens at all. And of course, IBM's solution doesn't stop hackers from taking data -- it just prevents them from reading that data. There's a chance, however slim, that the most determined perpetrators will find a way to decrypt content once they have it.
Nonetheless, this technology could be a big step forward if it lives up to IBM's hype. If you can assume that your sensitive data is always encrypted, you won't have to worry quite so much that thieves might go on a shopping spree with your credit card. This might also deter crooks if they know that they're unlikely to hit the jackpot when they crack a company's security.SAN JOSE, Calif. – The San Jose Earthquakes announced today that the club has signed a USL PRO affiliate partnership with Sacramento Republic FC for the 2014 season. The Earthquakes and the Portland Timbers have entered a joint affiliation with Sacramento, with each team sending a minimum of two players on loan to Republic FC in lieu of participating in the 2014 MLS Reserve League. Each team will have the option to recall their players at any point during the loan.
The Earthquakes have emphasized player development during the offseason. In addition to the USL PRO affiliate, San Jose announced that it will create a U-23 PDL team to allow Academy alumni and local players an opportunity to further hone their skills. The club also signed its first Homegrown Player on Wednesday, Jan. 22, Sacramento native Tommy Thompson.
"We are excited to team up with Republic FC as our USL PRO affiliate," said Earthquakes President Dave Kaval. “Establishing a USL PRO affiliation is a critical step in our continued investment in player development that includes our Academy, our PDL team, and our Homegrown Player efforts. Beyond the player development benefits, we feel that it is important to help develop professional soccer in Sacramento with an eye to eventually making it a home for its very own MLS team."
Sacramento Republic FC is an expansion franchise of USL PRO. The club will launch its inaugural season in 2014 and is planning to host its matches at an 8,000-seat multi-use facility at Cal Expo, pending approval by the Cal Expo board of directors. The club’s commitment to position Sacramento as an “indomitable city” is evident through its community investments and goal of MLS expansion by 2016. The club has taken steps to build the franchise with the highest caliber of talent, both on and off the field, for its inaugural USL PRO season including the hiring of head coach Predrag “Preki” Radosavljevic. The club’s motto is urbs indomita – Indomitable City. Indomitable Club. For more information, visit SacRepublicFC.com or follow the club at www.facebook.com/sacprosoccer and @SacRepublicFC.
“We are excited to partner with the Timbers and Earthquakes in an effort to develop talent on the field, emulate each club’s business success and eventually garner an MLS franchise of our own," said Warren Smith, president of Sacramento Republic FC. “Our organization is twice blessed with the ability to learn from not one, but two MLS clubs, their experienced operating teams and engaged, passionate supporters. This affiliate agreement provides Sacramento Republic FC, as well as the entire Sacramento region, one of the most talented USL PRO clubs in the league and a MLS vision for our community.”
ABOUT USL PRO
USL PRO is the strongest, best operated and most experienced North American men’s professional soccer league below MLS, both on and off the field. In 2013 USL PRO began a groundbreaking, multi-year partnership with MLS that will enhance the development of professional players in North America, strengthen the competition in both leagues, and establish a solid foundation for future collaboration. Focused on franchise stability and longevity, USL PRO features 13 teams participating in the 2013 season, including expansion teams in Phoenix and Tampa. The league is focused on aggressive but deliberate growth by adding teams fully capable of meeting USL and US Soccer standards, which are located in markets that further promote regional league play. In addition to league play, USL PRO teams compete in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup as well as various domestic and international exhibitions. USL PRO is the longest-standing pro league affiliate member of US SoccerThe Public Policy Polling survey found that 54 percent of US citizens support the final agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group.
© AP Photo / Pool photo via AP Don't Even Try: Kerry Warns Against Possible Israeli Attack on Iran
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – A majority of US citizens support the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers and want Congress to approve the deal, Public Policy Polling Director Tom Jensen said on Monday in a statement announcing the results of a poll.
“The message is clear: voters think the Iran deal is a good one for the country, they want Congress to move it along, and if anything they will reward elected officials in the future who throw their support behind the agreement,” Jensen said commenting on results of a new poll.
The Public Policy Polling survey found that 54 percent of US citizens support the final agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — China, France, Russia, the United States, Britain and Germany — that will guarantee the peaceful nature of Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Of those polled only 38 percent opposed the deal.
Along party lines, there is strong support among Democrats, with 75 percent in favor of the deal and only 17 percent opposed. That compares to 36 percent of Republicans who support the deal and 54 percent in opposition.
Members of Congress have 60 days to fully review the agreement with Iran reached on July 14. During the review period, President Barack Obama will not be able to waive or suspend congressional sanctions currently in place against Iran over its nuclear program.
If half of both the US House and Senate oppose the deal, Obama said he will veto the bill. Both chambers of Congress would then require a two-thirds majority to override the presidential veto.Cell phone footage captured at Wednesday’s campaign rally shows Donald Trump’s touching and spontaneous interaction with a group of mothers who attended the rally and who lost their children to illegal alien violence.
The footage shows Trump kissing and signing posters of the mothers’ deceased children after his rally in Anaheim, California.
Sabine Durden—whose 30-year-old son Dominic was murdered by an illegal alien who was driving without a license and who had two prior DUI charges—said that she “lost it” when Trump kissed her son’s poster.
“It came from his heart,” Durden said. “We were not in front of a big audience. He was on his way out of the building and we were off to the side… It was such a touching, and very genuine and tender moment and it shows what a kind, gentle and very caring man he is.”
The footage also revealed the pandemonium after a Trump rally—with fans reaching over and around each other as Secret Service desperately tries to maintain control of the chaotic situation. It is in this context that Trump, despite the pressure to continue moving forward, stopped and interacted with the families.
The affectionate gesture draws a sharp contrast with the growing chaos outside the arena—where protesters were waving foreign flags, chanting obscenities, and violently confronting law enforcement. The irony is that these children are dead specifically because law enforcement was not allowed to do its job.
“He’s our last hope for our country to ever recover,” Durden said of Trump’s candidacy.
Durden said that Trump has been her “personal hero and lifesaver.” She added, “He gave me the boost I needed to keep going and keep telling Dominic’s story.
She explained that prior to Trump’s candidacy, “a lot of us ‘Angel Moms’ felt as though no one would ever hear our stories.”
Durden, who is herself an immigrant to the United States, explained that “a week before he [Trump] announced his candidacy, I was so depressed. No one cared about our stories, no one talked about my permanently separated family. [After Dominic’s death] I had no more family here, and I contemplated suicide. Donald Trump saved my life. [When Trump announced his candidacy] I felt like I was finally heard. From then on, my son had a voice through Donald Trump. What he did for me was profound.”
Durden said that she disagrees with Hillary Clinton’s characterization of Trump as a “bully.”
“Donald Trump has always been so very kind,” Durden said. “People call him racist, and he’s none of that. My son Dominic was half black… and Donald Trump has always been so very gentle and concerned about how I feel and how I am doing.”
Durden said that it is Hillary Clinton — and not Trump — who is “the bully”:Jerry Rawlings as military leader.
Why people pay to read The New York Times
Lydia Polgreen Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 9, 2016
This is an edited version of a keynote address delivered at the Digital Next conference in Bogota, Colombia on May 4.
When I was in high school in the early 1990s, my family lived in Ghana. At that time, there were only a few hundred thousand telephone lines in the entire country. The waiting list to get a landline was years or even decades long. We happened to live in a house that did not have a telephone, and we had no hope of ever getting one. My most tech-savvy friends back in the United States were getting their first email addresses and chatting over the early internet messaging boards. But I lived in a profound state of disconnection. I wrote airmail letters to my closest friends back home but they took weeks to arrive. Once a year, at Christmas, my family would go to the post office to place a short, expensive call to my grandparents in the United States.
All around me, big news was unfolding. Ghana’s military dictator, a man named Jerry Rawlings, had decided to shuck off his uniform and become a democrat, running for office in a genuinely free and fair election. West African economies were grappling with the miserable rigors of structural adjustment. Post-colonial rulers were losing their authoritarian grip, and a period of brutal, interlocking civil wars in the region was beginning. Seeing these events happening right before my eyes sparked my passion for the news and for journalism. But there was no chance that I would read a piece of New York Times journalism about West Africa during that period, certainly not in real time. Other than the local press, which was hampered by decades of censorship, all we had was the scratchy shortwave of the BBC.
Rawlings as a civilian leader.
I share these memories because I think it is easy for all of us in the news business, in this age of never ending disruption, shrinking news budgets and ever-lower CPM rates, to forget how high the price of a disconnected world was. We tend to focus on what we, as publishers and gatekeepers, have lost. But we forget to celebrate what our customer, the news consumer, has gained. When I returned to Ghana as a correspondent for The New York Times twenty years later, a mobile phone chirped in every pocket. Smartphones, and mobile data connections were just beginning to take hold. Today, there are 31 million mobile phone connections in Ghana, a country with a population of 25 million. My stories about Ghana were widely read by Ghanaians, and that is a remarkable and welcome change.
Of course, the early wonder of the interconnected web, where anyone anywhere could read my stories, quickly gave way to the reality of a mediated, platform-driven world in which anyone, anywhere could publish their own story.
Credit: World Bank.
The transition to this amazing digital world has been tough. In the United States, the ranks of journalists keep shrinking. As I travel around the world for The New York Times, I hear from journalists everywhere about the painful downsizing happening across the industry. This has meant important stories go untold. Costly investigative reporting units pare back their ambition in the face of budget cuts. Expensive trips to conflict zones suddenly seem like a luxury publishers cannot afford, and news organizations everywhere rely more and more on wire services to cover the world. This has reduced the vibrancy and diversity of the journalism we consume, and the world is poorer for it. Above all, local journalism has suffered. Cities that once supported two or more daily newspapers find themselves with one, or none at all.
The print dollars that sustained double digit profit margins for legacy media companies have shriveled into digital pennies.
And as legacy publishers like The New York Times fell behind in the digital arms race, a new crop of publishers arose. The Huffington Post, with its mastery of search engine optimization, got more page views for aggregating my coverage of Nelson Mandela’s funeral than The New York Times did, despite the fact that The Times paid my salary and living costs to be based in South Africa.
Other new competitors, like BuzzFeed, Vox and Mashable, rode the mysterious algorithms of Facebook, spreading viral news stories like wildfire. Venture capitalists poured in money. These new companies bulked up their newsrooms, hiring journalists from places like The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal to build their serious news credibility and began publishing ambitious, deeply reported journalism.
Our business model had been pretty simple. First, you publish high quality journalism. Then you charge people money to read it and you charge companies money to advertise next to it. But suddenly that formula seemed so old fashioned, so antiquated. Native advertising, powered by a fancy content management system or a nifty algorithmic distribution method, was all the rage in the news business. Digital media companies talked about becoming platforms. Old line publishers, including The New York Times, were fighting for their very survival.
But lately, the mood is changing. Digital media upstarts, instead of holding out for billion dollar IPOs, are seeking shelter in big legacy media companies. Germany’s Axel Springer bought Business Insider for $400 million dollars in what has proven to be a high-water mark for digital media acquisitions. Quartz, a popular global business news startup, is said to be on the hunt for a buyer. Mashable, a once-high flying new media startup that had built a sizeable newsroom, was said to put itself on the market. When no buyer came along, the company laid off much of its news staff, including many seasoned journalists, and announced that it is pivoting to video and entertainment.
BuzzFeed, a Silicon Valley favorite, was reported to have missed its revenue target last year, and slashed its forecast for this year, though BuzzFeed disputes this. While it maintains a robust newsroom for now, its center of gravity appears to be shifting from news to entertainment. Questions linger about whether its business model, which relies on creating expensive native advertising campaigns for brands, is scalable.
These days everyone is scrambling to catch up with the landslide to mobile, which has relegated the old model of selling display advertising adjacent to relevant text articles to the dustheap. Everyone seems to hope that video advertising on mobile, with its high CPM rates, will be the next gold rush.
But are those high rates here to stay? The digital advertising business, like the news business, has been disrupted time and again by technology, with each advance allowing advertisers to target their message with ever more ruthless efficiency at the consumers most likely to want what they are selling. Mobile video will be no different.
Besides, the advertising business, especially on mobile, is increasingly in the hands of one company: Facebook. In the last quarter, Facebook made $1.5 billion in profit. Not revenue. Profit. Most of that money came from mobile advertising. Some digital publishers are aiming to slice off a portion of that cash, making content that travels fast on Facebook’s algorithm-driven distribution superhighway. Embedding advertising on Facebook’s formats, like Instant Articles, and live video, is supposed to give publishers a way around pesky problems of our internet age, like ad blocking, but also keeps users in Facebook’s walled garden.
Facebook’s command over everyone’s attention span, as well as its deft use of your personal data, has turned it into a money-spinning machine. We may well look back and see Facebook as the most consequential development in publishing since the invention of hot type. But Facebook holds most of the cards, and even the smallest changes in how it pushes information out to its billion plus users’ news feeds can make or break a digital publisher.
So where does that leave old fashioned news organizations like The New York Times? Surveying this seemingly terrifying landscape, I am cautiously optimistic. The successful rollout of our paywall in 2011 was crucial in resetting the conversation with readers about the value of the journalism we produce. The Times now has 1.2 million digital subscribers worldwide, with the fastest growth coming from outside the United States. Our total number of print subscribers is shrinking, but slowly. About 600,000 copies circulate on weekdays, and 1.1 million on Sunday.
In 1995 The Times had 1.5 million print subscribers. We currently have 2.5 million subscriptions if you count print and digital subscriptions together. Last year the Times made $400 million in digital revenue, much more than any of our digital competitors. Our native advertising shop, T Brand Studios, is growing fast, taking our advertisers into our newest forms of storytelling, like virtual reality.
The Times has reached another important milestone. We now make more revenue from our subscribers than we do from our advertisers. Late last year the company’s leaders laid out an ambitious goal to double digital revenue to $800 million by 2020. That strategy explicitly stated that The Times considers itself to be a subscription business first and an advertising business built on a loyal, engaged and paying audience. Ninety percent of our digital revenue comes from just 12 percent of our readers.
I find this shift to be incredibly exciting. As someone who cares deeply about independent journalism, I love the idea that our most important financial relationship is with the reader, not the advertiser. It clarifies our mission and helps us make tough choices about how to spend our precious editorial resources.
That close bond with our most loyal readers is the heart of our journalistic and business strategy. Supplying these news consumers with a steady diet of informative, compelling, useful and moving pieces of journalism they cannot find anywhere else is the key to our success. Nothing else matters.
That is why we recently published, in English and in Spanish, a 21,000 word story about a woman learning to live with Alzheimer’s. The article was written by N. R. Kleinfield, known to his colleagues as Sonny. Sonny is not one of those hot young talents we’ve hired lately, adept at the latest form of digital storytelling on platforms like Snapchat and Vine. He joined The New York Times as a reporter in 1977, two years after I was born. He is the writer The Times turned to on Sept. 11 to try to make sense of the unfolding tragedy. His story that day opened with a simple declaration of horrific fact: “It kept getting worse.”
Sonny spent 20 months with a woman named Geri Taylor, documenting her experience with Alzheimer’s disease from not long after her diagnosis. It is an utterly unique work of immersive journalism. It is not the kind of the thing you’d expect to go viral. Yet it found a huge readership almost immediately. More than half of the readers came to the story on their mobile phone, which appears to have been no deterrent to spending a long time reading deep into an emotionally wrenching tale. The comments from readers, especially those with loved ones who had suffered from Alzheimers, were deeply moving.
“Thank you for the poetry in the writing and the bravery and dignity of this piece,” wrote a reader named Phyllis Tims, whose father had died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.
Ms. Tims commented on Sonny’s story on Facebook, that dreaded platform. Is Facebook going to eat the news business alive? After all, it has made huge piles of money selling advertising, something that used to be our business.
Justin Smith, chief executive of the publishing arm of Bloomberg, said last week that news companies were left “feeding on the scraps,” of Facebook’s advertising business. I understand his frustration. Facebook fills its news feed, where it sells its ads, with articles it does not pay for but cost news companies billions of dollars to create.
But I take a different view. News companies can cry over the past, or we can embrace the new world. Facebook is a fact of modern life, and isn’t going anywhere. But for smart news organizations that create truly unique content, Facebook is a valuable platform for the same reasons it is valuable to any other business: it helps us find and connect with our most likely customers. In the case of The New York Times, that means loyal readers who will eventually become paying subscribers.There are few horological stories steeped in as much controversy and lore as the tale of 1969 and the first automatic chronograph. Not only do three different brands have a valid claim to being the first to have achieved making the historic complication, but the short-lived happiness of said achievements the very same year, thanks to the introduction of the quartz watch, make the story tragically bittersweet.
The realization of an automatic chronograph was huge for the watchmaking world, but over the following months and years it was more or less overshadowed by quartz technology. So much so that five years later in 1974, practically the last new automatic chronograph movement for the next few decades was released with little fanfare.
That movement, the Valjoux 7750, went on to be one of the most long-lasting and widely used movements for all price levels of watches in the modern era thanks to being the most cost-effective, reliable and easily configurable.
Over the years, the Valjoux 7750 has been released in dozens of configurations making it a true chameleon and nearly cornering the market for affordable mid-range automatic chronographs.
Problem on the horizon
For this reason there is also a problem on the horizon. Now produced by the Swatch Group-owned ETA, what is now known as the ETA Valjoux 7750 and its variants will be included in the current and expanding limitations on parts and ébauches for non-Swatch group brands.
Basically, if you aren’t on their team, you may not be able to buy 7750s in the near future. I do not intend to comment on such proceedings, but this little fact is useful to know because it makes it very clear that the industry is in need of at least another player.
Sellitta with its clone Caliber SW500 is a good example, but as of yet it cannot be made in the volume needed by the industry.
There are brands producing movements, yes, and companies producing chronographs and automatic chronographs, but not at the volume level of ETA and not at the sweet price point of the Valjoux 7750.
The 7750 is a no-nonsense, cam-driven chronograph that is relatively easy to manufacture at scale and a solid choice for a small brand to utilize. With the prospect of having to look elsewhere since the Swatch Group announcement that supply would be reduced and eventually halted, other movement makers have been in the crosshairs for desperate brands.
Enter the brand-new NE88 automatic chronograph movement by SII, Seiko Instruments, Inc. It might just be what the market has been waiting for. Actually, it might be better than they had hoped. But why?
White knight from the east?
That is a question with a complicated answer, and for this nerd writer it is taken from a perspective that Swiss isn’t necessarily better; instead, better is better.
And then we have the somewhat subjective question of what constitutes better. Let’s start with the obvious.
The NE88 is designed to be a possible replacement for the 7750 in general size, function, and, most importantly, cost. According to early reports, the NE88 will be available for approximately the same price as an ETA 7750. And Seiko is likely to be a reliable partner able to deliver high volumes.
That fact alone makes it a safer bet for long-term investment, even if you are hesitant about any perceived quality. A smart manager would not bet a brand’s future on something that has already been clearly stated to soon be unavailable except to the “chosen few.”
Also, the NE88 is available for development without any pre-conditions like long-term contracts or high volume commitments, or a need for the buyer to go through a vetting process; something which I have heard isn’t always the case with certain movement makers.
To help with that development, technical guides with all of the necessary measurements needed when designing around the NE88 movement are already available. While this is not unique to SII, it shows that the maker understands what is expected and needed to try to fight the big dog in the yard.
Standout features
The NE88 has some features that really stand out, and a few causing even seasoned collectors and watch nerds take notice.
First off is a classic Seiko feature: a triple-tipped hammer that simultaneously and instantly resets all the subdial counters back to zero. It’s a very clean and effective solution already found on the Seiko 8R28, a higher end column-wheel triple vertical clutch movement utilized in the Ananta and Velatura models.
However, more important and eye-opening is the chronograph activation mechanism: a column wheel. Considered by the industry and collectors alike as a more highly coveted mechanism, thanks to its vertical clutch the column wheel offers a much smoother tactile feel than the harder click of the horizontal cam lever chronograph as used in the 7750.
This by itself makes the NE88 a “nicer” movement to use than the one it seeks to supplant.
Follow up that already rare-for-this-market-segment feature with the addition of a vertical clutch and you have a real winner. A vertical clutch was invented to solve many problems that chronographs face with jumping second hands, excessive wear on the center wheel, and the obviously rudimentary mechanism that sees a wheel “jammed” into another when starting the chronograph.
The NE88 employs a vertical clutch to avoid these issues, which goes toward creating a top-notch chronograph movement. Because a column-wheel chronograph is more complex to produce, more difficult to adjust and virtually impossible to service, it is a mechanism usually reserved for only the best chronographs on the market. So to find it as a standard feature on a reasonably-priced movement hoping to overtake the industry workhorse is a pretty big deal.
A pretty big deal
Actually, the whole movement is a pretty big deal if it can live up to claims as well as the rigors of the real world.
Also, I am hoping that it solves some other issues with the 7750 such as excessive noise and vibration from a slightly sloppy ball bearing on the rotor. This is a signature element of the 7750, which some collectors actually enjoy as it makes you very sure you have a 7750 on your wrist because you can feel the rotor moving as you wear it.
However, to many collectors, that element is a large detractor from the 7750. It could be a very big side benefit if the NE88 is nice and quiet on the wrist.
Also, the 7750 has never been a particularly attractive movement, but it’s possible that the new NE88 might prove to be something brands will put a little effort into embellishing since it has a better chance of being appreciated with the column wheel and vertical clutch.
Beside these features, the NE88 seems to be a very comparable movement to the 7750 in terms of functions. And in terms of dimensions, the NE88 has a slight edge for being thinner (by 0.28 mm) and smaller in diameter (by 2.0 mm).
This allows even more freedom in designing for the NE88 because you have more room to work with and can make an even smaller timepiece than you could with a 7750.
While it is only a bit smaller, every millimeter counts when designing a timepiece for the wrist. A common issue for automatic chronographs has always been size and the NE88 may be highly appreciated by brands and collectors wanting a more wearable piece.
The first brand to use it
So who will debut it? And when will be your first chance to get your hands on a wristwatch containing an NE88 automatic column-wheel chronograph movement?
Well, those two questions are easy to answer. The lucky brand that had first dibs and one that is a known entity for this writer is none other than Vostok-Europe. In fact, have a look at my review of the Vostok-Europe Radio Room here.
What did I say? Yup, the first watch to hit the market powered by this awesome, new, and possible 7750 killer will be made by Vostok-Europe in honor of its tenth anniversary this year.
Inspired by the world’s largest aircraft, the AN-225 Mriya, the Vostok-Europe Mriya will be a 20 ATM diver in stainless steel coming at 50 mm diameter. Not a small watch by any means (look at its inspiration), but definitely a bold debut for a possibly game-changing movement.
I for one am very excited to see where the NE88 goes and how the market and the industry react to it. I am also very anxious to hear reports on the build quality, longevity, and overall quality of operation.
If things pan out, we may have a solid and affordable automatic column-wheel chronograph alternative that defies long-held beliefs that only the best comes from Switzerland.
There is also no doubt that the Swatch Group has the industry in a tight spot. This might be the movement that changes the future, and makes quality, affordable watches not a thing of the past.
It is definitely too soon to know, and time will tell, but I am one nerd writer who will be as excited about this as a kitten in a feather pillow factory!
Quick facts Vostok-Europe Mriya
Case: stainless steel, 50 mm
Movement: Caliber SII NE88, automatic column-wheel chronograph
Functions: hours, minutes, seconds; chronograph
Price: approx. $2,399
Limitation: 500 pieces, comes with two straps and a strap-changing tool
Release date: late September 2014 (can be ordered here: www.detentewatches.com)New RA Flood Attack
Killing Mavericks
Killing Lion
Windows 8.1 Survives!
Older Contents (2012)
Killing the Microsoft Surface with a Wireless IPv6 Attack
You can get the attack script at http://pastebin.com/aXUxBXxk
To use it, first download and compile thc-ipv6-2.0.
BE GOOD--don't attack any devices without proper authorization.
Google Notified
Hello: I have been studying IPv6 vulnerabilities for a few years, and they were a large problem for Windows but not for the Mac or Linux. But with the recent release of thc-ipv6-2.0 that has all changed. The new RA flood tool freezes an Android device, as shown in the videos here: http://samsclass.info/ipv6/proj/RA_flood2.htm I think you should be aware of this. It might be good to block excessive RA packets with a firewall, or implement some other countermeasure. --Sam Bowne
City College San Francisco
Freezing an Android Phone With an IPv6 Attack
IPv6 Attack Kills MacBook Air & 3 iPads
Notifying Apple
But I wanted to make sure they knew, so I sent this message to product-security@apple.com:
Hello: I have been studying IPv6 vulnerabilities for a few years, and they were a large problem for Windows but not for the Mac. But with the recent release of thc-ipv6-2.0 that has all changed. It can bring a Mac down in seconds, as shown in the videos here: http://samsclass.info/ipv6/proj/RA_flood2.htm I think you should be aware of this. It might be good to block excessive RA packets with a firewall. --Sam Bowne
City College San Francisco
Killing Mac OS X on a Wireless LAN
Killing Mac OS X with a Crossover Cable
This makes the attack MUCH more practical than the one I demonstrated at BayThreat, which required an expensive and bulky switch and a separate router.
Data Breaches and Password Hashes WITH the New IPv6 RA Flood Attack
The IPv6 attack starts in Part 2.
Videos: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
Wireless: Freezing the iPad Mini
Killing Mac OS X Reliably with a better switch
This kills the Mac OS X reliably, showing a crash of the Ethernet adapter so it stops configuring addresses, followed by the whole OS freezing.
Wireless Attack on iPad 3
The other devices we tested were Windows 8, iPad 1, and MacBook Air. They all slowed down during the attack, but remained usable. The iPad 1 was the most resistant to this attack, all it did was consume about 10% - 20% of the CPU, making no significant difference in its performance.
Posted 11-30-12
Microsoft's IPv6 Readiness Update
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2750841
However, it's only available for Win 7 and Win Server 2008 R2. In addition, it only provides partial protection: a patched machine freezes totally during the attack, but recovers quickly when it stops. It is possible to do better--Ubuntu Linux completely shrugs off the attack, adding a few new IPv6 addresses and showing no deleterious effect at all.
Here's a video showing the attack killing Windows 8, Server 2008, and Mac OS X:
Here's a video showing the extent to which the Microsoft IPv6 Readiness Update protects Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. It also shows the attack's effect on Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux.
Details of an earlier test using virtual machines are here.
Killing Mac OS X and Server 2012
How it Works
It's a normal RA, with these ICMPv6 Options:
MTU
Prefix Information
Source link-layer address
Here's a captured packet from the newer attack, shown in two images because it's too big to fit in one.
It's a normal RA, with these ICMPv6 Options:
17 Route Information sections
18 Prefix Information sections
1 Source link-layer address
So each packet burdens the recipients a lot more.
I think Microsoft and Apple need to pay attention this time, because this one crashes the Mac, and it makes Server 2012 restart, which makes me suspect it could be exploited further, perhaps into a remote code execution attack.
Packet Captures
RAs.pcap
References
Marc Hause's slides presenting thc-ipv6 version 2
http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2012kul/materials/D1T2%20-%20Marc%20Heuse%20-%20IPv6%20Insecurity%20Revolutions.pdf
Step-by-step instructions for testing the older tool
http://samsclass.info/ipv6/proj/projL9-flood-router.htm
First posted: 7:30 am 11-20-12 by Sam Bowne
Page reorganized with Contents section 11-30-12 10:36 am
New videos 4 and 5 added 12-5-12
BayThreat Videos added 12-8-12 11:19 pm
Attacks on the Mac OS X with simulated routers added 7:45 pm, 12-10-12.
Apple notified 12-11-12
3 iPads video added 11:37 PM 12-11-12
Android attack and Google notification added 4:36 PM 12-12-12
Microsoft Surface attack added 7 am 12-15-12
Mavericks & Win 8.1 added 11-12-13At a debate in Fort Worth on Monday, a Republican candidate for the Texas state board of education |
an exhibitor this year gave me a different taste of what QuakeCon is about,” said So. “It was amazing talking to everyone who came by the TeSPA booth and getting a chance to interact with the community. Definitely looking forward to going again next year.”
A huge thank you to the Quakecon Staff and Volunteers who worked around the clock and made our visit so enjoyable. Next year’s Quakecon will be their 20 year anniversary, for more information about the franchise, visit their website.
Tags:TOKYO (Reuters) - British rock band Led Zeppelin enjoyed jamming together again last year in a charity concert but won’t have another session before September at the earliest, lead guitarist Jimmy Page said in Tokyo on Monday.
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page poses for photographers before a news conference to promote the band's album of live performances entitled "Mothership" in Tokyo, January 28, 2008. REUTERS/Michael Caronna
A successful reunion show in London in December rekindled hopes of a world tour, but Page said that singer Robert Plant’s tour with U.S. country singer Alison Krauss is keeping him busy for now.
“I can assure you the amount of work that we put into the O2 (concert), for ourselves rehearsing and the staging of it, was probably what you put into a world tour,” Page said.
But, “Robert Plant also had a parallel project running and he’s really busy with that project, certainly until September, so I can’t give you any news.”
Page, in Tokyo to promote a greatest hits release, painted a happy picture of the reunion.
“It was exhilarating, fantastic, every week was a week to look forward to,” he said. “We did the show and it was great.”
The band, formed in 1968 by Page, Plant, bass guitarist John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham, became arguably the world’s biggest rock group by the early 1970s.
Their fourth album, released in 1971, included their most famous song, “Stairway to Heaven,” while the band has sold an estimated 300 million albums worldwide.
The group decided to break up shortly after Bonham died in September 1980, although Page and Plant collaborated at times over the years.
Plant, Page and Jones performed together in London before about 20,000 fans on December 10, with Bonham’s son Jason on the drums.
When the concert was announced, the Internet site selling tickets crashed with applications, while the possibility of a new world tour had fans around the globe excited.
Page said after many years the song indeed remained the same.
“That is what was so thrilling really — to come together after all this time and find that there was so much chemistry and so much electricity involved in these four characters.”Guest essay by Leo Goldstein
This essay attempts to address a rarely asked question: How did Silicon Valley, one of the greatest centers of wealth and brain power on Earth, embrace climate alarmism? Silicon Valley insiders are smart and successful people. By “Silicon Valley insiders,” I mean the founders, owners, venture capitalists, executives, and software professionals of the so-called tech companies located not only in the Silicon Valley, but elsewhere in the U.S.
Cognitive biases affecting understanding of the sciences
1. Silicon Valley insiders are educated and experienced in the software side of computer sciences but rarely in the kind of sciences that are directly involved with climate topics, such as physics, biology or energy engineering.
2. Software professionals tend to have a habit of not RTFM (and are proud of it). Software and Internet billionaires also might lack the time to RTFM.
3. Hardware design and manufacturing requires knowledge of physics, chemistry, and engineering. However, within the last 25 years most of the hardware manufacturing and even design that put the word “silicon” in Silicon Valley went offshore. In the last ten years, Silicon Valley has been doing very little outside software development (including firmware,) graphic design, marketing, “content,” and finances.
4. In contrast, software-centered computer sciences knowledge is very small in volume compared to the natural sciences, such as physics. One might even say that there is a 80/80/80 rule: 80% of what 80% of software engineers and architects use can be studied in 80 months. And this is the same pool of knowledge, shared by all these intelligent professionals. One cannot even remotely compare that body of knowledge to that of physics. It wouldn’t make sense to try to calculate how many months it would take to study all applied physics, or even one of its many branches (geophysics, atmospheric physics, nuclear physics, etc.) Consequently, smart minds with a software background easily fall into believing misleading “greenhouse” explanations by climate alarmists.
5. Software sciences are also everchanging. Ideas that haven’t been in circulation within the last five years just don’t matter. For example, one can be an excellent software engineer without ever hearing about the Turing machine, proposed and analyzed by Alan Turing in 1936. Can someone become an aerodynamic engineer without ever knowing Newton’s laws?
6. Developers of video games use realistic physical models and work hard to make them produce 60 frames per second. It is hard for them to believe that self-appointed “climate scientists” can cook up alarmist climate models designed to produce a physically incorrect output every 6 years.
7. Success is known to breed hubris and arrogance. Many SV insiders are extremely successful.
Cognitive biases affecting politics of the Silicon Valley businesses
8. It’s possible that some SV insiders (just as many politicians) confuse the “Internet opinion” (comments, tweets, subreddits etc.) as reflection of the US public opinion, when it’s more reflective of the leftist echo-chamber. Much of this content is written by college faculty and students, individuals with extra time on their hand and people living outside of the US. Most Silicon Valley companies are “Internet companies.” The Internet transcends international borders, so SV insiders seem to be blind to the dangers of global governance agendas, and some may even embrace them. A clear example of this is the promotion of the “United Nations Global Goals” on the Google’s U.S. front page. This is offensive to those who do not want to be subjects of the UN or any global governance. Climate alarmism has a very strong global governance component.
9. Silicon Valley is a suburb of San Francisco, a notorious Leftist stronghold, and includes Berkeley. Many SV insiders lived in this atmosphere long enough to imbibe its “values” and do not question its strong agendas, including climate alarmism. Add to this the prejudice that liberals are smarter and more educated than conservatives.
10. I suppose SV insiders find it hard to believe that the speech of climate realists could have been suppressed to such a great degree in this country. I could not believe that, too.
Possible Financial Motives
11. Silicon Valley companies do a lot of business abroad, including content business, from web search to news. Many SV companies derive more than 70% of their revenues from sales abroad. In doing so, they must obey local laws and satisfy demands of foreign governments. These demands may be political or ideological. Foreign laws and political demands seem to influence the thinking and actions of Silicon Valley companies. For example, Germany’s government demanded Facebook remove or filter out “fake news.” Immediately after, Facebook announced an initiative to do similar things (flagging “fake news”) in the U.S. Not surprisingly, all announced fact checkers are left-leaning, and some of them are notorious purveyors of fake news. Most foreign governments and political parties are either enthusiastic supporters or even instigators of climate alarmism, and might have heavily influenced SV insiders.
12. I hope none of these tech companies attempted to acquiesce demands of foreign governments or other foreign (including international) political entities regarding the content they provide in the US.
13. Of course, many tech companies are notoriously linked with the Democratic Party. This might be a consequence of the factors listed above, or it might have been a condition for success under Democratic administrations. For example, Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt was on Obama’s 2009 transition team before he went on to take a position in his science and technology advisory council.
14. Some SV insiders might be, as Richard Lindzen said, “newly minted billionaires who find the issue of ‘saving the planet’ appropriately suitable to their grandiose pretensions.”
California derived its early growth from the oil, soon becoming the national scientific leader. Now, it is comprised of little more than Hollywood, software, Jerry Brown, and collapsing infrastructure. Massachusetts, California and New York, the states that were once leaders in science, technology, and education, are now leaders in climate obscurantism.
This article focuses on the root causes of the climate alarmism conquest of Silicon Valley and its timeframe before 2014. Examples of recent actions by Google and Facebook simply illustrate earlier trends.
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RedditStarz has given a two-season, 20-episode order to a live-action comedy from Seth MacFarlane and scribe Jonathan Ames to star Patrick Stewart.
“Blunt Talk” will be produced by Media Rights Capital and targeted to premiere next year. Stewart will play a British newscaster, Walter Blunt, who comes to America to conquer cable news. Starz’s significant commitment to the project that was shopped to pay-TV outlets, including Netflix and Showtime, signals the cabler’s interest in building a lineup of half-hour comedies.
“In the character of Walter Blunt, Seth, Jonathan and Patrick have found the alchemy that makes a borderline alcoholic, mad-genius-Brit the man you want fighting in America’s corner,” Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said. “Seth and Jonathan have struck the right balance between biting wit and outright absurdity in building this world, and we cannot wait for Patrick to breathe life into Walter.”
COVER STORY: Seth MacFarlane on ‘Million Ways to Die,’ Projects That ‘Terrify’ Him
Ames created the series and will serve as showrunner. MacFarlane will exec produce through his Fuzzy Door Prods. The show will not be produced through 20th Century Fox TV, where MacFarlane has the bulk of his TV projects. MRC is in business with MacFarlane on the feature side with “Ted” and its upcoming sequel and the hyphenate’s latest project, “A Million Ways to Die in the West.”
Related TV Ratings: 'The Orville' Season 2 Premiere Down From Season 1 Seth MacFarlane, Sienna Miller Join Showtime's Roger Ailes Limited Series
“We have wanted to work with Chris Albrecht for years. His instinct for character-driven series is unparalleled and he is not afraid to push the boundaries,” said Modi Wiczyk, co-CEO of MRC.
Ames previously created the HBO comedy “Bored to Death.” Stewart has worked with MacFarlane in the past as a character voice on the Fox toon “American Dad.”
“It’s been a delight to collaborate on ‘Blunt Talk’ with two such talented and strange men as Seth MacFarlane and Patrick Stewart,” Ames said. “The only problem is that sometimes on conference calls Seth will uncannily recreate Patrick’s voice, and I’m not sure who’s talking, but other than that it’s been smooth sailing.”
Starz will hang on to domestic digital and homevid rights to “Blunt Talk.”David Leal (@ior3k) shares some thoughts on the documentation process.
Update: Part 2 of the Series: How to Write Living Documentation
If you are a software developer, I hope by now you have realized that you're much more than a "code monkey". If that weren't the case, you'd be translating between a detailed description of a given process, written in natural language, and some programming language that the computer could understand. You'd be a language translator. But you're not. Consider the following:
Often, you begin with a very vague specification (i.e., a story) of a feature you need to implement. You'll probably need to talk to a few people (and first you must determine who you should be talking to) in order to understand exactly what the feature is about, why it's needed, and how it will be used. Sometimes, you'll be given a problem in the form of a solution ("we need to add a field to widget XYZ"). When this happens, you will find that you need to work backwards from the solution in order to understand what the real problem is. In this way, you gain the ability to evaluate the solution that was originally proposed.
Once you have the required information, and you have determined you’re the one who should be building this feature (since it’s possible that another teammate is in a better position to build it) you must consider each possible solution (including the original solution-problem, if you were given one). You need to ask some questions:
What are the inputs? What needs to happen? Are there any corner cases?
How does the new feature integrate into the existing application?
How does it affect existing functionality? How complex is it?
How big is it?
Does performance matter here?
And finally, which of these questions are even important for this problem?
Sound familiar? Here's another thing that will be familiar as well:
None of this involves writing code.
This process involves thought and communication--essential ingredients of problem solving--but not code. We are not just software developers, we are, first of all, problem solvers. In fact, we solve some of our problems by deciding not to write code at all (and I'd argue those are the best solutions).
Of course, you can decide you don't need to do any of the above, and you can jump straight into coding.
Weeks of programming can save you hours of planning!
-- Unknown
I can vouch for that.
To document, or not to document####
Let's say you're one of those people who haven't yet seen the light, so you actually go through the trouble of thinking things through. How do you do it? Maybe you think a little, sketch a little, write a little, repeat, until you reach an acceptable solution. What happens to that output? Do you simply discard it, or leave it buried in whatever project planning tool you use, and start implementing? Maybe you believe code is the design, and therefore, that it is the only thing that's really necessary?
Is code design? Well, yes and no. First, code may be design and, in theory, code is all that's needed for an application to work, and for you to understand how it works. But code only tells you how things work. It doesn't tell you why they should work the way they do, or how they are actually supposed to work. So, even if code is design, that design alone is insufficient.
Second, think about people that are new to the application (or you, coming back to a certain area of the code after a long time away from it). It's very hard to get an overall idea of what a feature does (much less an application!) by simply looking at the code. It's like trying to understand how a machine works by looking at each part separately. You can do it--in theory--but it will take you a long time.
So, I hope we agree that some documentation, at least, would be useful. But we all know what happens to documentation. Documentation starts losing its value the minute it's added, just like a new car loses value the moment it's bought. It decays if you don't keep it current. Worse, given its potential to mislead innocent developers, it may be more harmful to have documentation that is out of date than having no documentation at all.
Wouldn't it be great to have documentation which you know you can rely on, because it actively encourages you to keep it up to date?
Living documentation####
Living documentation is documentation that is backed by tests. For that reason, it’s much harder for it to become outdated, as regular documentation does. Here's an example meant to be executed by Cucumber, a popular living documentation tool:
Feature: Photo display A photography site is all about photos, and the bigger they are, the better. If we limit the text content, we can use the entire background area to show a single photo. Due to time constraints, we're not building a dedicated photo gallery yet, but we must give people a chance to see more photos, using a very simple navigation system that uses "back" and "forward" links, like a manually activated slideshow. Scenario: photo shown on the homepage When a visitor visits the homepage multiple times Then they should see a different photo each time Scenario: photo navigation When a visitor is looking at a photo Then they can choose to see the photo that follows it And they can choose to see the photo that precedes it Scenario: photo navigation beyond last photo When a visitor tries to see the photo that comes after the last photo Then they should be shown the first photo in the slideshow instead...
These are the basic components of a living document:
The feature name
A quick overview--why the feature exists, what problem it solves, what alternatives you explored, etc. Whatever you believe to be relevant for people reading the feature documentation.
Some people use the known story format, "As a... I want to... so that...", others prefer a free-flowing format.
A series of scenarios, describing several aspects of the feature. They are written in a slightly constrained format--each line must start with one of Given, When, Then, And and But.
Did you notice that there's no code in sight? We have a perfectly readable document, written in a natural language (albeit with a slightly more constrained format), which we can show to stakeholders (if they are willing to read it), but above all, to fellow team members. This and other documents like it, properly organized, will form the basis for understanding what the application does, and why. Use it to define the team's shared vocabulary. Use it to recall functionality that you had previously forgotten. Export the whole suite to PDF and give it to a new team member to read.
Why not use a lightweight spec framework to write the documentation?####
You can use a spec framework (like, RSpec, or Capybara's feature DSL) to practice a kind of limited literate testing, but that approach comes with a few drawbacks. Compare the Gherkin version:
Feature: Background picture display Scenario: show random background picture When a visitor visits the page multiple times Then they see a different background picture each time
And the RSpec version:
describe "Background picture display" do context "When a visitor visits the page multiple times" it "They see a different background picture each time" do end end end
There are a few important differences from the first case to the second:
First, the Gherkin version has much less noise than the RSpec version. There are Feature: and Scenario: keywords, and some indentation. In contrast, the RSpec version requires you to enclose the text in quotes, it is using 3 different keywords ( describe, context, it ) and the usual Ruby block syntax ( do... end ).
Second, this is not the time to be thinking about code! You should be focusing on the business rules. You'll probably want to clarify your thoughts by rewording things a bit, move some steps around, tweak the terms used to better fit the domain. The more rigid structure of the RSpec example makes that harder to do. Text is easier to manipulate than code.
Third, it's harder to read. It mixes code and business rule descriptions. If you export just the business rule parts, you are still unable (as far as I know) to export comments supplementing the business rule descriptions.
Conclusion####
In this article, I tried to convince you to step away from the code a bit, and give some consideration to higher level issues. In future articles, I plan to explore in more depth what living documentation is about, show some complete examples, and some suggestions for an effective workflow.
It's time we start giving code the relative importance it has. Code is the way to talk to very stupid machines. It is less ambiguous, but also less flexible and less expressive.
Nothing compares to the power of human language. Put it to good use!
Further reading####
They Write the Right Stuff: There are many gold nuggets in "They Write the Right Stuff", but the one that initially impressed me the most was seeing the impact that a properly specified system had on the quality of the code
Hammock-Driven Development: Rich Hickey has been an inspiration for me ever since I first saw Simple Made Easy. This talk is about the process that underlies coming up with robust solutions to the problems we face as software developers.
Solving Cucumber's Problems: Jonas Nicklas briefly discusses some of the problems of the code-all-the-things approach.
If you feel this strongly about documentation we probably want to hire you.A court has heard a 22-year-old man charged with the intention of committing acts of terrorism purchased a "gladius machete" in order to murder the Labour MP for Lancashire West, Rosie Cooper.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is also charged with making threats to kill a female police officer.
He and five other men, aged between 22 and 35, are accused of belonging to proscribed neo-Nazi group National Action, which was banned under terror laws in December 2016.
The others facing charges are 24-year-old Garron Helm, 23-year-old Matthew Hankinson, 33-year-old Andrew Clarke, 31-year-old Christopher Lythgoe and 35-year-old Michal Trubini.
Image: Rosie Cooper - Labour MP for West Lancashire
Lythgoe is also charged with encouragement to commit murder by giving permission to the 22-year-old to murder Rosie Cooper.
All the men confirmed their names and addresses during a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.
Bail applications for Garron Helm and Christopher Lythgoe were denied.
The six men will appear at the Old Bailey on Friday 3 November.Image caption The dinosaur had two large claws on its feet
Fossils of a new type of dinosaur, which looks like a beefy version of the predatory Velociraptor, have been unearthed in Romania.
The stocky dinosaur lived some 70 million years ago; higher sea levels at this time would have made the region an island archipelago.
The animal is also notable for the two large and sharp claws on each foot; Velociraptor had just one.
It may have used these to rip apart its prey scientists believe.
The find is reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
It has been given the scientific name Balaur bondoc, which means "stocky dragon".
"Balaur might be one of the largest predators in this ecosystem," said co-author Zoltan Csiki from the University of Bucharest, Romania.
He said that while the 1.8m-2.1m (6-7ft) -long creature is extremely unusual, it is closely related to animals like Velociraptor and feathered dinosaurs uncovered in China.
The new Balaur fossil is a partial skeleton that includes leg, hip, backbone, arms, hand, rib, and tail bones.
It had a big toe with a large claw that it was able to extend - presumably used to slash prey - as well as a large claw on the second toe.
Balaur had short and stocky feet and legs, and the pelvis had enormous muscle attachment areas, indicating that it was adapted for strength rather than speed.
Some bones in the animal's hand are fused, features that would have made grasping difficult.
Stephen Brusatte, a graduate student at Columbia University in Palisades, US, said: "Compared to Velociraptor, [this dinosaur] was probably more of a kickboxer than a sprinter, and it might have been able to take down larger animals than itself, as many carnivores do today."
However, researchers stressed that it was difficult to tell how it hunted or what the animal ate.We must admit that America needs more intelligent officers who won’t body slam people and crack their bones when they don’t pose any threat. In the meantime, we remain at the mercy of cops’ brutality. Today we have two recent cases from the Springettsbury Township, involving the use of excessive force. Patrol Officer Chad Moyer faced battery charges for
kicking and tasering a man during the forceful arrest and for punching and slapping a woman while responding to domestic dispute. The first incident occurred on April 2, 2011 when Debra Williams was heavily punched in the face and slapped in the back during detention. The woman was allegedly foul-mouthed and aggressive, after all she was not reported to have started a fight or sort of. Even so, she might have been out of control as a result of being a victim of domestic violence. Another case of police brutality hit the media after Aug. 5, 2012 when Steven Landis, of York, was stopped by police while walking. After Moyer grabbed and kicked the man to the ground, he threw multiple knee strikes into his ribs, which led to bone fractures. During the confrontation Moyer was not physically threatened, therefore his actions could not be considered as appropriate.
It is sad to me that we have such poorly trained and arrogant police…You may admire the ambition behind Oceanside’s Golden Coast Mead, modern makers of an ancient honey-based brew.
“Hopefully,” said co-founder Praveen Ramineni, “we can be the cool new mead guys.”
You may applaud the sense of tradition. “Mead,” said Frank Golbeck, one of Ramineni’s partners, “is the most historic beverage known to humanity.”
Still, you might question their prospects. “It’s kind of a (gutsy) move to come into San Diego, a town full of breweries, and just do meads,” said Tyson Blake, manager of O’Brien’s, a Kearny Mesa pub. “But it’s been received pretty well.”
“Pretty well” isn’t going to satisfy Team Golden Coast. This trio of 28-year-olds — the third is Joseph Colangelo — are already selling their wares in Whole Foods. And their brew is having a pop culture moment, appearing in “Game of Thrones,” the Harry Potter series and Viking-populated romance novels.
Still, Golden Coast’s goals are stunning: To do for mead what Stone did for craft beer.
“Mead has really a rich story, a deep story,” Golbeck said. “We have to start from the honey...”
“And then, “ Ramineni said, “our crazy lives intertwine.”
World lit
Growing up in Orange County, young Frank often visited his grandfather’s apple farm in San Bernardino County. The farmer made mead, a fact that stuck in the boy’s memory.
So when a high school teacher forced Frank to crack open “Beowulf,” he was startled to see this line in the Old English epic: “I have never seen mead enjoyed more in any hall on earth.”
“Beowulf” was written about 1,000 years ago, but this was far from mead’s first appearance in literature or life. The honey brew appears in the writings of Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare. Archeologists have traced it back to China 9,000 years ago. From India to Ethiopia, it’s been the tipple of kings and commoners.
In the United States, though, it’s about as popular as Zima. There are 2,500-plus breweries and roughly 7,500 wineries in the country, but only 320 meaderies. Mead remains a foreign substance to most Americans, even those who are widely-traveled and well-educated.
Ramineni, for instance. When he reached U.C. Berkeley as a freshman in 2003, the Indian-American had never touched the stuff. Born in Texas and raised in Del Mar, the Bishop’s School graduate had even spent a year studying in India. “My parents didn’t want me to lose touch with my roots,” he explained.
But he first sampled mead during a party in Berkeley with two new friends, Navy ROTC cadets Colangelo and Golbeck.
Perhaps it was the view: Golbeck lived in a mansion with a wide porch overlooking San Francisco Bay. Perhaps it was the moment: Everyone was quaffing Golbeck’s homemade mead.
Whatever the reason, Ramineni had a revelation: “We love this. Our friends love this. We could sell this.”
After graduating from Berkeley in 2007, the trio pursued separate career paths, Golbeck and Colangelo in the Navy, Ramineni consulting on green energy projects. Mead, though, remained on their minds.
In 2010 they established Golden Coast Mead in San Diego. It was the obvious choice: Golbeck was stationed there. Ramineni was out of the country, setting up a wind farm in Chile. Colangelo? He was abroad, too.
“I was in Bagram, Afghanistan,” said Colangelo, who is now Golden State’s marketing department. “There were a lot of late night emails back and forth, a lot of conference calls, using secure lines.
“We really felt like we were working in the 21st century.”
A sip of jazz
The trio made their first professional mead at the winery of Valley Center’s Triple B Ranches. Triple B provided a home to the meadery and advice to the meadmakers. “They’ve been mentors for us,” Ramineni said. “Just an amazing opportunity.”
At first, sales dripped like slow honey. In 2011, Golden State bottles could be found in five stores.
Sometimes, an ancient product needs a 21st century boost. Colangelo, the company’s marketing department, launched an appeal on the Kickstarter Web site, asking for $19,906 in pledges to help Golden Coast expand. He succeeded — and then some. Among the 172 donors who kicked in $20,471, was Greg Koch, Stone’s co-owner.
Craft beer aficionados are among Golden Coast’s most ardent supporters. Among the 50-plus accounts that now carry this mead are O’Brien’s, Bottlecraft Beer Shop, and Neighborhood, a downtown San Diego restaurant known for its beer selections.
Still, the trio realize they need to spend more time visiting restaurants, bars and festivals to tout mead’s attributes.
“We have to educate the heck out of this product,” Ramineni said.
That’s often true of new foods and drinks, Golbeck noted. Today San Diego is now known for its bracingly bitter brews, yet the style was almost unknown here 20 years ago. Acquiring that taste took time and a lot of one-on-one explaining from people like Stone’s Koch.
“At first,” Golbeck said, “Greg had to be there whenever a person was trying that. He had to explain, ‘This is good. Here’s why.’”
Just so, that first sip of mead. “It’s like listening to jazz the first time or zydeco,” Golbeck said. “You don’t know what this is.”
Despite the best efforts of Chaucer and Shakespeare, such ignorance is shockingly common. Because its product relies on the labors of honey bees, Golden Coast donates money to scientists who are studying ways to save this species, which is being ravaged by a virulent species of mite.
Among the recipients of Golden Coast’s financial gifts: James Nieh, a UC San Diego biology professor and bee expert.
“Before I met them,” Nieh said, “I didn’t know much about mead, other than the fact that it tastes good.”
Perhaps that’s enough.Oil and Gas Mean Misery and Forced Labor—Not Jobs—in Developing Countries
A Shell oil inlet is seen in the Niger Delta swamps of Bodo, a village in the Nigerian oil-producing region Ogoniland, which hosts the Shell Petroleum Development Company. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images)
BOULDER, CO.—As debate around the Keystone Pipeline, offshore drilling, fracking and other manifestations of the oil and gas industry in North America include promises of a plethora of well-paying jobs, on Friday internationally-focused lawyers and professors at a conference at the University of Colorado offered a sobering counterpoint about the socioeconomic effects of oil and gas extraction in developing countries.
Tufts University associate professor Darren Kew described how oil has helped Nigeria become one of the wealthiest, fastest-growing and increasingly wired countries in Africa, but nonetheless has meant rampant corruption, violence and a lack of job opportunities other than paramilitarism for young men right in the richest oil-producing region.
California attorney Anne Richardson described how the Burmese military government systematically forced villagers to work without pay building a gas pipeline and infrastructure for the company Unocal, in what the government described as "voluntary labor."
And City University of New York (CUNY), Queens professor of environmental law and policy Judith Kimerling described how Texaco’s oil exploitation in the Ecuadorian Amazon has forever changed life for local native tribes, who simply wanted to remain "uncontacted" but instead have suffered severe health consequences likely linked to extreme contamination and have been displaced and forced to integrate with mainstream society.
The seminar, The Human Impacts of Energy Exploration and Development, was sponsored by the Colorado Journal of International Environmental Law and Policy.
Kew—also director of the Center for Peace, Democracy and Development at the University of Massachusetts, Boston—described the mind-boggling wealth that oil has meant for Nigeria and specifically the Niger Delta region. He said the country’s GDP is growing at 7 percent per year, it is the sixth-largest oil exporter to the U.S., the fastest growing market for cell phones and probably the fastest-growing nation in terms of number of Facebook users.
But that has not meant wealth or a vibrant local economy in the Niger Delta.
Rather, the government’s interest in keeping the oil flowing and keeping the money flowing into its own coffers has meant a dysfunctional highly corrupt political system and the existence of heavily armed, powerful paramilitary forces working largely in the service of the government or other politicians. Kew said that in this situation the multinational oil companies are actually the most vulnerable actors and the "weak link" in the triumvirate of company, government and paramilitaries.
Showing a slide of two sullen-faced young men holding large guns, Kew said paramilitary membership is "the best and only job in town." "There’s very little development in the region," he added, so young men are flocking to join militias.
Though in many developing countries transnational companies are accused of taking out valuable resources and sharing little of the profit with the national government, in Nigeria the government actually gets the lion’s share of oil revenue. The government gets 57 percent up front, Kew said, and also heavily taxes the 43 percent revenue that the companies take. But the influx of funds does not mean there is a strong social safety net or thriving diverse economy. Kew explained:
(Oil industries) pump a tremendous amount of money into the governing structures of the country…that allows government actors a large amount of autonomy and breaks the social contract…the government doesn’t need the people…when you bring so much money into weak governing structures (the potential for corruption is huge).
Kew explained that the paramilitary militias originally formed with the patronage of different politicians, and wreaked havoc stealing oil from pipelines, sabotaging pipelines, kidnapping oil company workers and other activities.
Several years ago the government instituted an amnesty program meant to "rehabilitate" militia members and train them for other jobs, but instead he said they have largely continued their same activities but now under the mantle of the government. He described it all as a vicious circle of impunity and abuses that makes daily life grueling and dangerous for regular working people in the Niger Delta:
So much money is flowing, politicians find it tremendously easy to co-opt civil society actors – so NGOs that should be doing this (watchdog) work have to turn to politicians to get the contracts they need to survive. Once you’re on the government payroll, it makes it a lot harder to criticize it.
In a 2011 piece for a Nigerian website, Ifeatu Agbu described youth unemployment in the Niger Delta as a "time bomb":
The militants in the Niger Delta have relied on the tactic of guerrilla warfare to register their grievances against the Nigerian state. The strategy may change as the army of unemployed youths continues to swell by the day. The country cannot afford to wait to be overrun by these increasingly restive and angry youths "Job-creation is the need of the hour." That is the view of experts like Dr. Ismail Radwan, a senior economist with the World Bank. According to him, 50 million youths were underemployed and three million new job seekers join the unemployment queue each year. The World Bank official wondered if there would not be social unrest eventually if the situation was not urgently addressed and canvassed a vibrant industrial sector as a way forward.
Meanwhile, attorney Anne Richardson described the effects of the Unocal pipeline in Burma near the Thai border, home to the ethnic Karen people. She described one woman who was attacked by the military because they had not left the area to make way for the pipeline as instructed, and also because her husband had disobeyed a conscription order into the military.
Soldiers knocked the woman and her small baby into a fire, where she lost consciousness, and then proceeded to beat and threaten other locals. The baby later died. Richardson’s Pasadena firm brought suit under the Alien Tort Claims Act, the 1789 law originally related to piracy now frequently invoked against injustices related to multinational corporations’ operations in developing countries – including the lawsuit regarding vicious attacks on unionists at Coca Cola bottling plants in Colombia.
In its 1995 country report, the U.S. State Department noted that forced labor was a common practice in Burma:
The Burmese military forced hundreds of thousands of ordinary Burmese (including women and children) to "contribute" their labor, often under harsh working conditions, to construction projects throughout the country. The forced resettlement of civilians also continued.
As Santa Clara business ethics professor Manuel Velasquez wrote in a 1995 article:
Throughout the period human rights groups—including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International—issued reports claiming that the Burmese army was using forced labor and brutalizing the Karen population to provide "security" for Unocal workers and equipment. Roads, buildings, and other structures, they claimed, were being built with forced labor recruited from local Karen groups by the Burmese military, and hundreds of Karen were forced to clear the way for the pipeline and to provide labor for the project.
After complaints from human rights groups, Unocal investigated and confirmed forced labor and other human rights violations. But in later legal actions the company argued it did not know the atrocities were occurring and should not be held responsible.
Ultimately the case did not progress in federal court, but Richardson’s firm was able to help plaintiffs obtain a settlement in California state court under state laws – a tactic she said could be an inspiration for other lawyers representing people suffering labor and human rights abuses related to multinational companies’ work abroad.
The Ecuadorians Kimerling works with have been mired in high-profile seemingly endless litigation. A case brought by local Ecuadorians under the Alien Tort Claims Act in U.S. federal court |
user is on a mobile device with a poor connection this process could take quite some time.
Code splitting is the idea that a bundle can be fragmented into smaller files allowing the user to only download what code they need, when they need it.
For example, looking at this simple web page, we can identify portions of the app that we don't need on the initial load:
What if we delayed loading these parts of the code until after the initial render? It would allow a user to see and interact with the page much quicker.
In this article I'll show you how Vue.js and Webpack can be used to split a single page app into more optimally sized files that can be dynamically loaded.
Async components
The key to code splitting a Vue.js app is async components. These are components where the component definition (including its template, data, methods etc) is loaded asynchronously.
Let's say you're declaring a component using the component API i.e. Vue.component(name, definition). Rather than having a definition object as the second argument, async components have a function. This function has two notable features:
It's an executor for a Promise i.e. has a resolve argument. It's a factory function i.e. it returns an object (in this case, the component definition).
Vue.component('async-component', (resolve) => { resolve({ template: '<div>Async Component</div>', props: ['myprop' ] }); });
Async components are the first step for code splitting because we now have a mechanism for abstracting sections of our app's code.
Dynamic module loading
We'll also need Webpack's help. Say we abstract our component definition into an ES6 module file:
AsyncComponent.js
export default { template: '<div>Async Component</div>', props: ['myprop' ] }
How could we get our Vue.js app to load this? You may be tempted to try something like this:
import AsyncComponent from './AsyncComponent.js'`; Vue.component('async-component', AsyncComponent);
However this is static and is resolved at compile-time. What we need is a way to dynamically load this in a running app if we want to get the benefits of code splitting.
import()
Currently, it's not possible to dynamically load a module file with JavaScript. There is, however, a dynamic module loading function currently under proposal for ECMAScript called import().
Webpack already has an implementation for import() and treats it as a code split point, putting the requested module into a separate file when the bundle is created (a separate chunk, actually, but think of it as a separate file for now).
import() takes the file name as an argument and returns a Promise. Here's how we'd load our above module:
main.js
import(/* webpackChunkName: "async-component" */ './AsyncComponent.js').then((AsyncComponent) => { console.log(AsyncComponent.default.template); // Output: <div>Async Component</div> });
Note: if you're using Babel, you'll need to add the syntax-dynamic-import plugin so that Babel can properly parse this syntax.
Now when you build your project you'll notice the module appears in its own file:
Asset Chunk Name bundle.main.js main bundle.0.js async-component
Another note: you can give a dynamically imported module chunk a name so its more easily identifiable; simply add a comment before the file name in the same way I've done in the above example.
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Dynamic component loading
Bring the pieces together now: since import() returns a Promise, we can use it in conjunction with Vue's async component functionality. Webpack will bundle AsyncComponent separately and will dynamically load it into the app via AJAX when the app calls it.
main.js
import Vue from 'vue'; Vue.component('async-component', (resolve) => { import('./AsyncComponent.js').then((AsyncComponent) => { resolve(AsyncComponent.default); }); }); new Vue({ el: '#app' });
index.html
<div id="app"> <p>This part is included in the page load</p> <async-component></async-component> </div> <script src="bundle.main.js"></script>
On the initial load the page will be rendered as:
<div id="app"> <p>This part is included in the page load</p> </div>
When main.js runs it will initiate a request for the async component module (this happens automatically because Webpack's import() implementation includes code that will load the module with AJAX!).
If the AJAX call is successful and the module is returned, the Promise resolves and the component can be rendered, so Vue will now re-render the page:
<div id="app"> <p>This part is included in the page load</p> <div>Async Component</div> </div>
Here's a diagram to help you visualise it:
Single file components
The idiosyncratic way to achieve code splitting in Vue, however, is to use the beloved single file component. Here's a refactor of the above code using a SFC.
AsyncComponent.vue
<template> <div>Async Component</div> </template> <script> export default { props: ['myprop' ] } </script>
This syntax for importing is even neater:
new Vue({ el: '#app', components: { AsyncComponent: () => import('./AsyncComponent.vue') } });
Code splitting architecture
That's the technical part out of the way. The question, now, is how can you architect an app for code splitting?
The most obvious way is by page. For example, say you have two pages in your app, a home page and an about page. These pages can be wrapped inside components Home.vue and About.vue and these can be the split points of the app.
But there are other ways, for example, you could split on any components that are conditionally shown (tabs, modals, dropdown menus etc) or that are below the page fold.
For my next article I'll explore some different code splitting architectures for a Vue.js SPA so stay tuned!The lack of security in communication technologies used in the aviation industry makes it possible to remotely exploit vulnerabilities in critical on-board systems and attack aircraft in flight, according to research presented Wednesday at the Hack in the Box security conference in Amsterdam.
The presentation, by Hugo Teso, a security consultant at consultancy firm N.runs in Germany, who has also had a commercial pilot license for the past 12 years, was the result of the researcher’s three-yearlong research into the security of avionics.
Teso showed how the absence of security features in ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast), a technology used for aircraft tracking, and ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System), a datalink system used to transmit messages between aircraft and ground stations via radio or satellite, can be abused to exploit vulnerabilities in flight management systems.
He did not experiment on real airplanes, which would be both dangerous and illegal, according to his own account. Instead Teso acquired aircraft hardware and software from different places, including from vendors offering simulation tools that use actual aircraft code and from eBay, where he found a flight management system (FMS) manufactured by Honeywell and a Teledyne ACARS aircraft management unit.
Using these tools, he set up a lab where he simulated virtual airplanes and a station for sending specifically crafted ACARS messages to them in order to exploit vulnerabilities identified in their flight management systems—specialized computers that automate in-flight tasks related to navigation, flight planning, trajectory prediction, guidance and more.
The FMS is directly connected to other critical systems like navigation receivers, flight controls, engine and fuel systems, aircraft displays, surveillance systems and others, so by compromising it, an attacker could theoretically start attacking additional systems. However, this aspect was beyond the scope of this particular research, Teso said.
Identifying potential targets and gathering basic information about them via ADS-B is fairly easy because there are many places online that collect and share ADS-B data, such as flightradar24.com, which also has mobile apps for flight tracking, Teso said.
ACARS can be used to gather even more information about each potential target, and by combining this information with other open-source data, it is possible to determine with a fairly high degree of certainty what model of FMS a specific aircraft is using, Teso said.
After this is done, an attacker could send specifically crafted ACARS messages to the targeted aircraft to exploit vulnerabilities identified in the code of its FMS. In order to do this, the attacker could build his own software-defined radio system, which would have a range limit depending on the antenna being used, or he could hack into the systems of one of the two main ground service providers and use them to send ACARS messages, a task that would probably be more difficult, Teso said.
Either way, sending rogue ACARS messages to real aircraft would most likely lead to the authorities searching and eventually locating you, the researcher said.
Teso created a post-exploitation agent dubbed SIMON that can run on a compromised FMS and can be used to make flight plan changes or execute various commands remotely. SIMON was specifically designed for the x86 architecture so that it can only be used in the test lab against virtual airplanes and not against flight management systems on real aircraft that use different architectures.
The researcher also created an Android app called PlaneSploit that can automate an entire attack, from discovering targets using Flightradar24 to exploiting vulnerabilities in their FMS, installing SIMON and then performing various actions, like modifying the flight plan.
As previously mentioned, the research and demonstrations were performed against virtual planes in a lab setup. However, the FMS vulnerabilities identified and the lack of security in communication technologies like ADS-B and ACARS are real, Teso said
In a real-world attack scenario, the pilot could realize that something is wrong, disengage the auto-pilot and fly the plane like in the old days using analog systems, Teso said. However, flying without auto-pilot is becoming increasingly difficult on modern aircraft, he said.
Teso did not reveal any specifics about the vulnerabilities he identified in flight management systems because they haven’t been fixed yet. The lack of security features like authentication in ADS-B and ACARS is also something that will probably take a lot of time to address, but the researcher hopes that it will be done while these technologies are still being deployed. In the U.S., the majority of aircraft are expected to use ADS-B by 2020.
N.runs has been in contact with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for the past few weeks about the issues identified during this research, Teso said, adding that he has been pleasantly surprised by their response so far. “They haven’t denied the issues, they listened to us and they offered resources,” he said. “They’re trying to help us to take this research on a real plane.”"The Counselor" opened to $7.8 million in fall 2013, but Ridley Scott thinks the movie could've done $50 million if marketed correctly.
Ridley Scott is having quite the outspoken month as he makes the press rounds promoting his latest drama, “All The Money in the World.” The director has already admitted that “Blade Runner 2049” bombed at the domestic box office because it was “too long” (he thinks at least 30 minutes should’ve been cut), and now Scott is getting brutally honest about another one of his big 21st century misfires: “The Counselor.”
The 2013 crime thriller had all the makings of a major hit. Not only was Scott behind the camera, but the film was written by “No Country For Old Men” author Cormac McCarthy and featured a star-studded ensemble that included Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, and Cameron Diaz. For this reason, Scott told the Toronto Sun that “The Counselor” should’ve been “fucking huge,” opening to at least $50 million at the box office.
Unfortuantely, “The Counselor” bombed with a $7.8 million opening weekend. The movie had an estimated $25 million budget, which happens to be low for Scott, but it ended its domestic run with just under $17 million. “The Counselor” was hardly a home-run with critics either, earning a 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. But Scott still believes the movie had enough talent to be a big hit, and he blames 20th Century Fox for killing the film with an abysmal marketing and promotional strategy.
“I really loved ‘The Counselor,’ which should have been fucking huge,” Scott said, “With that cast, we should have had a $50-million weekend. After the marketing and advertising on that, I was ready to kill somebody. You don’t preview films like that. You keep them in a box.”
Scott’s comment suggests that he feels 20th Century Fox’s marketing gave a little too much of the film’s violent surprises away. He does not elaborate further on what exactly went awry in the marketing, but he does mention that the studio should’ve relied more on the film’s star power and less on giving away the plot when selling the movie.
“You’ve got Brad [Pitt], you’ve got Cameron Diaz, you’ve got Javier Bardem, you’ve got Penelope Cruz, you’ve got Michael Fassbender…are you fucking kidding me?,” Scott continued. “You don’t show it, you advertise and you put it out and you’ll have a $50-million opening weekend.”
“The Counselor” may have bombed at the box office, but it has since lived on as a new cult classic. As for Ridley Scott’s relationship with 20th Century Fox, he’s continued to work with the studio on “Alien” films and his upcoming drama “The Cartel.”One Nation leader now opposes cuts to Sunday penalty rates, and will back tax cuts only for businesses with annual turnover of $50m or less
Pauline Hanson has said she no longer supports cuts to Sunday penalty rates, a reversal of the position she held before the Western Australian election.
She also declared One Nation would support the Turnbull government’s tax cuts only for businesses with yearly turnover of $50m and less.
It means the Coalition’s hopes of squeezing its $48bn tax cut package through the Senate this week are effectively dashed, with Labor, the Greens and Jacqui Lambie also saying they will not support the entire tax package.
Hanson made the dual announcement on her Facebook page on Monday night.
Looking back, and angry: what drives Pauline Hanson's voters | David Marr Read more
“After listening to people coming through my office, and on the streets, and back home over the weekend, and in the lead up to this, generally, the majority of the public do not want a cut to penalty rates on weekends,” she said.
“You’ve got my support. I’ve listened, and this is what you want, and I will not support any cuts to the penalty rates.
“With company tax, yes, I do support a cut there because small businesses have to be supported. We have to drive this economy. We have to give people the confidence to actually want to go into industries, manufacturing, create jobs, and the farming sector as well.
“This hopefully will flow on and it will help industries and manufacturing. The company tax cuts are for businesses up to $50m turnover. I don’t support the government’s $100m, I think that’s too far gone, too over the top, and I don’t support that. Up to $50m we will support.
“So to all of you out there, this is what One Nation stands for. And we’re hopefully getting it right.”
In the week before the WA election, Hanson said she supported in principle the Fair Work Commission’s decision to cut Sunday penalty rates for workers covered by four awards (fast food, retail, pharmacy and hospitality).
Asked on the ABC’s Insiders program if she supported the FWC’s decision, she said: “I think, in principle, yes, I do.
“I’m hoping to give small businesses a chance for growth.
“This government is doing nothing about addressing this whole issue and Labor are a bunch of hypocrites... I think if we looked at it, we might be able to increase employment by helping small business [with a cut in penalty rates],” she said.
Hanson will have a chance to formalise her new position this week if Labor’s private member’s bill calling for the penalty rate cuts to be overturned comes to a vote.
'Log off, it's over': One Nation orders candidates back to reality after Western Australia election Read more
Independent senator Nick Xenophon had on Monday left open the possibility of supporting the government’s $48bn tax cut plan in return for the government backing an emissions intensity scheme. But Hanson’s announcement will deal him out of the game.
Labor says it will only support tax cuts for companies with $2m turnover; Lambie will support for companies with $10m turnover; and the Greens oppose the cuts outright.
Lambie told the ABC on Monday evening: “I’m happy to, when it comes to businesses of up to $10m, to give them a nice big tax cut.
“I would rather see them having a nice big 10% tax cut... we’ve already worked out that trickle-down economics does not work.
“How about we try trickle-up economics, and start from that.”
Hanson had warned on Monday morning that her party would abstain from voting on any legislation until the dispute between Queensland Sugar Limited and Wilmar was resolved.
But late on Monday she said the sugar dispute was progressing, and she was happy with her talks with the government, so she would no longer be on strike.Finally a Major League Soccer team took the first step to wholly owning a club in a lower league where they would have some kind of control over the rights of the players on the USL PRO side. This is a huge shift for American soccer and one that has a completely unknowable impact.
A first-of-its-kind program in MLS, LA Galaxy II will provide playing time and development opportunities for players within the LA Galaxy player development structure. The USL PRO side offers a 28-game season and will feature LA Galaxy first team players, players signed by Galaxy II and LA Galaxy Academy players. As part of the relationship between LA Galaxy and LA Galaxy II, any number of first team LA Galaxy players are available for loan to the USL PRO side. In addition, Galaxy II may utilize Galaxy Academy players for training and on game days with Academy products retaining their amateur status.
The idea is simple - more competitive reps for youngsters in the LA Galaxy organization. In fact word is that the average age of the Galaxy II players will be 23 - twenty-three! The plan though is even more aggressive. They can trial internationals and eventually field a squad aside from those completely from withthe Galaxy organization.
Five years from now, I'd expect our whole team to be from our youth academy. This is the perfect place for our players to develop.
But there are perils. Those perils, and the completely unknowable rules with how the second roster relates to MLS may just be part of why Seattle Sounders FC does not yet have their own II or B in USL PRO. Alexi Lalas pointed out two of the issues that will face the Galaxy this year, and likely Seattle in 2015.
Could LA Galaxy (MLS) transfer a player to LA Galaxy II (USL) and in doing so create allocation money? — Alexi Lalas (@AlexiLalas) January 29, 2014
I'm told @MLS teams are able to put a discovery claim in on LA Galaxy II players that are not home-grown. — Alexi Lalas (@AlexiLalas) January 29, 2014
Hanauer & Co have not decided on a location yet for their minor league team. Most indications are that it will be at Starfire and all indications are that it will be within a reasonable drive of the Tukwila training facility. LA will be playing at the StubHub Center.
Let's say Seattle joined LA this season. Let's just say that Catic needed a longer trial and went to Sounders B. Let's just say that Sounders FC needed a Discovery Claim on the limit of other players. Let's just say that Portland liked what they saw in Catic's match against the Sacramento Republic and signed Catic to MLS.
That's a win for the player, but it kind of would suck.
One way to defend against such an action would be to field a complete squad of USL PRO players from within Seattle's own Academy. That would be awesome. It would also be really difficult convincing 20 or so kids to abandon college and sign for less than MLS wages. Some of course would, but not all.
Yes, the current Academy players can maintain eligibility and play for the amplified Reserve side (just as they do now, four played more than 100 minutes with last year's Reserves). But you can not build a roster that learns how to win at a pro level on the backs of 18-year old kids.
These are just some examples of the issues with the way the USL PRO - MLS partnership can work. The Galaxy are blazing the trail. They can be the cutting edge.
In 2015 Seattle, and probably Dallas (others?), will be the early adopters. That may be a bit risk adverse, but it also makes sense.Share this Shit:
Man who pulled gun on crowd found guilty
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A judge has convicted the man who pulled a gun on a crowd of people during a Black Lives Matter rally outside the Multnomah County Justice Center.
The crowd was never threatening Michael Strickland, police and prosecutors have maintained. Many of the people in the crowd had their hands raised, and when Strickland pulled his gun, fled the area in panic.
Police were quick to arrive and take Strickland into custody.
During his week-long trial, Strickland’s defense was that as an independent journalist, he was covering the event and felt threatened when the crowded approached him.
He also maintained that carrying his gun was legal because he held a conceal-carry permit.
Strickland had originally opted for a jury trial, but following jury selection, requested a bench trial. Multnomah County Circuit Judge Thomas Ryan found Strickland guilty of 10 counts of unlawful use of a weapon, 10 counts of menacing and one count of second-degree disorderly conduct.
Although no rounds were fired during the incident involving Strickland, police determined that he had access to more than 120 rounds that were in magazines in his pockets.
Sentencing will be held in May“Fear the Walking Dead” remained Sunday’s No. 1 cable show (and beat everything on broadcast to boot), but its numbers were down from the Season 2 premiere on April 10.
The show drew a 2.5 rating in adults 18-49, down 0.6 (19 percent) vs. the previous week. Its viewer count dropped from 6.67 million to 5.58 million.
An NBA playoff tripleheader on TNT grabbed the next three spots, with prime-time Spurs-Grizzlies game (1.7) scoring the best numbers.
Top 100 cable shows among adults 18-49 for Sunday, April 17, 2016
Show Net Time Viewers (000s) 18-49 rating FEAR THE WALKING DEAD AMC 9:00 PM 5,581 2.5 NBA PLAYOFFS TNT 8:09 PM 3,988 1.7 NBA PLAYOFFS TNT 10:31 PM 3,060 1.4 NBA PLAYOFFS TNT 5:39 PM 2,978 1.3 BIG BANG THEORY, THE TBSC 10:00 PM 2,713 1.0 BIG BANG THEORY, THE TBSC 9:30 PM 2,693 0.9 BIG BANG THEORY, THE TBSC 9:00 PM 2,590 0.9 FAMILY GUY ADSM 10:30 PM 1,946 0.9 TALKING DEAD: FEAR AMC 10:01 PM 1,939 0.8 NAKED AND AFRAID DISC 10:00 PM 2,129 0.8 FAMILY GUY ADSM 10:00 PM 1,752 0.8 BIG BANG THEORY, THE TBSC 10:30 PM 2,359 0.8 BIG BANG THEORY, THE TBSC 8:30 PM 2,268 0.8 BIG BANG THEORY, THE TBSC 8:00 PM 2,246 0.8 RICK & MORTY ADSM 11:00 PM 1,516 0.7 SHAHS OF SUNSET BRVO 9:00 PM 1,568 0.7 AMERICAN DAD ADSM 9:30 PM 1,431 0.7 ROBOT CHICKEN ADSM 11:30 PM 1,339 0.6 REAL HOUSEWIVES POTOMAC BRVO 8:00 PM 1,391 0.6 BIG BANG THEORY, THE TBSC 7:30 PM 1,832 0.6 INSIDE THE NBA PLAYOFFS TNT 1:23 AM 1,268 0.6 FAMILY GUY ADSM 3:00 AM 1,164 0.6 MLB SUNDAY NIGHT L ESPN 8:00 PM 1,858 0.6 RICK & MORTY ADSM 3:30 AM 1,104 0.6 MIKE TYSON MYSTERIES ADSM 11:45 PM 1,195 0.6 FX MOVIE PRIME FX 6:00 PM 1,209 0.5 LAW & ORDER: SVU USA 6:00 PM 1,628 0.5 NAKED AND AFRAID DISC 9:00 PM 1,464 0.5 ROBOT CHICKEN ADSM 4:00 AM 1,009 0.5 LAW & ORDER: SVU USA 5:00 PM 1,663 0.5 MIKE TYSON MYSTERIES ADSM 4:15 AM 970 0.5 SPONGEBOB NICK 10:30 AM 1,726 0.5 SPRING BAKING CHAMPION 2 FOOD 9:00 PM 1,582 0.5 BIG BANG THEORY, THE TBSC 7:00 PM 1,420 0.5 CLEVELAND SHOW, THE ADSM 9:00 PM 1,068 0.5 MR. PICKLES ADSM 4:30 AM 917 0.5 CARIBBEAN LIFE HGTV 9:30 PM 1,750 0.5 COMEDY CENTRAL STAND CMDY 10:00 PM 795 0.5 ISLAND LIFE HGTV 10:00 PM 1,801 0.5 ISLAND LIFE HGTV 10:30 PM 1,793 0.4 CLEVELAND SHOW, THE ADSM 1:30 AM 907 0.4 FAMILY GUY ADSM 2:30 AM 925 0.4 FX MOVIE PRIME FX 8:00 PM 908 0.4 AQUA SOMETHING YOU KNOW ADSM 4:45 AM 867 0.4 LAW & ORDER: SVU USA 4:00 PM 1,326 0.4 AMERICAN DAD ADSM 2:00 AM 910 0.4 STORY OF GOD NGC 9:00 PM 1,934 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 10:00 PM 948 0.4 NAKED AND AFRAID DISC 8:00 PM 1,303 0.4 SUNDAY MOVIE FRFM 9:00 PM 1,256 0.4 CUTTHROAT KITCHEN FOOD 10:00 PM 1,056 0.4 FEAR THE WALKING DEAD AMC 8:00 PM 1,204 0.4 SPONGEBOB NICK 10:00 AM 1,608 0.4 KING OF THE HILL ADSM 5:00 AM 858 0.4 NAKED AND AFRAID DISC 11:00 PM 1,172 0.4 TBS PRIME MOVIE TBSC 11:00 PM 1,024 0.4 INTERVENTION AEN 10:00 PM 841 0.4 MR. PICKLES ADSM 12:00 AM 930 0.4 FEAR THE WALKING DEAD AMC 11:00 PM 885 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 8:30 PM 865 0.4 CLEVELAND SHOW, THE ADSM 1:00 AM 845 0.4 LAW & ORDER: SVU USA 3:00 PM 1,184 0.4 FLIP OR FLOP HGTV 11:00 AM 1,334 0.4 GUYS GROCERY GAMES FOOD 8:00 PM 1,246 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 9:30 PM 820 0.4 NBA PLAYOFF PREGAME SHOW TNT 5:30 PM 1,002 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 11:00 PM 854 0.4 TEENAGE MUTAN NINJA TRT12 NICK 11:00 AM 1,401 0.4 SPONGEBOB NICK 4:30 PM 1,532 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 11:30 PM 848 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 10:30 PM 832 0.4 CARIBBEAN LIFE HGTV 9:00 PM 1,622 0.4 FLIP OR FLOP HGTV 10:30 AM 1,301 0.4 KING OF THE HILL ADSM 5:30 AM 801 0.4 K.C. UNDERCOVER DSNY 8:00 PM 1,900 0.4 BAR RESCUE SPIKE 9:00 PM 858 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 9:00 PM 832 0.4 AMERICAN PICKERS HIST 9:00 PM 1,668 0.4 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 5:30 PM 1,671 0.4 FLIP OR FLOP HGTV 11:30 AM 1,359 0.4 SPONGEBOB NICK 9:00 AM 1,373 0.4 TBS MOVIE SUNDAY TBSC 5:15 PM 1,011 0.4 AQUA SOMETHING YOU KNOW ADSM 12:15 AM 820 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 7:00 PM 936 0.4 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 6:00 PM 1,634 0.4 COOKS VS. CONS FOOD 11:00 PM 851 0.4 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 2:30 PM 1,455 0.4 FRIENDS NAN 11:30 PM 846 0.4 THICKER THAN WATER BRVO 10:00 PM 839 0.4 VENTURE BROTHERS ADSM 12:30 AM 781 0.4 HOUSE HUNTERS HGTV 11:00 PM 1,310 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 8:00 PM 834 0.4 MODERN FAMILY USA 12:30 AM 781 0.4 SPONGEBOB NICK 9:30 AM 1,411 0.4 NAKED AND AFRAID DISC 7:00 PM 1,056 0.4 TBS MOVIE SUNDAY TBSC 3:15 PM 839 0.3 LAKEFRONT BARGAIN HUNT HGTV 8:30 PM 1,755 0.3 MODERN FAMILY USA 12:00 AM 767 0.3 BUNGALOW RENO HGTV 12:00 PM 1,308 0.3 FLIP OR FLOP HGTV 10:00 AM 1,180 0.3
Source: The Nielsen Company.LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Betty Ford, the wife of the late President Gerald Ford, who overcame alcohol and prescription drug addictions and helped found a rehabilitation clinic that bears her name, died on Friday at the age of 93.
President Gerald Ford and his wife, Betty, hug each other in the Oval Office of the White House in this December 6, 1974 handout photograph obtained on July 8, 2011. REUTERS/David Hume Kennerly/Courtesy Gerald R. Ford Library/Handout
“I was deeply saddened this afternoon when I heard of Betty Ford’s death,” another former first lady, Nancy Reagan, said in a statement confirming Ford’s death.
Ford once was dubbed the “fighting first lady” by Time magazine because of her outspoken political views, which often differed from those of her husband’s Republican Party.
She strongly supported women’s rights while her husband was president from 1974 to 1977, working the phones in a vain attempt to get states to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, which sought to give women and men equality under law.
Ford’s candor was surprising for the time. She took a tolerant stance on abortion and admitted without shame that some of her children had tried marijuana. Nor was she alarmed by the prospect of her daughter having premarital sex.
Ford also was an early campaigner against breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy in 1974, less than two months after her husband succeeded the disgraced Richard Nixon as president.
Her frank discussions about her disease helped raise awareness about breast cancer and she eventually took the same approach toward her alcoholism, which she battled even as first lady.
Ford’s problems with chemical dependency may have begun in 1964, when doctors prescribed her painkillers for a pinched nerve. She developed an addiction to prescription drugs and also became dependent on alcohol during the 1960s.
The Betty Ford Center in California came into being in 1982 after Ford was treated for her addictions at the U.S. Naval Hospital at Long Beach, and saw the need for treatment that emphasized the special needs of women.
Related Coverage Factbox: Former first lady Betty Ford
“She has been an inspiration to so many through her efforts to educate women about breast cancer and her wonderful work at the Betty Ford Center,” Nancy Reagan, the wife of the late President Ronald Reagan, said in the statement.
“She was Jerry Ford’s strength through some very difficult days in our country’s history and I admired her courage in facing and sharing her personal struggles with all of us.”
PRAISE FROM OBAMA, GEORGE W. BUSH
President Barack Obama praised Ford’s courage and compassion.
“As our nation’s first lady, she was a powerful advocate for women’s health and women’s rights,” he said in a statement. “After leaving the White House, Mrs. Ford helped reduce the social stigma surrounding addiction and inspired thousands to seek much-needed treatment.”
Former President George W. Bush described her as a valued friend who “made countless contributions to our country.”
Ford remained an active chairman of the center’s board of directors for decades and also worked to help handicapped children, the arts and the fights against AIDS and arthritis.
For most of her adult life, Ford was best known as the wife of Rep. Gerald Ford, a Michigan Republican, and the mother of four children. The couple had planned to retire from Congress in 1973 when Nixon, already under fire in the Watergate scandal, chose Ford to serve as vice president after the resignation of Spiro Agnew.
Ford became president after Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, but he was defeated when he ran for the presidency in 1976 by Democrat Jimmy Carter. Betty delivered her husband’s concession speech because he had lost his voice on the campaign trail.
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Born April 8, 1918, in Chicago, Elizabeth Bloomer was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She wanted to be a dancer and studied under Martha Graham and modeled in New York before returning to Grand Rapids and marrying a furniture salesman. They divorced after five years and she married Ford in 1948.
In her later years, Betty Ford slipped from the public eye but returned when her husband of 58 years died in 2006. Her stately demeanor in time of grief brought her to the attention of a whole new generation that possibly knew her name only from the famous clinic.José Mourinho has said that Manchester United have not yet reached “heaven” despite a 13-match unbeaten run that includes victory in the past seven games.
United start their defence of the FA Cup against Reading at Old Trafford on Saturday in the midst of their finest form under Mourinho. Yet the manager insists that even when United suffered four successive home draws against Burnley, Stoke City, Arsenal and West Ham United in the Premier League they were not in “hell” either, because of the stability that is the key factor in their upward curve.
“The style of play was coming, and the players were very open for that, very keen for that. The most important thing for us, more than the style of play, was [we had] bad results but stability,” said Mourinho, who confirmed Wayne Rooney and Sergio Romero will start against Reading. “We were stable in our performances, stable in our relationships, stable in our mood, stable in our ambitions, stable in our relations with the board and with the owners. Everything was stable and we knew that playing the way we were playing, the good results would follow sooner or later.
Wayne Rooney to start for Manchester United against Reading, says Mourinho Read more
“So we had draw, draw, draw, draw and big distance to the top four, but we were playing well, so there was nothing to change at all and we were very patient and stable. We were not in hell. And in this moment we are stable again and we are not [yet] in heaven and we keep working. This stability is the most important factor for us.”
Mourinho believes that this stability at the club allowed a strong bond to develop between him and his players and that it was aided, conversely, by the poor results. “The bond is developed quicker when you win,” he said. “This [season] is different than other places because it’s a place where it took more time to go into a winning period. We built that relationship based not on good results but based on bad results and this is the big difference.
“When you have at the beginning of the season a run of two or three months of winning, winning, winning, it is paradise. Everybody |
back the Senate. "We're investing in this race now because a Mourdock primary victory would only embolden [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid and his liberal allies this November," the group said in a recent release.
Down in Texas, the two super PACs supporting Lt. Gov. Dewhurst have raised a combined $1 million to beat back the insurgent Cruz. Donors to the Conservative Renewal PAC and the Texas Conservatives Fund include the most giving names in Republican donor circles, like Harold Simmons, Bob Perry and Kenny Troutt. Simmons, the second biggest super PAC donor this election cycle, gave $500,000 to the Conservative Renewal PAC, and Perry, the third biggest super PAC donor, gave $100,000 to the Texas Conservatives Fund.
The mission statement of Conservative Renewal PAC states that Dewhurst is "under fire by special interest groups including well-funded 'Super PAC's' from outside of Texas and he needs us to fight for him." Again, there's no notice that the candidate's main competitor is a Republican.
While it is unlikely that a GOP candidate, whether the establishment or the Tea Party choice, would lose in either Texas or Utah, Republicans fear having to divert funds from closer races in other states, as they did in 2010.
In the last electoral cycle, Republican candidates like the fire-breathing Tea Partier Sharron Angle in Nevada, the inept Christine O'Donnell in Delaware, Ken Buck in Colorado, and Linda McMahon in Connecticut all lost general election races that many believed could have been won by more seasoned candidates. Investing money in their races sucked party funds away from other close contests, like the nail-biter in Washington won by Democratic Sen. Patty Murray.
After the 2010 midterm elections, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) observed, "Candidates matter." Karl Rove, the current don of Republican establishment-oriented outside groups, called O'Donnell's loss in Delaware "a lesson." And former Senate majority leader-turned-lobbyist Trent Lott said, "We did not nominate our strongest candidates."
None other than Sen. Lugar explained on CNN's "State of the Union" in December 2011, "They were people who claimed that they wanted somebody who was more of their Tea Party aspect, but in doing so, they killed off the Republican chances for a majority. This is one of the reasons why we have a minority in the Senate right now."Building on a long relationship, Halfords has acquired Boardman Bikes, what the duo call the UK's fastest growing premium bike brand.
It has been confirmed that Boardman Bikes will remain a stand alone entity with the Boardman Performance Series continuing to be exclusively retailed at Halfords in the UK and ROI while the Boardman Elite Series is sold at selected independent retailers.
'There are absolutely no plans to change this' according to the joint statement.
Boardman Bikes will remain a stand alone entity. Headed by Boardman as chairman and design director and Andy Smallwood as managing director.
Halfords cash will be used to enhance Boardman Bikes R&D and future plans for growth.
Matt Davies, Halfords Chief Executive commented: “Our investment in Boardman Bikes, which have been ridden by multiple Olympic and world champions, demonstrates our growing position as a specialist cycling retailer. We have worked with Chris and his team since 2007; they have created one of the most important, fastest-growing and successful brands in UK cycling. We look forward to a continuation of the growth that both Boardman and Halfords have enjoyed with such a strong brand.”
Chris Boardman, founder and Chairman of Boardman Bikes commented: “On behalf of Boardman Bikes I am delighted by today’s news. We look forward to building on the success we have had to date with independent retailers, in international markets and with Halfords. This step will take the brand to the next level and their backing will allow us to further develop our research & development and extend our award-winning cycling ranges.”President Obama showed his sillier side Thursday by posing with a "selfie stick," sticking out his tongue and playing a rousing game of air ball in a new promotional video for HealthCare.gov.
The clip, which was produced by the video arm of the viral content experts at BuzzFeed, was online for less than an hour when it already hit 100,000 views.
"How did we get Obama to use a selfie stick?" BuzzFeed asks in the video's teaser. "Oh, because he wants you to go to https://www.healthcare.gov/."
BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith recently sat down for an interview with Obama, who has been on a tour of less conventional media outlets as the White House ramps up its millennial outreach program ahead of the 2016 election cycle.
About 7.75 million people have signed up for health insurance using the federal exchange, the Department Health and Human Services announced Wednesday, with "millions more" signups coming through state exchanges.
Health officials have pulled out all the stops in the past two weeks to meet their goal of 9 million new and continuing enrollees by Feb. 15, several million fewer than the administration's initial target.
Obama himself has engaged on other nontraditional platforms to push for more signups on the website created by his namesake healthcare law.
Perhaps most memorably, during a previous enrollment period in early 2014, the president touted the federal exchange in an interview with "Between Two Ferns" with host Zach Galifianakis. He also gave a trio of interviews to YouTube stars last month following his State of the Union speech.
In the BuzzFeed promotional video, Obama does a few takes in front of the mirror with his pitch encouraging people to sign up for health insurance on the marketplace before the current enrollment period ends on Sunday.
The BuzzFeed video crew also got the president to pencil a drawing of first lady Michelle Obama and make a pass at dunking a healthy-sized cookie into a slim-rimmed glass of milk. "Thanks, Obama," the president mutters in disappointment.
The video comes just two days after publication of Buzzfeed's interview with Obama, where he weighed in on his gay marriage position and U.S. operations against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, among other topics.
"They didn't let me see this in advance," Smith tweeted Thursday, linking to the video.
This post wad updated at 2:37 p.m.A History of the Christmas Story: Not Altogether Christmas but Christmas All Together
Electric Literature Blocked Unblock Follow Following Dec 16, 2015
by Kate Webb
Winter darkening brings its own intensities: snowdrifts on rooftops, red berries in the trees, and for the lucky few, maybe a pub fire roaring in the grate. As the nights draw in and the season’s grand finale approaches, many of us still brighten our world with carol singing, high street lights and Christmas stories — key ingredients in the mix of paganism, consumerism and religion we call Christmas. The stories we read now first appeared 150 years ago. Dickens established the modern form, publishing one in most years of the mid-nineteenth century, and soon everyone from Anthony Trollope to Louisa Alcott was trying their hand. Few could resist the temptation of sentimentality, and a reputation for the maudlin persists. “The very phrase Christmas story had unpleasant associations for me,” says Paul Auster’s narrator in “Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story” (1990), “evoking dreadful outpourings of hypocritical mush.” Despite this, Auster understands that though the Christmas story is a low form (a literary ‘turn’), it sets challenges few writers would run away from, which is why so many grandees (Tolstoy, Waugh, Spark, Updike) have bothered with it. Part of the attraction is that Christmas is one of the few events still bound by tradition, making the Christmas story — a thing of retrospection and repetition — peculiarly literary and self-conscious.
Christmas is one of the few events still bound by tradition, making the Christmas story — a thing of retrospection and repetition — peculiarly literary and self-conscious.
Christmas present, Dickens saw, always contains Christmas past (explaining why so many of its stories are inhabited by ghosts or children), and this gives rise to a moment of reckoning. In A Christmas Carol (1843), the accusation leveled at Scrooge is one of stinginess; the counting house turns men into creatures of rote, incapable of empathy or conviviality. Spiritedness is what matters, and even the poorest can revel in festivity. So on his ghost-flights Scrooge encounters miners, lamplighters and lighthousemen, all “blithe and loud” as they dance round fires and tell tales to one another. It was this lost spirit of Christmas that interested Washington Irving, whose sketches of customs that were dying out in England had first inspired Dickens. Irving included among these a lament about the disappearance of the Lord of Misrule — a figure older than the Anatolian Saint Nicholas, older even than the Dutch Sinterklaas or Nordic bearded elfman — who was outlawed during the English Civil War, along with the Christmas holiday and its twelve day riot of feasting and carousing.
No doubt it was Irving that Angela Carter had in mind when she wrote “The Ghost Ships” (1993), a fable about relations between the puritan New World and the superstitious old one. Even in Boston Bay, where Christmas was prohibited, citizens were still vulnerable to the witching hour. Into this permeable moment slip three ghost ships. One decorated in apple, holly, ivy and mistletoe. One fronted by a boar’s head, belching “swans upon spits and roast geese dripping hot fat.” And one carrying mummers and masquers, “large as life and twice as unnatural” (men dressed as women, bells jingling at their ankles) — the revenants of once Merry England. All three ships come sailing by and all are sunk by the puritans’ “awesome piety.” But something in their meaning will not be denied. As the Lord of Misrule falls into the Atlantic, he hurls a contraband pudding onto the shore. The next morning its plump raisins have scattered into the shoes of every child rising to pray in the “shivering dark.”
As the Lord of Misrule falls into the Atlantic, he hurls a contraband pudding onto the shore.
Inevitably, the struggle between Christianity and a barely-suppressed paganism is at the heart of many Christmas tales. Among the wintry Russians, Tolstoy and Chekhov produced stories in which Christian goodness prevails. But in “The Night Before Christmas” (1832), Gogol, writing in the folk tradition passed down to him by his Ukrainian mother, tells a wild tale that begins in the witching hour (literally, with a witch on a broomstick), where the devil gets his due. Gogol’s magic is not Christian (miraculous and didactic), but that of a trickster who steals the moon and hides it in his pocket. As in Dickens, a man is flown about by a spirit, but for the purpose of mischief-making rather than moral instruction.
A century later, Nabokov wrote two stories typical of his canon in their cunning and tenderness, while at the same time pinning the essential elements of the Christmas genre. “Christmas” (1925) is about a father visiting his country manor after the death of a beloved son, whom he remembers netting butterflies. When he moves one of his son’s pupae into the heat of the house it emerges unexpectedly, a rebirth as fantastic as the Resurrection itself. This is fiction as consoling and full of powerful magic as any religion. It is written wittingly, inside, and out of, tradition — Christian, rather than Gogol’s paganism — and, like the smartest of these tales, knows its place, even as it tries to usurp it.
Three years later in “A Christmas Story,” Nabokov conducted the discussion of a story’s “place” out in the open, pondering the fate of the imagination under tyranny and reconsidering the debate about puritanism. Wondering how to write fiction in a manner acceptable to Soviet Russia’s cultural commissars, an old writer, a novice writer, and a critic all discuss how Christmas can be viable in times that insist only on the real. Finally, the old man comes up with a story in which well-fed Europeans are mesmerized by a shop-window Christmas tree stacked with ham and fruit, all the while ignoring a body slumped “in front of the window, on the frozen sidewalk — ”. The sentence needs no completion: the winning formula has been found (decadent foreigners blind to the suffering of the poor). As one might expect from Nabokov, it is a knowing piece — the old writer struggling to describe Christmas in the critically-approved language (the “insolent Christmas tree,” the “so-called ‘Christmas’ snow”), and the critic, who writes for a journal called Red Reality, praising the novice’s depiction of peasant lust, but dismissing his portrayal of an intellectual because “There is no real sense of his being doomed…”
In the second half of the twentieth century writers continued to take the Christmas story apart, alerting readers to its dialogism; sometimes, as in Dylan Thomas’s unruly tale, “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” (1955), even granting them a walk-on part. Here, a memoirist channelling “distant speaking…voices” conjures a reader who queries his fantastic account of a time long ago when there were “wolves in Wales…and we chased, with the jawbones of deacons, the English and the bears.” Paul Auster’s tale comes less directly and innocently out of a folk tradition, but seems the most consummate of Christmas stories in the way it assembles and disassembles itself. There are multiple narrators and a story within a story; there is the “business about the lost wallet and the blind woman and the Christmas dinner”; notes to the reader about trusting the storyteller (“he knew exactly what he was doing”); lessons in the suspension of disbelief and fictional ‘truth’; and discussion of the “out-and-out conundrum” of the unsentimental Christmas story. Finally, there is a polite reminder to pay the piper.
For Grace Paley and Alice Munro the mystery is no longer a matter of miracle or spirit but a modern question of identity and doubt.
Other writers have reformulated the Christmas story by putting a new spin on the old tale. For Grace Paley and Alice Munro the mystery is no longer a matter of miracle or spirit but a modern question of identity and doubt. They find fresh perspectives with young girls as protagonists who speak distinctively in the first-person, though without a hint of Thomas’s orotundity or Auster’s complicity. Their stories, echoing the Teaching of the old story, are about education.
In Paley’s “The Loudest Voice” (1959), Shirley Abramowitz, child of the noisy Brooklyn street, is chosen to read the text in her school’s Christmas play. But she and her friends are Jewish immigrants and their involvement in a Christian drama creates tensions in a community divided in its views on assimilation. “This is a holiday from pagan times also, candles, lights, even Hannukah,” her papa says, arguing for his daughter’s inclusion, “So we learn it’s not altogether Christmas.” When the play is over, the parents debate in Yiddish, Russian, Polish. Why had so few American kids gotten big parts? “They got very small voices,” Shirley’s mother points out, “why should they holler? Christmas…the whole piece of goods…they own it.”
Munro’s heroine is too young to become a waitress so she takes a job as a turkey-gutter. “Are you educated?” is the first question anyone asks her in “The Turkey Season” (1980), and an education is precisely what she gets observing relationships in this family firm. She learns whose power is ostensible and who really runs the place; about the skill involved in dissecting a carcass; how seriousness and curiosity can overcome disgust (“Have a look at the worms…Now put your hand in”); even that there are some mysteries, “voluptuous curiosities,” such as the sexuality of her supervisor, which will not yield to scrutiny.
This one has a curmudgeon to match Scrooge — not in asceticism (she orders far and wide on the Internet) but in her refusal to get into the Christmas spirit.
In the twenty-first century, there has been a revival of the Christmas story, with examples from Jeanette Winterson, Will Self, A. L. Kennedy and Jackie Kay. One of the most attuned to the times is Ali Smith’s pointedly titled, “Do You Call That a Christmas Present?” (2008). This one has a curmudgeon to match Scrooge — not in asceticism (she orders far and wide on the Internet) but in her refusal to get into the Christmas spirit. What this woman wants for Christmas are comforters: wine and cake, socks and scarves; what she gets is a block of ice, a skeletal tree with dirty roots, a mad girl standing outside in the snow, serenading her. At first she is appalled, but her lover’s enthrallment to the season is infectious. Despite her cynicism, when a girl dressed as a boy soars through the air at the pantomime, she finds her face “wet with tears.” Soon she is watching Christmas films and singing Christmas songs. “Have yourself a merry little Christmas,” she hums and, at last, she is.
The whole piece is traditional as can be, hitched to “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” By the eighth day, she is “telling stories of Christmas past,” ones spent with lovers and family, and ones alone. She thinks about the old, old story (“no room at the inn”) and other exiled, lonely people. On the eleventh, she goes night-walking, marvelling at the snow’s “constellations” and the glistening, lit-up windows; she is already regretting the passing of the shortest day. Finally, on the twelfth, she shows her true love how much she has learned, giving her a present of logs and matches. Together they set a fire that throws “companionable shadows,” and sing to one another of the partridge and the pear tree.
As Irving and Dickens showed in their early attempts to resurrect the spirit of Christmas, and as Smith sees so clearly today, there is real, assayable value in the old traditions and great enjoyment to be had from them. Even in our prickly individualism, hemmed in by consumer goods, there are moments when we can escape from safe, homogenized lives to experience the tingling pleasures of heat and cold, of icy days and starry nights. The Christmas story reveals these freely available good things in front of us as it binds us to custom and continuity, drawing us back. Amid plenty and diversity it acts cohesively, bathing us in Platonic firelight and seating us at an imaginary hearth with ancestors for whom storytelling “in the light and the dark” was the greatest delight.Reducing amounts of memory being consumed
When a program is compiled in the 64-bit mode, it starts consuming more memory than its 32-bit version. This increase often stays unnoticed, but sometimes memory consumption may grow twice. The growth of memory consumption is determined by the following factors:
larger memory amounts to store some objects, for example pointers;
changes of the rules of data alignment in structures;
growth of stack memory consumption.
We can often tolerate the growth of main memory consumption - the advantage of 64-bit systems is that very large amount of memory available to user. It is quite okay if a program takes 300 Mbytes on a 32-bit system with 2 Gbytes of memory and 400 Mbytes on a 64-bit system with 8 Gbytes of memory. In relative units, it means that the program takes three times less memory available on a 64-bit system. So it is unreasonable to strike against the growth of memory consumption we have described - it is easier to add just a bit more memory.
But there is a disadvantage of this growth. It is related to performance loss. Although the 64-bit program code is faster, extraction of larger data amounts from memory might cancel all the advantages and even reduce performance. The operation of transferring data between the memory and microprocessor (cache) is not very cheap.
One of the ways to reduce the memory being consumed is optimization of data structures we have told you about in Lesson 23.
Another way of saving memory is to use more saving data types. For instance, if we need to store a lot of integer numbers and we know that their values will never exceed UINT_MAX, we may use the type "unsigned" instead of "size_t".
Using memsize-types in address arithmetic
Using ptrdiff_t and size_t types in address arithmetic might give you an additional performance gain along with making the code safer. For example, using the type int, whose size differs from the pointer's capacity, as an index results in additional commands of data conversion appearing in the binary code. We speak about a 64-bit code where the pointers' size is 64 bits while the size of int type remains the same - 32 bits.
It is not so easy to give a brief example to show that size_t is better than unsigned. To be impartial, we have to use the compiler's optimizing capabilities. But two variants of the optimized code often get too different to easily demonstrate their difference. We managed to create something like a simple example only with a sixth try. But the sample is still far from being ideal because it shows - instead of the unnecessary conversions of data types discussed above - the fact that the compiler can build a more efficient code when using size_t. Consider the program code arranging array items in the reverse order:
unsigned arraySize;... for (unsigned i = 0; i < arraySize / 2; i++) { float value = array[i]; array[i] = array[arraySize - i - 1]; array[arraySize - i - 1] = value; }
The variables "arraySize" and "i" in the example have the type unsigned. You can easily replace it with size_t and compare a small fragment of assembler code shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 - Comparing the 64-bit assembler code fragments using the types unsigned and size_t
The compiler managed to build a more laconic code when using 64-bit registers. We do not want to say that the code created using the type unsigned (text on the left) will be slower than the code using the type size_t (text on the right). It is a rather difficult task to compare the speed of code execution on contemporary processors. But you may see from the example that the compiler can build a briefer and faster code when using 64-bit types.
Now let us consider an example showing the advantages of the types ptrdiff_t and size_t from the viewpoint of performance. For the purposes of demonstration, we will take a simple algorithm of calculating the minimum path length. You may see the complete program code here.
The function FindMinPath32 is written in classic 32-bit style with unsigned types. The function FindMinPath64 differs from it only in that way that all the unsigned types in it are replaced with size_t types. There are no other differences! I think you will agree that it cannot be considered a complex modification of the program. And now let us compare the execution speeds of these two functions (Table 1).
Table 1 - The time of executing the functions FindMinPath32 and FindMinPath64
Table 1 shows reduced time relative to the speed of execution of the function FindMinPath32 on a 32-bit system. It was done for the purposes of clearness.
The operation time of the function FindMinPath32 in the first line is 1 on a 32-bit system. It is explained by the fact that we took this time as a unit of measurement.
In the second line, we see that the operation time of the function FindMinPath64 is also 1 on a 32-bit system. No wonder, because the type unsigned coincides with the type size_t on a 32-bit system, and there is no difference between the functions FindMinPath32 and FindMinPath64. A small deviation (1.002) only indicates a small error in measurements.
In the third line, we see a performance gain of 7%. We could well expect this result after recompiling the code for a 64-bit system.
The fourth line is of the most interest for us. The performance gain is 15%. It means that by merely using the type size_t instead of unsigned we let the compiler build a more effective code that works even 8% faster!
It is a simple and obvious example of how data that are not equal to the size of the machine word slow down algorithm performance. Mere replacement of the types int and unsigned with ptrdiff_t and size_t may result in a significant performance gain. It concerns first of all those cases when these data types are used to index arrays, in address arithmetic and to arrange loops.
Note. Although the static analyzer PVS-Studio is not specially designed to optimize programs, it may assist you in code refactoring and therefore make the code more efficient. For example, you will use memsize-types when fixing potential errors related to address arithmetic, and therefore allow the compiler to build a more optimized code.
Intrinsic-function
Intrinsic-functions are special system-dependent functions that perform those actions which cannot be performed at the level of C/C++ code or that perform these functions much more effectively. Actually, they let you get rid of inline-assembler because it is often undesirable or impossible to use it.
Programs may use intrinsic-functions to create faster code due to absence of overhead expenses on calling common functions. The code size will be a bit larger of course. MSDN gives a list of functions that can be replaced with their intrinsic-versions. For example, these are memcpy, strcmp, etc.
The compiler Microsoft Visual C++ has a special option "/Oi" that lets you automatically replace the calls of some functions with their intrinsic-analogs.
Besides automatic replacement of common functions with their intrinsic-versions, you may use intrinsic-functions explicitly in your code. This might be helpful due to these factors:
Inline assembler is not supported by the compiler Visual C++ in the 64-bit mode while intrinsic-code is.
Intrinsic-functions are simpler to use as they do not require knowledge of registers and other similar low-level constructs.
Intrinsic-functions are updated in compilers while assembler code must be updated manually.
The built-in optimizer does not work with assembler code.
Intrinsic-code is easier to port than assembler code.
Using intrinsic-functions in automatic mode (with the help of the compiler switch) will let you get some free percent of performance gain, and "manual" use even more. That is why using intrinsic-functions is quite reasonable.
To know more about using intrinsic-functions, see the Visual C++ team's blog.
Alignment
It is good in some cases to help the compiler by defining the alignment manually to enhance performance. For example, SSE data must be aligned on a 16-byte boundary. You may do this in the following way:
// 16-byte aligned data __declspec(align(16)) double init_val[2] = {3.14, 3.14}; // SSE2 movapd instruction _m128d vector_var = __mm_load_pd(init_val);
The sources "Porting and Optimizing Multimedia Codecs for AMD64 architecture on Microsoft Windows", "Porting and Optimizing Applications on 64-bit Windows for AMD64 Architecture" cover these issues very thoroughly.
Other means of performance enhancement
To learn more about the issues of optimizing 64-bit applications, see the document "Software Optimization Guide for AMD64 Processors".
The course authors: Andrey Karpov (karpov@viva64.com), Evgeniy Ryzhkov (evg@viva64.com).
The rightholder of the course "Lessons on development of 64-bit C/C++ applications" is OOO "Program Verification Systems". The company develops software in the sphere of source program code analysis. The company's site: http://www.viva64.com.On the afternoon of May 29th, 33 cars will line up behind the row of bricks for the 100th time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A race that was originally run as a showcase of innovation in the auto industry has become a Memorial Day weekend tradition for millions of race fans across the globe. In all of those 100-plus years of innovation, this year will see something that has yet to be done in auto racing — that is, if things go according to plan for Beth Paretta and Grace Autosport.
Paretta plans to bring the first racing team that's run completely by women to the Indianapolis 500. Having women in the paddock isn’t a new concept in racing, but something of this magnitude has never been done.
“Women have been in racing for a long time, so this isn’t something that is new,” says team Principal Beth Paretta.
What’s different in 2016? “We are gathering many women to form a team."
Aerodynamicist Catherine Crawford, motorsports engineer Lauren Elkins, junior design engineer Jessica Rowe, and Barbara Burns of BurnsGroup PR will join Paretta and Indy 500 veteran driver Katherine Legge to make this happen.
The team's story begins in the middle of 2014. Driver manager Adrian Sussmann was looking for a ride for his driver Katherine Legge.
Sussmann is a seasoned veteran in racing. He has worked with IndyCar favorites Dan Wheldon and Dario Franchitti. His management company, GP Sports Management also manages current IndyCar driver Sage Karem.
Legge brought up to Sussmann that she worked with Girls Scouts of the USA as a liaison to promote STEM majors in America. This planted a seed in Sussmann’s mind.
Later that year at an F1 test in Europe, Sussmann was watching a group of women with iPads looking over a car. At that moment, Sussmann decided to do a little research — and eventually discovered that there has never been a women-led racing team.
That fall, Sussmann called Paretta (who was working with Chrysler at the time) looking for NFL tickets for their annual game in Europe. It was at the end of that conversation that Sussmann said the “magic words in sales: 'By the way...'”
Originally, Sussmann was just looking for Paretta’s opinion on the idea. Paretta saw something much bigger. She eventually quit her job at Chrysler to take on running Grace Autosport full time.
After the official announcement was made in May of 2015, offers of support began coming in. Grace then formed a partnership with the Motorsports Engineering program at IUPUI. In an effort to help keep costs low, the program will be supplying interns to the team.
IUPUI was the first college in the United States to offer a bachelor's degree in motorsports engineering.
It’s a story that has the potential to resonate with potential sponsors that might not have previously considered investing money in racing. In order to help cover the high costs of fielding an Indy Car team,
Grace is looking for sponsors that have an interest in supporting STEM education for young women.
Track-time is only a small part of the story for Grace Autosport: Their goal is to captivate the imagination of the young girl who goes to the track, the young girl who could go on to become a race engineer or work in a technical field.
Grace wants to set an example for young women, to prove that there are opportunities for women in racing beyond just the driver’s seat.
The women involved in Grace Autosport are all veterans in racing. Their hope is that they’ll be able to reach out to girls — even at the elementary age — to show that a career in engineering is possible.
While the 500 is clearly the biggest stage on the IndyCar schedule, Grace is not going to be just a one-off team for Indy. Although there’s nothing official, the team would like to run races later in the IndyCar season and there are hopes of running a full schedule in 2017 — and even running races in other series.Introductory video to the project (in English, with French subtitles)
Monmouthpedia (styled as MonmouthpediA) is a collaborative project linking the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia and the town of Monmouth in South Wales.[2]
The project uses QRpedia QR codes to provide multilingual smart phone access to Wikipedia articles covering notable subjects in Monmouth, such as places, people, artefacts, flora and fauna.[3] It was formally launched on 19 May 2012, and led to Monmouth being described as the "world's first Wikipedia town".[4][5][6] The project was awarded the "Excellence in Marketing" award at the Monmouthshire Business Awards.
Inception [ edit ]
The idea of Monmouthpedia was conceived in late 2011 by John Cummings, a resident of Monmouth. Cummings attended a TEDx event in Bristol which discussed the QRpedia project in use at Derby Museum and Art Gallery.[7] Cummings founded the project with chair of Wikimedia UK, Roger Bamkin, who co-founded QRpedia. The project was subsequently supported by Monmouthshire County Council, and the council-owned Shire Hall later announced plans to instate a Wikipedian-in-Residence and introduce sessions to help visitors with contributions to the project.[7]
Monmouthpedia's initial goal was to have 1,000 QR codes by April 2012, with each article having a corresponding ceramic plaque emblazoned with a code.[8] By May, the project's home page reported 712 new and improved articles in 25 different languages. For non-English speakers, where available, articles in other languages are automatically displayed in the language of the user on the basis of the phone's language configuration. At project launch, some 500 articles in other languages were available thanks to the collaboration of editors abroad.[9] In addition to this, the project covers over 250 pre-existing entries on Monmouth-related topics. In the same period, over 1,000 photographs were uploaded.[citation needed]
One of the issues that Monmouth faced in making the project a success was that there was poor 3G mobile coverage. To help with this, wireless (Wi-Fi) broadband was provided in the high street and at most QR code plaque locations.[10]
Monmouth Library has become the first library in the world to add QR codes to books. Users with smart phones can now instantly find Wikipedia articles on the book and its author. Priority has been given to local literature and Welsh titles but more recent acquisitions on the Queen's Jubilee and the Olympics have also been QR coded.[11]
Reception [ edit ]
Glyn Moody, writing for Techdirt, questioned whether Monmouthpedia was the future of Wikipedia.[12] He described the project as creating "a kind of fractal Wikipedia" likening it to the 2010 film Inception, potentially enabling "[a] Wikipedia within a Wikipedia within a Wikipedia."[12] Within days of the launch, the initiative had led to widespread interest. A spokesman for Wikimedia UK reported that the project page had been viewed 10,000 times. Benton also reported there had been inquiries from towns in Norway, England, France, Scotland and Texas, USA. One test of success will however be the project's ability to attract more tourists to the town.[13] The initiative soon attracted interest from Gibraltar where the Gibraltarpedia project was launched on 13 July.[14]
Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, was enthusiastic about the initiative: "Bringing a whole town to life on Wikipedia is something new and is a testament to the forward-thinking people of Monmouth, all of the volunteers and the Wikimedia UK team. I’m looking forward to seeing other towns and cities doing the same thing."[15]
Monmouthshire County Council announced in July 2012 that it was planning to extend the initiative to other parts of the authority's area, starting with Chepstow and Raglan.[16] A new post, with the aim of delivering Monmouthshirepedia (sic), was advertised by the council in November 2012.[17]
Monmouthpedia was awarded the "Excellence in Marketing" award at the Monmouthshire Business Awards in October 2012.[18] Wynndel Property Management, developers of new housing at "Severn Quay" in Chepstow and sponsor of the award, praised Monmouthpedia on their website, noting that "Advertising value for Monmouth alone has been estimated at £2.12 million", and predicting that "Chepstow property, together with new developments in Chepstow and new developments in Monmouthshire, will also benefit" when a similar project starts for Chepstow.[19][20]
One of the Monmouthpedia plaques
World's first Wikipedia town
QR codes in library books
Trialling the QR codes
Wikimedia UK governance [ edit ]
On 7 February 2013, Monmouthpedia was cited as one of the conflicts of interest that prompted a governance review of Wikimedia UK (WMUK). The report found that WMUK was ineffective at handling such conflicts, and found that Roger Bamkin's acceptance of consultancy fees for Monmouthpedia provided an opportunity for WMUK's reputation to be damaged.[21]
See also [ edit ]Citing “systematic manipulation” of anti-doping rules, the International Olympic Committee announced Tuesday it has banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. An 14-person panel had been mulling a confidential IOC report that detailed Russia’s official doping program during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and the extensive cover-up.
As a result of this ban, no Russian officials will be allowed to attend the games. Their flag will be excluded from any display, and if any “clean” Russian athletes are given permission to attend, they won’t be competing under the Russian flag. They’ll compete under the name “Olympic Athlete from Russia” (OAR) and the Olympic flag, any medals they win won’t be credited to Russia and the Olympic anthem will be played in any ceremony.
Russia’s elaborate and extensive doping scheme during the 2014 Sochi Olympics has gotten them banned. (AP)
“This was an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport,” IOC president Thomas Bach said. “The IOC EB [executive board], after following due process, has issued proportional sanctions for this systemic manipulation while protecting the clean athletes. This should draw a line under this damaging episode and serve as a catalyst for a more effective anti-doping system led by WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency].”
The question now is, will Russia allow its “clean” athletes to compete or will it impose a mandatory boycott?
This ban was a long time coming. The McLaren Report, released in two parts by the World Anti-Doping Agency in July and December 2016, detailed the doping and subsequent |
(500GB) for $279 USD and live the legend of Master Chief on Xbox One S. This bundle is available exclusively at Walmart in the U.S. and includes:Greenbelt, Maryland – Former Maryland Delegate and Prince George’s County Councilman William Alberto Campos-Escobar, age 42, of Hyattsville, Maryland, has pleaded guilty to federal charges for taking bribes related to the performance of his official duties. The guilty plea was entered under seal on January 5, 2017, and unsealed today.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Gordon B. Johnson of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Assistant Special Agent in Charge Kareem Carter of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office; and Chief Hank Stawinski of the Prince George’s County Police Department.
“This undercover investigation did not involve an isolated instance of misconduct,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “It exposed a longstanding practice of giving away taxpayer money in exchange for bribes. This type of corruption can flourish when government officials exercise discretion without oversight.”
“A public servant must uphold public trust. You cannot use public service for your own personal gain,” said Special Agent Gordon B. Johnson of the FBI’s Baltimore Division. “Today’s plea announcement should send a clear signal that the FBI will vigorously investigate any public official who attempts to use their position to enrich themselves.”
“Rooting out public corruption remains one of the IRS-CI’s highest priorities. This investigation underscores our commitment to work in a collaborative effort to promote honest and ethical government at all levels and to prosecute those who allegedly violate the public’s trust. If you commit a crime, status as a political leader will not protect you from federal prosecution," said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Kareem Carter.
Campos was elected as a Prince George’s County Councilman representing County District 2 in 2004 and served until he was elected as a Delegate to the Maryland General Assembly in 2014. Campos served as a state delegate until his resignation on September 10, 2015. While Campos served as County Councilman, Prince George’s County allowed each County Council member to award $100,000 in grant funds to non-profit service organizations of their choice.
According to Campos’ plea agreement, Campos conspired to solicit and accept bribes in exchange for favorable official actions. For example, on December 9, 2012, Campos and another suspect met with a cooperating witness to discuss moving the cooperator’s business to the County. They met again on December 21, 2012, and the cooperator gave Campos an envelope with $3,000 in cash. Campos told the cooperator to find a non-profit organization (NPO), and Campos would arrange a grant that the NPO could share with the cooperator. On February 6, 2013, the cooperator received a check for $5,000, made out to the NPO, with a note that the grant represented funds from District 2.
On July 12, 2013, Campos and the other suspect met with the cooperator to discuss other NPOs that Campos could use to funnel County grant funds to the source. Campos said that he was going on vacation and “could use an advance for my trip.” On July 22, 2013, the cooperator called Campos and proposed meeting to give Campos information about the NPOs the cooperator had lined up to receive County grant funds. The cooperator said that he also wanted to “take care” of Campos before his trip.
At a meeting on July 25, 2013, the cooperator gave Campos $3,000 in cash. On November 15, 2013, an undercover FBI employee (UCE) picked up a check for $5,000 in County grant funds made out to the UCE’s NPO. The UCE posed as a businessman who owned a property management company and wanted to expand his business into the County and the surrounding area.
Campos subsequently asked the UCE to make a $2,000 campaign contribution to the another candidate’s campaign. On January 7, 2014, at Campos’ request, the UCE attended a political fundraiser for the candidate. During the fundraiser, Campos asked the UCE to increase the contribution to $4,000. The UCE agreed to make a $2,000 contribution at the fundraiser and pay an additional $2,000 if Campos would support the UCE’s company obtaining a property management contract with a housing authority outside Maryland. Campos agreed.
On January 28, 2014, the UCE sent Campos a draft letter of support. Campos forwarded the letter to a County employee with instructions to put the letter on official County letterhead and send it back to the UCE, who received the letter by email that same day. On February 4, 2014, Campos and UCE met in Alexandria, Virginia, and the UCE gave Campos $2,000 in cash. Later, Campos and UCE had the following conversation:
Campos: I told you, you were a bad influence. [laughs]
UCE: Oh, man. You can always say no. You say no to me right now. You say no, you
walk away.
Campos: I’m a mortal man – that’s the problem.
At a meeting on April 4, 2014, the other suspect told the cooperator that Campos needed $10,000 to pay a campaign-related expense, and that Campos wanted the cooperator to pay in exchange for Campos arranging another grant to an NPO selected by the cooperator.
On April 9, 2014, the other suspect told the cooperator that Campos wanted to “hook the source up” with the developer of a new business in the County that would retain the cooperator’s services. The other suspect stated that the business owed Campos because Campos had obtained a tax benefit for the business. The cooperator gave the other suspect $3,000 in cash for Campos, which the other suspect gave to Campos later that day. At a meeting the next day, Campos agreed to provide money to the cooperator through an NPO associated with the UCE. Campos also said he was meeting with the developer and would tell the developer that Campos wanted the developer to work with the cooperator.
On April 17, 2014, the UCE gave Campos another $2,000 in cash.
Campos also admitted that he received bribe payments from numerous other individuals. For example, from 2011 through 2014, Campos received between $21,000 and $24,000 from two County business owners in exchange for giving approximately $325,000 in County grant money to entities controlled by those business owners
As part of his plea agreement, Campos will be required to forfeit and pay restitution of at least $340,000.
Campos faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy, a maximum of 10 years in prison for bribery. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has scheduled sentencing for April 10, 2017.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended the FBI, IRS-CI, and Prince Georges County Police Department for their work in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Thomas P. Windom and James A. Crowell IV, who are prosecuting the case.Quick, what's the worst James Bond movie? Die Another Day? Oh wait, no, it's Moonraker, right? Definitely Moonraker.
Actually, no. The worst James Bond movie -- and we're speaking pretty objectively here -- is Casino Royale. No, not that one. That one's pretty damn good. We're talking about the original 1967 version of Casino Royale, an incomprehensible, non-canon, rival studio knockoff of the popular Sean Connery series starring Peter Sellers (as Bond), Orson Welles, and Woody Allen, which has gained a cult following due to its badness that has begrudgingly cemented its place in American film history. The plot involved flying saucers. It was pretty out there.
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See? Moonraker isn't even the worst one with a spaceship.
But, the unmitigated disaster that was the original Casino Royale might not have been such a bad movie if not for Peter Sellers' notorious penchant for throwing massive tantrums over the most inconsequential things. Sellers had been pissing off the crew for a while with his behavior and had already been offended by Orson Welles, who accused him of making the film go over budget. However, the real clincher for Sellers happened during a party in which he met Leo Jaffe, the chairman of Columbia Pictures.
Jaffe mistook Sellers for Woody Allen, and Sellers, a talented impressionist, decided to go along with it for shits and giggles and pretended to be Allen. Unfortunately, the joke went south when Jaffe went on a rant to him about what an asshole this Peter Sellers guy was. Yes, some people's real lives are bad sitcom plots.
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"In my defense..."
The next day, Sellers had disappeared. When the panicking studio was finally able to contact him, they found out that he was in Sweden. That's right, Sellers wasn't just insulted, he was "skip the country and move to Sweden" insulted, which, for anyone who knew him, was kind of just your average every day Peter Sellers tantrum. But, Casino Royale was already way over budget and couldn't just cancel production, even if their leading man had taken his ball and gone to Scandinavia. The necessity of finishing the movie at all costs required massive rewrites, leading to the movie's notoriously insane conceit of having multiple actors play James Bond.
Sellers eventually calmed down after breathing into a paper bag and punching a few pillows and then flew back to America to film a few final scenes to finish the project. We like to think that the moment he walked onto the set, at least one person shouted, "HOLY SHIT, IT'S WOODY ALLEN!"Terry Bean, 66, co-founder of the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, has been arrested on sodomy and sex abuse charges that allegedly involved a 15-year-old Oregon boy.
Also charged is Bean's former boyfriend, 25-year-old Kiah Lawson. The two are said to have set up the meeting with the child through the gay dating app, Grindr. The incident happened in a Eugene, OR hotel in September of 2013.
Bean pleaded not guilty and posted bail. He will appear in court in December. His lawyers say these allegations are a larger part of an extortion ring against the gay rights activist.
The ex-boyfriend also pleaded not guilty. Lawson's mother, Tim Nouanemany, told local KOIN 6 News that Bean "groomed" her son with "alcohol and Viagra" in order to "get [Bean] young kids." She says her son went from "a happy young man" to "someone who is not himself" after meeting Bean.
Lawson helped police with the investigation by providing the phone number of the teen, but that also lead to his arrest. Lawson charged that Bean had installed a hidden camera above his bed to capture sexual encounters.
Bean is a prominent Democrat, a member-at-large of the Democratic National Committee and ardent supporter of Barack Obama, Al Gore, and Bill Clinton. Bean contributed $500,000 to Obama's reelection campaign in 2012. At many events, including one hosted by HRC, Obama thanked his "good friend" Bean. CNN has a detailed report of this relationship with video.
Bean's lawyer declares, "Terry Bean is a highly respected community leader who has devoted his life to bettering our community. No allegations against [him] should be taken at face value. We look forward to the opportunity to clear his name.”
Image source: Flickr/Bire_pdxMARY Midgley has never been a philosopher who lived in an ivory tower.
Right now, her home is a small retirement apartment in a sheltered housing complex called Pilgrim's Court in Newcastle. It is, she says, very well designed for her stage in life, with its mini-kitchen, bedroom, and small living room, which she has functioning as a perfect philosopher's office: armchair in the corner, desk with computer, a few shelves of books, and a window seat covered in sections of the Guardian and copies of periodicals such as The RSPCA and Philosophy Now.
When I arrive, the 95-year-old, who remains one of the UK's most highly regarded moral philosophers, and a voice of common sense in an often esoteric and perplexing field, is sitting in an armchair, a book, Homage To Gaia by the scientist and environmentalist James Lovelock, at her side. She doesn't rise, since currently she is only really moving around with the help of a mobility aid.
She is, she says, still writing: currently working on an afterword for a book about her philosophy and also on a talk she will give next month at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, when she is awarded The Edinburgh Medal for her contributions to the "wellbeing of humanity".
"There's nothing wrong in here," she says, pointing to her forehead. "It's just my legs. I'm terribly lame." The problem, she explains, was worsened by the fact that she couldn't manage the stair in her old house, not far away in Jesmond, so didn't manage to get enough exercise. "If I'd died as my parents did in my 80s," she says, "it would have saved a lot of bother because I wouldn't have become lame."
But nor would her two most recent books have been written. Her 2010 book, The Solitary Self: Darwin And The Selfish Gene, attacks the idea that individualism is written into who we are by our genetic make-up - and continues the long-running row between Midgley and the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Last year, she published Are You An Illusion?, which countered the notion that there is no self, only chemicals and neurons. The book was triggered by a quote by Francis Crick, the discoverer of DNA, who wrote: "You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behaviour of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their attendant molecules."
Midgley was "shocked and bloody horrified" when she read this. She thought then: "I shouldn't have to do this, because this notion about being an illusion is perfectly silly, but it seems I do."
One gets the impression that Midgley doesn't keep on writing just because she enjoys it, but because she thinks the world needs her to counter prevalent ideas she considers "silly" or "ridiculous", and bring us all back to "talking sense" - and because she believes such questions should not be purely left to scientists. As the philosopher Roger Scruton has put it: "Midgley's view is that philosophy, in leaving the question of human nature to the biologists, has betrayed its mission."
Midgley was in some ways a late starter - she published her first book, Beast And Man, aged 59 - so perhaps it seems also right that she is a late-finisher, reluctant to quit interjecting whenever she sees some new "silliness".
Much of her career-long philosophical battle has been against what she describes as scientism (the belief that empirical science is the most authoritative world-view or most valuable part of human learning). It's a subject she will be discussing when she comes to Edinburgh, where she will, she says, talk about how "the sort of reverence for science is quite detached from anything that's achieved by actually doing science".
Richard Dawkins has long been one of her prime targets. It's as if she feels his "selfish gene" concept is a tiresome gnat that she has to keep swatting away. "I didn't read TheSelfish Gene [published in 1976] till a long time after it came out," she recalls, "But when I did, I was horrified. Personally I thought it was a disaster." She then went on, in 1979, to write a controversial article. "There were two things that I was objecting to," she recalls, "one was that selfish point of view, the other the identifying of the gene as being the person, the agent that's in charge. It's the only time I've written in a really bad temper."
At the time, Dawkins wrote that he was "taken aback by the inexplicable hostility of Mary Midgley's assault". He pointed out that he "was not really writing about man but about the evolution of life". He was particularly upset by one remark, in which Midgley revealed: "Up till now, I have not attended to Dawkins, thinking it unnecessary to break a butterfly upon a wheel."
"The real joke," Midgley says now, "is that Dawkins picked up the mistaken idea that I had said that I hadn't read the Selfish Gene." This turns out not to have been true, though she notes, "he's been put right about this by a number of people. A number of people have said this isn't true. But he still goes on saying it."
Midgley was born Mary Scrutton, 10 months after the start of the First World War. Her mother, a Scot, came from the Borders, and she recalls being brought up in a "very intelligent Anglican household" in the south of England. Her father was a parson who had been brought up without religion as a child but "somehow got it in his teens" following a conversion experience. As a young man he went as a chaplain with the forces in 1915, and found himself at the Front having to explain to them why they were dying. This, says Midgley, was "the experience of his life" - and from then on he became a campaigning pacifist, determined to oppose war in every way possible.
Midgley studied classics at Oxford, where her contemporaries included Iris Murdoch (who became a close friend and bridesmaid at her wedding), Mary Warnock, Elizabeth Anscombe and Philippa Foot. She met her late husband Geoffrey Midgley, also a philosopher, there. He later took up a post at Newcastle University, where they would remain, and where she would leave off pursuing her career for many years while she raised three children. She and her husband believed that philosophy was to be found in chats in the common room and real life moral issues, rather than some of the more recondite territories other contemporaries were exploring. "We were sick of a lot of what was going on in Oxford - we thought most of them were wasting their time. So without setting it up as a policy, we got terribly interested in what was going on locally."
For all Midgley doesn't shirk at attacking other academics for their silliness, she's also not short of praise for those whose ideas she believes in. James Lovelock, she considers the "next big thing after Darwin". Currently she is "rereading" Lovelock's memoir. "He's brilliant isn't he?" she says. "He looks at things on another scale. The importance of him still isn't really recognised. I was just reading how when he was young he quickly showed that there couldn't be life on Mars because of the atmosphere. But people are still after it - they still want there to be life there."
He is, Midgley says, a friend - and they are doing a "conversation" event together at the Edinburgh Science Festival. Both were born in the same year, and remain intellectually sharp and influential, even in their mid-90s. "I read his first book and at some point we got together and we have done so repeatedly. It's not easy to see each other because here am I in the north-east of England and he's in Dorset."
Midgley shares Lovelock's fears over climate change. "The trouble with taking climate change seriously," she says, " is that it means you have to do a lot things you don't want to do. This is going to affect our lives. The only parallel I can think when people have done that is the beginning of the Second World War. People at once were willing to change their minds and sacrifice this and that."
Midgley lived through, and witnessed, that societal change. Though she herself was well aware of the threat of Nazism, having read about it in the New Statesman and even witnessed it first-hand on a trip to Vienna in 1937, many in the run up to the war had not been worried. "The climate of the country was pretty conservative," she recalls
She was, however, impressed at the way "everybody, the general public, seemed to get it right away - and there was a great shift from general selfishness to being pretty self-sacrificing in a lot of ways." That's the kind of thing, she says, that needs to happen now. "It hasn't happened and I can't make out whether it may do."
She always describes herself as not religious. Is she agnostic? "If I'm asked, 'Is there a god?' I don't quite know what that is," she says. She does, however, talk about something she calls a "life force", and adds: "I'm convinced that the whole of creation is doing something."
Now in her 10th decade, Midgley - who lost her husband in 1997 - is not preoccupied with death. "I never did think much about it," she says. "There are some people who are always frightened of death. I haven't been. I just sort of think - wait till it comes, so to speak."
What's striking is that, even though Midgley only moved in here three weeks ago, there's nothing very sentimental in the way she talks about this new home, or her leaving of her previous house. While other residents, she says, have photographs of their old home decorating their walls, she has chosen paintings. She appears to be enjoying the space. Friends call, she talks to people on the phone; she has been going to the coffee mornings that are held for residents. Among the most difficult issues, she says, was deciding which books to bring. "But I don't seem to read so much in a day as I used to," she says. "I do it more slowly."
It seems a busy existence. At the end of our interview, I ask if she might want a rest. But Midgley has something else planned. She will go out for a walk. She needs her exercise. She plans to be getting about soon without the mobility walker again and is training her way up to it.
Mary Midgley will appear in three events on April 7 and 8 at this year's Edinburgh International Science Festival, including a special in-conversation event with James Lovelock at The Queen's Hall
www.sciencefestival.co.ukAdvertising is much more than just the act of getting your product out in front of your customers’ eyes – it’s an art that balances sociology and style. Endless attempts have been made to create outdoor media which is profound to the place and time they are produced in, and many have succeeded. But what about those advertisements that simply wow with size and spectacle? That’s right, we’re talking about the biggest and most expensive billboard ever– but which billboard, exactly, is the ‘most expensive?’ Read on to find out!
The Most Expensive Billboard
When we talk about the most expensive billboard in the world, there is a little bit of confusion about whether or not the prize will be taken by North America, or by the increasingly eminent Dubai, long considered a bastion of wealth and opulence in the Middle East. For as far as the plain facts are considered, though, the most expensive billboard is one that went up in Times Square in the late part of 2014.
A picture of the billboard, with a crowd for scale
This billboard, recently unveiled in the heart of Times Square, is longer than a football field and boasts an unreal 24 million pixel display to embolden the next generation of high-definition advertising. You can see the display dwarfing the crowds below.
So, what does this expensive billboard cost the advertisers of the world to use? A whopping 625k/week. Or, in other words, roughly ~$100,000 a day. The billboard is rented in 4-week periods, meaning that companies will be dropping about $2.5 million for a 4-week advertisement. While this price is pretty much unprecedented, the area sees hundreds of thousands of people a day – people who are likely to notice the gargantuan display that illuminates the marquee above them. For many advertisers, this is a worthwhile investment to make.
While this billboard is one of the largest and definitely the most expensive, it is not the largest in the world. It’s not even the tallest! The distinction of tallest belongs to another Times Square billboard, the uber-iconic vertical one at One Times Square. Meanwhile, the largest billboard in the world is in Saudi Arabia which is the length of almost three football fields!
A Possible Competitor
The massive new Times Square billboard may be the most consistently expensive billboard in the world with its weekly rate of $625,000, but there is one billboard that has a higher cost in terms of potential. This billboard is none other than the Skydive Dubai billboard that debuted in front of the Burj Khalifa back in 2012, in conjunction with Denver-based Go Fast Sports. Sure, it’s in a prime location… But how does it manage to risk a cost higher than $625k?
The answer lies in the peculiar nature of its presentation. While the billboard is relatively standard, it debuted with a display from a Go Fast jetpack rider – no doubt due to the ties that Go Fast Sports has to the Jetpack International. Since the advertisement debuted with the jetpack rider as a key part of its presentation, it can be considered to be something of a part of the ad itself. See a demonstration in the video here.
It is estimated that for this billboard to operate at full capacity (that is to say, with a jetpack rider circling it) it would cost a completely unreal $1.3 billion a month to operate. For clarity, that’s operating 24/7, for a whole month. Even still, you might be wondering, how is it so expensive? The answer is that jet-packing is still an incredibly expensive hobby, taking an estimated $500 a second. Until we see those costs drop, this will be without a doubt the most (potentially) expensive billboard in the world.
Reflections On the Two
So here we’ve looked at the two most expensive billboards in the world – one is a massive screen in a key center of the city, and one is in an even more opulent location but requiring an unsustainable display to make the most of itself. They are certainly two different ways to spend, so which one is ‘better’?
Without a doubt, the Times Square billboard is the safer investment. It has a hefty cost, but a great location with a fantastic display. The things that make the Dubai billboard so expensive mostly come down to novelty, which while worthy of conversation, are no way to sustainably invest in your business. So if you see billboards out in the wild that echo these two, take the option that is the most stable! After all, there is a reason that brands like Google are already seeking to place multi-month displays on a display like the one in Times Square.For most of us, smartphones are an inescapable part of daily life. Sure they may be convenient but the spread of mobile phones has brought with it a slew of ailments caused by overuse. You’ve probably already heard of ‘text claw,’ which is the cramping pain you get in your wrists, forearms and fingers from the overuse of phones. You may also have heard of ‘blackberry thumb,’ a strain in the hand that is developed from constant texting.
In addition to these ailments, ‘smartphone pinky,’ a temporary pain and deformity of the pinky finger has been discovered. This complaint is developed from, you guessed it, excessive smartphone use. The definition of smartphone pinky according to Urban Dictionary can be described as “when your pinky gets permanently deformed and painful from supporting the weight of your heavy ass smartphone.”
If you’re reading this on your phone now, have a look at where your pinky is. Chances are you have your pinky finger under the phone for support. If you do, you may want to adjust the way you’re holding your mobile device from now on.
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NTT DoCoMo, the largest Japanese cell phone provider, recently released a warning to users via Twitter, reminding them of the side effects of the overuse of smartphones, and urging them take frequent breaks and change the way they hold their phones. DoCoMo also tweeted a photo showing the harmful effects of overusing smartphones if you depend too much on your little finger to support the weight of your phone – something many of us unconsciously do.
When translated on Google Translate, the tweet reads: “[Finger is deformed!? ] … Also depending on how to hold the smartphone to become “text thumb injury”. So that it is not too much a burden on a particular finger, but please take the time to time how to hold a change or break.” It seems the telecom company is suggesting that holding the smartphone causes the finger deformity.
When you hold a heavy smartphone in your hand, it rests and presses on the inside of your pinky, a vulnerable spot for pain to develop. Not only can holding your phone this way cause soreness from the weight of your phone, it can also result in an indentation between the first and second joints of your little finger, which we now know to be smartphone pinky.
So what should you do to treat this finger deformity? Take frequent breaks from using your smartphone and try not to depend on your pinky finger to support the weight of the phone. When it comes to texting, putting your phone down on a hard surface might help, or else hold the phone in one hand and text with the other.Nirvana Photos from the Kurt Cobain crime scene that could be high art The eerie, haunting, shockingly beautiful images from the scene of Cobain's suicide
When the Seattle Police Department recently released a secret, scathing, anti-Courtney Love suicide note found in Kurt Cobain’s wallet, they also quietly released something far more interesting. After briefly reopening the case, they discovered four rolls of undeveloped crime scene photographs.
The results are nothing like you’d expect. None feature the Nirvana frontman. Instead, they are filled with easily overlooked details from around the house. The big surprise is how beautiful they are. The images could hang in a gallery aside realist photography giants like William Eggleston and Stephen Shore.
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Each of the 34 snapshots is faded, ghostly and poignant in its own way. A messy cigar box filled with needles and a spoon, and Cobain’s original suicide note grab your attention first. But look deeper and the other images have an even more nuanced story to tell. A detective leaning against a wall, exhausted, lost in thought. A hazy, rain-slicked shot of the home’s exterior. A haunting cracked door that presumably leads to Cobain. A six-legged wooden stool eerily inscribed with “Now You Have Many Legs to Stand On.”
Eggleston and Shore perfected this style in the 1970s by finding the mystery in everyday items. Under their lens, simple shots of hamburgers and couches unlocked exotic details. That story-within-a-story quality is the same one found in these anonymously photographed crime scene pictures. It’s shocking to think these were nearly lost for good.
By itself, this six-legged stool is a weird little curio. But the inscription “Now You Have Many Legs to Stand On” paired with the faded sadness of the aged film sends a shiver down your back.
Even taken out of the context, this photo is subtly beautiful. A man deep in his own thoughts. Less of a crime scene snapshot and more like a color version of those lonely shots in Robert Frank’s famous collection, "The Americans" — a voyeuristic glimpse of an exhausted detective maybe pondering the clues or the senselessness of suicide or his own troubles at home.
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Layer upon layer of stacked flat surfaces create a surprisingly balanced shot, but it’s that disturbingly intense DMV shot of Cobain that pushes this picture somewhere new and interesting.
Presumably a collection of personal items found at the crime scene, each item lets us construct a story about its owner. It shares a lot of similarities with Stephen Shore’s photos of junk lying around houses.
By itself a grubby image of Cobain’s heroin works, which he was reported to have injected before killing himself, the photo adds a sub-basement of emotional impact with that stately gentleman on the cigar box overlooking it all.
The exterior of the Cobain home. It’s nice, but not the mansion of a mega-rock star. Those damp, musty colors really grab your attention, like a photo negative of the bursting Southern gothic brightness of William Eggleston’s work.
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Much like the image of the detective, this shot of a partially opened door that leads, presumably, to the room above the garage where Cobain spent his last moments, is haunting because of what is left unsaid. We all know what is beyond that door. We shouldn’t want to look and obsess over it, but we do. Much like these beautiful photos as a whole, you feel guilty for looking -- but it's hard to stop.FAIRGROUND LIVES: Elvis is no longer in the building, but Barton Coliseum will remain an anchor of the Arkansas State Fair, which is staying put in Little Rock.
Good guess by me last night. (It was a guess informed by what insiders had been telling me.)
The State Fair will stay put in Little Rock. David Koon is covering the Fair Board meeting and will have more details before long.
Offers of land in North Little Rock and Jacksonville seemed tempting, but came with no construction money, which would have been in the tens of millions. And the fair's own consultants said the fair couldn't expect much better than break-even results financially at even a new, freeway-friendlier site with additional facilities.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola has pitched several ideas for expansion of existing fairgrounds for more facilities and included some fair money in the city's recent sales tax increase spending plans. He's talked, too, of a direct highway link to Interstate 30 south of the grounds, though this would be an expensive undertaking.
The fair's current location, amid a faded neighborhood, has been a long concern.
UPDATE FROM DAVID KOON:
Stodola has pledged $300,000 a year for 10 years, with the ability of the fair to make a "draw" against the larger amount for renovations and bigger projects. Plan is to build a pedestrian bridge running parallel to the south side of the Roosevelt Road viaduct and over the railroad tracks — construction beginning in 2013 — so the fair can extend west. City and fair in negotiations with the railroad to move the spur immediately adjacent to the fairgrounds so the fair can extend west immediately, though changes definitely wont be in place by October.
You can see a larger version of the detailed map of the expansion plan on the jump.
The vote was a foregone conclusion. It came with an already-assembled press packet that said the Little Rock plan of more acreage plus a total $3 million commitment was the critical factor.
Said Association Chairman Ned Ray Purtle in a prepared statement: "Much to our surprise, in the end, a giant door opened with the exciting prospects of expanding right where we are — and without the price tag of hundreds of millions of dollars! One of the great side benefits will be that we are going to be the catalyst to rebuilding and growing this Little Rock neighborhood that we've called home all these years."
Here's the city's detailed proposal, which includes promises to try to steer more events to the Fairgrounds (a recent decision to put the high school basketball tournament there has been panned by state sportswriters, though Barton remains a decent basketball facility) and to attempt to line up naming rights deals on facilities. The city also said it was in the process of demolishing decrepit homes nearby and will commit to adequate police coverage of the area.
The city's promise to work to acquire land to the east of the Fairgrounds has already drawn an unhappy response from Dr. Anika Whitfield, who's also active in the community group fighting condemnation of residential property for the Little Rock Technology Park. She her letter to city officials on the jump.
ALSO: Housing Authority Commissioner Kenyon Lowe said the housing agency, which owns a significant chunk of the land east of the State Fair underneath the Sunset Terrace housing project (see map on jump), is committed to rebuilding that project. He said the mayor had not spoken to the authority about use of that property and that it would "behoove" the State Fair to look west and south for new land rather than east. He said it was a matter of commitment to residents for the Metropolitan Housing Alliance to continue with that rebuilding plan.
David Koon
EXPANDED GROUNDS: Fair General Manager Ralph Shoptaw shows map of expanded grounds.
LETTER TO LR OFFICIALS FROM ANIKA WHITFIELD
Mayor Stodoloa, City Manager Moore, and the members of the City Board of Directors,
I just heard about the AR State Fairground Board's decision to stay in LR.
According to today's post on AR Business.com,
"Little Rock promised to help acquire about 51 acres east of the current site and work to merge two sets of railroad tracks north of Wright Avenue, which would free up roughly 34 acres just west of the fairgrounds for expansion."
I hope that the city recognizes that "51 acres east of the current site" are primarily homes of people who have raised generations of children that have paid city taxes and helped provide the resources from which our city has been able to grow and sustain itself. The residents in this area and community are predominately Black and retired people.
"Acquiring 51 acres east of (the AR State Fairgrounds) the current site" means taking people's homes. People are not property and should not be treated or disregarded as such.
Homes are not places you can replace by relocating people. Homes are places where people share personal, private, monumental, treasured moments that are priceless.
This is another instance that I believe the city has failed to "see" the citizens perspective in "promising to help acquire 51 acres east of the (AR State Fairground's) current site...", but has "seen" an opportunity to "sell" the people and their homes who have helped build and develop the cities revenue from their hard earned tax dollars for financial gains of the city of Little Rock. The city's position to "help acquire 51 acres east of (the AR State Fairgrounds) the current site" is equivalent |
CNN Wednesday.
The two also seemed to spar over committee seats at the convention, with Sanders demanding more representation.
He has also criticized other aspects of the Democrats’ nominating process, from closed primaries to the use of superdelegates, the vast majority of whom are backing Clinton and have given her a substantial lead in the race.
Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver further distanced the campaign from the DNC chair Wednesday, saying she has been “throwing shade” at Sanders “since the very beginning.”
“Whether it was the debate schedule that were very few and far between and scheduled on weekends when no one was going to be watching them, whether they shut off Sanders’s access to his own data and we had to sue them in federal court to get them back, whether it was these joint fundraising agreements with the Hillary Clinton campaign which are taking money from the state parties and giving it to the DNC,” Weaver told CNN.A recent survey by mobile operator Meteor reveals Ireland’s growing smartphone addiction, with people using phones to replace visits to the doctor and as a social crutch. There’s also a significant number of nosy parkers among us that will snoop on someone else’s phone when they’re not looking.
The survey of 803 smartphone users was conducted by Empathy Research on behalf of Meteor last month.
Confessions
Two-fifths of those surveyed admitted to checking their smartphones more than 10 times a day, and Facebook ranked as the nation’s No 1 one app, with 33pc putting it in pole position. One-fifth of those surveyed also admitted to using Facebook to check up on an ex.
A whopping 80pc said they use their smartphones as a social crutch to avoid boredom or have something to do when waiting for someone, while 10pc confessed clinging to their smartphone to stop strangers from making conversation.
Smartphones have also started to replace some users’ GPs, with 30pc saying they have self-diagnosed an illness by looking up their symptoms on their precious device. Women self-diagnose this way more than men, with 35pc doing so compared to 25pc of men. But the biggest demographic playing doctor was the 18-24 age group, of which 54pc use their phone to replace a doctor’s advice.
Suspicious minds
Another common trait in this age group is checking a partner’s smartphone for texts, photos and dialled numbers. Half of those aged 18-24 admitted to doing so, compared to 32pc committing this act overall.
And it’s not just significant others that are being spyed on. Half of women surveyed had secretly checked someone else’s phone, as had 40pc of men.
Some are wary of sneaky snoopers, though, and 52pc of men have cleared their browsing history, compared to 34pc of women.
An open-ended question asking for people’s most embarrassing smartphone-related incidents resulted in 4pc telling tales of dropping smartphones down the toilet – one of which was a shared office phone – while 15pc were mortified when they accidentally sent an incriminating text to the wrong person.
Faster connectivity to ease frustration
The Meteor survey came ahead of the launch of Ireland’s first 4G service as part of a €330m mobile investment by company owner Eircom. A clear majority (80pc) of those surveyed correctly identified what 4G is, while 65pc said a phone with five times faster browsing would be a tempting purchase.
Faster mobile connectivity could put an end to the ‘spinning wheel of death’ – that is, the spinning icon that tells you content is buffering or slowly loading – which leaves 43pc of users feeling angry and frustrated, and one-quarter tempted to throw their phone across the room. This is the same violent frustration experienced by users of slow computers.
Meteor’s 4G coverage is currently available in Dublin, Carlow and Athlone. The network plans to reach more than 43pc population coverage by year-end, with development then slowing to reach 50pc by June 2014.Derse and Prospit dreamers
So everyone has always sorta been confused by the Derse/Prospit distinction, and what exactly determines which moon you dream on. It always seemed really arbitrary, but this morning I noticed a pattern: Prospit dreamers’ mythological roles (AKA god tier titles) represent something they aspire to, whereas Derse dreamers’ roles represent something they are insecure about, perhaps even their greatest fears. And their success in following through with these struggles is literally the same thing as their success in the game.
There have actually been a bunch of hints that the pattern is something of this kind. I’ll start with Dave and Rose, who are the clearest examples so far of “doing it right.” Dave initially made a deliberate effort not to be the kind of guy who would save his friends. Rose tried to maintain control over all her plans without leaving things to chance, and freaked out when this approach backfired. At the end of act 5 they both overcame these flaws… and promptly achieved godhood.
Vriska always loved stealing opportunities from others, just like her pirate ancestor. She pursued that lifestyle with abandon, and hit god tier in the trolls’ session before anyone had time to blink. And of course Jade’s ascension was synonymous with becoming a cute little bug-eating werebeast.
Okay. So that’s four people doing their quests according to their character arcs, and hitting god tier. (You probably already heard about this part from other theories anyway. It’s kind of a theme in Homestuck.) But what if you don’t go through with your character development? What if you don’t pick up on the hints the game is dropping for you, and you never heed the call of adventure?
If you don’t do any of that stuff, you lose the game. Naturally.
Tavros was content to let his metaphorical dream be a literal dream. He turned his back on his quest, and for that he died pointlessly. Nepeta couldn’t bring herself to confront her beloved, much less steal his heart (I guess). Equius had one job. One job. Physically, he was more than equipped to succeed with flying colors, but he blue it anyway.
There are a bunch of people whose classes or aspects we don’t know enough about to discuss in any useful way at all, but it’s clear how some of them sort of fall in the middle. Karkat made a lot of noise about being a great leader, and as well as he’s done he still thinks he’s shitty at it. Terezi just last month discussed her own doubts at great length. Kanaya is on her way, but Sylph is a healer class, and whatever she’s supposed to heal, it hasn’t happened yet. I think what progress they’ve made has sort of given them a second chance, but if they neglect to finish their quests once they’re “in the game” again, they’re toast.
(By the way, it’s interesting that both Jade and Kanaya aspire to (and eventually undergo) physical transformations. This is probably a Space thing, given Feferi and Aranea as points of comparison, but it’s hard to say for sure until we know more.)
Almost everyone I haven’t mentioned confuses me somehow, but the biggest case is Eridan. Prince is a destroyer class, and we know he used his Hope powers to wreck everyone’s shit in act 5. Did he acquire those powers by accepting that he would only ever ruin things for everybody? Was that his aspiration, or his greatest fear? Was it just his destiny to be a total fucking douchebag?
Maybe it was.
Maybe we should be proud of him.http://youtu.be/K6kl6M9btl0
The Los Angeles Dodgers have been busy this off-season adding to their already solid bullpen as they signed reliever Chris Perez last night and brought back a former reliever for their long-man spot this afternoon.
38-year-old reliever Jamey Wright was with the Dodgers during the 2012 season before spending last season with the Tampa Bay Rays. During that season, Wright appeared in 66 games, going 5-3 with a 3.72 ERA in 67.2 inning pitched. According to Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times, it looks like the 2014 bullpen is done after this signing:
Source: The #Dodgers have signed Jamey Wright to a one-year deal. — Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) December 23, 2013
Wright signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in 2012, so getting a big league contract is a nice step forward for him. The Dodger bullpen has seen significant activity with Brian Wilson and J.P. Howell re-signing and the signing of Perez late last night.
The odd man out in all of this will be Jose Dominguez, who showed incredible velocity during the middle of the season, but a quad injury in September ended his season.
Along with Wilson, Howell and Perez, the Dodgers also have Chris Withrow, Brandon League and closer Kenley Jansen. Not to mention, they’ll have a surplus of starters once Chad Billingsley is back from Tommy John surgery in mid-to-late May or early June.
Wright posted his highest WAR since 2011 with the Seattle Mariners and his highest ERA+ of his career of 124. While he isn’t the flashiest player, the signing gives the Dodgers even more bullpen depth, which could set-up a future trade or help during the 2014 season.
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ICYMI: The Dodgers and Chris Perez agreed to a one-year deal late last nightJoan Bryden, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- The Harper government's resolve to enforce the law against marijuana use is unshaken by a call to legalize pot from the country's largest mental health and addiction treatment centre.
Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Thursday the Conservative government has no intention of heeding the call of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Indeed, the government remains committed to going in the opposition direction, said MacKay: finding ways to actually increase enforcement of marijuana laws, including potentially making it a ticketing offence to possess small quantities of dope.
But Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who has been championing legalization for more than a year, said CAMH's endorsement of the idea shows he's on the right track while the Tories are ideologically bound to a war on drugs that has proven a total failure.
NDP health critic Libby Davies, whose party supports decriminalization of marijuana, said the Conservatives are becoming increasingly isolated on the issue as more and more public health groups refuse to back their tough-on-pot message.
In a policy statement released Thursday, CAMH said cannabis should be legalized and strictly regulated, sold through a government-controlled monopoly with limited availability and an age limit. The centre concluded that the current legal prohibition on pot has failed to prevent use or reduce the harm it can cause.
That pretty much echoes the arguments that have been made by Trudeau, who has been pilloried by Conservatives for allegedly wanting to make pot more easily available to children.
"Yes, it's nice to see a world-class organization like CAMH come out and agree with (us) and demonstrate that we're on the right track," Trudeau said in an interview.
By contrast, he said CAMH's position shows the Harper government is "trapped in policies based on ideology rather than policies based on evidence and that is harmful to Canadians and to Canada."
MacKay, however, was unmoved.
"It surprises me, quite frankly, because there are just as many respected organizations and credible reports that say the opposite," MacKay said on his way into a committee meeting.
He argued that other public health groups have warned about the negative impact of marijuana on the developing brains of children and the fact that it can "trigger episodes of psychosis and schizophrenia and other serious mental conditions."
"And so I think there is a need to really be very circumspect about any move towards making marijuana more readily available. So that certainly is our government's position. We do not intend to legalize or decriminalize."
MacKay added that the government continues to consider "methods in which we can increase enforcement," including the ticketing option favoured by chiefs of police.
"This would not decrease but increase enforcement and optionality for police to ensure that people are respecting the law," he stressed.
Trudeau argues that legalizing and strictly regulating marijuana would do more to restrict availability and reduce consumption, particularly among young people, than the failed war on drugs.
He said Thursday that he has deliberately not spelled out precisely how a regulatory regime would work because he wants the input of experts and groups like CAMH.
On that score, Trudeau said he's "very interested" in CAMH's advice that advertising, marketing and sponsorship by marijuana producers should be prohibited and that health information should be clearly displayed.
Davies said CAMH brings "a lot of credibility" to the debate on marijuana because it so well respected.
While the NDP has not gone as far as the Liberals in calling for outright legalization, Davies said New Democrats see decriminalization as a first step, to be followed by a serious public debate on what more needs to be done.
The "biggest impediment" to that debate, she said, is the ruling Conservatives, "who've buried themselves in this rhetoric of the war on drugs, when I think most Canadians know it's absurd and it's unrealistic."
The rigidity of the Tories' position "does leave them more and more isolated on the question," Davies said.A prominent national paper got called out today when their otherwise-informative slideshow went off the rails at the suggestion that rifle owners were outfitting their weapons with a “chainsaw bayonet.”
USA Today posted a short video about the gun used in the Sutherland Springs church shooting, a Ruger AR-556. Introduced in 2014, the model retails in the $800 range, according to Slate.
A look at the gun used in the Texas church shooting. https://t.co/xdxIf5fR77 pic.twitter.com/sUY1mCCLZC — USA TODAY (@USATODAY) November 8, 2017
RELATED: Why is the mainstream media ignoring that it took an AR-15 to stop the Texas shooter?
After introducing the rifle’s base model — a semiautomatic AR-15 style rifle firing standard 5.56mm rounds — they show off various aftermarket modifications available for the rifle, “some common, some rare.” They ran the gamut from larger magazines to trigger cranks and an underbarrel 12 gauge shotgun.
Then it took a turn to the ridiculous (or the very useful, for the zombie hunters and landscapers out there), as USA Today also showed off the definitely-rare “chainsaw bayonet.”
People watching the video quickly saw it for what it was.
what if a chainsaw bayonet but each tooth of the chainsaw is itself a chainsaw bayonet — Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) November 8, 2017
Some of them added “accessories” of their own, including Corgis and selfie sticks.
Wow. Millennials have now ruined guns, too. pic.twitter.com/QuD1mHzylO — Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) November 8, 2017
On the rifle he posted on Facebook before the shooting — several weapons were found in his truck — USA Today points out that shooter Devin Kelley probably had a red dot sight, a flashlight, a strap, a foregrip and an extended magazine of some sort. At this time, it’s not been reported anywhere that he used a chainsaw bayonet. USA Today was forced to to clarify that in a subsequent tweet, of course, having failed to adequately do so in their own video.
None of this means that a chainsaw bayonet is out of reach, however. If you own an AR-15 and further interpret the Second Amendment to include a chainsaw bayonet, it’ll set you back about $1000 from Panacea X, a company “primarily [founded] to bring the Zombie X Chainsaw to market.” (Their words, not ours.)
They have an entire line of “weaponized chainsaws,” according to the Washington Examiner. The American-made weapons are available in several colors and mount “to any rifle with a Military Standard rail” at a weight of 5lbs 8oz.
Though the holidays are coming, it’s not clear if gift wrapping is available.Atlanta’s city council is contemplating making a smart move by decriminalizing marijuana possession (up to an ounce) within city limits. The current ludicrous threat of jail time would be replaced with a paltry $75 fine.
Many say Atlanta has a major policing problem along racial lines—more black residents are getting arrested for marijuana possession than their white counterparts, to an eery degree. Proponents of this new policy say decriminalization could partially ease those tensions.
92 percent of marijuana arrests in Atlanta come from the black community.
Currently, punishments vary for first-time possession of up to an ounce. On the second offense, however, you can pay up to $1000 in fines and spend up to one year in jail. Possessing more than an ounce can result in one to ten years behind bars.
A $75 fine would be a welcome change and would show that Atlanta is yet another in a long list of cities attempting to restore sanity to drug sentencing.
The War on Drugs and Racism
Between 2014 and 2016, 92 percent of those arrested for marijuana possession within Atlanta city limits were black, according to City Councilman Kwanza Hall. Current legislation is designed to reduce racial policing issues and lessen incarceration of blacks for nonviolent offenses. As marijuana becomes increasingly accepted, Atlanta’s arrest demographics look unsettling compared to the rest of the country. Thankfully, if city council alters these needlessly-punitive laws, policing in Atlanta has the opportunity to change for the better.
The beauty of local control is that those closest to a situation have a better sense of what is needed.Atlanta is no outlier in pursuing this change at the local level. City councils across the country are beginning to push bold new measures that sidestep state and federal laws. Of course, this creates obvious conflict between city, state, and federal lawmakers, which, will need to be sorted out by the courts. But it also allows local governments to decide which policy issues they care about and how to solve problems as they arise, without layers of bureaucracy.
In Atlanta, for example, this proposal means local government might be on its way to changing racially disparate arrest outcomes and ensuring people aren’t locked up for minor nonviolent drug offenses.
Local Victories
In 2016, Nashville’s city council passed a similar measure that reduced penalties for possession of half an ounce (or less) of marijuana. Although the Republican-dominated Tennessee legislature is currently wrestling with how to reconcile city and state law, many residents of Nashville (including the mayor) have fervently supported these relaxed marijuana penalties.
Pittsburgh’s city council recently decriminalized weed as well, allowing police to issue a $100 fine for an ounce or less of marijuana possession. This replaces an old policy of massive fines and some amount of jail time, depending on quantity.
DC’s Initiative 71 has certainly been an example of local decision-making creating better outcomes than bureaucratic entanglement. Although in clear conflict with federal law, Initiative 71 allows adults to possess two ounces or less, grow up to six plants (three mature) in the privacy of their own home, and gift small amounts of marijuana to one another. If I controlled marijuana policy, I would create something far laxer, but DC laws are a step in the right direction—and they’ve had no disastrous consequences so far.
Doling out harsher penalties for minor drug offenses rarely yields the desired outcomes.
Big government proponents tout federal decision-making as the most important. They advocate for the expansion of power through bureaucracy and executive order. The beauty of local control is that city councils have a clearer sense of which policies will work well for a specific group.
Those that are close to a situation have a better sense of what will solve it. It’s time for more city councils to take Atlanta’s lead and pursue better drug policy, even if it creates turmoil when reconciling local and state laws.
Although Atlanta is still considering whether they want to implement these new marijuana laws, it seems as though they’ve realized that doling out harsher penalties for minor drug possession rarely creates good outcomes, and often turn police-community relations antagonistic. Fortunately, they can change that.I’m SO into this, right now
Not a Review: Immersive games. If you read Andre’s review of FEAR 3 then you know that we think it’s a great game. It has tight and unexpectedly varied gameplay, pretty good graphics and an all-encompassing sense of immersion. That last bit is the most important part of a good game, because if a game immerses you, if it can get you involved in its… vibe (I suppose is the right word), then it’s a lot easier to overlook whatever flaws it may have.
And make no mistake, FEAR 3 had its fair share of flaws. A slightly unusual control scheme for one and gameplay tailored for co-op, but that didn’t make allowances for a solo playthrough during certain setpieces. There were a few other things, but ultimately they don’t matter because the developers succeeded where they needed to the most, by getting me immersed in the world.
Getting that sense of immersion right is probably the hardest part of creating a game. When it works, even the most pedestrian of games can become enjoyable. I believe this game is the ultimate example of good immersion.
How good COULD it be?
Cool Spot is probably the best corporate sponsored videogame ever, and starred 7-Up cool drink’s mascot from the ‘90s, the eponymous Cool Spot. A large part of the game’s success lay at the feet of the character Cool Spot being, well, cool. Programmed by legendary game designer David Perry (before his rise to prominence with Disney’s Aladdin and Earthworm Jim), Cool Spot was a derivative side-scrolling platformer typical of the early ‘90s. Cool Spot moved from left to right, collected non-sentient spots – because in a ‘90s platformer game you had to collect something – and then rescued a fellow Cool Spot from a cage. There was no narrative, no visual gimmick, no special moves, no challenging enemies, no innovative features, no iconic boss battles. Left to right. Rescue buddy. Move to next level. End.
On the face of it, it seems ridiculous to compare FEAR 3 with Cool Spot. The games couldn’t be more different. Cool Spot is whimsical, nostalgia candy, while FEAR 3 is horror, blood and slow-mo headshots. But they both succeed, because their key feature is that they draw you into their world. Somehow, they were immersive.
Granted, Cool Spot hasn’t aged well, clearly because it was never a very good game to begin with, and the Cool Spot character was a very ‘90s phenomenon. But at that time, that game was the shit. That cartridge spent days in my Sega Megadrive, never to be removed, all because Cool Spot was so damned immersive. The combination of great graphics, sweet music and Cool Spot’s insouciant swagger generated a sense of cool in all who played it. It really was a case of style winning over substance, in the best way possible. In fact, I got so caught up in Cool Spot, that all I drank in 1994 was 7-Up.
Pinning it down
The consensus on what exactly immersion in gameplay is hard to pin down, but Canadian game designer and author, François-Dominic Laramee, gets close. He says it’s a game’s ability “…to create suspension of disbelief, a state in which the player’s mind forgets that it is being subjected to entertainment and instead accepts what it perceives as reality.” That is a widely held view on what games ultimately need to strive for to be immersive. This view may be true, but it is also wrong.
There is nothing wrong with creating a fiction that is so wholly realised that it dominates a player’s perceived reality, but it is most certainly not the only way to do it. Consider games like Tetris, Farmville or Angry Birds. There is never a point in those experiences where the player develops suspension of disbelief, yet they do experience immersion. The game has engrossed them in some fashion, but that doesn’t mean they’ve lost sight of the fact that they are playing a game.
Immersion is a confluence of factors not always intentionally brought together: the right music, the right aesthetic design, the right controls, and more. Notice I didn’t say good music or good controls. Because sometimes immersion can come about from errors or unexpected design quirks.
Take Street Fighter II. People played SFII because it made them feel like real bad-asses. The key feature in that game was the ability to combo your attacks into each other, which meant you could sometimes put a surprisingly huge hurting on an opponent. That was not intentional on the part of the developers. It was a bug that SFII producer Noritaka Funamizu left in the game because he figured it was too difficult for a player to intentionally pull off to make it a useful feature. Legions of SFII fans disagree. Nowadays, a solid combo system is a priority in all one-on-one fighting games; in fact, it’s core in most games that have a melee combat component. Leaving that bug was the “right controls” for SFII and it ensured that the game immersed its players in a world of competitive martial arts.
You can’t plan to have it
The downside is that you can’t program for immersion. No amount of technology or money can guarantee it. Consider the Move and Kinect, two devices that were supposed to guarantee a higher level of immersion. Both excellent technically, yet neither device has had that breakout hit yet. Nothing coming from them yet has been totally immersive.
Immersion is that X-factor. That extra something that just lets one game feel better than the next game. It’s that something that gets you in to the game. It’s that intangible something that makes everything work.
And you either have it or you don’t.As news of her death spread Saturday, India’s young, social-network-using population began to organize protests and candlelight vigils in places like the western city of Cochin in Kerala, the outsourcing hub of Bangalore and New Delhi, the capital. Just a tiny sliver of India’s population can afford a computer or has access to the Internet, but the young, educated subset of this group has become increasingly galvanized over the New Delhi rape case.
Late Saturday afternoon, thousands of people, most of them men, filled Jantar Mantar, an observatory and popular protest ground in New Delhi, where they waved placards and shouted slogans. When Sheila Dikshit, the chief minister of Delhi, arrived there in the early afternoon surrounded by a police escort, she was booed, heckled and jostled by the crowd. Ms. Dikshit, a diminutive 74-year-old, stayed only a few minutes, lighting a candle and holding her hands together in prayer. She did not speak to the crowd. As darkness fell here in New Delhi, the crowd at Jantar Mantar lighted hundreds of candles.
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Upamanyu Raju, 21, a student at Delhi University who attended the Jantar Mantar protest, said he had been protesting since a day after the rape victim was admitted to the hospital because of the “utter atrocity of what happened.”
Mr. Raju said he had given his younger sister pepper spray and a Swiss Army knife, but he worried that those things would not protect her. “It’s wrong to stop girls from going out” of the house, he said, but there is little choice because the city is so unsafe for women. According to a 2010 survey, more than a third of the women questioned in New Delhi said they had been physically sexually harassed in the previous year, but less than 1 percent reported the assault to the police.
The roads leading to India Gate, the site of earlier protests that had turned violent, were barricaded by the police early Saturday, and nearby subway stations were closed. More than 40 police units were deployed in the area, including 28 units of the Central Reserve Police Force, which are national anti-insurgency troops.
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In South Delhi, hundreds of students from Jawaharlal Nehru University organized a silent march on Saturday from their campus to Munirka, the bus stop where the rape victim was picked up. The crowd of protesters trudged along a busy road, a few holding hastily made placards with phrases like “You are an inspiration to us all.”
On Saturday morning, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his “deepest condolences” to the family of the victim, who was a physiotherapy student.
“We have already seen the emotions and energies this incident has generated,” he said in a statement. “It would be a true homage to her memory if we are able to channelize these emotions and energies into a constructive course of action.” The government, he said, is examining “the penal provisions that exist for such crimes and measures to enhance the safety and security of women.”
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And Sonia Gandhi, India’s most powerful female politician and the president of the governing Congress Party, made a rare televised statement that was broadcast Saturday.
“As a woman, and mother, I understand how protesters feel,” she said. “Today we pledge that the victim will get justice,” she said.
Even larger protests are planned for Sunday, protesters in Delhi said, including a so-called March for Freedom from the Delhi University subway station.Review
The jump from the iPhone 5 series's 4-inch form factor to the 4.7-inch display on the iPhone 6 is a big change that might not appeal to everyone. Thankfully, Apple offers a 14-day return policy, and still continues to sell the 4-inch iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, for those who might find themselves with an oversized case of buyers' remorse.
The iPhone 5s "death grip," safe and secure without a case.
A long time coming
Cradling the iPhone 6 one-handed to reach more of the screen.
Going bigger
Reachability aids one-handed use, but it's a somewhat clunky fix.
Cradling, not gripping, an iPhone 6 feels precarious.
Trade-offs
The rounded edges of the iPhone 6 are more comfortable than the sharp chamfered edges of the iPhone 5s.
In a pocket or in an armband, the iPhone 6 doesn't feel much bigger. In the hand, it's a different story.
Acceptance
Reaching the entire iPhone 5s screen while securely gripping it is not an issue.
I really like the iPhone 6, but I want to love the iPhone 6. Unfortunately, in my first days of using Apple's latest flagship phone, I have found myself struggling to come to grips with it.As someone who has made efforts to cut down on jangling keychains and oversized wallets in my pocket, and who never used a protective case on their iPhone, I like my phones small. Frankly, my purchase of the iPhone 6 was an apprehensive one. And the gigantic iPhone 6 Plus wasn't even a consideration.After spending a week with the iPhone 6, I've discovered that pocket space isn't my issue —loss of control is.You see, the iPhone 6 is a wonderful two-handed phone. It's light and thin and feels great. The screen is gorgeous. Typing is also much easier —as long as I have two hands free, of course.But holding and controlling the iPhone 6 with one hand is both frustrating and precarious.Having used an iPhone since 2007, I've become accustomed to holding my handset with a sort of "death grip." I've never used a protective case on my iPhone. I didn't drop my iPhone, and never cracked a screen, because I could securely grip it.But gripping the iPhone 6 with one hand results in loss of control. And that loss of control means it may not be for everyone.A bigger iPhone didn't always seem inevitable.When the first iPhone was released in 2007, its 3.5-inch screen was one of the largest on the market. "Smartphones," at the time, weren't very smart at all.Things quickly began to shift, though, and in a race to outdo the iPhone, competitors packed in more features; early high-speed cellular radios, for instance, that drained battery at a considerable clip. To compensate for this, smartphones started to get bigger, because a bigger phone can hold a bigger battery.Of course, no one wants their phone to get thicker, so it was the display that grew. More screen space means more room for a larger battery in a "candybar"-style handset.And while jumbo-sized phones may have initially been introduced to consumers for different reasons, in the end people liked and even preferred them. Big, bright, beautiful screens display more content, are easier to type on, and make activities such as watching a movie far more enjoyable.It turns out a lot of people don't mind carrying a "phablet" in their pocket.By the time it launched in 2013, the iPhone 5s had the smallest screen size of any flagship smartphone on the market. The world had changed for the bigger.The truth is, Apple was leaving money on the table by not catering to consumers who prefer larger screen sizes. Though the company prided itself in offering one-handed smartphone usage, consumers indicated they were willing to sacrifice that convenience to gain the advantages of a bigger screen.In the end, a bigger iPhone became inevitable.My first week with the iPhone 6 has shown me that my traditional one-handed "death grip" that kept previous iPhones secure isn't going to work anymore. Squeezing the iPhone 6 between my palm and fingertips restricts my thumb too much.Instinctively, I will still pick up my phone and grip it in this manner before realizing I cannot reach where I want. Apple has attempted to compensate for this with its new "Reachability" feature that brings the display down to a more manageable area for a single screen press before automatically re-expanding.I'm glad Reachability is there, but I don't find myself using it. It's unnatural and somewhat inconvenient, and it doesn't work with some functions like handling banner alerts for notifications. Instead, I've found myself adjusting my grip to reach the top of the screen. But even there, old habits die hard.Using the iPhone 6 with one hand works best when cradled— not squeezed —with my thumb positioned about halfway up the screen. This allows me to extend my palm to allow my thumb to reach the top far corner of the display, while also keeping the home button at the bottom accessible.To have this much reach, I simply cannot comfortably grip my fingertips on the other side of the phone. Maybe people with bigger hands than me could manage, but my relatively normal-sized hands are not capable of this.Instead, I'm forced to rest my iPhone 6 on my fingertips. No more death grip.It feels like dropping it is inevitable.Thankfully, it's not all bad. Apple's decision to adopt rounded edges with the iPhone 6 is a welcome change. I hadn't fully realized how uncomfortable the chamfered edges of the iPhone 5s were in my hand before spending a week with the iPhone 6.Similarly, the rounded edges of the display are also a fantastic change. Side-screen gestures, like swiping to go back in Safari and other iOS apps, feel much more comfortable with these softened edges.Moving the lock button to the right side of the iPhone 6 does take some getting used to, but after a week I've adjusted.Here again, my biggest problem has been my grip: I've found myself squeezing both sides of the phone to lock it, which on numerous occasions has led to me pressing one of the volume buttons at the same time. Simultaneously pressing the lock button and a volume button prevents the phone from being locked. It's only been a week, but I'm adapting.My iPhone 5s is still around, and I've been switching between the two phones. Every time I go back to pick up the iPhone 5s, I'm torn.The smaller 4-inch screen is much better for one-handed use. It just feels right.The chamfered edges stick out too, though. They never bothered me before, but now they do.Some iPhone 5s, iPhone 5c or even iPhone 5 users will try the iPhone 6 and they'll want to stay put. The screen size is a big change, and I imagine a fair number of people don't want it.For those switching from another platform, or from an even older iPhone with a smaller 3.5-inch screen, Apple still offers the iPhone 5s in capacities of 16 and 32 gigabytes. The iPhone 5c is still around too, for those who don't care about Touch ID. Both are still great phones, and will make compelling options for many users.But how much longer will the 4-inch size stick around? It's beginning to look like the end, and I've decided to adapt.I am going to stick with the iPhone 6, but mostly because it's something of a necessity. I write about Apple for a living, and owning the company's latest and greatest technology is an important part of staying familiar and current. But to be fair, there are other reasons I'm sticking around.Apple Pay is around the corner, and I'm looking forward to being able to pay for things with my phone. The NFC-based Apple Pay won't support previous-generation handsets like the iPhone 5s.The larger screen does make it easier to type with two hands. The improved camera, even though it protrudes, is a nice upgrade. The rounded edges of the iPhone 6 make holding it and performing edge swiping gestures more comfortable. And the beefed-up A8 processor that powers the iPhone 6 helps seal the deal.But in testing the iPhone 6 for a week, every time I went back and picked up my iPhone 5s, it felt nice. It fit securely in my hand, and it felt more manageable.Prior to the launch of the iPhone 6, Apple was the only company making first-class smartphones with smaller screens in the 4-inch range. Today, it's still making those phones, but in the form of previous-generation models. Extinction feels imminent.Is the 4-inch screen size now in Apple's rear-view mirror? Maybe. But after spending a week with the iPhone 6, I've realized that I would like a handset with its same design— aluminum back and rounded edges —featuring a smaller screen. I'm guessing I'm not alone.Users looking to upgrade |
4. All Heart: Mark Cuban.
As the saying goes, “Those who stand for nothing fall for everything.” Respected people are passionate and unabashed about their beliefs. They shape people’s opinions rather than succumb to it. But when it comes to passion, there’s a fine line between outspoken and obnoxious; between authentic and an ass. The former is Mark Cuban, the latter is Kanye West.
Clearly opinionated, yet lovable. The reason Cuban remains respected is that unlike Kanye, it’s more authenticity than publicity. Whether he’s the shark throwing someone in the tank, shouting from the Maverick’s bench, or shedding tears at a press conference, everything that’s public comes across as genuine. And people respect that.
Public perception can cause many to put on a performance. Passion that stems from authenticity rather than expectation will produce respect.
5. Mingle with Manners: Princess Diana.
Anyone in leadership faces the challenge of having countless people vying for your attention. The difference with Princess Diana was her obvious interest and engagement with all people—from HIV sufferers to the privileged. She said, “Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back.”
Although its impossible to converse with everyone, respected people acknowledge everyone. They don’t enter a group setting, shake hands with one or two, and ignore the rest. We’ve all had that happen before—not a great feeling right? It’s the modern version of getting picked last in third grade baseball.
It’s not always intentional, however, respected people have that social awareness to be mindful in such situations. It’s important to acknowledge and greet everyone you meet in a group, look them in the eye, and smile. It’ll mean more to the person than you realize, and it’ll gain you more respect than you realize.
6. Never Take the Bait: Bill Gates.
Steve Jobs had some harsh words against Bill Gates: “Unimaginative and has never invented anything…he just shamelessly ripped off other people’s ideas.”
With plenty of accusations (and evidence) that Jobs was far from innocent, Gates had plenty of hypocritical ammo to fire back. However, when Gates was asked to respond, he did so with class, brushing off the criticism and even praised Jobs for his contributions.
It’s no surprise that Bill Gates tops a survey across 13 countries as the world’s most admired person. Reflective of his philanthropic work is this characteristic of responding to negatives with tact.
Marcus Aurelius said, “To refrain from imitation is the best revenge.” Exactly what Gates did, and we should.
7. Dismantling Dramas: Michelle Obama.
From her “unbecoming behavior” of doing push-ups on the Ellen show, to teaching middle-schoolers how to Dougie, Michelle’s breaks from the traditionally passive roles of the FLOTUS have won much adoration and respect.
While history is certainly there to be learned from, it doesn’t have to be imitated. Michelle’s unwillingness to fall into conformity has created an air of empowerment. She’s a constant catalyst for change with conversations on controversial topics such as the Trayvon Martin case.
In dissolving dogmas and confronting mainstream dramas, respected people enable and empower others, and make new societal inroads. “That’s how it’s always been done” has never been a popular phrase. It takes courage to step outside of the mould, but respect comes as a result.
8. Consistent Karma: Dalai Lama.
More ironic than irony was Toronto Mayor Rob Ford cracking down on drug use while admitting to smoking crack. Respected people have a proven track record. History is littered with prominent figures rising to excellence only to crumble into scandal.
The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso was born in 1935 and started his monastic education at the age of six. The path of devotion is no walk in the park; the world’s a buffet of temptations and distractions. His dedication, and consistency of character over decades makes him one of the most revered and respected in the world. The 8-million reading his tweets trust that his Twitter reflects his temple.
Consistency between what we think, say, and do—both when nobody is watching, and when everyone is watching, will produce respect. Trust and admiration is never found in contradictions.
9. Multiple Endeavors: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
It’s remarkable for anyone to reach the top of their field, but to step into an entirely different context and dominate—that’s respect with a capital “R.”
From bodybuilder, to Terminator, to Governer, Arnold Schwarzenegger made it look easy. Respected people aren’t afraid to enter a new field, or put on a different hat. They not only set the bar higher, but set it wider.
We quickly outgrow our initial pursuit for success, the inability to take on something new creates a stagnancy that produces misery. While achieving success in different fields wins respect, the broadening of life experience alone is enough motivation to step into uncharted waters.
10. Sacrifice is Key: Aung San Suu Kyi.
With a military junta stifling her nation of Burma (Myanmar), political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi has become the adored catalyst for change. During the violent clashes, thousands protesters were massacred. She rose to leadership fearlessly marching toward the military that were told to shoot.
During her house arrest she was presented with an opportunity to be freed and return to England. She chose to stay and fight for her people’s rights.
Greatness and respect is synonymous with sacrifice. The road that’s absent of difficult decisions, of blood, sweat, and tears leads to mediocrity.With Coachella 2012 a mere month out, I can’t be the only one wondering: How many of the groups slated for this first-ever double-weekend bash will go all-out and deliver distinctly different sets?
A few of the shows are sure to be somewhat standardized (after more than a decade away, Dr. Dre isn’t likely to switch it up much within a week’s time), but one performance that surely won’t be a repeat is Radiohead‘s.
Case in point: a rare double dose of the legendary British quintet in Austin, Texas, over two consecutive nights (Tuesday and Wednesday) just before the launch of next week’s South by Southwest music conference. The first night was the band’s debut appearance on Austin City Limits, America’s longest-running music television program (launched by PBS in 1976), held at the practically brand-new and super intimate Moody Theater (capacity: 1,700 capacity). The second gig, held at the massive Frank Erwin Center, was (correct me if I’m wrong) Radiohead’s first proper Austin show since the mid-to-late ’90s, circa The Bends and OK Computer.
Both shows were clearly special for their own reasons. But a huge part of what left me reeling after the two-night stand was the prospect of what might be different yet equally mind-blowing about Radiohead’s imminent Coachella turns, based on changes in those sets and others on this tour thus far.
For the television taping on Tuesday, new material dominated, whether off The King of Limbs or in arrangements born from post-album sessions. The show opened with three of ’em: “Bloom,” “Little by Little” and “The Daily Mail,” the latter a piano jam crescendo that surfaced on The King of Limbs – From the Basement, issued on DVD last December.
The relatively tiny studio audience (which included one of Austin’s newest resident musicians, Robert Plant) was also treated to a kinetic rendition of “Staircase” (another from that DVD), a trip-hop-inspired new cut called “Identikit” and the down-tempo, hauntingly jazzy “Skirting on the Surface,” a tune that frontman Thom Yorke presented in stripped-down demo form during “solo” gigs with Atoms for Peace in 2010.
While the Erwin Center show the next night began with that same trio of songs — as well as choice Hail to the Thief cuts “Myxomatois,” “The Gloaming” and “There, There” — it did not include “Staircase” or “Skirting on the Surface,” nor did it feature “The Amazing Sounds of Orgy,” a rarely performed and entrancing B-side (for “Pyramid Song”) that the band debuted live the night before the taping in Dallas. Hearing that dark, notably swing-influenced composition (on which Yorke plays bass) in such a small space was a priceless experience, especially given how infrequently it might crop up again.
Likewise, bassist Colin Greenwood and drummer Phil Selway’s rhythm section (enhanced by guest drummer Clive Deamer, borrowed from Portishead) has never resonated as crisply on euphoric In Rainbows selections like “Reckoner” and ‘Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” as they did for this ACL show. Ed O’Brien and Jonny Greenwood’s maddening guitar licks on the encore-closing “Paranoid Android,” meanwhile, rang out at penetrating, nearly death-metal volume.
Still, there were a slew of equally irreplaceable moments the next night, too, each bolstered not by the naked-eye-intimacy of the preceding show but rather the arena-size production, made up of four enormous layers of textured screens, with 12 suspended, square-shaped mobiles displaying vignettes of the band members throughout the show.
Most memorable in that batch: “Kid A,” so much more powerful than usual thanks to Deamer’s second layer of frenzied yet proficient beating; the succeeding “The National Anthem,” a tune that, even without Deamer (who stepped offstage briefly here and at other junctures), culminated in a most intense electro-jazz-rock and sample-heavy freak-out; and a spellbinding, softly-lit arrangement of “Nude.”
Also unique and affecting from the second night: the bulk of both encores. The first began with “Separator,” a showcase of Radiohead’s most finessed and emotionally precise guitar loops, followed by “These Are My Twisted Words,” a TKOL-era single focused very little on lyrics, instead emphasizing intricate layers of fretwork from Yorke, O’Brien and Jonny Greenwood and emanating a phaser-heavy, Eastern-twanged sci-fi feel.
After that spacey exploration, the band pulled out its biggest guns of the evening: the decidedly earthshaking rocker “Bodysnatchers” and then “Everything in Its Right Place,” a cacophony of ambient purple lights and patterns permeated by the musicians’ most esoteric sample sequences.
Encore two commenced in mellow form, just Yorke and Jonny returning at first to execute the loop-laden “Give Up the Ghost,” a calming segue to the build-up of “You and Whose Army?” — the only track chosen from Amnesiac over the course of both nights. The show concluded with an undeniably spirited run-through of “Paranoid Android,” this time even more potent due to the apocalyptic black-and-white-to-tv-test-card light patterns enshrouding the group as Yorke spun and thrashed about, acoustic guitar in hand, like a berserk imp.
For all the differences between Tuesday and Wednesday’s performances, however, there were admittedly more similarities. That seemed unavoidable, though, given the obvious focus on new material and the fact that the first show, being a television taping, was abbreviated relative to Radiohead’s typical output. For Coachella, the band will undoubtedly play full sets, and not one day but a full week apart. That’s ample time for these musical sorcerers to rehearse and craft myriad pleasing variations. Fingers crossed for more live debuts and deep cuts.
Setlist: Radiohead at the Moody Theatre (ACL Live), Austin, Texas, March 6, 2012
Main set: Bloom / Little by Little / The Daily Mail / Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury and Executioner) / Morning Mr. Magpie / The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths in the Cold) / The Amazing Sounds of Orgy / Staircase / Reckoner / Weird Fishes/Arpeggi / Identikit / Lotus Flower / There, There (The Boney King of Nowhere) / Feral / Idioteque
Encore: Skirting on the Surface / Paranoid Android
Setlist: Radiohead at the Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas, March 7, 2012
Main set: Bloom / Little by Little / The Daily Mail / Morning Mr. Magpie / Myxomatosis (Judge, Jury and Executioner) / The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths in the Cold) / Kid A / The National Anthem / Reckoner / Weird Fishes/Arpeggi / Nude / Identikit / Lotus Flower / There, There (The Boney King of Nowhere) / Idioteque
First encore: Separator / These Are My Twisted Words / Bodysnatchers / Everything in Its Right Place
Second encore: Give Up the Ghost / You and Whose Army? / Paranoid Android
Photos also by David Hall, for the Register.To help visualize the dramatic final chapter in Cassini's remarkable story, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory produced this short film that features beautiful computer-generated animation, thoughtful narration and a rousing score. Producers at JPL worked with filmmaker Erik Wernquist, known for his 2014 short film "Wanderers," to create a stirring finale video befitting one of NASA's most successful missions of exploration.
Wernquist's signature animation style uses real images from space missions as a starting point, which gives the resulting animations an uncanny authenticity. In addition, the vistas he creates have an uncommonly powerful sense of scale that conveys the vastness of the planetary locales NASA spacecraft have visited.
Real Inspiration The image on the left is a real Cassini image. The second is an animated version created for the video.
About the Visuals
Together, the team realized it was not enough to merely depict Cassini's Grand Finale dives between the planet and the rings. From a storytelling perspective, viewers needed to see where Cassini had been on its journey, the heights it had reached as it explored Saturn, in order to give the mission's finale and final plunge into Saturn the emotional impact they warranted. Hence, the two parts of the film, showing Cassini's history and Grand Finale.
The video's visuals are not only stunning — they're based on the real sights of Saturn. Each scene in the film attempts to faithfully re-create actual vistas you could see if you paid an in-person visit to Saturn, its rings and moons. For example, consider the following stills from the video, compared with actual images captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during its years in orbit around Saturn.
Saturn’s North Pole and Intriguing Hexagonal Jet Stream
Here we see Cassini descending toward the gap between Saturn and its rings.
Now for a real picture. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft swung high above Saturn to reveal this stately view of the golden-hued planet and its main rings. It’s part of a mosaic that was made from 36 images obtained by Cassini's imaging science subsystem on Oct. 10, 2013. See further details: /resources/15911/
Saturn Backlit by the Sun
In this shot, Cassini crosses the face of Saturn just as the giant planet eclipses the sun, providing a view never possible from Earth: the majestic rings lit up from behind.
Cassini really did witness such scenes, and on some occasions its cameras caught it. This striking mosaic was captured on July 19, 2013.
Even more remarkable is the fact that you are in this photo. Near the rings to the right of the planet, a pale blue dot can be seen — the Earth. Learn more: /resources/15868/
Saturn Orbit Insertion
It was a tense moment in July 2004 when Cassini fired one of its main engines in order to slow down enough to be captured by Saturn's gravity, a moment seen in the video.
All went well, and the spacecraft was able to begin its tour of the Saturn system, allowing its cameras to record views like this one on Dec. 22, 2005. Details: /resources/12914/
Phoebe
Even before it entered orbit, Cassini passed close by Saturn's small moon Phoebe on June 23, 2004.
Phoebe shows an unusual variation in brightness over its surface due to the existence on some crater slopes and floors of bright material — thought to contain ice — on what is otherwise one of the darkest known bodies in the solar system, as seen in this mosaic of photos taken on June 23, 2004. This image has been brightened somewhat to bring out Phoebe's surface features. Details: /resources/11911/
The Seas of Titan
One of the most important stops on any tour of the Saturn system is Titan. Not only is Titan a giant of a moon (larger than the planet Mercury and the only moon with its own thick atmosphere), it's the only place in the solar system besides Earth to host bodies of liquid on its surface. Titan is much too cold for liquid water. Instead, seas of liquid hydrocarbons, filled by methane rains feeding rivers of methane, collect near the north pole of Titan. Cassini even managed to catch the sun glinting on one of these frigid seas.
Here's one of the actual images showing this phenomenon in action, taken Dec. 17, 2009. Details: /resources/14777/
The Jets of Enceladus
Perhaps the most surprising discovery of the entire Cassini mission is the fact that Saturn's moon Enceladus hides an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell. Scientists were stunned to see the little moon continually vents water from that underground ocean into space with immense geyser eruptions. On several occasions, Cassini even flew right through the plume from the jets, sampling its intriguing mix of water and other chemicals.
In this real image from Cassini, backlighting from the sun spectacularly illuminates Enceladus' jets of water ice. Details: /resources/16074/
Ring Diving
In a fittingly dramatic end to an extraordinary mission, Cassini's final orbits will take the spacecraft right into the gap between the Saturn and the rings.
No spacecraft has attempted this before. This is unexplored territory, and there are no pictures of this zone — yet. But it might look something like this lovely view that Cassini took in on Aug. 12, 2009. More: /resources/14661
Filmmaker's Thoughts
Upon completing the film, Wernquist wrote:
"This has been such an unprecedented honor, to get the chance of adding a piece to the official story of the Cassini-Huygens mission. As I was born in 1977, I had already missed the Apollo era, and was too young to grasp the Voyagers on their Grand Tour. But as I grew up, learning of all those great explorations from the past, Cassini became the first of the epic explorers I could follow all the way from launch -- through two decades -- and now all the way to the end. Cassini-Huygens is the one mission -- more than any other -- to define my interest and passion for planetary exploration and astronomy. To be able to join in and help wave goodbye to this extraordinary spacecraft is something I still cannot fully grasp the magnitude of."
Note: As with other NASA videos, permission is not required for use of this product.Good-Feel’s former composer speaks!
Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Woolly World and Wario Land: Shake It! are perhaps three of the most off-beat Nintendo games from the past decade, as each features a striking visual style. Be it experimenting with the likes of wool fabric or cel-animation, all three of Good-Feel’s home console efforts for the company have etched a unique niche within Nintendo’s library. However, I personally find their accompanying music to be just as special; in particular, Kirby’s Epic Yarn is one of my favorite gaming soundtracks of all time, as its soothing, nostalgic sound always instills a Zen-like state in times of stress.
Not too long ago, I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with Tomoya Tomita, the composer for all three of Good-Feel’s home console Nintendo games. While he’s recently gone freelance, Tomita-san was more than happy to discuss his time working for Good-Feel and Nintendo. The majority of the interview focuses on the aforementioned games, but we also take the time to discuss Tomita-san himself and his current plans as a freelancer.
The translation for this interview was handled by Masked Man of Source Gaming; without him, this exchange would never have been possible and I’m grateful for his service. And of course, a huge thank you to Tomita-san for accepting my offer!! Without further ado, I present to you our discussion.
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First off, I’d like to thank you again for agreeing to this interview. Can you please tell us a little about yourself?
Thank you for reaching out to me.
My name is Tomoya Tomita. I am a game music composer, most recently working on Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Yoshi’s Woolly World, and Poochy & Yoshi’s Woolly World.
What made you get into music; to be specific, game music? You initially composed games for Konami, correct?
I never received any formal training, but I started playing guitar when I was 13 and played drums in an amateur band at 16. Initially, I helped out with the family business, but I got sick of it (laughs). Then, one day I saw Konami had placed an ad in a music magazine saying they were looking for people to join their sound staff. I applied and got the job.
Can you please tell us how you started at Good-Feel?
During my last five years at Konami, I actually wasn’t a member of the sound division. After I decided to leave the company, I found out some of the developers with whom I worked on the Goemon series were starting their own company, and I decided to join them. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to get back to writing music. What is your design process in composing music?
Basically, I just take the music I hear in my head and give them proper form. I’m not very good at reading and writing sheet music, though, so I program everything directly into Cubase. First, I play some musical “memos” on the piano to get a feel for the melody, harmonies, and rhythm. I then use that as a base when I create the full arrangement.
Do you have any influences or heroes in the game music field? Or outside? My tastes in music are rather eclectic, so I couldn’t possibly list everyone I admire by name. Rather than single out one artist, I’ll just say all my favorite artists inspire me in their own way. Wario Land: Shake It!
This was your first project for Nintendo. Did you feel any pressure?
Of course I did! I hadn’t done any sound work for a while, nor had I composed anything for almost a decade, so I wasn’t sure I could do it.
The design director for the game mentioned he wanted to adhere to the “cool” image of Wario as opposed to the grosser image Nintendo adopted for other Wario-related titles. Was this a theme you were conscious of echoing in Shake It?
I actually had no idea he said that! Coincidentally, though, I had the exact same idea (laughs).
How much influence did you take from past Wario games? I recall that Glittertown had a remix of Greenhorn Ruins from Wario World.
It’s not a remix—it’s literally the same track. I just replaced the instruments and overlaid myself playing guitar.
The hand-drawn artstyle was a huge draw for the game, so how did you design the music around that?
After looking at the visuals, I tried coming up with I could convey the “cool” side of Wario. The first style that came to mind was funk, and I thought that would be a good fit.
You had to essentially design two songs per stage – the main theme, and the “escape” theme. Was this a challenge?
You bet it was! I mentioned I already wasn’t very confident when I took on this project, so when I heard I had to write twice as many pieces, I nearly lost all hope (laughs). I also had to design all the sound effects, so it was quite a challenge, indeed. That said, the process became a lot more enjoyable as I went along (laughs).
Minako Hamano-san is also listed as a music credit. Did you two collaborate together?
We didn’t actually collaborate. Right when I began the project, Nintendo sent me three pieces used in previous Wario titles (one of which was Greenhorn Ruins) and said, “Here—use these.” I imagine Hamano-san composed those.
In an interview with Nintendo Dream magazine, you cited Mt. Lavalava as being your favorite song. Is that still the case?
Yes, it is. I think I did a good job of capturing the “cool” and “funky” side of Wario in this piece.
I’m personally a fan of Soggybogg River and its strange rhythm which, combined with the grimy setting, creates a very unusual atmosphere. How did you go about composing that?
I’m pretty sure I took a look at the concept art for the stage and decided to go with an irregular time signature. I don’t really remember, though (laughs).
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wario’s victory theme was an arrangement of the Stonecarving City theme from Shake It!, which hadn’t yet come out. Were you involved in this special cameo?
No, that was another piece I received from Nintendo. I didn’t do anything for Brawl.
Kirby’s Epic Yarn
When you heard the game was taking on a yarn theme, how did you approach composing the score?
Director Madoka Yamauchi explained to me she wanted to create a game that little kids could play with their mothers, so rather than compose for a game, I envisioned writing music for a picture book. The first idea that came to mind was centering my compositions around a single acoustic instrument, like a guitar or a piano.
Ultimately, I decided on the piano because of the variety afforded by its impressive range of tones and dynamics. Plus, MIDI samples made editing really simple (laughs). Despite choosing the piano, however, I’m not much of a pianist myself, so I researched many performance styles and did a little practicing.
You also had to adhere to the Kirby theme. While most of the past Kirby games were fast-paced, Epic Yarn is deliberately slow. Did you struggle with this balance?
Not really. Prince Fluff was the protagonist until the later stages of development, so I didn’t think about Kirby when composing most of the pieces (laughs). If Epic Yarn had been a Kirby game from the very beginning, I probably wouldn’t have even been involved, so I was very fortunate.
I felt the game succeeded at creating its own niche, but did you look at past Kirby games to channel their feel?
As I mentioned, Kirby didn’t even enter into my mind. The music I had composed was very unlike previous titles in the series, so when the game became a Kirby title late in the development cycle, I was worried the folks at HAL would shoot down all of my compositions. Thankfully, however, [Tadashi] Ikegami-san respected the work I had done, so I was able to continue writing music just as I had up until that point all the way to the end of the project.
The game has its upbeat tracks, but I’m still amazed at how calming the game’s music can be; I always find myself wanting to curl up and relax. How did you accomplish this?
As I mentioned earlier, I originally set out to write music for a picture book—something for a mother to read with her child. In that sense, I suppose many of the tracks are quite soothing. I thought a piano-only soundtrack might grow a bit repetitive, though, so I sprinkled in some symphonic pieces as well.
However, as development moved along, Epic Yarn became more of an action game, so I had to adjust my compositional style to match. The shooting and racing sequences certainly took me by surprise. Thanks to their addition, though, the soundtrack became much more varied.
Members from HAL’s sound team (Jun Ishikawa, Hirokazu Ando and Tadashi Ikegami) eventually joined the project, but apparently had a difficult time adjusting to the sound template you already set for the game. Did you collaborate with them?
No. I met with them once to check which tools and plugins they were using, but they had pretty much the same setup, including Synthogy’s Ivory piano plugin.
I remember saying, “Well, in that case, we don’t have to make these meetings a regular thing.”
Now that I think about it, the incredible quality of Synthogy’s Ivory plugin is one of the reasons I decided to focus on the piano in my score for the game.
It was implied they worked on the songs that appeared towards the game’s climax, where the BGM features arrangements of previous Kirby songs. Was this the only thing they did?
By the time the game changed into a Kirby title, music for six of the seven worlds was already complete. Ikegami-san asked if I wouldn’t mind letting him participate in the soundtrack, and since the final world in the game was going to be Dream Land, the HAL team ended up writing the music for it—which worked out well for me since I had fallen behind creating sound effects (laughs).
Fountain Gardens is one of my favorite opening levels in a 2D platformer; everything from the aesthetics to the music to swinging as a bell from a tree creates a child-like sense of wonder. What was the composition process behind that like?
I’m happy to hear you like it so much.
Actually, I had initially planned to use what became the Staff Credits music on Fountain Gardens. The original storyline was that the timid Prince Fluff would go on a journey to find his lost mother, so I had hoped to create a new kind of feeling with the opening of the game: create a piece of music that is soft and sweet, but also somewhat sad and unsettled.
As development went along, I realized the game was more conventional than I had originally anticipated (laughs). I then took the main theme I wrote—heard in Flower Fields—and gave it a slightly richer arrangement. That’s how Fountain Gardens came to be.
I initially wanted to use an even richer arrangement for this piece, but I reduced the number of instruments in order to better fit Nintendo’s style and went with a simple, stripped-down ensemble.
I’m also a huge fan of the main theme, which premieres on the title screen and is elaborated further on Flower Fields. Both always take me back to my childhood; did you have a specific theme in mind when composing it?
That’s great to hear. Since I envisioned a child playing with their mother, I tried to keep my musical motifs as simple as possible, and after playing around with permutations of do, mi, and sol, I ended up with the main theme.
The notes and structure aren’t anything original, but I think the simplicity works. Also, this is a bit of an easter egg, but this motif makes an appearance in Yoshi’s Woolly World, too.
For Melody Town, did you have to work between the relationship of the music and the on-screen instrument effects?
Not at all! The team told me beforehand they were considering adding a stage focused on musical instruments, so I asked them to consult me before they started creating it so we could make sure the music matched. Then, one day, Melody Town was completed without so much as a word from the team (laughs). I imagine I would have done a much better job if they had actually contacted me during the planning stages (laughs).
Snowy Fields, which also plays on Evergreen Lift, is a spectacular winter piece. It just screams Christmas to me. What was composing that like?
Well, then, you’ll be interested to know I coincidentally wrote this piece on December 25th! Personally, I love snow. Every time the flakes start falling, I get giddy like a little kid. In that sense, it’s hard for me not to think about Christmas whenever I compose music for a snow stage (laughs).
Do you have a favorite track of yours from the game? Kirby’s Epic Yarn was a very special project for me, and I like pretty much all the music I wrote.
If I had to pick a favorite, though, it would be either Rainbow Falls or Big-Bean Vine. I remember going home after writing those pieces and telling myself, “You really knocked it out of the park today!” (laughs) I also really like the Staff Credits music.
Yoshi’s Woolly World
Both this and Epic Yarn feature a very similar aesthetic, but Kirby and Yoshi music can be pretty different. How did you go about composing this title?
The process was, of course, different than the one I employed for Kirby’s Epic Yarn. I gave up on using the acoustic guitar in that title, but I made a point of focusing on it in Woolly World—and, as you can hear, it is featured in many pieces on the soundtrack.
I had played guitar for quite some time, but recording is an entirely different beast, so I did a lot of practicing before I began writing music. I took lessons to learn proper fingerings. I even studied how to take care of my nails (laughs).
While there are calmer tracks present, I think this has a more active feel than Epic Yarn; personally, the game’s music evokes an image of being on a hayride. Did you have any specific theme in mind?
I’m so glad to hear it brings that image to mind! I happen to love country music, and that’s exactly what I had in mind while writing the music. Even on tracks that don’t feature a very country sound, I tried to use acoustic or pedal steel guitars as much as possible. There are even some pieces that feature a slide-style guitar or a harmonica.
I think I did an especially good job capturing that feeling in the title screen music. I’m quite fond of it.
Yoshi games have had a variety of composers, each diving into different styles. While Kazumi Totaka (who did Yoshi’s Story) composed Woolly World’s main theme, did you look to any other past games (such as, say, Koji Kondo’s work on Yoshi’s Island)? Did Totaka-san supervise the game?
Yeah, I listened through all the SNES and N64 Yoshi soundtracks.
Mr. Totaka didn’t supervise the game, but I’m very grateful to Emi Watanabe from Nintendo for her assistance. Without her, the music would have ended up sounding much different.
I think Knitty-Knotty Windmill Hill has that “hayride” quality I mentioned, although it’s very calming as well. What did you have in mind when you composed it?
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed it. When I wrote that piece, I was focused less on a style of music and more a style of performance. I made a point of playing this and many other pieces in the Travis picking style—one that might bring back memories for some people since it isn’t heard much nowadays (laughs). It matches perfectly with the sound of the pedal steel guitar to create a very calm, comforting atmosphere.
Bounce-About Woods was stuck in my head for days after I first heard it. Did you make it that infectious on purpose?
I most certainly did! My goal was to create the catchiest, most upbeat music I could for the E3 presentation. The straightforward rhythm of one-two-three! goes quite well with the simple harmonies, if I do say so myself. It’s a shame they didn’t end up using that piece at E3 (laughs).
When I first heard the Special Course theme, I thought to myself, “this is why I play video games.” How did you go about composing that?
You’re too kind!
Sadly, however, I don’t remember much about the composition process (laughs). I think I just wanted to write something uptempo.
I do remember that the original was twice as long. After listening to the first version in-game, I rewrote it to be much shorter.
I think the winter themes were very well-done here too. What was the process behind them?
I’m glad you enjoyed them. Much like I did in Epic Yarn, I set out to write bright, Christmas-y pieces for the snowy stages.
Do you have a favorite song from the game?
Woolly World is another title with a special place in my heart, and I love just about every piece I wrote. I’m particularly happy with the title music, Clawdaddy Beach, Fluffin’ Puffin Babysitting, Shy But Deadly, Lava Scarves and Red-Hot Blarggs… The list could honestly go on and on—I love the soundtrack that much.
Poochy and Yoshi’s Woolly World, the 3DS port, was released not too long ago. Can you please tell us your involvement in that?
I adjusted the mixing on several pieces. They’ve also added some Poochy stages to the game. Those feature new music, although I wasn’t the composer. Honestly, the game is worth playing just for the adorable videos of Poochy and Yoshi. Be sure to check it out! Conclusion You helped compose four games for 3DS’s StreetPass Mii Plaza: Mii Force, Battleground Z, Slot Car Rivals, and Market Crashers. What were those like?
I wasn’t directly involved in the composition process; I just oversaw the music production on those titles. Very recently, you announced a freelance career. What spurred this decision?
Do you think you’ll be working with Nintendo/Good-Feel again? Good-Feel closed their Kobe office, so I had to venture out on my own, but I’d love to work with them again in the future. Any last words for our readers? Thanks for reading this interview! I’d like to express my gratitude to all of you who enjoyed the Kirby and Yoshi soundtracks I worked on. I’ll be sharing my music and any upcoming projects via my Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, so be sure to have a look! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb3jiie6b517pzh1oP2eg7A https://twitter.com/Tomoya_Tomita https://www.facebook.com/tomoya.tomita.127
Tomita-san, I’d like to close out this interview by sharing a personal anecdote I mentioned when I first reached out to you. My older brother sadly passed away two months before Kirby’s Epic Yarn‘s release, and that was a game I was already awaiting with great hesitation. Kirby was a series I loved very deeply growing up, and so for this new title I’d have to juggle my expectations from a new developer alongside my family’s grief. When I first played the game, however, I was |
more, after the Baird government decided to bulldoze through a controversial plan to create larger councils in metropolitan and some regional areas.
A series of forced mergers, to create 25 councils in Sydney, down from 43, will be announced by the Premier, Mike Baird, on Friday.
He will also announce plans for a new Local Government Act which will include a new power for the minister to appoint a financial controller to a non-performing council deemed at high financial risk.
But the amalgamations will be dealt with through the old act, which means there will need to be public hearings by the Boundaries Commission which will be re-constituted. The process will take at least six months and may require a delay in the local government elections due in September.Someone was mentioning that Madeiline McCann's eye defect is extremely rare, like only 1% or 2% of children ever have it. It involves some kind of extraordinarily unique genetic feature, possibly related to blood composition. Apparently Madeiline McCann was also conceived in vitro -- not sure why.
Now here's what happened. Someone claiming to be with the FBI said that George Soros is at the heart of this. I don't know whether the person really was with the FBI, but the things he or she said have been highly accurate thus far. (This is the same individual many refer to as "FBI Anon". He said Soros is at the heart of all of it.)
Stay with me, this is going to blow your mind. Earlier tonight another poster here made a comment based on only his own gut instinct. Here is what the person said, quoted at length so you see the whole context:
I'm just floating it out there. It would need investigation by someone qualified....I also remember FBI anon saying something about not only following the CF but also Big Pharma. So, I remember reading somewhere a comment Madeline McCann had the same genetic defect that Soros had (what that is I don't know, but I do see a defect in the iris in her eye and having just been diagnosed with a genetic eye disease myself it stood out to me). So I'm thinking, with the stuff about the blood bank and the hypothesis about young peoples blood perserving life...what if she [Madeiline McCann] was connected to that important, rich and powerful person via in vitro conception, and we know that important person is connected to people in the DNC, who would do some dirty work (kidnapping). She would have genetically the same blood/stem cells or something and her blood could be harvested (ongoing) for blood transfusions.
Now that sounds incredibly crazy; most people would dismiss it out of hand. But just for the hell of it, I searched for images of George Soros to see if I can get a closer view of his eye.
SURE ENOUGH! He has the very same genetic anomaly as Madeiline McCann! https://i.sli.mg/pOlFLf.png
What the fuck is going on here?
Did he make an arrangement to have her taken so he could harvest her blood?
You know what, this is just getting too crazy. I'm going to say that this is a huge coincidence, because my mind can't fathom this stuff about the blood... but make of it what you will.Nikon has announced its latest DX-format mid-range DSLR camera and it becomes the first to feature built-in Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity, thus ushering Nikon’s high-resolution DSLRs into a new world of direct instant upload, social network sharing and remote image viewing. The Nikon D5300 DSLR is available as a body-only in black, red and gray models. It is also being bundled with a wide-angle zoom lens to create the Nikon D5300 DSLR with 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens. In addition to the new camera, Nikon has also released the AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.5G lens.
The D5300 is the successor to the D5200 and shares with that camera a compact and comfortable form factor that is just right for those who want the image quality and versatility of a DSLR without the bulk. Indeed, the D5300 has advanced in this regard by coming out of the box 2.5 oz lighter than the D5200. It has also upped the size and resolution of its full articulating tilt-swivel LCD monitor to 3.2” and 1037k-dots respectively, which enables clearer image composition and playback of photos and videos. However, the advancements go much deeper than the camera surface. The D5300 houses a 24.2MP DX-format CMOS sensor with a design that omits its optical low-pass filter to enable image capture at its optimal resolution and with the sharpest of details. The lack of a low-pass (or anti-aliasing) filter puts the image quality of the D5300 into the territory of the best Nikon has to offer and when combined with the large selection of compatible F-mount lenses, your photo and video capabilities are exceptional.
Full HD 1080p video capture is also supported by the D5300. Multiple frame rates, including 60p, 30p and cinematic 24p are available and lower resolution 720p and VGA formats are also provided. Stereo audio via a built-in microphone or an optional external mic can be adjusted manually during recording and full-time autofocus will keep a moving subject in focus throughout your clip. Continuous video clips can be recorded at highest quality for up to 20 minutes and HDMI output enables direct connection to HDTVs.
In addition to its ultra-high-resolution capture, the D5300 features metering and focus capabilities that enable stunning high-speed and low-light photography from shooters of all levels. Its 39-point high-density autofocus system with 9 cross-type sensors quickly locks onto your subject, and Nikon’s 3D-tracking uses the 2,016-pixel RGB sensor to recognize and follow a subject across the frame. Continuous shooting of 5 fps and a maximum shutter speed of 1/4000 second allow you to capture fast action or that perfect moment when a hidden smile appears. The CMOS sensor and high-speed image processor not only offer fast performance speeds but, aided by an ISO range of 100-128000 that expands to 25600, rich color saturation in strong light and low-noise sensitivity in dim light.
Nikon’s Scene Recognition System automatically analyzes your scene, comparing it to its on-board database, and applies the most appropriate exposure, white balance and shutter speed for exceptional auto imaging. Of course, aperture and shutter priority and manual exposure modes are also available for more exacting control of your images. Additional automatic functions such as the new subject-based Active D-Lighting, built-in HDR and 16 Scene Modes enable even beginners to capture images with tricky shadows and contrast. Creative Image Effects and Retouch allow you to add artistic flourishes to your shots either before or after capture.
As mentioned, the D5300 is a compact DSLR and in being so, it has designed its access to buttons and controls in a simple and ergonomic fashion. The Nikon menu system is intuitive and easy to navigate. Both a built-in pop up flash and hot shoe for external flash are provided and its LCD monitor is complemented by a bright optical viewfinder for stable eye-level composition.
Images are stored on SD, SDHC or SDXC media cards and with built-in Wi-Fi as its most important new feature, the D5300 can instantly send photos to your Wi-Fi enabled computer or iOS or Android smartphones or tablets. Easy transfer of these images is one benefit of the wireless connection, however you can also browse your camera’s images on your smartphone and select your favorites to upload and share via social networking sites. The Wi-Fi connection also enables you to use your smart device as the camera’s viewer for large screen composition and even for remote shutter release. In addition, built-in GPS functionality geo-tags all of your photos, can share your location data and can point out places of interest that you just may want to photograph.
The D5300 comes as a camera body-only in three colors but the black body is also offered combined with a compact zoom lens. The AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR lens provides the 35mm focal length equivalent of 27-210mm for an incredibly versatile shooting range from true wide-angle to full telephoto. Its aspherical and ED lens elements reduce aberrations and improve image clarity throughout the zoom range. Nikon’s Vibration Reduction image stabilization offers 4-stops of shake correction for clear imaging in low light and at long focal lengths, and the Silent Wave Autofocus Motor provides smooth and silent AF action, which is particularly important when shooting video.
Camera Type Digital SLR Lens Mount Nikon F bayonet Compatible Lenses AF-S and AF-I CPU, AI-P, type G and D, non-CPU lenses
AF available with AF-S and AF-I lenses; not available with other type G and D lenses, AF and and AI-P lenses
IX NIKKOR and lenses for the F3AF are not supported
Non-CPU lenses can be used in mode M, but the camera exposure meter will not function
Electronic rangefinder can be used with lenses that have max aperture of f/5.6 or faster Camera Format Nikon DX format Pixels Effective: 24.2 MP
Total: 24.78 MP Max Resolution L: 6,000 x 4,000 Other Resolutions M: 4,496 x 3,000
S: 2,992 x 2,000 Aspect Ratio 3:2 Sensor Type / Size CMOS / 23.5 × 15.6 mm File Formats JPEG: Baseline compliant with fine (approx 1:4), normal (approx 1:8) or basic (approx 1:16) compression
NEF (RAW): Lossless compressed, 12 or 14-bit
NEF (RAW) + JPEG File System DCF (Design Rule for Camera File System) 2.0
DPOF (Digital Print Order Format)
EXIF 2.3 (Exchangeable Image File Format)
PictBridge Noise Reduction Yes, long-exposure and high-ISO (low, normal and high) Dust Reduction Image sensor cleaning Reflex Mirror Quick-return type Lens Aperture Instant-return type Memory Card Type SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card Slot 1x SD Focus Control Focus Type Nikon Multi-CAM 4800DX autofocus sensor module with TTL phase detection Focus Mode Normal area AF, Wide area AF, Auto-area AF, Single-point AF, Dynamic AF, Single-servo AF (AF-S), continuous-servo AF (AF-C), auto AF-S/AF-C selection (AF-A), full-time servo (AF-A, in Live View only), predictive focus tracking (activated automatically according to subject status), Face-Priority AF (in Live View only), Manual focus (MF) (electronic rangefinder usable) Autofocus Points 9, 21, 39 (dynamic-area AF), 11 Detection Range approx. 1.7 - 9.8' (0.5–3.0 m) Focus Lock Yes, by pressing AE-L/AF-L button or pressing shutter-release button halfway (single-servo AF) Autofocus Sensitivity From -1 to 19 EV (ISO 100, 20 °C/68 °F) Viewfinder/Display Viewfinder Type Eye-level pentamirror single-lens reflex viewfinder Viewfinder Coverage Approx. 95% horizontal and 95% vertical Viewfinder Magnification Approx. 0.82x Eyepoint 18 mm (-1.0 m-1) Diopter Adjustment From -1.7 to 1.0 m -1 Focusing Screen Type B BriteView Clear Matte Mark VII screen Display Screen 3.2" TFT-LCD with brightness adjustment Resolution 1,037,000 pixels Angle of View 170 degrees Live View Yes, for both stills and movies
Contrast-detect AF anywhere in frame (camera selects focus point automatically when face-priority AF or subject-tracking AF is selected) Playback Functions Full-frame and thumbnail (4, 12, or 80 images or calendar), playback with zoom, movie playback, slideshow, movie slideshow, highlights, histogram display, auto image rotation, image comment In-Camera Image Editing Color Balance, Color Outline, Color Sketch, D-Lighting, Edit Movie, Filter Effects, Fisheye, Image Overlay, Miniature Effect, Monochrome, NEF (RAW) Processing, Perspective Control, Quick retouch, Red-Eye Correction, Resize, Selective Color, Side-by-Side Comparison, Straighten, Trim Image Comment Yes Exposure Control ISO Sensitivity 100 - 12,800, expandable to 25,600 Shutter Electronically-controlled vertical-travel focal-plane
Speed: 1/4000 to 30 sec. in steps of 1/3 or 1/2 EV
Bulb mode available Remote Control Optional Metering System TTL exposure metering using 2,016-pixel RGB sensor Metering Method Matrix: 3D Color Matrix Metering II (type G and D lenses), Color Matrix Metering II (other CPU lenses), center-weighted, spot Metering Range 0 to 20 EV (3D Color Matrix or center-weighted metering)
2 to 20 EV (spot metering) (ISO 100, f/1.4, 20°C/68°F) Meter Coupling CPU Exposure Modes Auto, Aperture-Priority (A), Manual (M), Programmed auto with flexible program (P), Shutter-Priority (S), Scene selection Scene Modes Autumn Colors, Beach / Snow, Blossom, Candlelight, Child, Close-up, Dusk / Dawn, Food, Landscape, Night Landscape, Night Portrait, Party / Indoor, Pet Portrait, Portrait, Sports, Sunset, Special Effects Mode (Night vision, Color sketch, Toy camera, Miniature effect, Selective color, Silhouette, High key, Low key, HDR painting) Settings / Effects Standard, Neutral, Vivid, Monochrome, Portrait, Landscape, and User-customizable Exposure Compensation ±5 EV in increments of 1/3 or 1/2 EV Exposure Bracketing 3 frames in steps of 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1, 2, or 3 EV Exposure Lock Yes White Balance Modes Auto, Incandescent, Fluorescent (7 types), Direct Sunlight, Flash, Cloudy, Shade, Preset manual White Balance Bracketing 3 shots in steps of 1 Depth-of-field Control N/A Active D-Lighting Auto, Extra High, High, Normal, Low, Off D-Lighting Bracketing 2-3 frames
2 frames using selected value for one frame, or 3 frames using preset values for all frames Mirror Lock Up Yes Flash Flash Modes Auto, auto with red-eye reduction, auto slow sync, auto slow sync with red-eye reduction, fill-flash, red-eye reduction, slow sync, slow sync with red-eye reduction, rear-curtain with slow sync, rear-curtain sync, off Built-in Flash Yes Guide No. Approx. 39' (12 m) or 43' (13 m) with manual flash (ISO 100, 20 °C/68 °F) Flash-ready indicator Lights when built-in flash or optional flash unit is fully charged
Flashes after flash is fired at full output Max Sync Speed 1/200 sec Flash Compensation From -3 to +1 EV in increments of 1/3 or 1/2 EV Flash Bracketing N/A Flash Control i-TTL flash control using 2016-pixel RGB sensor is available with built-in flash and SB-910, SB-900, SB-800, SB-700, SB-600, SB-400, or SB-300
i-TTL balanced fill-flash used with matrix and center-weighted metering; standard i-TTL flash used with spot metering Nikon Creative Lighting System (CLS) Advanced Wireless Lighting supported with SB-910, SB-900, SB-800, or SB-700 as a master flash or SU-800 as commander
Flash Color Information Communication supported with all CLS-compatible flash units External Flash Connection Hot shoe Flash Sync Terminal Sync Terminal Adapter AS-15 (available separately) AV Recording Video Recording Yes Resolution 1920 × 1080, 60p/50p/30p/25p/24p
1280 × 720, 60p/50p
640 × 424, 30p/25p Video Clip Length 20 min at highest quality
29 min 59 sec at normal quality File Format MOV Video Compression H.264/MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding Audio Recording Stereo, Linear PCM
Built-in stereo microphone Performance Continuous Shooting CL (low-speed): 1-3 fps
CH (high-speed): 5 fps (JPEG and 12-bit NEF/RAW) or 4 fps (14-bit NEF/RAW) Self Timer Yes, 2, 5, 10, 20 sec.; 1 to 9 exposures Interval Recording Yes, for still images Connectivity External stereo mic input, USB 2.0, accessory terminal (for remote cord MC-DC2, GPS unit GP-1 / GP-1A (optional)), HDMI Out (Type C mini), remote control port for WR-1 / WR-R10 remote (optional) Wi-Fi Yes, built-in (IEEE 802.11b/g) Total Custom Settings 46 Power Battery Rechargeable lithium-ion EN-EL14a or EN-EL14 AC Adapter EH-5b (requires EP-5A power connector, sold separately) Charger MH-24 Quick Charger Operating/Storage Temperature 32 to 104 deg F (0 to 40 deg C) Software ViewNX 2 CD-ROM Physical Tripod Mount 1/4"-20 Dimensions Approx. 4.9 x 3.9 x 3.0" (12.5 x 9.8 x 7.6 cm) Weight Approx. 1.1 lb (0.5 kg) body only
A Nod Towards Noct
Also announced today is the new AF-S NIKKOR 58mm f/1.4G lens, which is a very fast prime FX lens with a standard focal length that rests in the “sweet spot” just a bit beyond 50mm but not quite yet telephoto. With deference to the acclaimed Noct NIKKOR 58mm f/1.2 lens of years gone by, this state-of-the art optic offers exceptional low-light capability and enhanced depth-of-field control. It is also allows for fast shutter speeds when shooting distant subjects at infinity and a 9-blade rounded aperture for beautiful out-of-focus background areas. Two aspherical elements reduce aberrations and its advanced optical design minimizes sagittal coma flare at the edge of the frame when shooting at maximum aperture. Nano Crystal Coating and Super Integrated Coating are effective in minimizing reflections and eliminating flare and ghosting. Nikon’s Silent Wave Motor provides smooth and silent autofocus and manual focus override allows for precise manual focus at any time. With its wide maximum aperture, exceptional optics and autofocus capacity, the 58mm f/1.4 is an ideal lens for impressionistic filmmaking, standard length photography in the FX format and portraiture when using DX-format cameras for which it provides a 35mm focal length equivalency of 87mm.
Mount Type Nikon F Bayonet Format FX Compatible Formats FX, DX Focal Length 58 mm Maximum Aperture f/1.4 Minimum Aperture f/16 Angle of View DX format: 27° 20’
FX format: 40° 50’ Maximum Magnification 0.13x Groups/Elements 6/9
ED: none
Aspherical: 2 Image Stabilization N/A Diaphragm Blades 9 (rounded) Autofocus Yes AF-S (Silent Wave Motor) Yes Focus Mode Auto, Manual, Manual/Auto Rear Focusing Yes De-Focus Control N/A Minimum Focus Distance 1.9' (0.58 m) Distance Information Yes Nano Crystal Coating Yes Super Integrated Coating Yes Filter Thread 72 mm Filter Attachment Screw-in Dimensions Approx. 3.3 x 2.7" (85 x 70 mm) Weight Approx. 13.6 oz (385 g)
For more information on the new Nikon D5300 DSLR Camera or the lens, stop by the B&H SuperStore in New York, speak with a sales professional on the telephone at 1-800-606-6969 or contact us online via Live Chat.JFLTE-GPE 4.4.4
Features
Installation instructions
Download
IMPORTANT - Please follow the installation instructions, i9505 intl devices require root installed after ROM flash
Code: Changelog 10/05/2018 -Updated Google Play Services -Updated all Play Store apps 01/28/2018 -Fixed all camera related issues (Panorama mode etc) -Updated Google Play Services -Updated Google Play Store -Removed Google Search from /system/priv-app 01/17/2018 -Updated Google dialer -Updated build.prop 01/16/2018 -Added build.prop line for tethering unlock (certain carriers) 01/15/2018 -Added latest Googy 4.4.4 GE kernel to the ROM 01/13/2018 -Started with clean build of the official 4.4.4 GPE factory image -Implemented many fixes including ext storage permissions, world wide APNs, etc. -Added native advanced reboot menu -Enabled app ops -Updated all Google Apps to 2018 versions -OTA updates from Google are disabled for good
OTA updates from Google disabledExternal SD permissions for app's addedWorldwide APNsLong press recentsNova launcherUSB debugging notification disabledNexus UI soundsAdvanced reboot menuApp opsUpdated Google Apps1) Full wipe2) Flash ROM3) Flash SuperSU 4) RebootNote: The phone will have 2 short vibrations upon successful boot, this is the kernel and has no adverse effects. Do not worry about it :): intelliactive.: fiops and read ahead 2048 for both int+ext.: Off5360c36944134f7fdd940e854c62d57bIf your using a North American device, you should use the build I posted in this threadCLOSE The latest Palmer Johnson superyacht, a 48m SuperSport cast in a distinctive gold and black, makes a tug-assisted journey toward the Michigan Street Bridge in Sturgeon Bay the morning of July 22, 2014. Warren Bluhm/Door County Advocate
Buy Photo The distinctive gold-and-black Palmer Johnson 48-meter SuperSport passes through Sturgeon Bay’s Michigan Street Bridge after its launch Tuesday. (Photo: Warren Bluhm/Door County Advocate )Buy Photo
After being delayed a day by choppy waters Monday, Palmer Johnson Yachts successfully launched its first 48M SuperSport yacht on Tuesday morning.
The distinctive yacht with its gold hull and black superstructure made its way from Bay Shipbuilding Co. yard to Centerpointe Yacht Services between the Michigan and Maple-Oregon bridges, where it will undergo further refinements.
The company announced the launch on its social media platforms, describing the vessel as the largest carbon-composite superyacht ever built.
The revolutionary hull design allows for a top speed of 32 knots, but it is 50 percent more fuel-efficient than any other yacht, the announcement said.
Buy Photo Palmer Johnson Yachts’ first 48-meter SuperSport makes a tug-assisted journey to Centerpointe Yacht Services on Tuesday after being launch from the Bay Shipbuilding Co. yard. (Photo: Warren Bluhm/Door County Advocate )
According to www.palmerjohnson.com, building the vessel out of carbon composite reduces its structural weight by 20 tons. The material is "lighter than aluminum, stronger than steel," the website says.
Contact Warren Bluhm at wbluhm@doorcountyadvocate.com or (920) 743-3321, Ext. 122.
Read or Share this story: http://gbpg.net/1rzmgjYAs a more or less POSIX compatible system I would’ve expected timer_create and friends to be available on OS X, but it turns out those functions are not available (at least I couldn’t find them after hours of research).
Looking into alternatives (spoiler: there are not many I think if you want to work from C/Rust) I settled on Kqueue. It doesn’t have all the features that the timer_ functions provide, but for what I need it seems to be good enough. Also, there are a bunch of crates like mio and nix available that either provide abstractions or use Kqueue already so I had something to refer to.
I didn’t find documentation or blog posts on this topic so I decided it is time to write one. This doesn’t go into all the details since, frankly, I don’t know all of them yet too. It should be enough to get you started though.
A Kqueue primer
Kqueue is a event notification system originally introduced in FreeBSD and subsequently supported in many more BSD variants as well as OS X. It can be used for similar tasks (like handling network connections) as the epoll system on Linux or the IOCP framework on Windows. You can also schedule timers with it, and this is what we are doing in this blog post.
There are two main functions you need to work with:
1 2 3 4 int kqueue ( void ); int kevent ( int kq, const struct kevent *changelist, int nchanges, struct kevent *eventlist, int nevents, const struct timespec *timeout);
which translate to the following rust signatures (from nix ):
1 2 3 fn kqueue () -> Result <RawFd> fn kevent (kq: RawFd, changelist: & [KEvent], eventlist: & mut [KEvent], timeout_ms: usize ) -> Result < usize >
The kqueue function translates into a system call and creates a new kernel event queue and returns a descriptor. The kevent function is used to both register new KEvents as well as check if any of them are currently pending.
The KEvent is a generic struct that describes the type of event to monitor and looks like this in rust (also from nix ):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 pub struct KEvent { pub ident: uintptr_t, pub filter: EventFilter, pub flags: EventFlag, pub fflags: FilterFlag, pub data: intptr_t, pub udata: usize, }
The ident holds a value which is used to identify the event. Depending on the configured filter its type and meaning can change (but is very often a file descriptor). The filter is important since it determines the kernel filter to process this event. For our timers we’ll use EventFilter::EVFILT_TIMER, but there are many more available. The flags define which actions to perform on the given event. The fflags allow you to configure filter-specific flags, in our example we won’t use them. Finally data allows to set filter-specific values and udata is opaque user-defined data that is passed through the kernel unchanged.
Check out the docs in nix for all the different values on EventFlag, EventFilter and FilterFlag. Also, the original documentation on kqueue provides lots of insights into the flags and their functionality.
The last thing you need to know before diving into the actual code is the difference between changelist and eventlist : Both take a slice of KEvents, but only eventlist is mutable.
The changelist is used to register events with kqueue.
is used to register events with kqueue. The eventlist contains all the events which are currently active at the time of polling.
Note that the same slice underlying container (like a Vec ) can be used to maintain both lists.
With the basics covered, let’s dive into the code.
Scheduling Timers
Create a new ( --bin ) project through cargo and add nix as a dependency:
1 2 [dependencies] nix = "0.6.0"
Add this to the top of your main.rs file so we have the imports out of the way:
1 2 3 4 5 extern crate nix; use nix::sys::event::{KEvent, kqueue, kevent, EventFilter, FilterFlag}; use nix::sys::event::{EV_ADD, EV_ENABLE};
Next, we add a helper function that encapsulates the KEvent creation:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 fn event (id: usize, timer: isize ) -> KEvent { KEvent { ident: id, filter: EventFilter ::EVFILT_TIMER, flags: EV_ADD | EV_ENABLE, fflags: FilterFlag ::empty(), data: timer, udata: 0, } }
Here the caller passes in the event id as well as the timer in milliseconds. Since we want to get a timer event we need to use the EventFilter::EVFILT_TIMER filter. The EV_ADD | EV_ENABLE indicates we want to add and enable the timer at the same time. No flag filters are needed and the data payload for our timer event is the time provided by the caller. We also don’t set any opaque user data here.
Inside our main function we first need to grab a kqueue and then register events. We make use of our event function here and create one event that runs each second and one that runs every 1.5 seconds:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 // Initialize the Kqueue let kq = kqueue().expect( "Could not get kqueue" ); // Create a Vec<KEvent> with both events let mut changes = vec![event( 1, 1000 ), event( 2, 1500 )]; // Register the events in the `changelist`. kevent(kq, changes.as_slice(), & mut [], 0 ).unwrap();
Kqueue now knows about the events we are interested in, so it’s time to run a loop and poll until they happen:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 loop { match kevent(kq, &[], changes.as_mut_slice(), 0 ) { Ok (v) if v > 0 => { println!( "---" ); for i in 0..v { println!( "Event with ID {:?} triggered", changes.get(i).unwrap().ident); } } Err (e) => panic!( "{:?}", e), // Panic on Errors _ => () // Ignore Ok(0), } }
We poll kevent and the changes slice is updated with the results on each poll with the eventlist. kevent returns either an Err or Ok with the number of events that are available now. Note that Ok(0) is a special case that nothing is available, so we move on. If we have at least one event pending we iterate through all pending events and print their ID.
So if you run this example what you’ll see is:
$ cargo run Fresh bitflags v0.4.0 Fresh semver v0.1.20 Fresh void v1.0.2 Fresh cfg-if v0.1.0 Fresh libc v0.2.12 Fresh rustc_version v0.1.7 Fresh nix v0.6.0 Fresh kqueue-samples v0.1.0 Running `target/debug/kqueue-samples` --- Event with ID 1 triggered --- Event with ID 2 triggered --- Event with ID 1 triggered --- Event with ID 1 triggered Event with ID 2 triggered --- Event with ID 1 triggered --- Event with ID 2 triggered --- ^C
Since our timers fire at different intervals (and occasionally fire together) you can see that every time the different events are available to process by your application.Slinking along on skinny legs, her feet invariably pointed outward, penguin-style, she originally carried a long bejeweled cigarette holder that held a make-believe cigarette from which she continually flicked imaginary ashes. (Ms. Diller, who did not smoke, later discarded the cigarette holder.)
Her hair was the blond flyaway variety, sometimes looking as if it was exploding from her scalp; her eyes were large and ferocious, her nose thin and overlong (she ultimately tamed it through plastic surgery ). And then there was that unforgettable, ear-shattering voice, which would frequently explode into a sinister cackle that seemed perfectly matched to her image as the ultimate domestic demon.
Among Ms. Diller’s few female predecessors was Jean Carroll, sometimes called “the female Milton Berle,” who made numerous appearances in nightclubs and on Ed Sullivan ’s variety show, where she mined her marriage and family for laughs. There were others: Minnie Pearl was an outrageous Southern spinster, Moms Mabley an outspoken black philosopher.
But Ms. Diller’s hard-hitting approach to one-liners — inspired by Bob Hope, who became an early champion — was something new for a woman. Her success proved that female comedians could be as aggressive or unconventional as their male counterparts, and leave an audience just as devastated. She cleared the way for the likes of Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, Whoopi Goldberg, Ellen DeGeneres and numerous others.
Although Ms. Diller used writers to help create her act, she estimated that she wrote 75 percent of the jokes herself. Her approach to humor was methodical. “My material was geared towards everyone of all ages and from different backgrounds, and I wanted to hit them right in the middle,” she explained in her autobiography, “Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse: My Life in Comedy” (2005), written with Richard Buskin. “I didn’t want giggles — I could get those with my looks — I wanted boffs, and I wanted people to get the joke at the same moment and laugh together. That way I could leave everything to my timing.”
Photo
She liked jokes that piled on the laughs in rapid succession. A favorite of hers was this one: “I realized on our first wedding anniversary that our marriage was in trouble. Fang gave me luggage. It was packed. My mother damn near suffocated!”
Phyllis Ada Driver was born on July 17, 1917, in Lima, Ohio, the daughter of Perry Driver, an insurance executive, and the former Frances Ada Romshe. As a child she became interested in classical music, writing and theater.
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After briefly attending the Sherwood Conservatory of Music in Chicago, she entered Bluffton College in Bluffton, Ohio, near Lima, with thoughts of becoming a music teacher. She met Sherwood Anderson Diller in her senior year in college, and they were married in 1939.
She never taught music. The Dillers moved to California, where he was an inspector at a Navy air station and later held various other jobs — none, by Ms. Diller’s account, for very long. They struggled financially, even with Ms. Diller working. She wrote a shopping column for a newspaper in San Leandro and advertising copy for a department store in Oakland, then moved on to writing and promotion jobs at radio stations in Oakland and San Francisco.
She started to move toward a career in show business without realizing it. She was poor and unhappy, and she would meet other poor and unhappy women at the Laundromat and regale them with accounts of her home life. She also tried to inject humor into the advertising and publicity copy she wrote. Word spread about Phyllis Diller, and soon she was being asked to give presentations at parties and P.T.A. meetings.
Her husband thought she should be paid to make people laugh. She lacked the confidence to do it until she read a self-help book, “The Magic of Believing” by Claude M. Bristol. Inspired by its message of empowerment, she began to write her own comedy routines, hired a drama coach to give her more stage presence, and took whatever paid or unpaid performing jobs she could get: at hospitals, women’s clubs, church halls.
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She made her bona fide professional debut at the Purple Onion, a San Francisco nightclub, in 1955. At first her act contained as much singing as joke-telling, with Ms. Diller’s persona more mock sophisticate than housewife from hell — her signature numbers included “Ridiculous,” a parody of the Eartha Kitt number “Monotonous” — but she gradually developed the character and the look that would make her famous.
She was soon being booked at nightclubs all over the country, and she became nationally known after several dozen appearances on Jack Paar ’s “Tonight Show,” beginning in 1958.
She was believable as well as hilarious when she talked about her husband, Fang; her mother-in-law, Moby Dick; and her sister-in-law, Captain Bligh. She was so believable that shortly after she divorced Sherwood Diller in 1965, his mother and sister sued her for defamation of character in an effort to keep her from talking about them in her act. She insisted that she was talking about a fictional family, not them, and eventually settled out of court.
Ms. Diller was never really the grotesque-looking woman she made herself out to be; her body, in fact, was attractive enough that when she posed nude for a Playboy photo spread the pictures ended up not being published — the magazine was going for laughs, and decided that they looked too good to be funny.
Photo
And despite her self-deprecating humor, she was concerned about her looks, especially as she began to detect signs of aging in her television appearances in the early 1970s. She became one of the first celebrities not just to have plastic surgery but also to acknowledge and even publicize that fact. By the 1990s she had had more than a dozen operations, including two nose jobs, three face-lifts, a chemical peel, a breast reduction, cheek implants, an eyeliner tattoo and bonded teeth.
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She never tried to conceal the work and even kept a plastic surgery résumé, which she would give to anyone who asked. And she continued to make jokes about her appearance. “The ugly jokes would remain a part of my act because my image was already so well established,” she wrote in her autobiography. “Audiences had bought into it because, facially at least, it had been the truth, and for them it would continue to be the truth.”
Although Ms. Diller was |
! Read the inline comments to follow
C++ Code
using namespace cv; using namespace std; // Read 8-bit color image. // This is an image in which the three channels are // concatenated vertically. Mat im = imread("images/emir.jpg", IMREAD_GRAYSCALE); // Find the width and height of the color image Size sz = im.size(); int height = sz.height / 3; int width = sz.width; // Extract the three channels from the gray scale image vector<Mat>channels; channels.push_back(im( Rect(0, 0, width, height))); channels.push_back(im( Rect(0, height, width, height))); channels.push_back(im( Rect(0, 2*height, width, height))); // Merge the three channels into one color image Mat im_color; merge(channels,im_color); // Set space for aligned image. vector<Mat> aligned_channels; aligned_channels.push_back(Mat(height, width, CV_8UC1)); aligned_channels.push_back(Mat(height, width, CV_8UC1)); // The blue and green channels will be aligned to the red channel. // So copy the red channel aligned_channels.push_back(channels[2].clone()); // Define motion model const int warp_mode = MOTION_AFFINE; // Set space for warp matrix. Mat warp_matrix; // Set the warp matrix to identity. if ( warp_mode == MOTION_HOMOGRAPHY ) warp_matrix = Mat::eye(3, 3, CV_32F); else warp_matrix = Mat::eye(2, 3, CV_32F); // Set the stopping criteria for the algorithm. int number_of_iterations = 5000; double termination_eps = 1e-10; TermCriteria criteria(TermCriteria::COUNT+TermCriteria::EPS, number_of_iterations, termination_eps); // Warp the blue and green channels to the red channel for ( int i = 0; i < 2; i++) { double cc = findTransformECC ( GetGradient(channels[2]), GetGradient(channels[i]), warp_matrix, warp_mode, criteria ); if (warp_mode == MOTION_HOMOGRAPHY) // Use Perspective warp when the transformation is a Homography warpPerspective (channels[i], aligned_channels[i], warp_matrix, aligned_channels[0].size(), INTER_LINEAR + WARP_INVERSE_MAP); else // Use Affine warp when the transformation is not a Homography warpAffine(channels[i], aligned_channels[i], warp_matrix, aligned_channels[0].size(), INTER_LINEAR + WARP_INVERSE_MAP); } // Merge the three channels Mat im_aligned; merge(aligned_channels, im_aligned); // Show final output imshow("Color Image", im_color); imshow("Aligned Image", im_aligned); waitKey(0);
Python Code
import cv2 import numpy as np if __name__ == '__main__': # Read 8-bit color image. # This is an image in which the three channels are # concatenated vertically. im = cv2.imread("images/emir.jpg", cv2.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE); # Find the width and height of the color image sz = im.shape print sz height = int(sz[0] / 3); width = sz[1] # Extract the three channels from the gray scale image # and merge the three channels into one color image im_color = np.zeros((height,width,3), dtype=np.uint8 ) for i in xrange(0,3) : im_color[:,:,i] = im[ i * height:(i+1) * height,:] # Allocate space for aligned image im_aligned = np.zeros((height,width,3), dtype=np.uint8 ) # The blue and green channels will be aligned to the red channel. # So copy the red channel im_aligned[:,:,2] = im_color[:,:,2] # Define motion model warp_mode = cv2.MOTION_HOMOGRAPHY # Set the warp matrix to identity. if warp_mode == cv2.MOTION_HOMOGRAPHY : warp_matrix = np.eye(3, 3, dtype=np.float32) else : warp_matrix = np.eye(2, 3, dtype=np.float32) # Set the stopping criteria for the algorithm. criteria = (cv2.TERM_CRITERIA_EPS | cv2.TERM_CRITERIA_COUNT, 5000, 1e-10) # Warp the blue and green channels to the red channel for i in xrange(0,2) : (cc, warp_matrix) = cv2.findTransformECC (get_gradient(im_color[:,:,2]), get_gradient(im_color[:,:,i]),warp_matrix, warp_mode, criteria) if warp_mode == cv2.MOTION_HOMOGRAPHY : # Use Perspective warp when the transformation is a Homography im_aligned[:,:,i] = cv2.warpPerspective (im_color[:,:,i], warp_matrix, (width,height), flags=cv2.INTER_LINEAR + cv2.WARP_INVERSE_MAP) else : # Use Affine warp when the transformation is not a Homography im_aligned[:,:,i] = cv2.warpAffine(im_color[:,:,i], warp_matrix, (width, height), flags=cv2.INTER_LINEAR + cv2.WARP_INVERSE_MAP); print warp_matrix # Show final output cv2.imshow("Color Image", im_color) cv2.imshow("Aligned Image", im_aligned) cv2.waitKey(0)
Further Improvements
If you were to actually make a commercial image registration product, you would need to do a lot more than what my code does. For example, this code may fail when the mis-alignment is large. In such cases you would need to estimate the warp parameters on a lower resolution version of the image, and initialize the warp matrix for higher resolution versions using the parameters estimated in the low-res version. Furthermore, findTransformECC estimates a single global transform for alignment. This motion model is clearly not adequate when there is local motion in the images ( e.g. the subject moved a bit in the two photos). In such cases, an additional local alignment needs be done using say an optical flow based approach.
You can comment on this post to let me know if you would like a follow up post where I discuss these improvements with supporting code ( obviously! ).
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Credits
I got the idea of using the Prokudin-Gorskii collection to demonstrate image alignment from Dr. Alexei Efros’ class at the University of California, Berkeley.
The Ribbon image was obtained from wikiepedia and is in the public domain.
The Prokudin-Gorskii collection is also in the public domain, and images were obtained from the Library of Congress.(Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co said on Friday it has made decisions on how to address shareholders’ securities fraud claims over its $8.8 billion writedown for its purchase of British software company Autonomy Plc, but wants six more weeks to decide what legal course to pursue.
A Hewlett-Packard logo is seen at the company's Executive Briefing Center in Palo Alto, California January 16, 2013. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco had on September 6 given Hewlett-Packard until Friday to vote on recommendations by a committee of independent directors.
The committee was to advise whether the Palo Alto, California-based personal computer and printer company should try to have claims against various officers and directors dismissed, or join the claims in a bid to recoup its losses.
In a Friday court filing, Hewlett-Packard said its board has reviewed the recommendations and “made decisions with respect to the actions that it deems to be in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.”
It nonetheless said it has agreed with the plaintiffs’ lawyers to keep the lawsuit on hold until February 28, and discuss the board’s recommendations with them between February 18 and 20.
Joseph Cotchett, a lawyer representing shareholders, was not immediately available for comment.
Hewlett-Packard has claimed it was itself a victim for having paid $11.1 billion to buy Autonomy in 2011.
It took the writedown in November 2012, accusing Autonomy officials including former Chief Executive Mike Lynch of accounting fraud. Lynch has denied the allegations.
Fallout from the purchase included the departure of three Hewlett-Packard directors, including Chairman Ray Lane, and criminal and civil probes by authorities in the United States and United Kingdom.
In November, Breyer said shareholders could pursue a separate lawsuit accusing Hewlett-Packard and CEO Meg Whitman of failing to reveal soon enough in 2012 that the company may have overpaid for Autonomy or suspected fraud.
Breyer in that case also dismissed claims against Whitman’s predecessor Leo Apotheker, who engineered the Autonomy purchase.
The case is In re: Hewlett-Packard Co Shareholder Derivative Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 12-06003.Former unrecognized US territory
For the former administrative district of Canada's Northwest Territories, see District of Franklin. For the city in Tennessee, see Franklin, Tennessee
The State of Franklin (also the Free Republic of Franklin or the State of Frankland)[note 1] was an unrecognized and autonomous territory located in what is today Eastern Tennessee, United States. Franklin was created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered by North Carolina as a cession to Congress to help pay off debts related to the American War for Independence. It was founded with the intent of becoming the fourteenth state of the new United States.
Franklin's first capital was Jonesborough. After the summer of 1785, the government of Franklin (which was by then based in Greeneville), ruled as a "parallel government" running alongside (but not harmoniously with) a re-established North Carolina bureaucracy. Franklin was never admitted into the union. The extra-legal state existed for only about four and a half years, ostensibly as a republic, after which North Carolina re-assumed full control of the area.
The creation of Franklin is novel, in that it resulted from both a cession (an offering from North Carolina to Congress) and a secession (seceding from North Carolina, when its offer to Congress was not acted upon and the original cession was rescinded).
Concept [ edit ]
The concept of a new western state came from Arthur Campbell of Washington County, Virginia and John Sevier.[1] They believed the Overmountain towns should be admitted to the United States as a separate state. They differed, however, on the details of such a state, although John Sevier (in a letter written in 1782) acknowledged Campbell's leadership on the issue.[citation needed] Campbell's proposed state would have included southwestern Virginia, eastern Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama. Sevier favored a more limited state, that being the eastern section of the old Washington District which was then part of North Carolina.
Although many of the frontiersmen supported the idea, Campbell's calls for the creation of an independent state carved out of parts of Virginia territory caused Virginia Governor and Kentucky land speculator Patrick Henry — who opposed a loss of territory for the state — to pass a law which forbade anyone to attempt to create a new state from Virginia.[1] After Virginia Gov. Henry stopped Campbell, Sevier and his followers renamed their proposed state Franklin, and sought support for their cause from Benjamin Franklin. The Frankland movement had little success on the Kentucky frontier, as settlers there wanted their own state (which they achieved in 1792).[citation needed]
Cession and rescission [ edit ]
Franklin's support [ edit ]
The United States Congress was heavily in debt at the close of the American War for Independence. In April 1784, the state of North Carolina voted "to give Congress the 29,000,000 acres (45,000 sq mi; 120,000 km2)[note 2] lying between the Allegheny Mountains" (as the entire Appalachian range was then called) "and the Mississippi River" to help offset its war debts.[2] This area was a large part of what had been the Washington District (usually referred to simply as the Western Counties).[3] These western counties had originally been acquired by lease from the Overhill Cherokee, out of which the Watauga Republic had arisen.
The North Carolina cession to the federal government had a stipulation that Congress would have to accept responsibility for the area within two years, which, for various reasons, it was reluctant to do. The cession effectively left the western settlements of North Carolina alone in dealing with the Cherokee of the area, many of whom had not yet made peace with the new nation. These developments were not welcomed by the frontiersmen, who had pushed even further westward, gaining a foothold on the western Cumberland River at Fort Nashborough (now Nashville), or the Overmountain Men, many of whom had settled in the area during the days of the old Watauga Republic.[4] Inhabitants of the region feared that the cash-starved federal Congress might even be desperate enough to sell the frontier territory to a competing foreign power (such as France or Spain).[2]
North Carolina's reluctance [ edit ]
A few months later, a newly elected North Carolina Legislature reevaluated the situation. Realizing the land could not at that time be used for its intended purpose of paying the debts of Congress and weighing the perceived economic loss of potential real estate opportunities, it rescinded the offer of cession and re-asserted its claim to the remote western district. The North Carolina lawmakers ordered judges to hold court in the western counties and arranged to enroll a brigade of soldiers for defense, appointing John Sevier to form it.[2]
Secessionist movement [ edit ]
The State of Franklin (in red) superimposed on a map of modern Tennessee
Rapidly increasing dissatisfaction with North Carolina's governance led to the frontiersmen's calls to establish a separate, secure, and independent state. On August 23, 1784, delegates from the North Carolina counties of Washington (which at the time included present day Carter County), Sullivan, Spencer (now Hawkins County) and Greene—all of which are in present-day Tennessee—convened in the town of Jonesborough. There, they declared the lands to be independent of the State of North Carolina.[5]
Leaders were duly elected. John Sevier reluctantly became governor; Landon Carter, Speaker of the Senate; William Cage, first Speaker of the House of Representatives; and David Campbell, Judge of the Superior Court. Thomas Talbot served as Senate clerk, while Thomas Chapman served as clerk of the House. The delegates were called to a constitutional convention held at Jonesborough in December of that year. They drafted a constitution that excluded lawyers, doctors, and preachers as candidates for election to the legislature.[6] The constitution was defeated in referendum. Afterward, the area continued to operate under tenets of the North Carolina state constitution.[7]
Attempt at statehood [ edit ]
On May 16, 1785, a delegation submitted a petition for statehood to Congress. Eventually, seven states voted to admit what would have been the 14th federal state under the proposed name of Frankland. This was, however, less than the two-thirds majority required under the Articles of Confederation to add additional states to the confederation. The following month, the Franklin government convened to address their options and to replace the vacancy at Speaker of the House, to which position they elected Joseph Hardin. In an attempt to curry favor for their cause, delegation leaders changed the "official" name of the area to Franklin (ostensibly after Benjamin Franklin). Sevier even tried to persuade Franklin to support their cause by letter, but he declined, writing:
... I am sensible of the honor which your Excellency and your council thereby do me. But being in Europe when your State was formed, I am too little acquainted with the circumstances to be able to offer you anything just now that may be of importance, since everything material that regards your welfare will doubtless have occurred to yourselves.... I will endeavor to inform myself more perfectly of your affairs by inquiry and searching the records of Congress and if anything should occur to me that I think may be useful to you, you shall hear from me thereupon. Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Governor John Sevier, 1787[8]
Independent republic [ edit ]
Replica of the Capitol of the State of Franklin in Greeneville, Tennessee
Franklin, still at odds with North Carolina over taxation, protection, and other issues, began operating as a de facto independent republic after the failed statehood attempt.[3] Greeneville was declared the new capital. The government had previously been assembling at Jonesborough, only blocks away from the North Carolina-backed, rival seat of government. The first legislature met in Greeneville in December 1785. The delegates adopted a permanent constitution, known as the Holston Constitution,[7] which was modeled closely upon that of North Carolina. John Sevier also proposed to commission a Franklin state flag, but it was never designed.
Franklin opened courts, incorporated and annexed five new counties (see map below), and fixed taxes and officers' salaries.[7] Barter became the economic system de jure, with anything in common use among the people allowed in payment to settle debts, including corn, tobacco, apple brandy, and skins. (Sevier was often paid in deer hides.) Federal or foreign currencies were accepted. All citizens were granted a two-year reprieve on paying taxes, but the lack of hard currency and economic infrastructure slowed development and often created confusion.
Relations with the Indians [ edit ]
The new legislature made peace treaties with the Indian tribes in the area (with few exceptions, the most notable being the Chickamauga Cherokee). The Cherokee claim to sovereignty over much of the area of southern Franklin, though already occupied by whites, was maintained at the 1785 Treaty of Hopewell with the Federal government. In 1786, Samuel Wear helped negotiate the competing Treaty of Coyatee on behalf of the State of Franklin. Coyattee re-affirmed the 1785 Treaty of Dumplin which the republic had secured from the Cherokee, and which Dragging Canoe's Chickamauga faction had refused to recognize. The new treaty extended the area for white settlement almost as far south as the Little Tennessee River, along which the main "Overhill Cherokee" towns were located.[9] The Cherokee did not formally relinquish their claim to this territory to the U.S. until the July 1791 Treaty of Holston[10] and even then, hostilities continued in the area for years afterward.
Drawn-out end [ edit ]
The year 1786 was the beginning of the end of the small state, with several key residents and supporters of the state withdrawing their support in favor of a newly re-interested North Carolina.[3] Up until this point, Franklin had not had the benefit of either the federal army or the North Carolina militia. In late 1786, North Carolina offered to waive all back taxes if Franklin would reunite with its government. When this offer was popularly rejected in 1787, North Carolina moved in with troops under the leadership of Col. John Tipton[note 3] and re-established its own courts, jails, and government at Jonesborough. The two rival administrations now competed side by side.
Battle of Franklin [ edit ]
In 1787, the "Franklinites" continued to expand their territory westward toward the Cumberland Mountains by forcibly seizing land from the Native American populations. The frontier shifted back and forth often throughout the Cherokee–American wars. The September 1787 meeting of the Franklin legislature, however, was its last.[3]
At the end of 1787, loyalties were divided among the area's residents, and came to a head in early February 1788. Jonathan Pugh, the North Carolina sheriff of Washington County, was ordered by the county court to seize any property of Sevier's to settle tax debts North Carolina contended were owed to them. The property seized included several slaves, who were brought to Tipton's home and secured in his underground kitchen. On February 27, Governor Sevier arrived at the Tipton house leading a force numbering more than 100 men. During a heavy snowstorm in the early morning of February 29, Colonel George Maxwell arrived with a force equivalent to Sevier's to reinforce Tipton. After ten minutes of skirmishing, Sevier and his force withdrew to Jonesborough. A number of men were captured or wounded on both sides, and three men killed.[11][12]
Frontier intrigues [ edit ]
In late March 1788, the Chickamauga, Chickasaw and other tribes collectively began to attack American frontier settlements in Franklin. A desperate Sevier sought a loan from the Spanish government. With help from Dr. James White (who was later found to be a paid agent of Spain's), he attempted to place Franklin under Spanish rule. Opposed to any foreign nation gaining a foothold in Franklin, North Carolina officials arrested Sevier in August 1788. Sevier's supporters quickly freed him from the local jail and retreated to "Lesser Franklin". In February 1789,[13] Sevier, and the last holdouts of the "Lost State," swore oaths of allegiance to North Carolina after turning themselves in.[13] North Carolina sent their militia to aid in driving out the Cherokee and Chickasaw.
Lesser Franklin [ edit ]
After the dissolution of the State of Franklin in February 1789, continued support of the separate state movement was confined largely to Sevier County, specifically in the country south of the French Broad River. The people there realized that the only entity recognizing title to their land holdings had been Franklin. Both North Carolina and the Federal (Confederation) government supported the Cherokee claims as set forth in the Treaty of Hopewell, and considered settlers in the area "squatters". This led to the formation of a "Lesser Franklin" government, with an Articles of Association similar to the earlier Watauga Constitution. In 1789 these Articles were adopted at Newell's Station, which served as the seat of government for the wider area of Lesser Franklin, including all the settled country south of the French Broad.[9]
The Lesser Franklin government finally ended in 1791, when Governor William Blount, of the newly formed Southwest Territory, met the Cherokee chieftains on the site of the future Knoxville, and they made the Treaty of Holston. The Overhill Cherokee now acknowledged the authority of the United States government, and ceded to the Federal government all of their lands south of the French Broad, almost as far as the Little Tennessee River.[9]
Subsequent status [ edit ]
By early 1789, the government of the State of Franklin outside of Lesser Franklin had collapsed entirely and the territory was firmly back under the control of North Carolina. Soon thereafter, North Carolina once again ceded the area to the federal government to form the Southwest Territory, the precursor to the State of Tennessee. Sevier was elected in 1790 to the US Congress to represent the territory, and became Tennessee's first governor, in 1796.[9] Col. John Tipton signed the Tennessee Constitution as the representative from Washington County.
Notable Franklinites [ edit ]
Legacy [ edit ]
The Washington County farm of Col. John Tipton where the 1788 Battle of Franklin was fought has been preserved by the State of Tennessee as the Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site in southeastern Johnson City, Tennessee.
Samuel Tipton, a son of Col. John Tipton, donated land for a town to be located along east side of the Doe River near its confluence with the Watauga River in what was then known as Wayne County and the town was named in his honor as Tiptonville (not to be confused with present day Tiptonville, Tennessee in West Tennessee). The losers of the Battle of Franklin (1788) would later regain political power and rename Wayne County as Carter County (after the former State of Franklin Senate Speaker Landon Carter), and also rename Tiptonville as Elizabethton (after the wife of Landon Carter, Elizabeth Carter) when Tennessee was first admitted to the Union in 1796 and John Sevier became the first governor of Tennessee.
The Franklin area also played a role in the Southern Unionist East Tennessee Convention. Throughout the first half of the 19th century, East Tennessee was frequently at odds with Tennessee's two other grand divisions, Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee. Many East Tennesseans felt the state legislature showed persistent favoritism toward the other two divisions, especially over funding for internal improvements. In the early 1840s, several East Tennessee leaders, among them Congressman (and future President) Andrew Johnson, led a movement to form a separate state in East Tennessee known as "Frankland." Though this movement was unsuccessful, the idea that East Tennessee should be a separate state periodically resurfaced over the subsequent two decades.[19]
Many businesses in the State of Franklin use that name to keep the legacy alive, such as the "State of Franklin Bank", based in Johnson City, Tennessee.[20]
One of the main thoroughfares in Johnson City is named "State of Franklin Road" and passes by East Tennessee State University.[21]
In law school examinations in the U.S., a fictional "State of Franklin" is used as a placeholder name for a generic state, often the one in which the property of Blackacre is located. This way, variations in existing state law do not complicate the theoretical legal issues arising from the property disputes. By convention, Blackacre is located in Acre County, Franklin.
The combined present-day (as of 2015 census) population of the counties that would have made up the State of Franklin is 540,000, which would have made the State about 40,000 people smaller than Wyoming, the current least-populous state.
References in popular culture [ edit ]
Literature [ edit ]
The novel Crown of Creation, 2046: Two Nations, One Murder by Robert Arias envisions the Republic of Franklin as a breakaway nation from the United States in the near future.
by Robert Arias envisions the Republic of Franklin as a breakaway nation from the United States in the near future. The novel The Cumberland Rifles by Noel B. Gerson takes place in the State of Franklin.
by Noel B. Gerson takes place in the State of Franklin. The novel The Canebreak Men by Cameron Judd details events related to the founding and the history of the State of Franklin.
by Cameron Judd details events related to the founding and the history of the State of Franklin. In the fantasy novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Johnny Appleseed describes the State of Franklin as the home of the last remaining Thunderbirds.
by Neil Gaiman, Johnny Appleseed describes the State of Franklin as the home of the last remaining Thunderbirds. The alternative-history novel Joyleg by Ward Moore and Avram Davidson depicts an independent State of Franklin in the 20th century, having somehow escaped the notice of the federal government for nearly 200 years. The novel skewers politicians and the media.
by Ward Moore and Avram Davidson depicts an independent State of Franklin in the 20th century, having somehow escaped the notice of the federal government for nearly 200 years. The novel skewers politicians and the media. The alternative-history short story "Assault on Fat Mountain" by R. A. Lafferty details the aftermath of a military victory in 1788 by the Free State of Franklin over North Carolina, resulting in the creation of a new world power, the Free Nation of Appalachia, and the shrinking of the United States Union into a poor backwater nation.
The alternative-history novel The Two Georges by Harry Turtledove and Richard Dreyfus mentions a province called Franklin (named after Benjamin Franklin), one of the major coalmining provinces of the North American Union, the borders of which match the state of Kentucky.
Television [ edit ]
The State of Franklin was featured in the History channel documentary series How the States Got Their Shapes as one of the many "ghost states" of America.
Music [ edit ]
State of Franklin is an alternative rock band out of Boone, NC, that was formed in 2013 and has released several CDs and EPs.[22]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Landrum, refers to the proposed state as "the proposed republic of Franklin; while Wheeler has it as Frankland." In That's Not in My American History Book, Thomas Ayres maintains that the official title was "Free Republic of Franklin". ^ About 40 times the size of Rhode Island. ^ Col. John Tipton was the great-uncle of future Senator from Indiana, John Tipton
References [ edit ]Last night’s Parts Unknown episode was perhaps only the second most talked-about episode of the season. And that’s because Anthony Bourdain went to a familiar place, his hometown in Western Massachusetts, where he uncovered the very sordid details of his past — the kind of stuff we haven’t heard from him since Kitchen Confidential came out.
In addition to some stellar shots of him in the 70s, Bourdain gives us a glimpse of what his drug use was really like. Saying he did just about all of his “firsts” on a beach, he made a stop in Provincetown, Mass., where he first began his career as a chef. “That was the Sodom-and-Gommorah-by-the-Sea over there, a big candy store for a horny, stupid, 17-year-old with a taste for chemicals,” he said about the town. Then, heading west to experience the heroin epidemic firsthand, a doctor tells Bourdain that the flux of pain pills has led to a crisis in small-town America: when people with injuries become addicted to pain pills and then can’t get any more, they turn to heroin.
Still, what’s perhaps the most moving about the episode is Bourdain’s visit to the Recover Project, an Alcoholics Anonymous-type recovery group, where he shares his story. In his words:
The first time I shot up I looked at myself in the mirror with a big grin. Something was missing in me, whether it was a self-image situation, whether it was a character flaw… There was some dark genie inside me that led me to dope… Anybody could find themselves very easily in that situation. I looked in a mirror and I saw somebody worth saving or I wanted to at least try real hard and save. I look back on that and I think about what I’ll tell my (seven-year-old) daughter. That was daddy, no doubt about it. But I hope I’ll be able to say that was daddy then, this is daddy now. That I’m alive and living in hope.
So on top of trying to change everyone’s opinion of war-torn countries, he’s trying to win the War on Drugs himself — a noble cause.
[CNN]
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Here’s A Goofy Anthony Bourdain In Cartoon Form (We’re Giggling A Little)
“Bourdain Comes Back to the Iran Haters: ‘Guess We Shouldn’t Show People … Anywhere We Find the Policies Repugnant?’
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comBy: Michael Conroy
There are many words one might use to describe this looming Eagles’ off-season. If you use the word “rebuild,” Eagles’ General Manager Equipment Supervisor, Howie Roseman may just leap from behind nearby foliage and strangle you. No, “rebuild” isn’t quite the term I would use either. For the sake of accuracy, I’d say the team, and organization for that matter, are due for a “fleshing out.”
How we describe what’s happening in the coming months is not overly important. The simple fact is this franchise has serious needs at key positions from the field to the front office. The question heading into the spring isn’t whether or not these needs will be addressed, but how and to what degree?
A few years ago, the Philadelphia Eagles felt that they were a few needs away from a championship and went “All-in” to assemble a Dream Team that would haunt Philly fans for years. Will that past misstep affect the choices made now? Will Chip Kelly, the new power in personnel, mortgage the future to acquire his quarterback? Trying to predict the answers to these questions is an exercise in futility, but then so is betting the NFL and a few people seem to enjoy that anyway. So I’ll propose a few changes of my own. Whether these come to fruition or not is inconsequential, so long as they give you even the faintest cause to pay closer attention.
Front Office
It’s hard to tackle the Eagles’ roster problems before discussing the open seat at General Manager. In reality, though, this may be the least important decision yet to be made overall. Whoever fills that empty seat in the Philadelphia front office will be, effectively, a lame duck from the outset. There’s simply no way, with the recent battles Chip Kelly has fought over personnel, that the 3rd year coach hires anyone that might challenge his vision for the team. This is a pivotal draft for Kelly’s prospects not just as Head Coach of the Eagles, but at the professional level whatsoever. It’s difficult to imagine Chip placing that responsibility in anyone’s hands but his own. I can’t say I’d want it any other way were I in his position. So the decision to bring on as General Manager will be a lateral move at best.
Contract Conundrums
The second most pressing decisions facing the Eagles concern Cary Williams, Brandon Graham, Jeremy Maclin, and Lesean Mccoy. While only two of the aforementioned players are actually free to walk this off-season, Mccoy and Williams have contracts with cap numbers that demand revision.
It would be difficult for the team to retain all four of these players, but not impossible. That being said, it would be best for both the team and Graham if the two part ways. The former Wolverine has truly blossomed into an effective 3rd down player recently, but the Eagles have struggled to find a place for him in other game situations. Brandon Graham will be looking for starter money this off-season and will likely have suitors. This is a case where I like the player, but hate the fit.
For Williams and Mccoy, the situation is similar but their respective outlooks could not be further apart. It is clear that Cary Williams is not entirely happy here in Philly. He also makes much more money than he would command elsewhere. That being said, he’s a solid replacement level corner in today’s secondary-starved NFL and adds value (however little) to a defense that cannot afford to go backwards in 2015. In the end, it would be wise to allow Cary Williams to play out the final year of his ridiculous contract and then move on.
As for Lesean Mccoy, some restructuring is in order. His current contract has a few variables for the 2014-15 season, but any way you slice it, he’s due an inordinate sum of money. The 26 year-old running back has openly admitted he is willing to restructure his deal, which is a good start, but he’s not going to take any drastic pay cut during his prime years. The team would eat upwards of $4 million in dead money if they decided to move on from their star running back right now. In the end, it makes sense to bring Lesean Mccoy back and work with him to get his cap number down over the next 2 seasons, pushing those more difficult conversations further down the road.
The primary dissuading factor in the decision to re-sign Jeremy Maclin is a man named Riley Cooper. His cap hit is set to soar to a baffling $4.8 million in 2015; an outrageous number when compared to his contributions on the field this season. If the Eagles re-sign Maclin, they will likely have sown upwards of $50 million into a pair of wideouts that, more often than not, amount to a league-average pairing.
It’s important to remember that Maclin also just turned in his first full 16 game campaign of elite play in the NFL. Is there any guarantee that Jeremy Maclin doesn’t take a step back next year? In fact, a regression following a career year is probably the more likely scenario. Couple that prospect with that of an expensive under performing running back and you’ve got a situation that would make Marty Hurney proud. Ultimately, I believe in Maclin and so do the decision-makers in the team’s front office. A deal will get done for better or worse.
Some other minor targets to retain include Chris Polk, Cedric Thornton and Casey Matthews. Thornton leads the way in this pending free agent group. His run stopping ability is an important component for any team that plays in the same division as Dallas. Matthews has finally come into his own as a role-player in the line-backing core and Polk showed flashes this year, gaining tough yards in big spots for the Eagles. If he can be retained at a reasonable cost, he should be.
There are many pressing issues facing the Philadelphia Eagles. The team has uncertainty at Quarterback, and severe deficiencies in the secondary. The offensive line is another year older in 2015. Could the Eagles get younger in that area? These concerns will be addressed in Free Agency and the draft. We’ll dive into both in the coming weeks.
AdvertisementsPaul Offer was in his two-acre garden Wednesday morning attempting, as he later explained, to coax some Prince Edward Island potatoes into sprouting by dumping a load of compost on them. His summer herb supply (rosemary, sage, dill and more) was already in good shape, as were the array of lettuce varieties (red romaine, summer crisp butterhead, blackhawk) he grows. But every good P.E.I. meal requires some good P.E.I. spuds, while also requiring a good cook and a good kitchen to prepare them in.
Paul’s wife, Jean, does the cooking around their home kitchen, as he forages in the garden, before waiting on the paying guests who gather in their dining room to eat the dinners Jean has been making for close to 35 years. The couple’s home — The Doctor’s Inn — is also their business, a longtime Bed & Breakfast operation in the village of Tyne Valley that, a few years back, ceased offering beds and breakfasts but kept serving dinner, by appointment only.
The three-course meals, wine included, have been written up in travel guidebooks and at least one Japanese magazine. They are, repeat customers and one-off diners say, scrumptious.
“We can handle six for dinner,” Mr. Offer says. “We do a salad course first. Everything is from the garden. It is picked two hours before you eat it. How many city people get to experience that?
“We do salmon with peppercorns, a pan-fried sole with buttered almonds, beef tenderloin with mushroom caps in a red wine sauce. It is all tasty, and |
viisi hiiliatomia rinnakkain.
– Pieniä hiilivetymolekyylejä on suhteellisen helppo syntetisoida ja tehdä niistä juuri sellaisia kuin halutaan, Aalto-yliopiston tutkija Pekka Joensuu sanoo.
Grafeenista voidaan tehdä mitä tahansa komponentteja, joissa sähkö liikkuu. Tutkimus keskittyy nyt järjestelmiin, joissa sekä johteet että puolijohteet ovat grafeenia.
– Nyt harkitaan molekyylejä, joilla nauhoihin saataisiin myös kytkimiä väliin. Kytkimet muodostetaan kemiallisesti, ja niitä voi kääntää suunnasta toiseen esimerkiksi valolla, Joensuu sanoo.
Kaupalliset sovellukset ovat vielä kaukana tulevaisuudessa, eikä tekniikka ainakaan toistaiseksi ole halpaa.
Ei vielä. Grafeeninauhan kaupallinen käyttö on kaukana tulevaisuudessa.
Ole hyvä ja kytke Javascript päälle nähdäksesi kommentit.Nobody wants a Gmail address that looks like this: XxXLorenzoLigato93@gmail.com.
But for those of us who weren't lucky enough to get the username of our choice, a solution might be forthcoming.
Google is testing a new service that will allow Gmail users to personalize their email addresses and avoid those awkward handles. Instead of the custom "@gmail.com" domain that users receive when signing up for Gmail, you would be able to pick a personalized domain, as long as it's not already registered to another user.
This means that, for example, you could choose to turn your email handle into something along the lines of lorenzo.ligato@huffposttech.com or lorenzo@ligato.com.
A spokesman for Google confirmed that the company is testing the initiative.
"We know that your first choice of username probably wasn't yourname384756368@ gmail.com, which is why we're experimenting with scalable ways to provide other options," the spokesman said. "This is just a test, though, and we haven't made any decisions for the long term."
Google could not provide any additional details about when the new service will be available or whether Gmail customers will be charged for customized domain names. However, ZDNet reported that a personalized email could cost $2 per month for personal accounts, $5 per user per month for business accounts and $10 per month for unlimited storage.
Right now, only Google Apps users have the option to use a customizable domain. The service starts at $5 per month per user for businesses, while it's free for schools.
Launched in 2004, Google's webmail service has grown at an incredibly fast pace, going from 425 million users in 2012 to 900 million active users as of May 2015. This explains why finding the right Gmail username has become quite tedious -- if not utterly impossible.
Google
When attempting to create a Gmail account for James Smith, Google suggests the username "js625050."Enforcement of the new Hands Free law goes into effect on Wednesday. Some of the changes may come as a little bit of a surprise. We asked Sergeant Marn Speidel of the Dover Police Department to help break it down for us (and you) so that you don't mistakenly break the law-- because, as the saying goes, ignorance of the law is no excuse.
This video tutorial should get you up to speed (but not over it, heh).
The penalties? They're pretty stiff and get stiffer with each offense.
PENALTIES
FIRST OFFENSE $100 Fine
$100 Fine SECOND OFFENSE $200 Fine
$200 Fine THIRD OFFENSE (WITHIN TWO YEARS) $500 Fine
Check out the text of the law below. Given all the legalese and opting to use a hundred words where one would suffice, you will be especially appreciative of what Sergeant Speidel has done in simplifying it for you
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Fourteen
AN ACT relative to use of certain electronic devices while driving.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
256:1 New Section; Serious Traffic Offenses; Use of Mobile Electronic Devices. Amend RSA 265 by inserting after section 79-b the following new section:
265:79-c Use of Mobile Electronic Devices While Driving; Prohibition.
I.(a) No person, while driving a moving motor vehicle upon a way or temporarily halted in traffic for a traffic control device or other momentary delay, shall use any hand-held mobile electronic device capable of providing voice or data communication, including but not limited to: reading, composing, viewing, or posting any electronic message; or initiating, receiving, or conducting a conversation; or initiating a command or request to access the Internet; or inputting information into a global positioning system or navigation device; or manually typing data into any other portable electronic device. An operator of a motor vehicle who holds a cellular telephone or other electronic device capable of voice communication in the immediate proximity of his or her ear while such vehicle is in motion is presumed to be engaging in a call within the meaning of this section.
(b) “Driving,” for the purposes of this section, shall not include when a person is behind the controls of a vehicle that has pulled to the side of or off the road at a location where it is legal to do so and where the vehicle remains stationary.
II. It shall not be an offense under this section for any person driving a motor vehicle upon a way:
(a) To make use of a cellular telephone or other electronic device capable of voice communication to report an emergency to the enhanced 911 system or directly to a law enforcement agency, fire department, or emergency medical provider.
(b) To use one hand to transmit or receive messages on any non-cellular 2-way radio.
(c) To use a Bluetooth enabled or other hands-free electronic device, or a similar device that is physically or electronically integrated into a motor vehicle, for such a purpose to send or receive information provided the driver does not have to divert his or her attention from the road ahead. As used in this section, “hands-free electronic device” means a mobile electronic device that has an internal feature or function, or that is equipped with an attachment or addition, whether or not permanently part of such mobile electronic device, by which a user engages in conversation without the use of either hand; provided, however, this definition shall not preclude the use of either hand merely to activate, deactivate, or initiate a function of the telephone.
III. Any person who violates this section shall be guilty of a violation and shall be fined $100 plus penalty assessment for a first offense, $250 plus penalty assessment for a second offense, and $500 plus penalty assessment for any subsequent offense within a 24-month period.
IV. No person less than 18 years of age shall use a cellular or mobile telephone or other mobile electronic device, whether hands-free or not, while driving a motor vehicle in motion or temporarily stopped in traffic upon any way, except to report an emergency to the enhanced 911 system or any public safety agency. A person violating this paragraph shall be subject to the fines in paragraph III and license suspension or revocation under RSA 263:14, III.
256:2 Public Education Program. The commissioner of safety, with the assistance of the highway safety agency, the department of transportation, and other available public and private sector participation, and subject to funding including any federal funds, shall, prior to the effective date of section 1 of this act, develop and initiate a targeted public education program including, but not limited to, media releases, participation in available talk shows and public service announcements, driver education classes, signage, use of electronic message boards, notices or handouts at division of motor vehicles facilities, roadside rest area buildings, and other state-owned facilities, and other available means to alert the driving public to the passage of this act.
256:3 Effective Date.
I. Section 1 of this act shall take effect July 1, 2015.
II. The remainder of this act shall take effect upon its passage.
Approved: July 25, 2014
Effective Date: I. Section 1 shall take effect July 1, 2015
II. Remainder shall take effect July 25, 2014
(Many thanks to Sergeant Marn Speidel and the Dover Police Department for assisting with this tutorial!)Infectious disease researcher Romina Libster wants us to understand: Vaccines are really not a matter of personal choice.
Romina Libster (TED Talk: The power of herd immunity) has witnessed first-hand the devastation a virus can wreak on an unvaccinated community. As one of Argentina’s leading infectious disease researchers, she’s on call at the first sign of an outbreak. And too often, lying in the quarantine beds are society’s youngest and most vulnerable patients. That’s why she has an urgent message for anyone who considers vaccination a matter of personal choice: It’s not just your life hanging in the balance. Vaccination, she argues, is a communal responsibility. Here’s why every shot counts.
You are a human shield. “Have you ever wondered who we are protecting when we vaccinate?” Libster asks. It’s a deceptively simple question, because vaccines don’t just fight off an infection, they break a chain of infections. “People who are vaccinated are not only protecting themselves, they are indirectly protecting the people in this community who are not vaccinated,” says Libster. Even the most well-inoculated communities will have a vulnerable minority — the young, the old and the sick — whose immune systems cannot withstand the dose of weakened virus in a vaccine. Their first and only line of defense is other, vaccinated people, who when in the majority “create a kind of protective shield which prevents them from coming in contact with the disease,” Libster says.
The unvaccinated people you see in infographics are not just hypothetical. They are our nieces and nephews, our children.
A slender minority can threaten the majority. When the majority of people in a community are vaccinated, the population achieves a disease-free state known as “herd immunity.” But the threshold for herd immunity varies with the disease, depending on both the germ itself and the immune response sparked by the vaccine. There is one common characteristic, warns Libster: a slim margin of error. “If the percentage of the population in a vaccinated community is below this threshold number, the disease will begin to spread more freely and may generate an outbreak of this disease within the community. Even diseases which were at some point controlled may reappear.”
Vaccines work. Fast. Libster recalls a nightmarish outbreak of H1N1 virus in Argentina in 2009. There was no vaccine available for that particular strain, and so it spread uncontrollably. Children were particularly susceptible, with 251 hospitalized with the virus. “All health staff were dressed in NASA-like bio-safety suits,” Libster says. “We all had face masks in our pockets.” The protective gear, she adds, didn’t do much to soothe her nerves. “I, being a hypochondriac, didn’t breathe for two hours,” she jokes. One year later, a vaccine came to market, and the turnaround was striking: Not one patient needed to be hospitalized in 2010. Argentina joined a growing number of nations that had eradicated the disease and halted a global pandemic, in a matter of months.
This is not pretend. You’re protecting real people. “The unvaccinated people you see in infographics are not just hypothetical,” Libster says. “Those people are our nieces and nephews, our children, who may be too young to receive their first shots. They are our parents, our siblings, our acquaintances, who may have a disease or take medication that lowers their defenses.” Even a healthy, vaccinated individual may unwittingly rely on herd immunity, because sometimes vaccines aren’t 100 percent effective. “All these people depend almost exclusively on herd immunity to be protected against diseases,” says Libster. The person that comes to Libster’s mind is Sol, one of her first patients, a one-month-old girl who died of the whooping cough. “I still wonder what would have happened if everyone around Sol had been vaccinated,” she says.
Illustration by iStock.The decline of the middle class in this country has paralleled that of the labor movement, which has been battered by the relentless efforts of business groups and Republicans to drive down wages, boost corporate profits and inflate executive salaries and bonuses. Now that campaign is on the verge of a devastating victory in Michigan, home of the modern labor movement, which could transform the state’s economy for the worse.
On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Legislature is expected to pass a law that would allow workers to avoid paying dues to a union that represents their shop. Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, has reversed an earlier position and said he would sign the law. Democratic officials, labor leaders and workers are urging him to reconsider, knowing that a business victory in Michigan, of all places, would encourage other states to make the same mistake.
These measures are misleadingly known as “right to work” laws, and their purpose is no less deceptive. Business leaders say workers should not be forced to join a union against their will, but, in fact, workers in Michigan can already opt out of a union. If they benefit from the better wages and benefits negotiated by a union, however, they are required to pay dues or fees, preventing the free riders that would inevitably leave unions without resources.
Concern for the rights of individual workers, of course, is not the real reason business is pushing so hard for these laws. Gutting unions is the fastest way to achieve lower wages and higher profits. Last year, in support of an Indiana antidues laws that later passed, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce said the law would draw businesses to the state for lower labor costs. A study by the University of Notre Dame in January found that the average wages and benefits for nonfarm workers in right-to-work states was $57,732, while in states without the law it was $65,567. States with antidues laws have higher rates of poverty and lower rates of health coverage.
Republican officials also know that depriving unions of dues will hurt Democratic candidates, who usually win the support of labor. As President Obama said at a diesel plant in Redford, Mich., on Monday, “These so-called ‘right-to-work’ laws, they don’t have to do with economics, they have everything to do with politics. What they’re really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money.”
Mr. Snyder’s turnabout shocked workers in his state, and Democratic officials have spent the last few days urging him to reconsider and prevent a needless drive to the bottom. By withholding his signature, he can ensure that Michigan remains both the birthplace and the economic foundation of middle-class security.Rep. Karen Clark, a lesbian in a committed relationship, speaking.
Clark speaking eloquently for the repeal of DOMA, but no so much for why this particular amendment should not be passed, since, as its sponsor said, passing the amendment will 'change nothing' in Minnesota.
Rep. Hosch (D) up. Voted in 2005 for similar bill. Regretted it ever since.
Motion to refer back to committee now being voted on
Rep Tim Kelly (R) voted no, but opposes motion to refer back.
(They're waiting for the Sgt. At Arms to bring in the missing members)
Kelly says he thinks the House will vote the amendment down. Suggests the motion to refer back be withdrawn. Hmmm....
Sponsor of the motion to refer back seems really undecided on whether to accept the offer.
Nope. She rejects offer.
And here it comes.
61-71 motion to refer back fails. Well, that would seem to sink any chance of defeating the amendment itself, but who knows?
I like how they can ask questions of each other. That doesn't seem to happen in the US Congress.
"What is the criteria for putting an amendment on the ballot?"
Addressed to bill sponsor.
"Let the people decide."
I think the bigots are going to be sorely disappointed.
Ha. The bill's sponsor ducks and weaves. Won't say whether he would vote to put a marriage equality amendment on the ballot.
Fuck them. Let Minnesota vote. http://www.dailykos.com/...
This is kinda fun. They're really going at each other. Politely, of course. But really nasty.
Oooh, Oooh. Food fight!
"The easy thing is to believe you are just 'letting the people vote'."
Rep Terry Morrow (D) now up. Great-grandfather was a slave. Grandparents had interracial marriage -- never traveled to NC because of interracial marriage forbidding law.
Need five R votes against. AIUI, there are two who will vote against.
Rep with crippled hand speaking. Wants to share story.
"For me it's about discrimination." "If you look different, you get treated different. You get discriminated against. I've been there."
Sharing stories of discrimination. "Hated recess, scared of being bullied and discriminated against. Another kid stopped the bullying. Discriminatory actions have no place in society."
Making the civil vs. religious argument. Undoubtedly will fail on deaf ears. "Does not want to allow discrimination into the constitution."
"Think with your hearts, and with your consciences, and vote no."
Rep Horstein (D).
Same pattern as most other of these debates. Those against marriage equality just sit back and don't say anything, seemingly embarassed. But then they go and vote to discriminate, and win.
Clarification: Horstein didn't say that. That's just my observation. Only D's have spoken so far.
Off to dinner. I've invited some others to continue the live blog. Don't know if that will work but it should.
I'm back.
Rep Green (D).
Has any proponent spoken?
Rep Gauthier (D)
"The pain and the agony I have witnessed in this chamber will be all over Minnesota. It does nothing for our state."
Rep Hortman (D).
Reasons to vote no: Our Creator has made us all equal.
-- Civil institution of marriage. We are not a church.
3rd reason: Love. We all move this state. Not good for state. It will divide us. Let us not divide this state that we all love so much. Love for the kids. Campaign says to kids -- there's us, and there's them.
Rep. Liebling (D)
"Not going to repeat..." Yeah!
This is going to go down just like the NY State Senate debate in '09. Not a single voice except for crazy Diaz raised in opposition to marriage equality, and yet it will silently be passed.
"I believe that this will not pass... but the harm will already be done."
Rep Lesch (D)
Gladiator?
Heh. From a Pioneer Press article:
"Lawmakers on both sides have repeatedly stated that passing a balanced state budget before Monday's deadline is their most important issue"
WTF is this guy talking about.
Rep Melin (D)
"I've never been discriminated against." As a woman? That's impressive.
Rep Davnie (D)
"The center of my life is my family."
"Denies this body the right to have this debate in the future."
That's a bogus argument. Obviously, the MN legislature can have the debate to repeal the amendment in the future.
Rep. Loeffler (D)
Unless and until some other Republican besides the two known to be opposed speaks out in opposition this is all just theatre.
"Most importantly, I am human... This proposed amendment makes me feel less than human." -- letter from constituent
Rep Laine (D)
Rep Mullery (D)
"Doesn't fit in with any theory of constitutions I've ever seen,"
"MN Constitution established to secure our liberties for posterity. How does this fit with the purpose of our constitution?"
"Enormous psychological affect on the kids of Minnesota."
Reference to pastor Dean. "We know he'll keep saying these divisive things."
I imagine most of the R's would still be happy to vote against allowing gay dances.
"They actually listened to the debate... They decided they couldn't vote for discrimination."
Rep Knuth (D)
"Imagine this tension, fueled by millions of dollars, spread to every corner of Minnesota, for 18 months."
Rep Lillie (D)
"It doesn't feel Minnesotan to me"
Rep Hamilton (R)
Will we hear another R in opposition?
It sure sounds like there's a possibility here.
Oops. No. He wants it to come to a vote. Sigh.
Well, bring it on. November, 2012 is going to be a defining moment.
"I still struggle." Hmmm. Is he not going to commit after this long speech?
Yup. Nothing one way or another. Strange.
Rep Kahn (D)
"In Canada. Everyone has health insurance." What a concept!
Rep Moran (D)
"It weighs heavy." "Its about the policies we create that oppress and suppress others."
Off the rec list before the vote. Oh well
Motion to keep going past midnight! Did it succeed or fail? I think it succeeded...
Rep Kriesel (R)
I think this is one of the R no votes. If not, it's another no vote.
"This amendment doesn't represent what I went to fight for."
"You were good enough to give your life for this country, but you were not good enough to marry the one you love. I cannot do that."
Rep Gottwait (R-asshole) sponsor of the bill.
I assume the vote is imminent.
Liar. "Same number of people on both sides of this issue." Not according to the polling.
This guy is truly a slimeball.
Here we go.
Looks like it will fail to me from the lights, but who knows?
And it's over: Yes: 70 No: 62
GAME ON
Unbelievable. It wasn't even close. Likely not a single R besides the two voted against.KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Police say someone threw a Molotov cocktail through a window at U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City district office, reports CBS affiliate KCTV.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver
A security alarm alerted police shortly before 3 a.m. Thursday to a smashed window at the building.
On the ground below the window, police found two broken bottles with paper towels sticking out the necks of the bottles. There was also a chemical odor reminiscent of lighter fluid, police said.
Investigators say the homemade explosive did not blow up, and no one was injured, which Cleaver confirmed in a tweet Thursday.
Folks, my staff is safe and law enforcement is investigating. Focus today should be on greater things. — Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (@repcleaver) September 11, 2014
Agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating.
This is the second incident within the last six years when in which items were thrown at the building, said John Jones, Cleaver's chief of staff.
Jones said none of the staff was in the building and Cleaver was in Wash., D C.
"We have been in constant contact with the staff, and we thank the Kansas City police, as well as the Kansas City Bomb and Arson Squad for their quick response and thorough work," Jones said.
Congressional Black Caucus Chair Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio released a statement condemning the attempted arson attack.
"This type of abhorrent behavior is the most ineffective means of voicing discontent or disagreement," Fudge said in the statement.SANTA CRUZ >> It was 10 a.m. and spitting rain when the volunteers emerged from the warmth of their cars at Wilder Ranch State Park on a cool Saturday in November. They had a job to do: tear out fistfuls of the fleshy, blade-shaped ice plant overtaking a bluff along the ocean.
And Linda Brodman wasn’t surprised that even on the wettest Saturday in months, nearly a dozen men and women had shown up in the bleak 55-degree mist just to pull up weeds.
“They’re hardcore,” the habitat restoration director said with pride.
The volunteers are nature crusaders from the California Native Plant Society who are passionate about keeping invasive species from choking out indigenous plants. The Santa Cruz chapter, about 200 members strong, endeavors to rid its parks of nasties such as the water-guzzling ice plant, the quick-spreading French broom and the seed-shooting pampas grass.
More than weeds
But these citizen scientists are more than a band of weed-killers. In Santa Cruz County alone, they’ve mapped local flora, classified some as endangered species, and won court battles to protect habitats from development. And because many board members are on the staff of research institutions, the 50-year-old society and its 34 chapters have become conduits between academic research and the real world, like a plant’s xylem and phloem transporting nutrients to its leaves.
Non-native plants are defined as those that arrived, intentionally or not, when Europeans settled in North America. Not all non-native plants are harmful, but those few that tear through ecosystems and crowd out natives are deemed invasive.
These wildly spreading pests can increase erosion, clog waterways and raise the risk of wildfire. The California Invasive Plant Council estimates that efforts to control the intruders cost the state at least $82 million each year, while damage to U.S. farmland totals $33 billion.
But weedy invaders aren’t the only dangers to natives: The society also works to defend everything from tiny flowers to towering trees against the scourges of climate change and human development.
Like the blossoms it protects, the Santa Cruz chapter is small but mighty. A recent achievement was publishing a detailed inventory of all the plants in the area, says chapter president Deanna Giuliano.
“It helps all land managers and developers, knowing what we have here in the county,” she said.
Brett Hall, a past state president of the society, says the checklist sets this county apart from others.
“It’s used by students, by researchers, by agencies; it’s the source for local flora,” said Hall, director of collections and conservation at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum.
And the chapter intends to keep those local flora around. Hall pointed out that chapter members have been instrumental in putting local species on the federal Endangered Species List. The Santa Cruz Cypress, for example, grows in only a handful of groves in the Santa Cruz Mountains. After nearly 30 years classified as endangered, the tree was downgraded in 2013 to “threatened” — a sign the protection is working.
A protected area
In 2007, the society also negotiated with the developers of a Branciforte Creek housing project to create a legally protected area for the robust spineflower, an endangered herb related to buckwheat.
The common thread weaving these efforts together is the brute force of volunteers. But this reliance makes bringing in new members a crucial task. Brodman pointed out that her restoration team of 40- to 60-somethings may be loyal, but “we’re not the youngest folks.”
To attract younger members, Giuliano, 47, hosts a teen group before board meetings on the second Monday of every other month. The teens bring in plants from their backyards, and Giuliano demonstrates how to identify them.
But for many of today’s high school and college students, that may not be enough. Savannah Robinson, a junior at UC Santa Cruz, was the only weed-killer at the Wilder Ranch bluff below the age of 50 aside from two state park employees.
“My peers are really into incentives,” things like class credit and resume bullet points, Robinson said a little apologetically.
But for those pulling up weeds, the incentives stare right back at them. Many native plants lay dormant in the soil as seeds, just waiting for dominant species to be restrained before sprouting again. Unlike poor Sisyphus, doomed to roll a boulder uphill for eternity, volunteers rapidly see the impacts of their work.
“It’s really gratifying to come back year after year and see what a difference it makes,” said Ann Lundin, a Mountain View nanny.
Even after a few hours in the bone-chilling rain, Brodman had to order her volunteers to drop the ice plant and pack up for the day. Then came the chocolate cookies and carrot cake muffins she had stashed in her backpack.
While they munched, the volunteers traded restoration experiences like war stories — that time the group uncovered a San Francisco garter snake in Pescadero, the rare rain orchid that Brodman stumbled upon in Quail Hollow.
But as Brodman packed up the cookie wrappers and looked back over the bluff, she noted that ice plant re-roots easily and needs to be checked every few months.
“We’ll be back,” she said.All this cookie excitement made me almost forget that Vegan Brunch will be out in just a few weeks! I’m going to share a few recipes with you over the next month and maybe even a video if I can get it together. I know today is Saturday but maybe you’ve got enough time to procure the ingredients in time for Sunday for one of my favorite brunch appetizers, Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes.
Chesapeake Tempeh Cakes
Makes 10
I love the succulent little pieces of tempeh you get when biting into this crisp, flavorful cake. Crab cakes are the inspiration here. I used to spend lots of time in Baltimore and back then pollution in the Chesapeake Bay was a big issue. I think it’s doing much better now and these cakes are a tribute to it. Update: Came to find the Bay is actually doing worse. All the more reason to eat tempeh instead of crabbies!
Make ahead: Make the entire mixture and the remoulade the night before. In the morning, form into cakes and pan fry.
For the cakes:
8 ounces tempeh (use the nori tempeh if you can find it, but plain soy tempeh is fine, too)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 bay leaf
3 tablespoons Vegenaisse
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard (stone ground Dijon works, too)
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/4 cup very finely chopped red bell pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspooon salt
fresh black pepper
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs, plus extra for dredging
Optional: 1 finely chopped nori sheet or 1 tablespoon kelp granules (if you like a little fishiness)
Oil for pan frying
For the remoulade:
2 tablespoons Vegenaise
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard (stone ground dijon works, too)
1 tablespoon hot sauce
2 teaspoons capers (try not to get too much brine)
Lemon wedges for serving
First we’re going to steam the tempeh to get the bitterness out and also to infuse some flavor with the soy sauce. Crumble the tempeh into a saucier or small pan in little bits. Add the water, soy sauce, oil and bay leaf. The tempeh won’t be fully submerged, but that’s fine. Cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, let boil for 12 to 15 minutes, until most of the water has evaporated. Stir once during boiling.
Transfer contents to a mixing bowl, remove bay leaf, and mash with a fork. Let cool for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to hasten the cooling process. Make sure the tempeh is barely warm before you proceed, or the cakes may fall apart when you cook them. Add the mayo, mustard, hot sauce, vinegar, chopped bell pepper, spices salt and pepper, and mix well. Add the bread crumbs and nori and use your hands to incorporate.
Once you are ready to form the cakes, preheat a thin layer of oil in a heavy bottomed non-stick skillet (cast iron is great) over medium heat. Pour a few tablespoons of panko into a bowl. Scoop a little less than 1/4 cup batter into your hands and form into a ball. Flatten between your palms and then roll the sides gently with your hands cupped to smooth them. You should have ten 2 1/2 to 3- inch patties. I do them in batches of five. Press them into the panko to lightly coat. They don’t need to be thoroughly covered, just a little bit for some texture.
Fry a batch of five cakes for 4 minutes on one side and flip when dark golden brown. Fry for 2 minutes on the other side and transfer to a paper towel or paper bag to drain. Do your second batch and in the meantime make your remoulade by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl.
Serve with lemon wedges.Ronald Koeman was named Everton boss before the 2016-17 season
Manager Ronald Koeman says he has the "total support" of the Everton board, despite a poor start to the season.
The Toffees spent more than £100m on players last summer, but sit two points above the relegation zone and have two wins from eight Premier League games.
Majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri and chairman Bill Kenwright visited the club's Finch Farm training base last week and spoke with Koeman, who guided Everton to seventh in his first season.
"We spoke about football," said Koeman.
"There was not really a message but the feeling is they are behind the team, they are behind the manager.
"Everybody knows in football that's a nice thing but in football always, finally, it's all about results. Until now it's full, total support from the board, yes."
Koeman's side, who drew 1-1 at Brighton on Sunday and are 16th in the Premier League, host Lyon in the Europa League on Thursday, but are bottom of Group E and without a win after two games.
After Lyon, Everton face Premier League games against Arsenal and Leicester, with a Carabao Cup trip to Chelsea on the Wednesday in between.
The Foxes, who sit two points below Everton in the league, sacked manager Craig Shakespeare on Tuesday.
"Everybody knows in football the manager's job is a really difficult job because things change really fast," added Koeman.
"Most of the time the manager doesn't get time to improve the team. It's football, it's hard to take for the managers but it's part of the job."Slot players will be able to use prepaid access cards in Nevada
Gamblers will soon be able to use prepaid access cards to play slot machines in Nevada, a technological advancement that has some critics concerned that easier access to cash in a casino would broaden problem gambling.
The Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday approved amendments to two regulations that would allow the use of prepaid access instruments in conjunction with approved wagering accounts.
The amendments take effect immediately, and technical standards will be published soon to guide companies. The amended regulations enable state Gaming Control Board Chairman A.G. Burnett to administratively approve the use of equipment.
New Jersey already allows the use of prepaid access cards. The company that petitioned the Gaming Control Board for regulatory changes, Las Vegas-based Sightline Interactive, has contracts with three companies there.
The changes approved by regulators would give slot players some of the same access to funds enjoyed by race and sports book gamblers and online poker players.
Here’s how it would work: A player who wants to use an access card in a slot machine would first have to register at a casino with identification that verifies a player’s address and date of birth. Registration would also tie a player to a casino’s loyalty card. Players could then load the cards at their banks by transferring funds from a checking or savings account.
Harry Hagerty, president and chief financial officer of Sightline, said his company’s agreement with banks puts limitations on the amount of money that a player could load to an access card — a maximum of $2,000 a day, $4,500 a week and $10,000 a month, and the most a player could put on a card at any time is $25,000.
Regulators also said a player wouldn’t be able to use the card for at least 15 minutes after transferring the funds.
Hagerty said prepaid cards would be a benefit to casinos and players. Casinos, he said, spend an estimated $35 million a year for employees who count money and perform cash accounting. Players, he said, would be safer because those with cards would not be carrying big wads of cash after hitting a jackpot, making them vulnerable to robbers.
“Winning a jackpot can be a dual-edged sword because it can bring additional attention to you from thieves,” Hagerty said.
Players also have complained that fees associated with accessing cash in automatic teller machines are on the rise and that some ATMs charge 4 percent to 8 percent of a withdrawal amount as a fee. Hagerty said focus groups say high ATM fees has become the No. 1 complaint of casino patrons.
Hagerty stressed that only prepaid access cards would work in slot machines, not debit or credit cards.
Carol O’Hare, executive director of the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, said she was concerned about the easy accessibility of funds when the Control Board conducted a workshop meeting about the regulation in January.
O’Hare could not attend Thursday’s meeting but wrote a letter to the commission voicing concern about a change in terminology in the proposed regulation that would require establishment of a “cashless wagering system” instead of a “wagering account.” Commissioners were told the new terminology would expand the types of systems that would be required to comply with the rules.
Former Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander, the attorney representing Sightline and also an adviser to the Nevada Council on Problem Gambling, said the company has agreed to place a message about problem gambling that would be visible to a player transferring funds from a bank account to an access card as recommended in January by O’Hare.The Wall Street Journal has a news story today reporting that some moderate Democrats are concerned that President Obama’s Inaugural address contained too much liberalism. Among those concerned about this liberalism is “former California Congressman” Dennis Cardoza:
“The reality is that in the few remaining swing districts we have left, you are going to be unable to get the moderates to go with you if you push the agenda too far to the left,” said Dennis Cardoza, a former California congressman and a moderate Democrat. He said prioritizing the economy and immigration was the best course.
Kind of odd to see somebody quoted in the news and identified by his former occupation.
Kind of odd to see somebody quoted in the news and identified by his former occupation.
Card |
the Colorado State Capitol.
“Rather than spend their time working on try to build integrity and correct errors — I know that’s happening they’re working on it right now —today at 1:30 there’s a bill being pushed by [state chairman] Steve House to push from a caucus system to a primary system as if that would change things,” Boulder County chairwoman Peg Cage told Breitbart News.
“The Trump supporters think that the Cruz supporters stole the election. The Cruz supporters were very concerned that they might not get seated in Cleveland” so they have been publicizing that the Trump campaign does not plan to contest the results, Cage said. But those delegates could still be un-seated by the Republican National Committee.
“If it’s that bad, I guess if there’s any question that our delegates won’t be seated, then that would be a case where it might make sense to have a do-over,” Cage said. “I would say it would. It might be the better way to go just to make sure that our delegates, they ought to be able to go forth and get seated.”
“I think they were mostly, from what I saw, clerical errors. To me, it’s inexcusable … The ballots themselves had names missing. People who had signed up.”
“It seemed to happen in all of the districts. So I guess the state has something to do it because it was up to the state who received those forms … There were many people at the state convention itself who they had to say, well this person was this number and it doesn’t appear that way in the book. It just wasn’t clean … It wasn’t clean because of those clerical mistakes,” Cage added.
Cage indicated that she is not a Trump supporter, but rather a Cruz supporter simply concerned with electoral integrity, saying, “As a county chairman I can’t publicly declare. I do have a favorite … Well, I was standing up by the stage when [Cruz] was up there.”
Cage sent an email expressing her concerns to fellow party chairs last Tuesday.
“Changing the process by which we get to counting votes won’t change the perception of fraud,” Cage wrote. “There were problems with the election in Colorado Springs:
Many people who had filed their Intent to Run for National Delegate forms were not put on a ballot. Clerical errors created the perception of fraud (duplicate and omitted names and numbers) Despite calls for unity by elected party officials, one candidate was perceived to have been favored Ballot counting was perceived to have been done in secret, by the Secretary of State (in his orange Cruz shirt) on equipment from the county where he was the County Clerk.”
Cage was referring to Secretary of State Wayne Williams, who showed up to the caucus in an orange Ted Cruz shirt and was photographed with Cruz election lawyer David Sawyer in a Facebook photo:
Cage detailed further problems:
SOLUTION: We, the elected party officials for our counties, are responsible to call for a complete airing of the problems, including naming each offended party and the candidate they pledged to support and showing all ballots with their additions and omissions. A flow chart, like Anil’s, for each county should be included to show that procedures were followed correctly to get delegates to the assembly. We must insist that professional clerical staff be added and trained at the State level to avoid mistakes that cause such contention… …There were mistakes- people who had filed their Intent to Run forms were not put on the ballot. It happened in every CD and at the state assembly. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t done to favor Cruz, as his Colorado campaign chairman, Ken Buck, was left off the CD4 ballot. But it happened frequently enough that the perception was that fraud had been committed. That was bad, but leaving numbers off of a simple sequenced number ballot is inexcusable. These were simply clerical errors (I hope – see, there’s room for doubt), but they brought division among our ranks and could have been prevented if the staff had been more professional and double-checked their work.
Cage wrote to the state party chairman Steve House:
Steve, if you see this note, that’s why it’s seen as bad for me to be on your side. You ran on election integrity and promised that you’d create a team of people that could train us at the county level to watch for fraud in our elections, but that hasn’t happened yet. Republican County Clerks should be included in such a team, but there also need to be folks who are not Clerks. Clerks get re-elected if they make voting easy, but as we’ve seen in this discussion, ease of voting doesn’t equate to integrity in voting…You may not agree with my particular solution, and I am certainly open to discussion that leads to the best solution, but we must take the blame and make it stop here. Or lose.
Reached by phone, Colorado GOP spokesman Kyle Kohli said that Trump convention manager Paul Manafort “indicated to our delegates directly” that Trump would not contest Cruz’s delegate share.
“There was never any concern about the delegation being un-seated to begin with,” Kohli said.A novel app developed by a Moscow newspaper that allows users to photograph and shame irresponsible drivers could soon be available internationally.
In a bid to rid Moscow's streets of bad driving and in particular, careless and irresponsible parking, local newspaper The Village has released an app that will help pedestrians and other road users to fight back.
Called Parking Douche, it enables anyone to take a photo via their smartphone of a badly parked car, enter its license plate number plus details of the offense and send it to the newspaper.
The picture and its caption are then displayed on the paper's website as pop-up ads that won't close until the viewer has posted them to Facebook or shared them with others. The app uses GPS data so that the pop-up ads appear on pages being read by people in the local vicinity of the car to ensure its owner is suitably shamed and embarrassed.
Launched in Moscow in June, the app, which is Android and iPhone compatible, has won several awards -- including the Grand Prix at the Golden Drum Awards for Mobile, Digital Campaigns, Mobile Campaigns and Innovative Campaigns this month -- that have bought it to a larger audience and caused it to go viral.
As such requests to license the app have started flooding in from as far afield as the UK, US, Germany, Japan and Israel.
AFP/Relaxnews
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Did you find this article helpful? If so, please share it using the "Join the Conversation" buttons below, and thank you for visiting Daily News Autos.Image copyright PACEMAKER Image caption Mr Frew said he had never meant for the girl to be subject to harassment
The chair of Stormont's Justice Committee is being sued by a 15-year-old girl for allegedly breaching her privacy.
Paul Frew, MLA for North Antrim, appeared in court in Coleraine on Friday in connection with the matter.
The girl, who cannot be named, claimed Mr Frew linked her name to anti-social behaviour which was alleged to have taken place in the Ballymena area.
She said this was done via a Facebook post by the DUP politician in February.
Friday was the second day of the civil case against him. The first hearing was in June.
The court heard that following an increase in anti-social behaviour in the Harryville area of Ballymena and the nearby village of Broughshane, Mr Frew mentioned the girl's name on Facebook in relation to it.
The 15-year-old girl, who cannot be named because of her age, told the court: "It upset and annoyed me. I was being branded as something I am not.
"People throw dirty looks at me and make comments.
"I ask my dad to pick me up from the school bus because I don't want to walk past people who are judging me."
She is seeking £5,000 for breach of privacy and harassment.
The court heard the anti-social behaviour took place from Halloween last year until early this year and involved nuisance fireworks and eggs, stones and ball-bearings being thrown at people and property and takeaway food being smeared on houses.
In February, the girl said she sent private messages to Mr Frew on Facebook after he posted about the trouble.
The teenager said one of her friends wanted to speak to Mr Frew about it.
She admitted that, while she had been present when the anti-social behaviour was carried out on several occasions, she never took part.
'Scared and anxious'
It was heard that other Facebook contributors had commented on Mr Frew's post, using threatening language.
One social media user said those behind the trouble should be "hung up by the boxers" and another said they should be "taken up Slemish mountain to have their ears cuffed".
The girl said this made her feel "scared and anxious".
The court heard that in March, she took out an injunction against Mr Frew.
'Real fear'
Taking the stand, the MLA said there was "real fear" in Broughshane and Harryville due to the anti-social behaviour and he had met parents and young people to discuss it.
He was asked about a comment on his post that said: "Any QRF in place?"
He replied: "Lol. Me."
Image caption The hearing took place at Coleraine courthouse
He explained that in his view, this was a military term that stood for Quick Reaction Force.
When asked if that term could be construed as having paramilitary connotations, he said: "That's invalid and incorrect. I never thought that's what that person meant."
He added that he could not stop people making threatening comments on Facebook.
He told the court that when he named the teenager, he was suggesting she may have information about the anti-social behaviour, and not that she carried it out and that said he had been trying to "de-escalate" tensions in the community.
The MLA added: "People come to me about these things before, despite my efforts, they would go to police. I was performing a duty and doing my job to the best of my ability."
He said he had never meant to harass the girl.
Legal counsel acting for the girl said the teenager had never been questioned by police in relation to the anti-social behaviour.
A police officer told the court that Mr Frew had been helpful in the community in dealing with anti-social behaviour, which she said had taken a downturn since March.
A judge asked for written submissions in the case to be made and said he would make a judgement at a future date.The Indian national football team, at the 152nd spot in the latest FIFA rankings, registered a thumping 4-1 win over Puerto Rico at the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai.
Puerto Rico, ranked 114th in the world, started well when Jackichand Singh conceded a penalty in the eighth minute. Emanuel Sanchez stepped up and made no mistake from the spot to give Puerto Rico an early lead.
After Bikash Jairu was brought down on the edge of the box in the 18th minute, Sunil Chhetri struck his free-kick against the left post and the ball bounced out to Narayan Das, who made no mistake in directing his shot past a wall of Puerto Rican players and level the match for the home team.
Chhetri sent another free-kick in, from the right this time, in the 26th minute. The ball crashed against the far post and went in, to give India a 2-1 lead.
Then, six minutes later, Chhetri was again involved as he headed Pritam Kotal's cross from the deep to give an unmarked Jeje Lalpekhlua an easy headed finish. The visitors headed into the break with the scoreline 3-1 in their favour.
Eugeneson Lyngdoh's header from a Lalpekhlua cross, then made its way to Jackichand Singh at the far post, who made no mistake in smashing it past the Puerto Rico custodian.
Although the islanders briefly threatened and hit the post, India held on to close the match out and secure a brilliant victory which should serve to give them vital ranking points.[oldembed src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QRaNWWvKf0E" width="425" height="239" resize="1" fid="21"]
Psst, Bobby? You can't stop 'being' the stupid party. You can only stop acting stupid!
Once, when I was embroiled in some relationship drama, I said to one of my male friends, "Why doesn't he just tell me if he doesn't want to be with me?" My friend paused and finally said, "Look, he's telling you in every way he can without actually using the words."
I never forgot that. Rejection is so painful, people tie themselves in knots just to avoid the soul-crushing reality. And it sounds like the Republicans are still in that stage where they just can't acknowledge the truth: It's not the way you look or that extra ten pounds. It's you. The voters just aren't into you!
But instead of real change, you just know they're going for the new hairdo. Jamelle Bouie writes in the American Prospect:If, in the euphemistic police state in which we currently live, pepper-spray is a taco condiment, that would make tasing...what? A joy-buzzing compliance aid? Sure, let's call it that. Now can someone explain to me why Officer John Turner of Scotland Neck, North Carolina's police department felt the need to use a joy-buzzing compliance aid on an 61-year-old, disabled man with a hearing impairment who was riding down the street on a bicycle? Because that man is now dead.
The call came on Monday night, and it made mention of a man who had fallen off his bicycle and injured himself in a parking lot. So Officer Turner pulled up to the scene, and found Roger Anthony — a local fixture who people call "Rabbit" because he had big ears — rolling down the street on his bicycle. Turner followed Anthony in his patrol vehicle, sirens blaring, and ordered him to pull over. Anthony didn't respond.
Williams said Turner then saw Anthony take something out his pocket and put it into his mouth. At that time, Turner got out of the car and yelled for Anthony to stop. When Anthony didn't stop, the officer used a stun gun on him, causing him to fall off of his bike.
Anthony was taken to a hospital, where he was declared brain dead. He was taken off life support on Tuesday. According to Anthony's sister, her brother was disabled, had frequent seizures and trouble hearing. He lived in an independent living community, and "used to smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and ride his bicycle around town." That's what Rabbit liked to do.
This was Turner's first month on the force. He's currently on administrative leave while the incident is investigated. [WRAL, Screengrab via WRAL]Story highlights Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden "discussed" the idea of presidential ticket, according to a source familiar with the talks
Sources said the vice president never made a final decision about a running mate and he eventually decided not to run
(CNN) Vice President Joe Biden "discussed" with Elizabeth Warren last year the idea of having her as his running mate for a would-be presidential bid, a source familiar with their conversations told CNN on Thursday.
But that source said nothing was offered and another said Biden never made a final decision.
A source close to Biden said the two met "several times" over the course of the last year and "walked around" the idea of a joint ticket and that Biden wanted to establish a rapport with the Massachusetts senator. He knew that if he were to run for president, "he needed to build his credibility on the left and she knew he would need her blessing," the source said.
The resurgence of the idea for a Biden-Warren ticket comes a pivotal time for Democrats as the presidential primary draws near its end with its front-runner Hillary Clinton, who appears to have a nearly insurmountable delegate lead, heading to the finish line as her opponent, Bernie Sanders, continues to win states.
The source close to Biden also cautioned that the vice president had not yet decided whether he would actually run. Biden ultimately decided against it in October.
Read MoreWhats Cookin Italian Style Cuisine
This is a great way to start off your day with breakfast or brunch.
Easier than you think to make and so worth the time.
Stacking them between wax paper will keep them from sticking and leftovers freeze perfectly!
Here's what you do:
1 1/2 cups flour
3 eggs
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add the flour to a food processor or blender add milk a little at a time until smooth and both are blended together. Add the sugar, vanilla, baking powder, salt and pulse till blended. Add eggs last and pulse about 1 minute.
Heat a small 8 inch non stick pan and pour (I used a gravy ladle) two ladles or 1/2 cup batter into a hot oil sprayed pan. Rolling the batter back and forth to evenly coat the pan. Cook around 1 minute and flip with a spatula. Stack each on on wax paper until ready to use.
Filling:
1 can blueberries or fresh (1 pint of fresh blueberries tossed with sugar and some water, add a pinch of cinnamon)
Cream Filling Directions:
2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
Mix the two above and set aside
In a medium size bowl add:
4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
Mix all together
In a medium size saucepan add 2 cups of milk bring to a boil. Take off the stove. Add the milk in a steady stream into egg mixture bowl blending all together evenly. Return to stove and cook stirring until the mixture coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat and strain this if its lumpy at all.
Stir in the softened gelatin add 1 teaspoon vanilla and allow to cool.
When the mixture is cool. Whip two cups of heavy cream with 2 teaspoons sugar until stiff and fold in.
Use right away by filling each crepe you have and or put into dessert cups as this will firm up quickly with any left over.
To assemble your crepes:
Place one crepe on your plate add two tablespoons or more if you like of Bavarian cream on top of the crepe. Add 1 tablespoon or more of the blueberries or any fruit you like. Roll up. Add sweetened whipped cream from a can to the top for garnish and more fruit on the ends.
Will we ever play on PS4 against our friends on Xbox One and vice versa? Gamescom offers us some interesting rumors and informations
Crossplay is one of the most anticipated and desired features of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 users: Microsoft and Sony, in this regard, think it diametrically opposite.
During latest Gamescom in Cologne, in fact, Xbox Marketing Manager Aaron Greenberg confirmed to GameReactor’s colleagues the will to allow Xbox One users and, in the future, Xbox One X (and Project Scorpio Edition) expand the matchmaking of its titles to the players of other consoles, especially PlayStation 4:
“Absolutely, yeah. We’re talking to Sony about crossplay, we do partner with them on Minecraft and of course we would like to enable them to be part of that; one community, to unite gamers. So we’re talking to them and we’re hopeful that they’ll be supportive of it.”
Greenberg’s attempt, however, does not seem to be successful, judging by the statements made by the lead designer of ARK to his followers on Twitter:
“We have it working internally to allow crossplay between PS4 and Xbox One, but currently Sony will not allow it “
Sony’s position, therefore, remains publicly expressed during the E3 2017 by Jim Ryan’s chief marketing officer at Eurogamer’s pages:
“We’ve got to be mindful of our responsibility to our install base. Minecraft – the demographic playing that, you know as well as I do, it’s all ages but it’s also very young. We have a contract with the people who go online with us, that we look after them and they are within the PlayStation curated universe. Exposing what in many cases are children to external influences we have no ability to manage or look after, it’s something we have to think about very carefully.”
The upcoming release of Xbox One X and the growing success of Nintendo Switch, however, could change the cards on the table and bring Sony to revisit its crossplay-related plans between PS4 and Xbox One.
via | GameReactor, Jeremy “ARK” Stieglitz official Twitter page, Eurogamer.netIndex for "Baseball Analyst"
Nos. 1-40, 1982-1989
Read Rob Neyer's introduction of the Baseball Analyst archives.
Click on an issue below to download the text-searchable PDF file.
Special thanks to Bill James and Phil Birnbaum for making these files available.
Index compiled by Stephen Roney, Charles Pavitt, Pete Palmer, Cliff Blau, Bill Deane, Dan Heisman and Barry Mednick.
Introduction
by Bill James, p. 1
by Bill James, p. 1 Ballpark Effects on the Production of Infield Errors and Double Plays
by Paul W. Schwarzenbart, p. 2-7
Using data from the NL from 1972,3,6,8,9, and 80, presents home/road rates and ratios for infield and outfield errors and double plays and analysis of the results
by Paul W. Schwarzenbart, p. 2-7 Using data from the NL from 1972,3,6,8,9, and 80, presents home/road rates and ratios for infield and outfield errors and double plays and analysis of the results The Distribution of Runs Scored
by Dallas Adams, p. 8-10
Using data from 1967-76 from both leagues, presents % of games teams score a given number of runs from 0 to 19+. Teams are lumped into 11 groups based on average runs per game. A graph presents the same data as the table. 2 formulas are given to predict the distribution of runs for any team given its average scoring rate. One is for 5 or fewer runs in a game, the other for 6 or more.
by Dallas Adams, p. 8-10 Using data from 1967-76 from both leagues, presents % of games teams score a given number of runs from 0 to 19+. Teams are lumped into 11 groups based on average runs per game. A graph presents the same data as the table. 2 formulas are given to predict the distribution of runs for any team given its average scoring rate. One is for 5 or fewer runs in a game, the other for 6 or more. Nolan Ryan's Fifth No-Hitter
by Tom Jones, p. 11
Account from box score of the 9/26/81 game
by Tom Jones, p. 11 Account from box score of the 9/26/81 game Wins and Losses For All Players
by Mark D. Pankin, p. 12-14
Describes a method of assigning wins and losses to pitchers and hitters. No statistics or actual examples given. Wins are given only to players on winning team and vice versa.
by Mark D. Pankin, p. 12-14 Describes a method of assigning wins and losses to pitchers and hitters. No statistics or actual examples given. Wins are given only to players on winning team and vice versa. Home Runs - A Matter of Attitude
by Robert Kingsley, p. 15-20
Examines the reasons more home runs are hit at some parks than others, using Atlanta Fulton County Stadium and Busch Stadium for illustrative purposes. Concludes 3 main factors are physical dimensions, climate, and hitter attiude. Statistics given for home and road homers for and against Braves and Cardinals for 1976, 7, and 8.
Introduction
by Bill James, p. 1-2
by Bill James, p. 1-2 Some Patterns of Age and Skill
by Dallas Adams, p. 3-9
Data presented for all non-pitchers who finished their careers between 1901 and 1968. Gives data for each age from 16 to 46:total games, % of games, number of players, games per player, number of players playing 95 or more games, and % playing 95 or more games. Next table gives same data for Hall of Famers included in table 1. Table 3 gives same data for catchers included in table 1. Much of these data are presented in graph form, too.
by Dallas Adams, p. 3-9 Data presented for all non-pitchers who finished their careers between 1901 and 1968. Gives data for each age from 16 to 46:total games, % of games, number of players, games per player, number of players playing 95 or more games, and % playing 95 or more games. Next table gives same data for Hall of Famers included in table 1. Table 3 gives same data for catchers included in table 1. Much of these data are presented in graph form, too. Ballpark Effects on Fielding Performance:Further Evidence
by Craig Wright, p. 10-12
Uses NL data from 1976-80 to compare double play rates on grass versus artificial turf. Speculates that ground balls are more prevelent on grass fields and thus the effect on fielding average is slightly less than the effect on errors.
by Craig Wright, p. 10-12 Uses NL data from 1976-80 to compare double play rates on grass versus artificial turf. Speculates that ground balls are more prevelent on grass fields and thus the effect on fielding average is slightly less than the effect on errors. Run Production by Batting Order Position
by Dick O'Brien, p. 13-14
For 1981, presents RBI by batting order position and % of RBI by batting order position. Also same info given for pinchhitters and other subs. Compares actual RBI performance for a select group of number 3 and 4 hitters to their expected RBI. Detailed comments on Steve Garvey and Dave Winfield.
by Dick O'Brien, p. 13-14 For 1981, presents RBI by batting order position and % of RBI by batting order position. Also same info given for pinchhitters and other subs. Compares actual RBI performance for a select group of number 3 and 4 hitters to their expected RBI. Detailed comments on Steve Garvey and Dave Winfield. Clutch Hitting
by Dick O'Brien, p. 15-16
Gives average runs per HR for each batting order position and compares % for each to cleanup slot. Based on players with at least 100 HR up to 1974. Gives runs per HR for about 3 dozen sluggers.
by Dick O'Brien, p. 15-16 Gives average runs per HR for each batting order position and compares % for each to cleanup slot. Based on players with at least 100 HR up to 1974. Gives runs per HR for about 3 dozen sluggers. In Search of the "True" Slugging Percentage
by Jim Morrow, p. 17-19
Presents formula for runs produced based on average number of runs scored and driven in per each type of hit as well as walks. Its correlation with actual runs is slightly less than slugging averaage's.
by Jim Morrow, p. 17-19 Presents formula for runs produced based on average number of runs scored and driven in per each type of hit as well as walks. Its correlation with actual runs is slightly less than slugging averaage's. The Effects of Overwork on Young Pitchers
by Dallas Adams, p. 20
Concludes that overworking rookie pitchers significantly shortens their careers. Presents table innings pitched in each of first four years for 3 groups based on number of games pitched as rookie.
More on the "True" Slugging Percentage
by Jim Reuter, p. 2-6
Responding to an article by Jim Morrow in the previous issue, and measuring the value of home runs and doubles in "true" slugging percentage.
by Jim Reuter, p. 2-6 Responding to an article by Jim Morrow in the previous issue, and measuring the value of home runs and doubles in "true" slugging percentage. Batting Average Comparisons
by Ward Larkin, p. 7-13
Studying batting average in different eras.
by Ward Larkin, p. 7-13 Studying batting average in different eras. Comment on "Effects of Overwork of Rookie Pitchers"
by Ward Larkin, p. 11
Responding to an article by Dallas Adams in the previous issue.
by Ward Larkin, p. 11 Responding to an article by Dallas Adams in the previous issue. Effects of Overwork on Rookie Pitchers, Part II
by Dick O'Brien, p. 14-15
Studying if age has any effect on the conclusions made in Dallas Adams' article in the previous issue.
by Dick O'Brien, p. 14-15 Studying if age has any effect on the conclusions made in Dallas Adams' article in the previous issue. Player Development Study
by Craig Wright, p. 16-19
Responding to a 1981 study by Bill James on farm systems and the value of their performance, and the effect of the Major League Scouting Bureau.
by Craig Wright, p. 16-19 Responding to a 1981 study by Bill James on farm systems and the value of their performance, and the effect of the Major League Scouting Bureau. Comment on Larkin, "Batting Average Comparisons"
by Bill James, p. 20
Responding to Ward Larkin's article on page 11 of this issue.
Introduction
by Bill James 2-3
by Bill James 2-3 Measuring Relief Performance
by John Billheimer, p. 4-12
Evaluates relief pitchers in 1981 according to Prorated ERA (PERA) which charges relievers for a share of inherited runners they allow to score, and Slips (similar to blown saves.) Gives stats for teams and individuals.
by John Billheimer, p. 4-12 Evaluates relief pitchers in 1981 according to Prorated ERA (PERA) which charges relievers for a share of inherited runners they allow to score, and Slips (similar to blown saves.) Gives stats for teams and individuals. Some Additional Aspects of the Distribution of Runs Scored
by Dallas Adams, p. 13-16
Updates article from Issue 1 with data from 1977-81. Also discusses probability of scoring a given number of runs in an inning or per out.
by Dallas Adams, p. 13-16 Updates article from Issue 1 with data from 1977-81. Also discusses probability of scoring a given number of runs in an inning or per out. Commentary on prior article
by Bill James, p. 17
Compares actual # of times Yankees and A's scored a given # of runs in an inning to theoretical results using Adams' formulas.
by Bill James, p. 17 Compares actual # of times Yankees and A's scored a given # of runs in an inning to theoretical results using Adams' formulas. A New Look at "Hard Luck" Pitchers
by Mark Lazarus, p. 18-22
Gives team errors behind starting pitchers for 1982. Also breaks down overall errors by position and for left/right handed pitchers.
by Mark Lazarus, p. 18-22 Gives team errors behind starting pitchers for 1982. Also breaks down overall errors by position and for left/right handed pitchers. Thoughts on Isolated Power
by Jim Reuter, p. 23-24
Introduces Adjusted Isolated Power (AIP) which equals slugging average minus batting average divided by (1 minus batting average.) Also equal to extra bases per out. Gives top 20 career leaders and top 10 for first 4 20 year periods of this century.
Introduction
by Bill James, p. 2
Philosophies of publication and plea for material.
by Bill James, p. 2 Philosophies of publication and plea for material. Effect of Batting and Pitching Changes on Team Change In Won-Lost Record
by Dick O'Brien, p. 3-5
Examination of 1969-82 teams which improved or declined by at least five games from one year to the next. Were they effects of improvements/declines in hitting, pitching, or both? Are the results different when separated by teams in hitters or pitchers parks?
by Dick O'Brien, p. 3-5 Examination of 1969-82 teams which improved or declined by at least five games from one year to the next. Were they effects of improvements/declines in hitting, pitching, or both? Are the results different when separated by teams in hitters or pitchers parks? Home Park Factors
by Jim Reuter, p. 6
General formula to adjust a players statistics based on his home park.
by Jim Reuter, p. 6 General formula to adjust a players statistics based on his home park. Balls and Strikes
by Pete Palmer, p. 7-8
Examination of pitch-by-pitch data from 1974-77 post-season series. What is the effect of the ball-strike count on a batters batting, on-base, and slugging averages? How can this data be used to evaluate strategies such as pitch-outs, sacrifices, or swinging at 3-0 pitches?
by Pete Palmer, p. 7-8 Examination of pitch-by-pitch data from 1974-77 post-season series. What is the effect of the ball-strike count on a batters batting, on-base, and slugging averages? How can this data be used to evaluate strategies such as pitch-outs, sacrifices, or swinging at 3-0 pitches? Some Further Aspects of the Distribution of Runs Scored
by Dallas Adams, p. 9-20
Continuation of an article in the previous issue. Examines the probabilities of teams scoring and/or winning based on score, inning, and number of outs. Includes many equations, tables, and graphs.
Ballpark Effects on Fielding Statistics -- American League Parks
by Paul W. Schwarzenbart, p. 2-5
Follow-up to article in issue #1. Uses various data between 1972-80 to examine the effect of different AL parks on errors (by both infielders and outfielders) and double plays. Key point of discussion is the effect of grass vs. turf fields.
by Paul W. Schwarzenbart, p. 2-5 Follow-up to article in issue #1. Uses various data between 1972-80 to examine the effect of different AL parks on errors (by both infielders and outfielders) and double plays. Key point of discussion is the effect of grass vs. turf fields. Quality Versus Quantity
by Dan Heisman, p. 6-9
What is the effect of quantity (i.e., career value) vs. quality (peak value) in Hall of Fame voting? In actual value to a players team? Includes examination of the best five years of 31 past and present stars. Editors comment on p.20.
by Dan Heisman, p. 6-9 What is the effect of quantity (i.e., career value) vs. quality (peak value) in Hall of Fame voting? In actual value to a players team? Includes examination of the best five years of 31 past and present stars. Editors comment on p.20. Team Won/Lost Percentage as a Function of Runs and Opponents Runs
by Dallas Adams, p. 10-12
Follow-up to articles in previous issues. Uses 1967-76 game scores to determine teams probability of winning based on number of runs scored and allowed. Includes tables and equations.
by Dallas Adams, p. 10-12 Follow-up to articles in previous issues. Uses 1967-76 game scores to determine teams probability of winning based on number of runs scored and allowed. Includes tables and equations. Adjusted Home Park Factor
by Pete Palmer, p. 13-16
Computation of home park effect, with commentary on Reuters article in previous issue. Includes table showing home/road data in runs and home runs for 1977-82. Editors comment on p. 20.
by Pete Palmer, p. 13-16 Computation of home park effect, with commentary on Reuters article in previous issue. Includes table showing home/road data in runs and home runs for 1977-82. Editors comment on p. 20. Evaluating Pitchers Performances
by Cuthbert Magnolia, p. 17-19
Tongue-in-cheek article with serious formulas for rating starters and relievers, by comparing them with pitchers in their league and on their team.
New Editors Notes
by Jim Baker, p. 2
Introduction from publication's new editor, and plea for material.
by Jim Baker, p. 2 Introduction from publication's new editor, and plea for material. Letter
by Mrs. B. Kwandrie, p. 3, 8
Letter to the editor, apparently fictitious and created to encourage real letters to the editor.
by Mrs. B. Kwandrie, p. 3, 8 Letter to the editor, apparently fictitious and created to encourage real letters to the editor. Run Production By Batting Order Position -- Part II
by Dick O'Brien, p. 4
Follow-up to article in August 1982 issue. Examination of 1978-82 boxscores to reveal individual runs scored and RBI by position in the batting order.
by Dick O'Brien, p. 4 Follow-up to article in August 1982 issue. Examination of 1978-82 boxscores to reveal individual runs scored and RBI by position in the batting order. On the Probability of Hitting.400
by Dallas Adams, p. 5-7
Examination of the probability of an individual batting.400 for a season, based on the league batting average. Includes graphs.
by Dallas Adams, p. 5-7 Examination of the probability of an individual batting.400 for a season, based on the league batting average. Includes graphs. A Trend Analysis of Batting Averages
by Gary T. Brown, p. 8-17
Examines league batting averages over the years, illustrated by graphs. Offers explanations for changes over the years, and projections for the future.
by Gary T. Brown, p. 8-17 Examines league batting averages over the years, illustrated by graphs. Offers explanations for changes over the years, and projections for the future. The Chalmers Award Born A |
snos, a former Washington Post reporter and the founder of the publishing house PublicAffairs. “You can’t judge him solely on the basis of success, because no one in the business can claim success in the current situation. You do have to give him credit for good judgment in anticipating the role of the Internet and his deep commitment to the values of the institution. Arthur was talking about the impact of the Internet on newspapers earlier than anyone else in our industry, and the records show that. So you have this strange kind of thing where you have the vision and you have insight, but you don’t get the business side of it right—but literally, without exception, no one has. Arthur has, however, re-invented the newspaper on several levels and positioned it for the future.”
Nine years ago, in an entirely different economic climate, the industry magazine Editor & Publisher named Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Publisher of the Year, and he was hailed as “brilliant” and “visionary.” His investments in satellite printing had pushed the national edition of the Times to unprecedented success, “achieving a 20 percent advertising revenue growth … largely due to national and help-wanted business going gangbusters.” The mistakes he has made with investments and in adapting to new technology are the same mistakes made by every newspaper in America. Most journalists consider Sam Zell, the billionaire who bought the Tribune Company, to be a Neanderthal for his wholesale trashing of the once proud Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, and regard Gary Pruitt, chairman of the McClatchy chain, as a well-mannered and passionate defender of journalistic excellence. Yet both are staring at bankruptcy. “Who has gotten it right?” asks one industry analyst. “Arthur has made some bad decisions, but so has everyone else in the business. Nobody has figured out what to do.” In short, you can choose whichever take on Arthur you prefer. As an old football coach once told me, “Write whatever you want: if I win, you can’t hurt me, and if I lose, you can’t help me.” The publisher’s reputation shifts with the wind, and today journalism is leaning into an exceedingly ill wind. The Wrong Lesson
Arthur is still often referred to as “Young Arthur,” even though he is old enough to be a grandfather, or by the despised nickname that puns on his father’s, “Pinch.” Even as his locks gray and he nears almost two decades as publisher, he remains the prince-in-waiting who once haunted the newsroom in his socks, his trousers held up by colorful suspenders, peering in a harmless but nevertheless insufferably proprietary way over the shoulders of hard-boiled reporters on deadline. “I have heard him many times refer back to ‘when I was a reporter,’” says one former Times executive, theatrically cringing. “He’ll just do it as a throwaway—‘When I was a reporter.’ I will say this to him one day: Don’t say that. You know what? You don’t have to say that. Do you think it’s giving you more credibility with journalists? It actually gives you less.” On the business side, according to one former associate, he was viewed with contempt. “They saw him as insubstantial, as flighty, as glib, and as not caring about them as much as he cared about journalists.” But Arthur has one big thing going for him, particularly with the reporters and editors who are the real stars in the Times building. Arthur is motivated, as he himself says, not by wealth but by value. He believes, to be sure, that wealth follows from value, but you can see, even as he says it, that the wealth part is not what drives him. Journalism drives him. The Times’s reputation and influence drive him. He is not just a newspaper publisher and a chairman of the board. He is Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., and the pride he feels in that name doesn’t have anything to do with how much is in his bank account. No matter what moves he makes, no matter what errors he commits, Arthur will remain every journalist’s dream publisher. He has long protected the newsroom from predatory managers with their bean-counting priorities, and today he represents its best hope, reporters and editors would like to believe, of weathering the crisis without the soul-killing budget cuts that turn great newspapers into little more than supermarket circulars. The same people who roll their eyes when they hear him wax nostalgic about his years in the newsroom pray for him daily, because, like them, he completely buys the myth: Journalism sells. “This is ridiculous,” says a former business-side executive at the Times. “It flies in the face of logic and reason, this belief that if your news product is so good and so comprehensive the normal rules of business are suspended. Think about it. Think about the inanity of saying that you survived by putting in more news and cutting ads.” Arthur repeated this belief proudly in his interview with Rose, describing how Adolph Ochs responded to the lean years after he purchased the paper by expanding its news hole—“We’re going to give our readers more! That’s gutsy!”—and how his grandfather Arthur Hays Sulzberger did something similar during World War II, when newsprint was being rationed: “Major decision, major gutsy decision from him there. Perhaps the critical decision of his time … whether to continue to print ads—revenue, money, profit—or to say, No, we’re going to add more news. He went to news, the Herald Tribune went to ads, and the rest was just a matter of time. By the time the war ended the Times had taken such a huge leadership that it was just a matter of time before the Herald Tribune was to fold.” This story is false. It is dismissed even in The Trust, a mostly glowing account of the newspaper and the family written with the full cooperation of the Sulzbergers, including Arthur, and published more than a year before he spoke those words to Rose. The authors, Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones, thoroughly debunked the legend. “One of the enduring myths about The New York Times is that it nobly sacrificed profits from revenue-generating ads during World War II in order to print more news,” wrote Tifft and Jones. “But the truth is somewhat more complicated.” It seems that the Times actually slashed its news hole in this period “far more severely than it cut the space devoted to ads.” With newsprint rationed, and with more ads and news than he could fit, Sulzberger increased space for ads and decreased space for news. In fact, he devoted the majority of the newspaper’s space to ads, and earned more revenue than he had since 1931. Ad revenue “had actually increased during the period, from $13 million to $15 million, while the amount of money spent on news had slumped slightly from $3.9 million to $3.7 million,” Tifft and Jones wrote. Arthur’s grandfather did make one important change during this period, but it was more of a shrewd business move than a principled stand for journalism. While the rival Herald Tribune sat on its swollen profits during the war, Sulzberger used his profits to print not more news but more newspapers, greatly expanding the Times’s reach. That strategy left the Times with a larger circulation than the Herald Tribune after the war. The Times was better positioned to survive. The lesson of the story is not that investing in news pays but that a clever business strategy adapts to a changing market. Arthur likes his own version of the story better. He once told interviewers that the Times was his “religion”: “That’s what I believe in, and it’s a hell of a thing to hold on to.” Reason has no purchase on belief. Nor does basic business theory. Algorithms as Editors
American journalism is in a period of terror. The invention of the Internet has caused a fundamental shift not just in the platform for information—screen as opposed to paper—but in the way people seek information. In evolutionary terms, it’s a sudden drastic change of climate. One age passes and a new one begins. Species that survive the transition are generally not the kings of the old era. The world they fit so perfectly is no more. They are big and slow, wedded to the old ways, ripe for extinction. When Arthur became chairman of the Times Company, in 1997, he dragged his top people to retreats in leafy locations, there to learn better cooperation and to think big thoughts. He was less worried about adapting the Times to a new era than about making his company and newsroom a happier place to work. The underlying assumption was that there was nothing ahead but smooth seas. Many of the newsroom’s hard-bitten veterans found these events revealing. “We were having a retreat,” David Jones, a former assistant managing editor, recalls. “It was a wonderful old inn, business-meeting place, in upstate New York. They were doing games as bonding experiences. One of the games they did was fly casting. And they put three big loops out on the lawn. One was close, one was farther out, and one was farthest. And the idea was to cast your lure and hit inside the loop. The farther away you cast, the more points you got.” The risky way to play was to cast for the big scores; the safest way was to steadily accrue points by hitting the nearest loop. “So we played this game,” says Jones, “and when it was all over, I talked to the guy who worked there, who ran the game, and I said, What was your impression of us from the way we played? How do we compare with other groups? And he said—and they have business groups that come—he said, ‘This is the most conservative group I have ever seen.’” Arthur himself, despite his leftist politics and social liberalism, despite the lip service he pays to the need for change, is deeply conservative where the family business is concerned. This is not to say that he resists change. His nytimes.com is the most successful newspaper Web site in the country. It can claim an ever rising number of hits and, until the general economic slump of 2008–9, recorded steady growth in ad revenue. But none of this will save him, because at the core Arthur and the Times remain wedded to an archaic model of journalism. For 10 years or more, Arthur’s signature phrase about this seismic change in the news business, the one he repeats to show that he gets it, has been platform agnostic. “I am platform agnostic,” he proclaims proudly, meaning that it matters nothing to him where his customers go for New York Times content: the newspaper’s print version, television, radio, computer, cell phone, Kindle—whatever. The phrase itself reveals limited understanding. When the motion-picture camera was invented, many early filmmakers simply recorded stage plays, as if the camera’s value was just to preserve the theatrical performance and enlarge its audience. To be sure, this alone was a significant change. But the true pioneers realized that the camera was more revolutionary than that. It freed them from the confines of a theater. Audiences could be transported anywhere. To tell stories with pictures, and then with sound, directors developed a whole new language, using lighting and camera angles, close-ups and panoramas, to heighten drama and suspense. They could make an audience laugh by speeding up the action, or make it cry or quake by slowing it down. In short, the motion-picture camera was an entirely new tool for storytelling. To be platform agnostic is the equivalent of recording stage plays. “When I first heard Arthur talk about being platform agnostic, I knew he was trying to suggest that he was not stuck in a newspaper mind-set,” says Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. “But I thought there were two problems with that language. One is, agnostics are people who don’t—who aren’t sure what they believe in. That’s the first problem. And the second problem is, in practice, there is no such thing as being platform agnostic. You actually have to choose which platform you work on first, which one comes first. At the time that he was talking about this, what he really meant was: Everything we put in the newspaper, we’ll put online. If you really want to move to the Internet in a serious way, you need to change the culture of a news organization and decide that the Internet is the primary new thing. Platform agnostic means that all the online companies are going to zoom past you, because they’re going to exploit that technology while you’re sitting there thinking, Well, we don’t care which platform we put it on. You need to exploit the technology of each platform. You need to be, in fact, not platform agnostic but platform orthodox. So that expression, platform agnostic, always struck me as something he heard someplace, rather than something that he really grasps and understands.” Arthur’s idea is to continue producing The New York Times the way it has always been produced, and then to offer a digital edition of the product, with video, images, interactive graphics, blogs, and so on. That’s what nytimes.com does superbly. According to Nielsen, it attracts more than 20 million unique visitors a month. Imagine a newspaper that was picked up by 20 million readers every month! If only a tiny fraction of that number came back and became subscribers, circulation would explode. But those users are not “picking up” the newspaper; many of them are just picking up individual stories. Nearly half of those who access nytimes.com to read a story come in, as it were, through a side door. They begin by plugging search terms into an engine such as Google, which spits out a long list of links to related sites. And in any case, they’re not spending a lot of time with the newspaper: the average amount, says Nielsen, is 35 minutes per month. (The news is worse for other sites—only about 16 minutes per month for washingtonpost.com.) One of Arthur’s hopes is that, once on the site, readers will linger, sampling the Times’s other superb offerings, but usage patterns suggest that this isn’t happening. Those who grew up using the Internet, which now includes a full generation of Americans, are expert browsers. It’s not that they have short attention spans. If anything, many of them are more sophisticated and better informed than their parents. They are certainly more independent. Instead of absorbing the news and opinion packaged expertly by professional journalists, they search out only the information they want, and are less and less likely to devote themselves to one primary site, in part because it is less efficient, and in part because not doing so is liberating. The Internet has disaggregated the news. It eliminates the middleman—that is, it eliminates editors. At a newspaper, top editors meet several times a day to review the stories and photographs gathered from their own staff and wire services. They decide which are the most important or compelling, and then they prioritize and package them. When you buy a newspaper you are buying a carefully prepared meal. Inevitably stories and artwork are left off the plate for a great variety of reasons, all of them subjective—they are deemed less significant, less credible, less tasteful, less useful. Or maybe there just isn’t enough room. The Internet replaces editors with an algorithm. Google is a search engine. It makes no value judgment about information unless you instruct it to. All of the stories and photos in the world are there, including billions of items that the reader never imagined wanting to see. It is unmediated. There is no adult supervision. And the kicker is: it’s free. Much more is at work here than a change of platform. Whether you think more is lost or gained depends upon which side of this evolutionary divide you fall on. For me, someone who spent most of his adult life working in a newsroom, someone who reads three newspapers every day, including the Times, the loss will be far greater. Newspapers enable serious journalism. They provide for the care and feeding of career reporters and editors. They strive to be fair, accurate, and objective. They are independent sources of credible, well-researched information. They are watchdogs for the public interest, an important part of the communal mind and memory of the nation. When an editor is replaced by an algorithm, all information is equal. Propaganda shares the platform with honest reporting, and the slickest, most attractive Web sites and blogs will be those sponsored by corporations, the government, or special interests, which can afford to pay for professional work.
Arthur’s argument, or his hope, is that the quality of the Times’s brand will prevail, that quality independent journalism is so obviously valuable that serious readers will continue to seek it out. He has been offering the Times content for free because experience has shown that subscriber-only stories leak—they are copied and e-mailed and rapidly proliferate for free anyway—and because Internet users, accustomed to getting information for free, are loath to pay for it. Do you remove yourself from the global conversation if you wall yourself off? Can you make enough money on subscriptions to survive? The Wall Street Journal has gone in this direction online, while offering some free content. The jury is still out. Arthur has continued to provide Times content for free, but is considering reversing direction. His brand remains the best in the business, but that hasn’t solved his revenue problems. Journalism costs. The revenue from Internet advertising is still only about a tenth of total revenue. Even if those millions of brief hits on nytimes.com continue to swell, the Times itself may be in bankruptcy court long before the Web site generates enough revenue to replace what Arthur has lost. In fairness, no one has the answer for newspapers. Some, such as former Time managing editor Walter Isaacson, Alan D. Mutter, a former newspaperman and Silicon Valley C.E.O., and Peter Osnos, of PublicAffairs, all of whom have experience as executives, are pushing some form of micro-payment. If the Times, in partnership with the big search-engine companies, got paid a few pennies for every person who clicks on a link to its content, it might replace the old business model for advertising. The price of accessing a single item would be so small that it would hardly be worth the trouble to hunt up a pirated version. Some have suggested that all of the major news providers should band together and withhold their content from the Internet until such a pricing agreement can be put in place. It seems clear that drastic action is required. One top editor at another newspaper put it this way: “Ask yourself this—if the Internet existed and newspapers didn’t, would there be any reason to invent newspapers? No. That tells you all you need to know.” Some at the Times anticipated this tectonic shift years ago, but Arthur wasn’t listening. Despite lip service about change, he presides over a slow-moving beast. Diane Baker, who was regarded as an energetic and forceful outsider, ran up against this in her years as C.F.O. When she took the job, in 1995, she was shocked to discover that the company was still doing all its accounting by hand. “They literally did not have the ability to produce spreadsheets,” she says. “They had not invested in the software you need to analyze data. It is a company run by journalists. The Sulzbergers are journalists at their core, not businessmen.” Her biggest disappointment came when she crafted a potentially lucrative partnership with Amazon.com, already the biggest bookseller on the Internet. The Times would link all the titles reviewed in the paper’s prestigious Sunday Book Review section, ordinarily a money drain, to the online bookseller and receive a percentage on every book sold. “We could have made the Book Review into a big source of revenue,” she recalls. Baker knew that Amazon.com planned to eventually sell everything under the sun, to become the first digital supermarket. Not only would the deal have produced revenue from book sales, it would also have cemented a partnership with a tremendous future. She envisioned the newspaper as a virtual merchandising machine. Instead of the old carpet-bombing model of advertising, it would in effect target ads to readers of specific stories. “You know what they said?,” Baker recalls. “They said, We can’t do it, because Barnes & Noble is a big advertiser.”
Toward the end of his tenure as executive editor, Max Frankel was asked to think about the impact of computers on the news business. This was back in the mid-1990s, when the Times’s national edition was taking off and most Americans were embarking on their first hesitant drives on the “information superhighway.” For the Times there was money to maneuver with, and to invest, and a chance to adapt to the new age. Frankel wrote two memos, which he no longer has, but whose content he remembers clearly. In the first memo he argued that, because computers were so good at generating lists, and cross-referencing them, classified ads in newspapers were doomed. He suggested that the Times set up a computer system to allow buyers and sellers to deal with each other directly online—“It was essentially Craigslist,” Frankel jokes. “I should have started it up!” Craigslist was created in 1995 and today averages billions of page hits per month, with reported annual revenues in excess of $80 million. It is a major factor in the decline of newspaper ad revenue. “The second idea was much more important, and came a little later,” Frankel says. “I wrote that one big coming threat posed by the computer was disaggregation: the Internet disaggregates the hunt for information. The need for information would survive the advent of the digital era, but the package offered by The New York Times might not. So how do you protect the package? What was so great about The New York Times was not that we offered the best coverage in any particular field but that we were very good in so many. It was the totality of the newspaper that was a marvel, not any of its particulars. The Web threatened to break that up. One way to weather this, which I suggested, was that we needed to pick the fields in which to be pre-eminent. If you want to have the best sports package, then start hiring the staff and make yourself the best go-to place for sports information. If it is business, or politics—whatever—pick one and make yourself the best, or make a strategic alliance.” This is the approach taken by ESPN.com, by Bloomberg.com, IMDB.com, Weather.com, and a multitude of others. Any one of dozens of sites specializing in, say, politics or the arts could have been taken over and built up around the Times’s expert staff. It could still happen. The Washington Post is increasingly staking out the national government as its field, but an even more immediate threat to the Times is coming from downtown. Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal already has a larger national circulation than the Times, and its rapacious new owner is vigorously competing on new fronts. Both newspapers are losing revenue in the current downturn, but the Journal may be in a better position for the long term. It has a smaller staff, and a clearly specialized arena with deep importance and broad appeal—business and finance. It has clearly dominated coverage of the ongoing economic crisis, with perceptive stories that are more knowingly reported, more analytical, and consistently better written. Online, the Journal’s editorial matter is largely password-protected, which means its readers are already paying for content, and it has been steadily improving its coverage of culture, sports, and lifestyle, and in its weekend edition featuring original essays by acclaimed writers and thinkers. And while the Times is busy throwing assets overboard to stay afloat, the Journal is attached to Murdoch’s international empire, News Corp. Arthur aspires to be the patron saint of journalism, but the smart money may be on the pirate. The kind of specialization Frankel forecast is also driving most smaller newspapers, which are aggressively focusing coverage on their own communities, where they have exclusive content. Many see this as the only strategy that will enable them to survive. The retired executive editor says that he sent both of his memos up the chain of command—as he puts it, “off into the ether.” He did not hear a word from Arthur or anyone else about them. “Never Give Up”
Arthur Sulzberger can be a loyal and thoughtful friend, someone who will surprise a distant or old acquaintance with a small note of congratulation or commiseration, a gesture out of the blue that is felt and remembered. He is sincere and determined. He is, by all accounts, a doting and involved father. He did not have to work at all, yet he has always worked hard. “He is kind, decent, and good,” says his longtime friend Steve Rattner. “In everything he does, he means well.” His convictions about journalism are above reproach, and he cultivates his journalistic values in the ever expanding Sulzberger clan. In speaking with many who know him well, I discovered a near-universal desire to protect Arthur. “It’s funny. There’s something about him that makes you want to—it’s almost like this maternal instinct kicks in,” says Vivian Schiller, who was an executive at the Times before becoming president of NPR. Part of the desire to protect Arthur stems from his role at the head of a great newspaper in hard times. Part of it is loyalty to the Sulzberger family. But beyond all of this is fear—not just that Arthur will be hurt but that he will fail. It is sometimes true that a man’s greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. Soon after Robert J. Rosenthal was named managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, in 2002, he ran into Arthur at a conference on the West Coast. Arthur congratulated Rosenthal, who had started his career as a copyboy at the Times, and when they shared a car ride Arthur talked about how different their challenges were. “Yours is to turn the ship around,” he said. “Mine is to keep the Times on course.” He still might—though in fact staying on course means turning the ship around. If he makes the right moves in the next few years, he may yet be able to ride his inheritance into the digital age. If he pulls that off, the achievement will outstrip those of his revered ancestors. It would be something more akin to the feats attributed to the original Arthur, the one who pulled Excalibur from the stone. But precisely because he is who he is, Arthur may be the last person in the world with the answers. The more likely outcome is that he will lose the Times to someone with deep enough pockets to carry the enterprise at a loss until circumstances sort themselves out—a rich individual, or a rich corporation, or some rich philanthropic institution. In recent years there have been persistent reports of Rupert Murdoch’s interest in the Times, if only because he has historically lusted after prestige broadsheets. Michael Wolff, who wrote a biography of the Australian billionaire, reported in these pages last year that Murdoch had entertained the idea of a merger with his Wall Street Journal’s backroom operations and “fantasize[d] about the staff’s quitting en masse as soon as he entered the sacred temple.” (Given the recent layoffs at the Journal, and reports of the newspaper unit’s drag on News Corp’s bottom line, the acquisition of another sagging national newspaper might seem to be an irrational act—but that may be beside the point.) A business model to sustain a professional staff of reporters and editors could yet emerge in this new era, most likely a model devised by entrepreneurs with everything to gain and little to lose. This is a course that would save the institution, but would mean the end of the Sulzberger dynasty.Jellyfishes rely on drifting to eat. They take their luck with currents, and create tiny eddies to guide food toward their tendrils. Yet in waters from the Sea of Japan (aka East Sea) to the Black Sea, jellies today are thriving as many of their marine vertebrate and invertebrate competitors are eliminated by overfishing, dead zones and other human impacts. How have these drifters of the sea reversed millions of years of fish dominance, seemingly overnight?
Biologist José Luis Acuña of the University of Oviedo in Spain and his colleagues now suggest that jellyfishes are just as effective at mealtime as fishes when judged by the right measures. "Jellyfishes are ancient organisms, which use a primitive predation mechanism based on generating feeding currents to bring the prey into contact with their bodies," Acuña explains. "In spite of this primitivism, jellies are as effective as fishes in catching prey and in transforming the energy acquired [into] body growth and reproduction."
So where fishes use their eyes to spot planktonic prey, jellyfishes rely on body size—like the lion's mane jellyfish's 37-meter-long tentacles—to maximize their success. To achieve that size gain, predatory jellyfishes have relied on water incorporated into their tissues—the refrigerator-size Nomura's jellyfish from the Sea of Japan comprises mostly water. A larger body requires more energy to move, so jellies let the surrounding water do the work for them, which makes them some of the slowest swimmers in the sea. And measured by the amount of carbon in their bodies—rather than total weight—jellies consume and incorporate as much prey as fishes do, Acuña's team found. The results are detailed in the September 16 issue of Science.
"It is very neat work," says ecologist Kylie Pitt of Griffith University in Australia, who is working on similar research. When combined with overfishing, climate change, fertilizer runoff–induced dead zones and other human impacts on ocean fishes, a watery evolutionary stage has been set for a jellyfish takeover—dubbed the "gelatinous ocean" by some scientists.
There are exceptions to this rule: The cannonball jellyfish—a seafood delicacy in Asia—shoots through the water at 15 centimeters per second, a decent clip. And the return to ocean conditions last seen in the Ediacaran period more than 540 million years ago—when jellies last ruled the seas—has been a boon for certain fishes in habitats like the Benguela Current in the South Atlantic off Namibia in Africa, where jellyfish-eating gobies have replaced sardines in the food chain. The growing abundance of these jelly-feeding gobies now serves to provide sustenance to the predators that formerly feasted on the sardines, such as seabirds, larger fishes and, ultimately, humans. "We need research to be sure of what new ecological scenarios are arising," Acuña says.
"It is time to take [jellyfishes] seriously," Acuña adds, both as a marine predator and a future seafood source.HIGHWORLD RECORD a guest Jul 30th, 2011 163 Never a guest163Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 31.91 KB HELLO I COME TO YOU TODAY FORMALLYH TO EXPLAIN TO YOU THAT THIS IS A HIGH WORLD RECORD. AS I TYPE IT I MAKE IT A REALITY. WHAT I NEED TO DESCRIBE HERE IS HOW I HAVE BEEN TALKING WITH MY ROOMMATE ABOUT REALITIES AND HOW I CREATE THEM FOR A WHILE NOW SO I CAN EXPLAIN THINGS TO HIM WITHOUT HAVE TO SAY WORDS. POSSIBLY. I MADE THAT A REALITY FORGETTING HOW TO TYPE FOR A MOMENT. THEN I MADE THAT A REALITY BY RECOGNIZING THAT AND GOING OUT A LAYER. I HOPE THAT DEMONSTRATES LAYERS TO YOU. I CAN ONLY BECOME AWARE OF THEM AS I SLIP BETWEEN THEIR STREAMS. THE POINT OF THIS TYPING WHICH I JUST BEGUN SPEAKING IS THAT TO MAKE THAT A REALITY I HAVE TO COME BACK TO ONE IN WHICH COMPUTERS, WITH WHICH I INTERFACE, MUCH LIKE I DID EARLIER WITH MY PHONE. TO TEXT A HUMAN IN A DIFFERENT REALITY MY PHONE CAN ALSO SLIP BETWEEN STREAMS WIRELESSLH. I JUST USED IT T ONAVIGATE OUTDOORS. I RALIZE AS I TYPE THIS THAT BY PUTTING IT ON THE INTERNET MAKES IT A REALITY IN WHICH A DIFFERENT STREAM IS BORN. OH YES I MUST SAY HERE AS I REALIZED IT, THEREFORE GOING ANOTHER LAYER, COMING BACK A LAYER TO FINISH TYPING THIS NOW. WHAT WAS I THINKING. SEE IF I LOSE A TRAIN OF THOUGHT IT BECOMES PHYSICAL. PHYSICAL AND INTERNAL DIALOGUE CAN BECOME ONE. I FIGURED THIS OUT AS MY BRAIN LEFT. WELL I CAN SEE INTO MY BRAIN I GUESS I PROVED SOULS> BUT I KNOW PART OF ME CRINGES AT THAT. WHICH MAYBE SOBERED ME UP A BIT. BUT I CREATED A REALITY WHERE THAT JUST WENT SLOWER. MORE SLOWLY. IF I TPE CORRECTLY. IM CREATING TO MANY REALITIES AND IT MAKES TYPING DIIFUCLT TOO MANY REALITIES FUCK IM AFRAID IF I FORGE THINGS I MIGHT PHYSICALLLY LOSE PARTS OF MY BRAIN. I M AFIRAD THAT I CAN FEEL MY CELLS COMMUNICATE. IF I THINK ON THAT LEVEL I WONDER IF THE KNOWLEDGE OF IT WOULD KILL ME. AN DI OWNDER IF THINKING THAT COULD DAMAGE MY BRAIN IN ONE OF THE OTHER REALITIES. AS I WRITE THIS ALL TEHSE REALITIES IS SO WEIRD. LIKE MIRROS? TOUGH TO EXPLAIN. I CAN SEE THROUGH ALL OF SPACE AND TIME AT ONCE, BUT AT TEH SAME TIME UNDERSTAND TAHT SINCE NOBODY WILL BELIEVE ANYBODY CAN BE THIS HIGH, IT BOTH VINDICATES AND I FORGOT A WORD AND MAY HAVE SUSTAINED BRAIN DAMAGE. PLEASE RECORD THIS IN CASE THERE IS MEASURABLE BRAIN DAMAGE SO I CAN PROVEN RIGHT. OH MAN THIS IS INSANE. THAT CANT BE REAL. THIS SERIOUSLY CANNOT BE REAL. EARLIER I WENT OUTISDE AND IT WAS SOOOO VOERWHELMING BUT THERE WERE NOT PEOPLE SO I DONT KNOW IF IT WAS REAL OR NOT ACCORDING TO WHICH REALITY I DONT KNOW. I BEGAN TALKING AGAIN. JUST NOW. OUT LOUD. WHAT WAS I THINKING. OH YES OUTSIDE WAS NOT REAL. SO I UNDERSTAND. BUTIT WAS STILL OVERHWELMING BUTT I HAVE NO T COMMUNICATED WITH A NUMAN FOR A WHILE NOW. SINCE MY PHONE HAS NOT RECEIVED COMMUNICATIONS FROM ANY STREAM. OR HAVE I SEEN ANYBODY. SO YOU CANNOT UNDERSTASND HOW THIS REALITY IS SADNESS. PURE SADNESS. BECAUSE NOBODY IS HERE WITH ME. OH MY GOD. OH WAIT SO BY SENDING THIS YES! YES! BY SENDING THIS TO THE INTERNET I CAN SLIP OUT OF THAT STREAM. IFEEL SORRY FOR THAT REALITY. IM OUT OF IT AND FEEL INCREDIBLE. NOW. IM ANOW THAT BY HITTING SUBMIT I MAKE A REALITY IN MY CURRENT STREAM AS WELL. WHCIH MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENT IN HUMAN HISTORY. OH MY GOD. I CAN REACH HIGHER STREAMS THIS WAY. LIKE A LITTLE BUMP LIKE THE BACK OF MY HEAD WARMS AND I FEEL MY BRAIN EXPAND. IM AFRAID TO HIT SUBMIT BEFORE ITS OVER OR IMPORTANT DETAILS MAY NOT BE PROPERLY ARCHIVED FOR FUTURE HUMANS OR WHATEVER SPECIES SURPASSES AND OR DOMINATES US OH MY GOD THAT WAS THE MOST TERRIFYING BIRTH OF A LAYER YET. IM AFRAID IF GO TO THAT LAYER THE SADNESS MIGHT KILL ME. OH MY GOD I WONDER IF MY GIRLFRIEND IS OKAY. I FORGOT TO CHECK. JESUS THAT IS THE SADDEST REALITY. I HAVE TO MAKE SURE SHES OKAY BUT IM NOT SURE IF I CAN SWITCH INTERFACES FROM PHONE TO COMPUTER. OR VICE VERSA RATHER. I WLL EXPERIMENT AND REPORT.OH NO MY PHONE IS NOT HTERE. I DONT UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS TO SEVERAL REALITIES.I HAVE TO FIND MY PHONE. IM ARAID I MAY HAVE LOST IT OUSIDE? WHICH IM NOT EVEN SURE EXISTS ANYMORE. OH MAN IM NOT SURE IF ITS SAFE TO LOOK FOR AN LOCATE THE PHONE BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE THE LAYERS MAY BE TOUCHING. OHYEA H! OH MY GOD LISTEN. THAST ONE OF THE DETALS I TOLD MY ROOMMATE EARLIER. ABOUT THE TEXTURE OF THE STREAMS AND FRICTION BETWEEN THEM. THATS AN IMPORTANT TIDBIT. I THINK I RECORDED WHAT I SAID TO HIM SO WHEN I RETURN TO WHATEVER REALITY I NEED TO, I CAN USE THAT AS EVIDENCE. ITS ALL THERE, I WANTED TO DOCUMENT VERY THOROUGHLY SINCE THIS IS SUCH AN IMPORTANT AND HISTORY HUMAN ACHIENEVEMENT. I WISH I SPOKE OR WROTE MORE ELOQUENTLY. I FEEL LIKE THIS WILL NEVER BE REMEMBERED LIKE OTHER IMPORTANT SPEECHES. I FEEL LIKE IM NOT WORTH BEING THE GUY THAT ACHEIENVED THIS. OH MY GOD INFINITE SADNESS WHOA I JUST LITERALLY MADE MUSIC HAPPEN A STRING SOUND LIKE... PERHAPS DRAWING ON A VIOLION BUT SPED UP SEVERAL TIMES TO INCREASE ITS PITCH I MADE THAT SOUND EXIST WITHOUT AN INSTRUMENT IT WAS INTERESTING I WISH TEHRE WAS ANOTHER WAY TO DOCUMENT IT. OH MYGOD HITTING SUBMIT FILLS ME WITH SUCH PANICK. I WONDER IF THATS A LEGIT SPELLING OF PANIC. WHEN I THOUGHT OF PANICK I THOUGHT MAGICK AND REALIZED HOW THAT IS NOT REAL. INTERESTING. I WISH I COULD PHOTOGRAPH HOW ATOMS INTERACT FOR YOU IN THE REALITIES THAT CANT UNDERSTAND IT I THINK I AM STUCK IN THAT REALITY. WHICH SADDNES ME DANGEROUSLY SAD. I WONDER IF MIGHT DIE. NO IT'LL BE OKAY. I UNDERSTAND THAT I DID SOMETHING TO MY BRAIN. BUT BY REALIZING THAT WENT OUT A THICKER LAYER. THAT WAS LASO INTETERSTING. THAT COULD BE A MINIOR ACHIENVEMENT IN THIS. ITS DIFFICULT TO CORRECT TYPOS BECAUSE BACKING SLOWS TIME. BACKUP BACKING UP SLOWS TIME AND IM AFRAID I MIGHT I HAD AN ISSUES WITH SLOWING TIME BEFORE WHERE I TH |
of points from players further solidifies my idea of the “Long-Term Endgame Reward” idea:
The system, designed as a device to increase in-game activity, keeping players engaged for several MONTHS, was being beaten in TWO (2) DAYS!
Something had to be done – and it was.
“Come see the great Argala Starship Parking lot, open 9-to-5… to-9… to-5, Pacific Standard Time”
The Argala System – this is where the player base is right now – at least this is the impression you get from reading the STO forums.
And if you’ll fly to Argala, it does look like a starship parking lot in sector space –
Because everyone is grinding for Specialization points.
And all I can say is – “Have you all gone mad?!”
Is THIS is why you’re here? Don’t you have a better game to play?
Let me ask you the unspeakable question: “were does it say you HAVE to max-out the specs”
If all I wrote up to here did not made you budge from you position even slightly, then let me give you another perspective:
We currently have 2 primary specializations – Intel (combat) and the upcoming Command (team-buffer), And 2 secondary ones – Pilot (space – maneuvering) and Commando (ground – combat).
These are 90 specialization points.
Cryptic have promised additional specializations, so let for a moment do some “wishful thinking”:
Imagine that by the end of 2015, they’ll add another primary Specialization – lets a “debuffer”, and that they’ll expand the secondary options by 4 more Specsializations – Space “Gunner”, Space “Engineer”, Ground “Healer” and Ground “infiltrator”.
These are additional 90 points (30+15+15+15+15)
That will bring us to a total of 180(!) Specialization points – or in other words, you can either grind Argala for eternity, or go and play the game.
And let me just remind you – you can only have 1 primary and 1 secondary Specs active at any given time.
“The Metrics”
Recently Captain Geko interviewed at one of the podcasts and said that “the metrics are excellent” – and got the player-base pissed.
“we are grinding, and he thinks everything is great”,”all he cares about is the metrics”
The problem is that by grinding, the player base is feeding the metrics.
What are the metrics – the metrics measures: of average player in-game time, of content usage, of currency usage etc. – and of the number of specialization points generate for players.
All these measures have targets – and if all measures achieve their designated targets, everything is fine.
As the player-base is grinding, activity is up, and specialization points are generated at the desired target figures – so yes, everything is fine.
Now, If the player-base will leave Argala, and start playing the game, then he will get much let specialization points – “it will take us AGES!” – and this is the whole point.
Suddenly the metrics will show the activity is still “on target”, but players are generating significantly less spec points.
“This is a system we invested in! but the players are not using it – actually they play the game, but the content they like to play doesn’t get the XP fast enough – May be we need to increase XP rewards…”
This is what you want – isn’t it?
“You are full of #$%^”
Well, I don’t work for Cryptic, and I don’t I have the actual figures behind the metrics, but, I do have the R&D system.
From the moment it was introduced, people were complaining that the material requirements of the R&D system were too high, and that the R and VR materials were very hard to get – I was very rudely surprised to discover that that advanced ques R&D reward boxes were not guaranteeing VR materials.
And suddenly, Cryptic patched the game, and VR material requirements dropped from 3 to 1 (66%), R material requirements dropped from 8 to 5 (37%), UC and C material req. were also reduced, and now Advanced ques GUARANTEED 1 VR material.
Why was it suddenly fixed?
Not because of the constant complaints on the forums, but because after seeing all the community complaining about the R&D system, the figures from the “metrics” showed that the usage of the R&D system was considerably lower the Cryptic intended it to be.
They have invested far too much in the system, and in other systems which depended on it (i.e. Mk XIII/XIV gear items), to just let it die – so they fixed it.
And, in the upcoming anniversary patch, they are going to fix it still – from now on, you’ll be able to slot the 20 Research project (the one designed to increase R&D XP) 3 times, instead of just once.
When they see complaints on the forums, but the metrics show all measures “on target” they conclude that it’s just “a few whiners in the forums”.
But when complaints on the forums are concurrent to metrics showing something is not working – they know it for real…
This is why if the player-base wants any chance of change – they must stop grinding, and start playing the game.
CXOTTAWA—Son of Omnibus may have been assembled in the secret Conservative laboratory of dark arts hidden away in the depths of the capital-area woods. But it entered the world on a day of bright sunshine in an Ottawa bicycle store aptly named Joe Mamma, a shop filled with the smell of fresh rubber and reporters craning for a look at a grinning finance minister peering over a podium, his visage framed by bicycle chains and helmets.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty attends a news conference at an Ottawa bike shop, where he put his spin on the government's newly-introduced omnibus blll. ( FRED CHARTRAND / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
Jim Flaherty, first delivering a plug for a big bike sale by his host Saturday, followed the Conservative script for such things. First, the legislation must have a shiny, happy name, in this case the Jobs and Growth Act. Second, it must be dumped on politicians and journalists, nearly 450 pages, with no effort to help explain anything, so the government can enjoy watching the great scavenger hunt for substantive pieces of legislation.
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Third, there must be a bright colourful object placed in the window, in this case an overhaul of MPs pensions, with the rest of it being dismissed as “no surprises” as the finance minister all but waved everyone away, telling them there was nothing here to see. But this is truly the spawn of the first omnibus bill, the one that dominated the last Parliamentary session, the one demonized by the opposition as an affront to democracy, the one which angered Canadians from all parties, including Conservatives and led to an all-night marathon voting session before Flaherty and his government could get it through the Commons. The NDP called that a “monster bill,’’ but this was one healthy baby introduced Thursday, weighing in at 443 pages, bigger than its father. In the Conservative view, last spring’s drama never happened. If voters didn’t like that, they failed to understand, apparently, this is the way this government does business.
Clearly the calculation is all that noise and light in the last session was generated by those who would never vote Conservative anyway. Stephen Harper didn’t invent prorogation and omnibus legislation, but he has made two arcane polysyllabic political terms part of our everyday lexicon, improving our vocabulary but diminishing our democracy.
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His shut-it-down and take-it-or-leave-it approach to procedure and legislation has gone viral, with the Ontario legislature now sitting dark, prorogued by Dalton McGuinty. This is the second chapter of a very cynical story by the Harper government, NDP House leader Nathan Cullen said, but it’s not clear whether the opposition response will be different in chapter two. The last omnibus budget bill began the process of gutting environmental regulations and this one takes the process another step further. Today’s child amends more than 60 pieces of legislation or acts, some of them tweaks, some of them substantive, but clearly of vastly different worlds, making it impossible to be vetted by a single House of Commons committee. It amends the Canada Shipping Act and the Fisheries Act and changes the definition of an aboriginal fishery. It streamlines the building of a bridge across the Detroit River by eliminating any environmental restrictions. It amends the Indian Act to change voting rules for land designation, It changes benefits and salaries for federally-appointed judges. It amends the Customs Act to make it easier for the government to collect information on passengers. It provides for a temporary refund on Employment Insurance premiums for small business owners. It eliminates the Hazardous Materials Information Review Commission. It limits the scope of the Navigable Waters Act, eliminating impediments to pipelines and weakening Canadians’ right to navigate waters without being impeded by pipelines, power lines or forestry equipment, something Green Party leader Elizabeth May deemed “tragic.’’ Whether these changes are good or bad isn’t the point. The point is that they cannot be properly scrutinized by the people sent to this place to hold a government to account. New Democrats, with their opposition partners, went as far as they could in opposition last spring, given the reality of a majority government. The Conservatives have clearly determined that a lost night’s sleep in the Commons is an easy price to pay for passing legislation their way, and the opposition may have to look for another way to engage Canadians this time around. Flaherty spent the day repeating that everything in the bill was in his budget document of last March. That is a stretch of the truth. But having got away with their initial omnibus bill last spring, why wouldn’t Conservatives feel they can get away with a little stretch of the truth? Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca
Read more about:Who doesn’t want a little added functionality to their lives? Feeling a few shortcut keys would make working in Eagle a bit smoother, [dekuNukem] built his own programmable mechanical keypad: kbord.
It sports vibrant RGB LED backlight effects with different animations, 15 keys that execute scripts — anything from ctrl+c to backdoors — or simple keystrokes, up to 32 profiles, and a small OLED screen to keep track of which key does what!
kbord is using a STM32F072C8T6 microcontroller for its cost, speed, pins, and peripherals, Gateron RGB mechanical keys — but any clear key and keycaps with an opening for the kbord’s LEDs will do — on a light-diffusing switch plate, and SK6812 LEDs for a slick aesthetic.
Check out the timelapse video tour of his build process after the break! (Slightly NSFW, adolescent humor for a few seconds of the otherwise very cool video. Such is life.)
[dekuNukem] had to apply a bit of cleverness to get the SK6812 LEDs to play nice with the STM32; he ended up using Serial Peripheral Interface Bus and tinkering with the timing to mimic the SK6812 ‘s needed 800KHz data rate. The final effect is well worth it.
Custom keyboards are always a great project, be they small, old-fashioned, hacked apart and repurposed, or much more.STEM in K
My students need science tools to explore the world around them, math manipulatives to practice numerical fluency, and nonfiction books to read and learn independently.
My Students
My students are always excited to learn, but have not had the opportunity to explore with magnets, binoculars, and magnifying glasses. They love to read, but need access to more quality non-fiction books that are written on their level.
Many of my students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
They see school as a safe and friendly place where they can express their eagerness to learn. My students are encouraging to one another and truly enjoy seeing and helping each other succeed.
My Project
Students will of course use the hand lenses, magnetic wands, and binoculars during guided science lessons (including observing the provided Living Things Up Close materials), but will also be provided with opportunities to use them on the playground during recess time. The magnetic activity tins will be used throughout the year during science lessons and independent work times. The number locks and magnetic number board will aid students in becoming confident in counting and writing numbers while also improving their fine motor skills. Books from the nonfiction sight word library will be introduced and added to the classroom library as the topics are covered in the curriculum.
Many of my students have not had opportunities to explore with the type of items this project will provide.
They will be able to make their own discoveries as they interact with the science tools to make observations. They will gain confidence as they work with the math activities, master the difficult ideas of living and nonliving with the help of reinforcement from the activity tins. They will explore their own interests with nonfiction books at their own reading levels.A top panel of experts in Davos has poured cold water on claims that the European crisis is over, warning that the eurozone remains stuck in a low-growth debt trap and risks being left on the margins of the global economy by US and China.
Axel Weber, the former head of the German Bundesbank, said the underlying disorder continues to fester and region is likely to face a fresh market attack this year.
"Europe is under threat. I am still really concerned. Markets have improved but the economic situation for most countries has not improved," he said that the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Mr Weber, now chairman of UBS, said the European Central Bank's stress test for banks in November risks setting off a new sovereign debt scare, reviving the crisis in the Mediterranean countries.
"Markets are currently disregarding risks, particularly in the periphery. I expect some banks not to pass the test despite political pressure. As that becomes clear, there will be a financial reaction in markets," he said.
Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff said the launch of the euro had been a "giant historic mistake, done to soon" that now requires a degree of fiscal union and a common bank resolution fund to make it work, but EMU leaders are still refusing to take these steps.
"People are no longer talking about the euro falling apart but youth unemployment is really horrific. They can't leave this twisting in wind for another five years," he said.
Mr Rogoff said Europe is squandering the "scarce resource" of its youth, badly needed to fortify an ageing society as the demographic crunch sets in.
While Europe still has great skills in technology and an established rule of law that is the envy of most emerging market states, it risks loasing footing as a major player in the global economy.
"If these latent technologies are not realised, Europe will wake up like Rip Van Winkel from a long Japan-like slumber to find itself a much smaller part of the world economy, and a lot less important."
Mr Rogoff said debt write-downs across the EMU periphery "will eventually happen" but the longer leaders let the crisis fester with half-measures, the worse damage this will do to European society in the end.
Mr Weber, who resigned from the Bundesbank and the ECB in a dispute over euro debt crisis strategy, said new "bail-in" rules for bond-holders of eurozone banks will cause investors to act pre-emptively, aiming to avoid large losses before the ECB issues its test verdicts.
"We may see that speculators do not wait until November, but bet on winners and losers before that," he said.
The danger is that bank strains will turn the spotlight back on those sovereign states that cannot easily afford to shore up their banking systems. While he did not name any country, Spain, Italy, and Portugal are viewed as vulnerable. Even Ireland may be at risk again with a debt ratio of 125pc of GDP. "This is the key issue this year," he said
Mr Weber warned EU leaders not to have "dangerous delusions" or become complacent about recovery. "Things feel better than they are. The recovery too weak to generate jobs. It's not about whether things are improving: the levels of growth, jobs, and GDP are way worse than before the crisis," he said.
He said the issue of whether Germany is doing better than France is a distraction since the whole of EMU is doing badly. "The music is now playing in the US and in China. There is a whole world out there that is more competitive," he said.
Sir Martin Sorrell, head of Britain's WPP, said Europe is abandoning the field to a new world order dominated by a "G2" of the US and China, flanked by the rising economies of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and the `Next Eleven'. "The US and China will become the two dominant economies unless Europe changes," he said.
France is still in the "downstroke of the U" and although Spain is recovering, this is not enough to head off a political crisis stemming from mass youth unemployment (57pc). "Technology is now militating against labour, so inequality and unemployment are going to get worse," he said.
Sir Martin said the eurozone is pursuing a reverse "Phillips Curve" - the trade off between jobs and inflation - as if it were testing "what level of unemployment it is prepared to tolerate for zero inflation".
Pierre Nanterme, chairman and chief executive officer of Accenture, said Europe is losing the great battle for competitiveness, and risks a perma-slump where debt burdens of 100pc of GDP prevent governments breaking free by investing in skills and technology.
He said Europe is falling further behind as the US basks in cheap energy and pours funds into cutting-edge technology. "A lot is at stake. If in 12 to 24 months no radical steps are taken to break the curse, we might have not just five, ten, but twenty years of a low-growth sluggish situation in Europe," he said.
Mr Rogoff said it would be much easier for Europe to cope if the euro exchange rate was $1.10 to the dollar rather than $1.35, up 8pc in trade-weighted terms in the last 18 months.
Mr Weber retorted that the euro will come down to earth as the tightening by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks leave Europe as the odd man out. "The ECB has an easing bias. Fast forward another year or two, and relative monetary policy will become obvious to everybody," he said.
By then it may be too late.Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Future Foreseen (and Not)
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: A small reminder that the new title Dispatch Books has just released, Nick Turse’s remarkable and chilling Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa, is available through our publisher Haymarket Books at a 40% discount right now. To order it from Haymarket, click here and then, enter the code TBF40 at checkout for that special discount. In addition, in return for a $100 contribution to TomDispatch, you can get a signed, personalized copy of the book from Nick. Check out our donation page for the details. (The next batch of signed books will go out in early May.) Either way, we hope you get your hands on a copy and give Dispatch Books and this website a meaningful little boost. Your support really does make a difference to us. Tom]
A Letter of Apology to My Grandson
A Pox on Twenty-First-Century America
By Tom Engelhardt
Dear Grandson,
Consider my address book -- and yes, the simple fact that I have one already tells you a good deal about me. All the names, street addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers that matter to me are still on paper, not in a computer or on an iPhone, and it’s not complicated to know what that means: I’m an old guy getting older. Going on 71, though I can hardly believe it. And that little book shows all the signs of where I’m headed. It wasn’t true a few years ago, but if I start flipping through the pages now, I can’t help but notice that the dead, with their addresses and phone numbers still beside them, are creeping up on the living, and that my little address book looks increasingly like a mausoleum.
Age has been on my mind of late, especially when I spend time with you. This year, my father, your great-grandfather, who died in 1983, would have been 109 years old. And somehow, I find that moving. I feel him a part of me in ways I wouldn’t have allowed myself to admit in my youth, and so think of myself as more than a century old. Strangely, this leaves me with a modest, very personal sense of hope. Through my children (and perhaps you, too), someday long after I’m gone, I can imagine myself older still. Don’t misunderstand me: I haven’t a spiritual bone in my body, but I do think that, in some fashion, we continue to live inside each other and so carry each other onward.
As happens with someone of my age, the future seems to be foreshortening and yet it remains the remarkable mystery it’s always been. We can’t help ourselves: we dream about, wonder about, and predict what the future might hold in store for us. It's an urge that, I suspect, is hardwired into us. Yet, curiously enough, we’re regularly wrong in the futures we dream up. Every now and then, though, you peer ahead and see something that proves -- thanks to your perceptiveness or pure dumb luck (there’s no way to know which) -- eerily on target.
The Future Foreseen
Back in 2001, before I even imagined a grandson in my life, I had one of those moments (and wish I hadn’t). It was sometime just after the 9/11 attacks when, nationwide, Americans were still engaged in endless rites in which we repeatedly elevated ourselves to the status of the foremost victims on the planet, the only ones that mattered. In those months, you might say, we made ourselves into Earth’s indispensible or exceptional victims.
In that extended moment of national mourning (combined with fear bordering on hysteria), the Bush administration geared up to launch its revenge-fueled global wars, while money started pouring into the national security state in a historically unprecedented way. It was a time when the previously un-American word “homeland” was being attached to what would become a second defense department, secrecy was descending like a blanket on the government, torture was morphing into the enhancement of the week in the White House, assassination was about to become a focus (later an obsession) of the executive branch -- and surveillance? Don’t even get me started on the massively redundant domestic and global surveillance state that would soon be built on outright illegalities and rubber-stamp legalities of every sort.
In October 2001, I had no way of grasping most of that, but it didn't matter. I peered into the future and just knew -- and what I knew chilled me to the bone. I had mobilized decades earlier as part of the antiwar movement of the Vietnam era, which was in its own way a terrible time, but when I looked at where our country seemed to be heading, as the president promised to kick some ass globally and American bombs began to fall on Afghanistan, I had no doubt that this was going to be the worst era of my life.
I wasn’t, of course, thinking about you that October and November. You were then minus 11 years old, so to speak. I was, however, thinking about your mother and your uncle, my children. I was thinking about the world that I and my cohorts and George W. Bush and Dick Cheney and George Tenet and Donald Rumsfeld and the rest of that crew were going to leave them.
In a quiet way I had done good work -- so I felt -- since demobilizing (like so many Americans) from the Vietnam era. In my spare time as a non-academic, I had written a very personal history of the Cold War of which I was proud. I had been a book editor for two publishing houses, specializing in bringing into the world works by what I used to call “voices from elsewhere” (even when they came from here), including, to name just two, Chalmers Johnson’s Blowback and Eduardo Galeano’s Memory of Fire trilogy.
But when I somehow stumbled into the future in all its grim horror, more of that work didn’t seem like an adequate response to what was coming. I had no sense that I could do much, but I felt an urge that seemed uncomplicated: not to hand your mother and uncle such a degraded country, planet, new century without lifting a finger in opposition, without at least trying. I felt the need to mobilize myself in a new way for the future I’d seen.
At that point, however, my knack, such as it was, for previewing the years to come failed me and I had no sense of what to do until TomDispatch more or less smacked me in the face. (But that’s a story for another day.) This April, more than 13 years after I first began sending missives to the no-name listserv that turned into TomDispatch, it’s clear that, in my own idiosyncratic way, I did manage to mobilize myself to do what I was capable of. Unfortunately, I’d have to add that, all this time later, our world is a far more screwed up, degraded place.
A Fragmenting Reality
Stretch anything far enough and it’ll begin to tear, fragment, break apart. That, I suspect, may be a reasonable summary of what’s been happening in our twenty-first-century world. Under stress, things are beginning to crack open. Here in the U.S., people sometimes speak about being in a Second Gilded Age, a new era of plutocracy, while our politics, increasingly the arena of billionaires, seem to second that possibility. Looked at another way, however, “our” Second Gilded Age is really a global phenomenon in the sense that ever fewer people own ever more. By 2016, it is estimated that 1% of the people on this planet will control more than 50% of global wealth and own more than the other 99% combined. In 2013, the 85 richest people had as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion, while in certain regions inequality seems to be on the rise. (Whether China and India are major exceptions to this is an open question.) Dark money is rampant not just here, but globally.
Though you don’t know it yet, you’re already living in an increasingly lopsided world whose stresses only seem to be multiplying. Among other things, there is the literal fragmentation going on -- the collapse of social order, of long established national units, even potentially of whole groupings of states. Astonishingly enough, from Ukraine to Greece, Spain to France, that mood of fragmentation even seems to be reaching into Europe. Across much of the Greater Middle East and parts of Africa, fragmentation has, of course, been the story of our moment, with nations collapsing, wars endemic, extremism of every sort on the rise, and whole populations uprooted, in exile, under almost inconceivable pressures -- and for much of this, I’m sad to say, our country bears a painful responsibility.
In these years, I wrote repeatedly (not to say repetitiously) on the subject; about, that is, a group of mad American visionaries who had dreams of establishing a Pax Americana in the Greater Middle East by force of arms and then lording it over the world for generations to come. In the name of freedom and democracy and with a fundamentalist belief in the transformational power of the U.S. military, they blithely invaded Iraq and blew a hole in the heart of the Middle East, from which the fallout is now horrifically apparent in the Islamic State and its “caliphate.”
And then, of course, there was our country’s endless string of failed wars, interventions, raids, assassination campaigns, and the like; there was, in short, the “global war on terror” that George W. Bush launched to scourge the planet of “terrorists,” to (as they then liked to say) “drain the swamp” in 80 countries. It was a “war” that, with all its excesses, quickly morphed into a recruiting poster for the spread of extremist outfits. By now, it has become so institutionalized that it wouldn’t surprise me if, in your adulthood, Washington were still pursuing it no less relentlessly or unsuccessfully.
In the process, the president became first a torturer-in-chief and then an assassin-in-chief and, I’m sorry to tell you, few here even blinked. It’s been a nightmare of -- to haul out some words you’re not likely to learn for a while -- hubris and madness, profits and horrors, inflated dreams of glory and the return, as if from an earlier century, of the warrior corporation and for-profit warfare on a staggering scale.
All of this happened in a country that still bills itself as the wealthiest and most powerful on the planet (though that power and wealth have proven ever harder to apply effectively) and all of it happened, despite obvious and honorable exceptions, without much opposition. If this is a Second Gilded Age --.01% of Americans, 16,000 families, control 11% of all wealth (as they last did in 1916) and 22% of all household wealth (up from 7% three decades ago) -- it is also, in the words of historian Steve Fraser, an “age of acquiescence.”
This has been true for the return of plutocracy, as well as for the growth of a national security state that has, like those billionaire plutocrats, gained power as the American people lost it. If that state within a state has a motto, it might be this singularly undemocratic one: Americans are safest and most secure when they are most ignorant of what their government is doing. In other words, in twenty-first-century America, “we the people” (a phrase that I hope lasts into your time) are only to know what their government does in their name to the degree that the government cares to reveal it.
That shadow government could never have gained such power if it hadn’t been for the trauma of 9/11, the shock of experiencing for one day a kind of violence and destruction that was common enough elsewhere on the planet, and the threat posed by a single phenomenon we call “terrorism.” The Islamic extremist groups that come under that rubric do indeed represent a threat to actual human beings from Syria to Pakistan, Somalia to Libya, but they represent next to no threat to what’s now called the American “homeland.”
Of course, some whacked-out guy could always pick up a gun and, inspired by a bizarre propaganda video, in the name of one extreme organization or another, kill some people here. But mass killings by those with no ideological animus are already, like death-by-toddler, commonplace in this country, and no one thinks to organize trillion dollar “security” systems to prevent them.
That the fear of this one modest danger transformed the national security state into a remarkable center of power, profits, and impunity with hardly a peep from "we the people" has been a kind of bleak miracle of our times. What were we thinking when we let them spend something like a trillion dollars a year on what was called “national security” in order to leave us in a world that may have little security at all? What did we have in mind when we let them fund their blue-skies thinking on the weaponry of 2047, instead of on the schools, energy sources, or infrastructure of that same year? I could pile up such questions endlessly, but if what we ceded to them is still of interest to you 20 or 30 or 40 years from now, and you have the luxury of looking back on our times, on the origins of your troubles, I’m sure you’ll find a clearer view of all this in the histories of your moment.
I have no way of imagining what the United States will be like in your adulthood and yet I can sense that this country is changing in unsettling ways. It’s being transformed into something that your great-grandfather would have found unrecognizably un-American. If we can’t yet speak of “fragmentation” here, phrases like “political polarization” and “gridlock” are already part and parcel of our new billionaire way of life. What exactly all this is leading to, I’m not sure, but it doesn’t look either familiar or good to me. It certainly doesn’t look like the American world I’d want to turn over to you.
America on the Couch
You haven’t set foot in school, barely know how to use one of those ubiquitous silver scooters, and can still embrace the magical thinking of childhood -- of announcing, for instance, that you’re “hiding,” even in plain sight, and then assuming that you can’t be seen. So I know that it’s a little early to bring up the seemingly unhinged nature of the affairs of grown-ups.
Still, if this country of mine, and someday yours, could be put on the couch, I suspect it would, in layman’s terms, be diagnosed as “disturbed” (on an increasingly disturbed planet). Worst of all, we can evidently no longer see what actually threatens us most, which isn’t a bunch of jihadis, but what we are doing to our ourselves and our world.
Put another way, if we’re not significantly threatened by what we’ve dumped all our money and energy into, that hardly means there are no threats to American life. In fact, I haven’t even mentioned what worries me most when I think about your future: the increasing stress under which life here and elsewhere is being placed by the exploitation and burning of fossil fuels.
In any case, I had the urge to put all this “on the record,” though I have no way of knowing whether that record has any permanence, whether in the world of 2047 you’ll even be able to access what I’ve written. In other words, I have no idea whether you’ll ever read this. I do fear, however, that if you do, it will be from a more fragmented, unhinged, stressed-out version of the planet we’re both on today, and I’m aware that our responsibility was to provide you and all other children with what you minimally deserve -- a decent place to grow up.
For that record, then, I want to say that, despite my own best (if modest) efforts, I feel I owe you an apology. In ways I find hard to express, I’m sorry for what is and what may be. It’s not the country I imagined for you. It’s not the world I wanted to leave you. It’s not what you deserve.
Nonetheless, I still have hopes for you and your moment. As a wonderful writer of my time once pointed out, the darkness of the future is a kind of blessing. It always leaves open the possibility that, against the madness of the moment, the genuine decency, the lovability I see in you, that anyone can see in just about any child, has a shot-in-the-dark chance of making a difference on our planet.
And more specifically, however much this may be an “age of acquiescence” when it comes to wealth and war, it hasn’t proved so on the subject that matters most: climate change. Against the forces of genuine criminality and wealth, despite a tenacious denial of reality funded by companies that have profited in historic ways from fossil fuels, a movement has been forming in this country and globally to save humanity from scouring itself off the planet. From pipelines to divestment, its strength has been rising at the very moment when the price of alternative energy systems is falling rapidly. It’s a combination that offers at least a modicum of hope against the worst pressures to fragment and, in the end, simply destroy this planet as a welcoming place for you and your children and their children.
So let me just end this way: someday in the distant future, I hope you’ll read this letter and that, given the ingenuity of our species, given the grit to resist madness, given whatever surprises the future holds, you’ll smile indulgently at my worst fears. You’ll assure me -- or at least whatever trace of me is left in you -- that I had a typically human inability to imagine the unpredictable future, and that in the end things never measured up to my worst fears. I hope, despite what we didn’t do, that you have the opportunity for a life of wonders, the kind that everyone on this planet deserves.
Your loving grandpa,
Tom
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He is a fellow of the Nation Institute and runs TomDispatch.com. His latest book is Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Nick Turse’s Tomorrow’s Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa, and Tom Engelhardt's latest book, Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.
Copyright 2015 Tom EngelhardtUnderstand The Retail Apocalypse With One Giant Chart
One company is eating everyone’s lunch
StockTwits, Inc. Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 11, 2017
The retail apocalypse has everyone talking. If you thought it was bad before, it just got even worse. Macy’s is currently trading at its lowest levels since 2010. But the entire sector has been getting demolished.
Here’s how a large basket of retail stocks have been performing over the last 4 years:
$JWN Nordstrom -24%
$KSS Kohl’s -28%
$TGT Target -21%
$SHLD Sears -82%
$JCP JC Penney -70%
$M Macy’s -50%
So what’s going on with this sector? We could get into all the details and little things. We could breakdown management styles, secular trends, and the impact of the Internet. Or we could just let one chart tell you everything you need to know (chart from Michael Kramer of Mott Capital Management):President Barack Obama speaks about his administration’s counterterrorism policy at the National Defense University at Fort McNair in Washington, May 23, 2013. Photo by Larry Downing/Reuters
President Obama’s speech today on U.S. counterterrorism policy was actually two speeches in one. The first outlined a supposedly new, restrictive policy on drone strikes that was neither new nor restrictive. The second called for shutting down the Guantánamo detention center—not a new position for the president but the revival of a long-dormant one, unf |
to this list?
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By signing up you agree to our Terms of ServiceMeet Renata, the First Graduate of SingularDTV’s Blockchain Bootcamp
Breaker Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 30, 2017
An organic, community-driven undertaking by our Puerto Rico team, Blockchain Bootcamp is inspiring newcomers with knowledge.
As the decentralization movement grows, it’s important to remember that real success — the empowerment of individuals all over the world — is contingent upon everyday people coming to understand and engage with the blockchain and digital currency on their own terms. This is a central ethos in the development of SingularDTV’s Contact Centers, physical home bases in Zurich, Shanghai, and Puerto Rico that serve functions ranging from technical support to community outreach as they present a human face to the global blockchain revolution in their local regions.
Even in these early stages of the Contact Centers, the grassroots growth and engagement from this decentralized, worldwide human network is clear to see, and is perhaps best exhibited in the organic development of SingularDTV’s Blockchain Bootcamp.
In response to the eagerness to learn shown by locals in San Juan and S-DTV community members over the Summer, the Puerto Rico Contact Center put together a 3-day bootcamp course that encompasses everything decentralization, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and SingularDTV. Dubbed “Blockchain Bootcamp,” the course bears the intention of equipping newcomers with enough information to make their own way in this new world, and as it turns out, often has the effect of turning total newbies into full-blown advocates of the decentralization phenomenon.
One of the first people to participate in the course was Renata M, a health educator and entrepreneur from Brazil (via Florida). Having supported SingularDTV since before the launch, she’s become an active member of the S-DTV community and has grown into an educated, empowered advocate of decentralization, thanks largely to her participation in the Blockchain Bootcamp…
We think Renata’s story is a great example of everyday people empowering themselves with the decentralization movement, so we asked her as few questions…
Tell us a bit about your background and how you got involved with SingularDTV…
I am a health coach and educator. I worked with movies in the past a long time ago, and I’ve known (SingularDTV CFO and Co-Founder) Arie Cohen for a while. When Zach first explained SingularDTV to me, it blew my mind, even though I didn’t know much about blockchain technology. I totally fell in love with the project. I thought it was amazing. So when the launch came around, I supported it!
What struck you most about the SingularDTV project?
Integrity. Since the beginning, that’s one of the most important things about SingularDTV is the integrity of the project. It’s not about getting rich quick, it’s not just about trading. Of course, people will make money, and that’s great, but the goal is bigger than that. As an early contributor, I ended up with a lot of SNGLS. I was really surprised! But I don’t trade. I’m holding my SNGLS for the project. I could have made many times my money exchanging, but I didn’t want to. I wanna see how this is gonna go.
What was it like participating in the blockchain community for the first time?
It’s very exciting to be chatting to people in London or India or China in the same (Slack) channel, but I was totally new to this area. The language they use and everything — it was crazy! It’s inspiring for me, but also a whole new language. I realized that I really needed to get educated. You have to learn. The only way to really embody the system, you have to live it. You have to really experience it by your own. Asking someone to do it for you, that’s not blockchain. That’s not decentralization.
So you took your education into your own hands…
I was staying in Florida. I wanted to take the idea of being my own economy seriously. Right away, when I had the time, I booked the first plane to Puerto Rico, showed up at the Contact Center, and was like ‘I’m gonna do this! I wanna learn everything!” They had just started the Blockchain Bootcamp, and I was one of the first people to ever get to experience it. The Bootcamp was really fun. It was intense! My brain was burning by the end of the day. It’s a lot of information. The group they have are young people, with a nice energy, and so open to receiving anyone who comes. They received me really well. It was just great. To learn about blockchain and decentralization with people, in a group, was very nice. And I love Puerto Rico too, so that helps!
How do you feel Blockchain Bootcamp helped you?
When I came back, I was really inspired. I felt my education was really good. I understand a lot more about the blockchain and how to manage digital currencies, everything from using the wallet to understanding exchanges. A lot of people don’t know how this works. If you are an investor in SNGLS, it’s a must. If you’re gonna preach about Singular, you gotta know what you’re talking about.
What are you going to do next?
I am someone who really likes to go deep, and I’ve decided that I am going to help educate people around the world. I am Brazilian. I’m gonna go to Brazil to teach people and take part there. People are really excited by new technologies and there is a strong interest in SingularDTV in Brazil already. Before, people would ask me about cryptocurrency and I wouldn’t feel comfortable enough to explain it all. Now, it’s one of my goals to help them learn just like I did…
The project has been so successful that SingularDTV will soon roll out a digital edition of Blockchain Bootcamp. Learn more about SingularDTV’s Contact Centers, and check out our announcement of Liga De Artistas, an exclusive, upcoming S-DTV channel featuring underground artists from all over Puerto RicoSingularDTV Social Media:
SingularDTV: Twitter // Facebook // LinkedIn // Slack // RedditAdam Berry / Getty Images A visitor looks at a photo of a separation wall in Sadr City, Baghdad, Iraq. The photo is included in the 'Wall on Wall' exhibition at the East Side Gallery section of the former Berlin Wall on July 10, in Berlin, Germany.
Adam Berry / Getty Images A visitor takes a photo of a photograph of a separation wall in Nazlat Issa, in the West Bank, Occupied Palestinian Territories, part of an exhibition displayed on the East Side Gallery section of the former Berlin Wall, in Berlin, Germany on July 10.
Adam Berry / Getty Images A worker hangs a photo of the North and South Korean border's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as part of the 'Wall on Wall' exhibition at the East Side Gallery section of the former Berlin Wall on July 10, in Berlin.
Adam Berry / Getty Images Tourists pass by a photo of the United States-Mexico border in Calexico, Calif., part of the 'Wall on Wall' exhibition at the East Side Gallery section of the former Berlin Wall on July 10, in Berlin, Germany.
A series of pictures of separation barriers are being exhibited on the western side of the Berlin Wall. Photographer Kai Wiedenhoefer’s exhibit features the barriers along some of the tensest borders of the world, including Baghdad, Korea, Cyprus, Mexico, Morocco, Israel, Belfast, and even former East Germany itself. The opposite side of this section of the original Wall is known as the East Side Gallery, a memorial to peace and freedom covered in murals questioning the legacy of the original Wall. The east side was also the subject of several demonstrations earlier this year when a section of it was threatened with removal to make way for luxury apartment buildings.
Wiedenhoefer told reporters, “Walls are no solution for today’s major political problems and I think the Berlin Wall is the best proof of that.” He photographed the barriers between 2003 and 2012 after raising funds on Kickstarter. It took five years to get permission to display the images in Berlin.
The “Wall on Wall’ exhibit will run through Sept. 13, 2013.Earnest and sanctimonious.
Humorless and smug.
Arrogant and self-satisfied.
When it comes to Don Henley, critics have used those words - and worse - to describe the veteran musician, both as a solo artist-cum-social-activist and as one of the driving forces in the Eagles, the top-selling band that he co-founded in 1971.
"While I might take my work seriously, I try not to take myself too seriously," said the 52-year-old Texas native, before a concert in San Diego in support of his first solo album in 11 years.
In that case, would Henley care to share a favorite joke?
Twenty seconds passed with no reply.
Well, then, how about a joke that can be told in a family newspaper?
"Well, no," he replied.
Henley might not be quick with a joke, but he does have a favorite personal anecdote, which he shared during a recent phone interview from Los Angeles.
"Several writers I`ve spoken to have commented on the song `My Thanksgiving` from my new album, and about my apparent sense of gratitude for my life in its lyrics," he said.
"And I`ve replied this way: `I am never more grateful than on occasional late-night visits to my 24-hour supermarket. You just haven`t lived until you`ve stood in the refrigerated foods section, staring at the frozen peas, while the (orchestral) strings of the Muzak version of `Desperado` waft through the aisles.` "
A better sport than he is usually given credit for, Henley sat in on drums with Guns N` Roses at the 1989 American Music Awards. He was invited to do so by the band`s lead singer (and now sole remaining original member), Axl W. Rose, who savored the visual and musical disparity between his leather-clad band of rock rebels and their urbane-looking guest drummer.
"Axl had performed on one of my records, and he called me up," said Henley, who performed at the telecast on "Patience," a song from the "G N` R Lies" live album.
"He thought it would be a great, shocking thing to (play live) with me. I think their drummer was in rehab at the time."
Henley also demonstrated his rarely publicized sense of humor when he joined erstwhile musical satirist Mojo Nixon for a song at an Austin nightclub in 1992.
That song, performed at Henley`s request, was Nixon`s uproarious "Don Henley Must Die," which contains such cutting couplets as: You and your kind are killing rock `n` roll / It`s not because you`re O-L-D, it`s because you ain`t got not soul / Don`t be afraid of fun, loosen up your ponytail / Be wild, young, free and dumb, get your head out of your tail....
Nixon, who was understandably stunned, later praised Henley for having "(chutzpah) the size of church bells."
The now ponytail-free Henley said he joined in on a song that advocated his demise "just to be a good sport, I suppose. And to help defuse any notion that I don`t have a sense of humor about myself, or that I take myself too seriously.
"Plus, I was in Austin, so Mojo was on my turf. And I thought it would be a hoot to get up there and sing it with him. He was certainly surprised. He`s built a career doing songs like that."
Did Henley know all the lyrics by heart?
"No, I screwed it up," he replied. "I wasn`t phrasing it correctly."
Happily, no such problems exist on Henley`s meticulously crafted new album, "Inside Job."
Featuring such prominent guest musicians as Stevie Wonder and Randy Newman, it mixes heartfelt ballads (mostly about Henley`s wife, Sharon, and their three young children) with feisty rockers and several funk- and retro-soul-tinged songs that take careful aim at corporate greed, political corruption and other societal ills.
His debut effort for Warner Bros. Records, "Inside Job" is the long-overdue sequel to Henley`s Grammy-winning 1989 album, "The End of the Innocence." He co-produced the new album with ex-Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers` drummer Stan Lynch.
Yet, while "Inside Job" comes more than a decade after his last release, Henley wasn`t kicking back with a peaceful, easy feeling during the intervening years.
In 1995, he began the Eagles` two-year "Hell Freezes Over" reunion tour, followed by the band`s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. But working again with his fabled band was just one of many activities Henley pursued in the 1990s.
"There were many reasons for the gap between albums," he affirmed.
"`The End of the Innocence` came out in 1989, and I did the requisite touring for several years after that, during which time I founded the Walden Woods (environmental) Project in 1990. Then I set about organizing benefit concerts for Walden. I also compiled and edited a book with Dave Marsh, `Heaven Is Under Our Feet,` to benefit the Project.
"Then, in `93, I`d become fed up with Geffen Records and the lousy job they were doing for me, so I just quit. It`s very difficult for a creative person to create if he or she doesn`t feel supported. Plus, at the beginning of the `90s - when the grunge movement was on the rise - I didn`t feel, I wasn`t sure, there was a place for me."
Come again?
An established rock star like Henley, with his proven track record as a solo star and with the Eagles (a band whose "Greatest Hits" collection is the biggest-selling album ever), unsure of his commercial and artistic viability?
"I am one of those people who believes you don`t have to dance - that it is sometimes good to sit one out. And the first half of the `90s was such a time for me," he said.
"Sometimes it`s better to wait in the weeds and watch. I`d rather be the tortoise than the hare. The passage of time doesn`t necessarily worry me, because I think good work will stand up at any time.
"And there are 78 million baby boomers getting older with me, and there isn`t very much on the radio that speaks to them. Of course, I have the hope of reaching a wider audience. But I can only write what I really feel and know, and whoever comes to the party, comes. But things are different now in my racket, and nothing is a given. I`m not sure it ever was."
Does Henley feel discouraged that, while jazz and blues musicians are expected to improve with age, graying rockers are often considered over-the-hill simply for growing older?
"Unfortunately," he said, "in pop-culture newer is always considered to be better. That is all part and parcel of the disposable culture we live in. As for me, I try to build things that last, whether that be at home, or a relationship or an album of music.
"And if that makes me meticulous, so be it. I admire craftsmanship. I don`t subscribe to this school of rock that says everything has to be sloppy and one should never try too hard....
"Knowing what I know about business and technology, and that any argument on behalf of (environmental) `sustainability` always has to take a back-seat to commerce, I find this to be a very illogical world. So, in a world that is primarily devoid of reason, one must have a rich inner life. Hence the title of the album, `Inside Job.`"
But Henley, a fan of Philadelphia rap mavericks the Roots, doesn`t live in a vacuum.
Several songs on his new album, such as "Workin` It" and "Nobody Else in the World But You," deftly incorporate hip-hop-flavored drum loops and other elements of modern R&B.
"I think that every musical age and every musical movement contains work that is both good and bad," he said. "There has always been a tremendous amount of (manure) in popular music, in all genres. And I think we`re just beginning to come out of one of our musical low points at this juncture.
"But I have always been able to find something worthwhile in any era, no matter how bleak it may have appeared on the surface. So I don`t reject any musical movement out of hand. I think that is foolish."
Regardless, Henley is less than enamored with the current rise of image-savvy teen-pop confectioners.
"Even though Britney Spears is on the cover of Rolling Stone, I don`t worry about it much," he said. "But that`s the kind of music I don`t care for. I can`t find anything in it to appreciate, except - maybe - a navel."
(c) Copley News Service
George VargaWorkers expect to find more evidence of the old streetcar line along King, where light rail transit will travel between Victoria Street and Allen Street starting in late 2017.
The new tracks will be set in concrete. They look like they'll follow pretty much the same path as the old tracks in that area, Fisken said.
Longtime residents told officials about the old rail line at public meetings before construction started.
"It was something we had heard rumours about, but until you start stripping asphalt, you don't know what's there," Fisken said.
"Everything comes around again."
The old wood won't be kept for posterity. It's being checked for creosote, and may have to be disposed of in a special waste dump.
"The materials used were so old," Fiskin said. "They may have used other chemicals to make them last this long."
Electric railways came to what was then Waterloo County in 1894, when trains started running between Preston and Galt. In 1895, the line was extended to Hespeler.
It soon linked with the Berlin Street Railway and the Berlin and Waterloo Street Railway. But electric passenger train service ended by 1955.
Fernandez said workers plan to continue excavating the wooden ties into next week. The process won't set back LRT construction because this phase of construction is to remove pavement, and the wooden ties just come up with that.
kswayze@therecord.com
With files from Anam Latif, Record staffI have celiac disease and was diagnosed in early 2000s, before awareness was as high as it is now. Knowledge of the disease is understandably low in many developing countries, but myths also abound in the West. It is an auto-immune disease that affects not just my stomach when I eat wheat, but my joints, my ability to function properly, and so much more. Gluten free travel is an added component of stress over and above the usual worries about safe and uncontaminated food. When I started this blog, I traveled with gluten free restaurant cards that I found and purchased online.
The problem is, I still got sick when I used them as I traveled.
So I decided to build my own.
DETAILED GLUTEN FREE RESTAURANT CARDS
I understand what it’s like to worry about what you’re eating. The effects of eating gluten for me last for days, and can come from something as innocuous as consuming something that was fried in contaminated oil. So if I eat a spring roll made with rice paper that was fried in the same oil as a breaded product, I will still get sick.
Why Are These Downloadable Restaurant Cards Different?
You may have seen other gluten free restaurant cards, and many are great for those following a GF diet. As a celiac who is extremely sensitive, I got sick using them. I very much appreciate the work and effort that went into the freely available cards — but sadly they were not enough.
In contrast, the Legal Nomads cards are:
Researched by a celiac who loves to eat.
Written with the traveler in mind.
Use local dish names, based on what’s eaten in that country not just a translation.
Clear mention of cross-contamination and contaminated oil.
Double checked for accuracy with two translators familiar with food, who speak the local language.
They are also offered as direct, digital downloads and sized for your smartphone so that you can use it with ease as you travel.
Click on the card below to land on the purchase page for each. On that page, you’ll find an English translation of the card, so you know what you’re getting.
Note: The card is available for purchase via trustworthy 3rd party site that uses https, so you know your information is safe.
More of these cards to follow!
Find out a little more about the translation cards and why I started them:
Testimonial from a reader named Nicole who used the Japan gluten free card:
edamame in the same water as its u don noodles. The poor waiter kept pointing at the card when I said I could have edamame until he managed to explain the way they cooked them. Hi Jodi, the card is excellent and saved my skin the other night. The restaurant that we went to boils itsin the same water as its unoodles. The poor waiter kept pointing at the card when I said I could haveuntil he managed to explain the way they cooked them. Needless to say I didn’t get much for dinner that night, but I wasn’t poisoned either. Indispensable. Thanks again
Testimonial from a different reader named Nicole who used the Spain gluten free card:
The waitress in Barcelona looked at the card and said it was fantastic, one of the best she has seen :) The types of food you listed seemed spot on for me…I don’t feel like anything was missed, and I did not get sick. Thank you!
Free, Long (3000-5000 word) Gluten Free Travel Country Guides
In addition to the cards above, I’ve also created long celiac guides that I am offering on this site for for free. Each guide has foods that are safe, foods to avoid, where to shop to buy gluten free products, local celiac societies, further reading, and more.
My “Essential Celiac Travel Guides” series are a continuing project! So far:
Since I started offering these cards, readers have asked for an English version with similar text, since it communicates both cross-contamination and roux in soup, soy sauce, mayonnaise, and additional items.
Just send me an email via my contact page (or click the card below to get to my contact page) and I’ll email you a download link for free.
Gluten Free Travel: City Guides on Legal Nomads
In addition to the country guides above, there are region-specific guides on Legal Nomads. These are less about specific dishes to avoid or eat, and more about restaurant recommendations you can enjoy. I try to focus on restaurants that aren’t catered TO celiacs, but rather ones where we can eat safely but without restricting friends who may not have the same food requests.
New York
Barcelona
Ottawa (Vietnamese food focus)
Saigon
Hue
Northern India (not a city, but a post about the region)
Montreal (general guide for the city, including a celiac restaurants / gluten free bakeries section)
General Resources about Celiac Disease
At the bottom of the page are the city-specific guides I have written for celiacs or for those who are seeking to avoid gluten but still roam the world. These are in addition to the long free guides above.
Since the disease is more and more commonly diagnosed, I wanted to also provide some resources for readers to avail themselves of as they traveled. These are divided into categories, and were articles and sites I bookmarked as I began my own work and started traveling as a celiac. When first diagnosed, I was younger and resistant to learning more. As I started working as a travel writer, I found myself more and more interested in food and certainly needing to know as much as possible to keep me safe. I hope these links are useful!
Celiac Disease Foundations:
Celiac Primer: For those who want to understand what exactly celiac disease is, and isn’t, see this guide.
Books to Read:
Gluten Freedom: The Nation’s Leading Expert Offers the Essential Guide to a Healthy, Gluten-Free Lifestyle, by Alessio Fasano. As the founder of the Center for Celiac Research, Fasano is one of the pioneers for celiac disease research and management, and his book is one of the more helpful ones out there. Not only does it go through the basics, but it separates facts from myth, and details suggestions for some of the scarier symptoms of glutening, like depression, anxiety, foggy mind, and joint pain. A comforting read from an expert.
Celiac Disease: A Hidden Epidemic, by Peter H.R. Green M.D. & Rory Jones. This book, revised and updated in 2016, provides thorough information about celiac disease and gluten intolerance / sensitivity, as well as talking about the identity shifts that come with being diagnosed with a chronic illness. It also includes guides for safe eating (what’s safe to consume) and is especially helpful for USA readers as it collates national support groups and manufacturers.
Mayo Clinic Going Gluten Free: Essential Guide to Managing Celiac Disease and Other Gluten-Related Conditions, by Joseph A. Murray M.D. This book is practical and specific, written by some of the leading experts in celiac disease management and diagnosis. It includes recipes, travel, and how to manage the diet changes as a parent with a celiac child.
Interesting Articles About Gluten Free Eating and Celiac Disease:
I’ve included a few articles below about gluten and other dietary restrictions and diagnoses that might be related to sensitivity to certain foods. While some of these pieces are controversial, I do think they are important to read as the more we know about celiac disease, the better we will be able to eat safely.
Recipes from the Road: I have a list of gluten-free recipes that I’ve posted on the site. For other great gluten-free recipes see Viet World Kitchen’s list of Asian GF recipes, Jamie Oliver’s GF recipe page, and this list of Mexican GF recipes. For Indian GF and vegetarian recipes see Manjula’s Kitchen for their landing page on gluten free.
Shop – Tote Bag for Celiacs
Now in the Legal Nomads Shop: a section for celiacs. A percentage of proceeds from the Bull-Woven Tote will go to the Beyond Celiac Foundation. Donations are made on a rolling basis. The celiac section consists of tote bags and t-shirts with the slogan, “I’m not being trendy, I have the disease”.
Thank you for reading and safe eating!
JodiMaybe a demon invasion threatening to end all life is exactly what World of Warcraft needed.
Activision Blizzard revealed in its earnings report for the third quarter of the financial year 2016 that the latest expansion for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game, Legion, sold 3.3 million copies on its first day, August 30. According to Activision Blizzard, this matches records set by previous expansions and ranks among the fastest-selling PC games ever.
Activision Blizzard no longer reports subscription numbers for its flagship MMO, but it did note that active monthly users for WoW have have increased 30 percent quarter-over-quarter. At its height in 2010, WoW had 12 million subscribers, but that number dipped to a low of 5.5 million in 2015 before the publisher stopped giving out those numbers.
World of Warcraft expansions always bring a rise in subscriptions, since the new material gives lapsed players a reason to come. The trick is getting them to stay. The expansion before Legion, Warlords of Draenor, initially increased the player base from 7 million players to 10 million, but those adventurers slowly retreated again from the MMO.
However, Legion might be compelling enough to entice players to stay around. Our own review praised the expansion as the games best ever thanks to the more flexible and convenient questing and progression systems, while a new emphasis on 5-player content gives friends a way to earn good loot without having to join larger party sizes.Fans arrive for the game between the New York Islanders and the Philadelphia Flyers at Barclays Center on September 21, 2015. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
– Are the Islanders and Barclays Center already headed toward a divorce?
The New York Post reported Friday night that both sides have been exploring ways to cut ties or modify the NHL team’s lease in the Brooklyn arena.
The Islanders just moved into Barclays Center this season, but they have struggled to attract new fans in Brooklyn while the supporters who have come to the arena have complained about obstructed-view seats and the loss of some traditions from the team’s decades on Long Island.
“I think it really hasn’t worked for either side,” Josh Kosman, one of the Post reporters behind the story, told WFAN’s Evan Roberts on Monday.
Kosman noted that Barclays Center agreed to pay the Islanders $53.5 million a year believing the team would at least rank in the middle of the NHL in attendance. Instead, the Islanders are 28th out of 30 teams this season.
“They (Barclays Center) are stuck paying this money, and it’s good for the Islanders, at least short-term,” Kosman said. “They’re not losing money this season. But for Barclays, this has not been a very good deal. And the people who drew the deal — Bruce Ratner from Barclays, and on the Islanders’ side, Charles Wang — are not really involved anymore.”
The Islanders’ lease is for 25 years, but it contains a four-year escape clause, Kosman said.
“So realistically, if Barclays doesn’t like the deal and the Islanders don’t like the fact that they’re drawing 28th out of 30 – even though they’re getting guaranteed revenue – this would be about the time you’d start talking about it because you don’t want to be waiting until the last minute,” Kosman said.
“I think the executives within the Islanders believe Barclays is going to execute their out.”
The Islanders could find themselves in a position where they have to agree to new lease terms that are more favorable for Barclays Center or find a new home.
“I think the Islanders would love to move to Queens, to create an arena in Willets Point. How realistic that is? I’m not sure,” Kosman said, adding that New York state has largely been resistant to building publically financed stadiums.
Nassau Coliseum, the Isles’ home for 43 years, is undergoing a $260 million renovation, but it’s seating capacity is being cut to 13,000, making it too small for the NHL.
Kosman said he believes there was some “short-sightedness” by both the Islanders’ owner, who tried for years to get a new arena built on Long Island, and the Barclays Center.
“When Barclays Center was built, the owner of Barclays at the time … went to Charles Wang, the present and outgoing owner of the Islanders, and said” ‘Look, last shot. Are you guys moving to Brooklyn? Do you want to come?’ And they said no,” Kosman said. “So they elected to make Barclays just a one–sport arena.
“From the same standpoint, considering the nights they had to fill there, couldnn’t have Barclays, when they had the chance and building the arena could have spent what only would have been an extra $10 million or so and made it a two-sport arena? They didn’t because Charles Wang had told them no. And now that looks like a real foolish move on both ends.”There are plenty of shows that every anime fan wishes went on for a few more episodes. One of the worst things about anime like Cowboy Bebop, Yu Yu Hakusho, and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is that they ended and we could no longer go on amazing adventures with characters that we had come to love and hold dear.
Despite the filler and weak endings, Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden had an incredibly vast universe that begged for more episodes. That’s why fans around the world were ecstatic when Boruto: Naruto Next Generations was announced, and their adventures in this incredible ninja universe would continue.
However, now that the first season of Boruto has come to a close, it seems more like it was just an attempt for the studios to cash in on the nostalgia and appreciation fans had for the series than a genuine exploration of the expansive world and unique characters we’d grown to love.
Cutting Corners and Costs
It was obvious from the get-go that almost every aspect of Boruto was designed to make money for the studio. Every character, including Boruto, has a simple design with a minimal use of colors and patterns. This is a stark and disappointing departure from the unique and charming character designs of the original Naruto cast.
The motivation behind this change is likely to be that more basic designs allow for quicker and cheaper animation. These more simplistic designs also make it much more cost-effective to make and sell merchandise featuring these characters.
Weak, Bland Storytelling
The Boruto: Naruto Next Generations story is bland and unoriginal compared to the story of Naruto — or really any anime for that matter. In the spin-off anime, there is apparently some prophesy that Boruto is meant to defeat some unknown evil at some point in his life. We have no idea what that evil is or what it’s trying to do as they only mention it a few times. The rest of the show is a series of loosely connected events that usually wraps up within the episode and has no lasting consequences. Essentially, it’s the adventures of Ninja middle school.
Why write something new and interesting when you can recycle cliched anime tropes and fall back on Naruto‘s success? Boruto isn’t trying to do something unique or creative. We challenge the writers to break these tropes and win back fans with solid storytelling.
All Filler, No Killer
By turning the series into a profit machine and riding on Naruto’s coattails, Boruto retroactively makes the original show worse. Rather than the best parts of the original anime inspiring the spin-off, Boruto‘s aimless storylines and bland narratives have more in common with Naruto’s infamous filler arcs. Those aren’t what fans came for, and it’s disappointing that the new show reminds its audience of the weakest moments of a great anime series.
The only genuinely good thing to say about this anime is that fan favorite, Rock Lee has a son named Metal Lee. This is as hilarious as it is cute.
With an unearned second season undoubtedly on the way, hopefully, the spin-off will evolve into something with at least half of the passion and soul of the original. Otherwise, Boruto is just cashing in on the loyal fans who fell in love with Naruto’s wonder and style.They are the city’s new pot-smoking professionals — ganja-puffing teachers, TV execs and businessmen who go about their daily routines while under the influence, thanks to the drug’s decriminalization.
“I started realizing a lot of my family smokes weed, and they’re all very successful adults,” said “Jake,” a 29-year-old TV writer in Midtown and small-business owner who regularly tokes up.
“So I was like, ‘Hey, maybe weed’s not too bad.’
“I feel a lot more comfortable being a smoker now that it’s less enforced.”
In 2011, the NYPD busted 50,000 people for lighting up in the five boroughs. By 2015, that number had dropped by 68 percent, to just 16,000.
During the same time, recreational pot use was legalized in eight states, and a law allowing the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes passed in New York after years of lobbying Gov. Cuomo.
A downtown Manhattan mom said she’s even cool with lighting up during play dates.
“One time, [a friend and I] smoked and then let our 4-year-olds paint my daughter’s play table with nontoxic paint... [Smoking pot] lets me be more creative and more in tune with my kids,” the mom said.
A Brooklyn teacher told The Post that it’s a good thing city education officials don’t randomly test school workers for the drug.
“If they did... they’d probably have to fire about 85 percent of their staff,” she said.
Today’s pot puffers say they’re no head cases.
“There’s a big misconception that people that smoke are burnouts and sluggish,” said “Zach,” a marketing manager at a major New York television station.
“I’ve got a spring in my step. I’m always moving. I’m very high energy,” insisted the man, who has been smoking weed for the better part of 20 years but who, along with others interviewed by The Post, didn’t want his real name used.
According to a Gallup poll conducted in August, the number of American adults using marijuana has nearly doubled in the past three years.
In 2013, 7 percent said they take hits. In 2016, that number was up to 13 percent.
But all that puffing could lead to health problems, experts caution.
“Marijuana is absolutely harmful and absolutely addictive. The industry is selling a lie that marijuana is more or less harmless, and that’s just not true,” said Dr. Kevin Sabet, the former senior adviser to the drug czar under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
“Philip Morris said that 80 years ago about cigarettes, and this is the new Philip Morris — they’re saying the same thing.”
Sabet, who now heads Smart Approaches to Marijuana, one of the largest anti-pot-legalization groups in the country, said dope can seriously hurt developing minds and can also harm adults.
“Regular marijuana use is harmful. It impairs motor skills, cognitive skills and mental health,” he said, adding that regularly toking can also affect workplace performance.
That view is not shared by Zach, who said that pot actually helps him cope and that he has no trouble being productive.
“I work anywhere between 60 to 80 hours a week, and I also smoke weed every day, and I’m educated, and I do a good job,’’ he said.
“It’s not like I’m sitting on my butt all day in my sweats, smoking and eating Doritos and playing video games.”
Zach said that before he became a manager, he was “basically high 24/7” — often taking breaks from a prior TV gig to smoke behind the building, where he could blend in amid the chaos of Midtown.
Now that he’s in charge of other people, he waits until he gets home to smoke.
“I don’t want to have a reputation |
he started shining in scrims and in practice. In the series, he just takes over the jungle. He knows how to path and how to play. And I think with him it really comes down to how comfortable and confident he is. If he's confident, he'll make a ton of plays.
Comfort. Trust. Belief. These are the things no flashy names on a paper can give you. You can take the best five Korean players in the world, put them on a single team, and see them crash and burn. It's happened before with the likes of Longzhu Gaming currently in Korea's Champions, and it won't be the last time a perceived super team doesn't succeed, at least off the bat.
Winning as a team is difficult, and learning how to win as a team is even more so. It's easy to call out Svenskeren, Bjergsen, or Doublelift for getting caught or being too impulsive in a team fight, however, those are usually team issues. A lack of comfort with the guy next to them. You take a step forward, one person takes a step to the left, a second goes to the right, another is farming, and the last guy is recalling. Regardless of how well someone did on a former team or how great they look in solo queue, it's tough to find the chemistry to be a full-fledged title contender.
"I think we always got along decently," he said. "No one ever disliked each other on the team, but we still didn't have that team cohesion, and I think that's way easier to find through winning. Through winning in playoffs, through winning in scrims, you slowly build that confidence in each other. To start off, we were like, after our loss to NRG [to end the regular season], we just need to trust each other. We need to go all-in on every play. Don't question if YellOwStaR says engage. Don't question if [Kevin "Hauntzer" Yarnell] says I'm going to [teleport] and fight here. We just take every single fight we get, and then we can scale back and be like, 'Oh, maybe we shouldn't do that.' But we put a lot of blind faith in each other and absolutely instill confidence in one another."
What was once Counter Logic Gaming's calling card, the fans' and players' faith in victory, has transitioned over to Team SoloMid. This is not the TSM of old we've watched grow throughout the playoffs. Bjergsen told me this season and making the finals was a "new beginning" for the team and himself. Seven times TSM have made the finals of the NA LCS, but this one shouldn't be coupled with the others.
I love competing and have loved it my whole life. I'm so happy I get to do what I do, thank you so much guys <3 - Søren Bjerg (@Bjergsen) April 11, 2016
The seventh final for TSM could be considered the first in its new era. The five members currently on the squad, if they stick together following this season or year, have the potential to do something great -- maybe even something a North American team hasn't accomplished since 2011, like make a Worlds semifinal.
"About CLG, Darshan shines very well on split-pushers, and I think they all have their moments," he told me when I asked which member of Counter Logic had impressed him the most this split. "But I think the reason CLG are in the finals is because of their team play. No individual huge play. They all come up really huge at different times, but it really comes down to how CLG plays as a team. Some teams you look at them and say, 'This is the carry, this is the guy you need to watch out for', but CLG's more of a unit, a team."
Bjergsen knows what he's talking about. The cohesion CLG has is what TSM's been searching, striving for the entire split. On paper, a majority of people would give the clear edge to SoloMid in the final on talent alone. But Counter Logic Gaming don't pride itself on outgunning people in-lane and winning in positional matchups -- it prides itself on being an indestructible family.
For TSM to win its fourth NA LCS title, the team will need to breakthrough that unbreakable wall in the finals on Sunday in Las Vegas. "First of all, thank you to all the fans that support us through," he said, ending the interview with a message to TSM's massive (and fanatical) fanbase. "I know there are a lot of fans that will jump on the next big hype or the next big team, but there are a lot of fans who really stick with us and stick with us through poor performances. The people on the Internet who defend us when someone is saying, 'Oh this player is playing bad' or 'Bench this guy'. There are always those guys that support us and say, 'I think he's doing really well. He's going to step up in the next series.' And those fans really make a difference, especially for me.
I know that every one of my teammates sometimes reads hate on the Internet -- it's hard to completely avoid it -- and having those people stand up for you is always a nice feeling."Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Fidel Castro had to walk with a stick and the assistance of aides
Cuba's former President Fidel Castro has appeared in public for the first time in nine months.
Mr Castro, 87, attended the opening of an art studio in the capital, Havana, on Wednesday night.
Pictures released on Thursday showed a frail-looking Mr Castro walking with a stick and looking at works of art.
Fidel Castro led Cuba for nearly half a century before handing over power to his brother, Raul, in 2006 because of ill health.
Fidel has kept a low public profile, with sporadic appearances, ever since.
The last time he appeared in public was on 9 April last year, when he attended the inauguration of a Havana school.
Pictures of the former Cuban leader were last seen in December, after his private meeting with the visiting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a key ally of Cuba.NF-A20 PWM Review Jumping right into things and as you would expect from Noctua, the performance of these products is second to none. Given their respective sizes, all of these fans create a decent amount of airflow when tested in an open world environment, i.e. not in a case but just on a table. As mentioned I have actually used the NF-A4x20’s on a 3D printer in the past and was a great upgrade from the cheap fans that it had originally come with. While some may criticize the colour scheme, I don’t recall hearing very many people talk ill of the performance of any Noctua product. These fans all offer a great amount of airflow, again, for their respective sizes and remain as quiet as possible when doing so. The massive NF-A20’s are for those who need the most airflow possible but do make sure your case or where ever you are using them can cater to their 20cm sizes. The A4x20’s and A12x15’s are for when space is crucial and you need the most from your fans. The small 20mm and their unique size can come in handy for a number of scenarios. The added airflow to say the intake vents on a lot of the newer PC gaming cases is sure to help keep your components as cool as can be. The A12x15 are slimline and will surely come in handy for those looking to go with a push/pull configuration on any radiators for CPU and GPU cooling. Too many times have I seen a case where you can’t install a push/pull configuration due to space restrictions, well no more! Noctua’s A12x15 are sure to help you overcome this issue with ease. All of these fans in their own rights are equally useful and offer the same great performance we have come to know and love from Noctua. As far as the accessories go, they all perform as good as one could hope for. My Favourite was probably the fan controller as it allowed me to control my 2 front intake fans and 1 exhaust fan with ease. During the day I like them silent, but when the headphones come out and the game comes on, it’s time to turn the fans up a bit and this was done easily and quickly. The Anti-vibration mounts are nice as well. Not only do they reduce noise from vibrations, they allow you to install and remove your fans with ease which is always a plus when it comes time to clean them. Lastly, the 4-pin PWM to SATA power cable is a great addition to any build as it will allow you to connect a fan to any extra SATA power cables you have coming from your power supply. Those with motherboards that don’t have a lot of fan headers and are not keen on using a controller will find these very useful.The company will raise their bugs in the lab, separate males and females and then release the males, which don't bite, into treatment areas. When the bacteria-carrying males mate with wild females, their eggs don't hatch, because Wolbachia prevents the paternal chromosome from forming properly. Since the species only lives 30 to 40 days in the wild, preventing them from reproducing can effectively wipe out local populations.
MosquitoMate only got permission to release what they're calling the "Zap males" in 20 states and DC, because those are the places most similar in temperature and precipitation to Kentucky, New York and California where it held its tests. It plans to sell its "good guy bugs" to hotels, establishments and even homeowners through a summer-long subscription. While it's unfortunate that most of the southeastern states are not included in the list, MosquitoMate is hoping to be able to release a different species all over the US.
Earlier this year, the startup unleashed 20,000 Wolbachia-carrying male Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the Florida Keys as part of a trial. The fact that it was able to conduct tests in the Keys is promising enough, considering a UK firm called Oxitec failed to secure permission to test its genetically modified moquitoes in the area. Nevertheless, the EPA still has to approve MosquitoMate's application to be able to use the species, a deadly vector of Zika, dengue and yellow fever, as a biopesticide nationwide.The new UKIP leadership were ALL either failed Tory candidates or former Conservatives who failed to even become candidates.
UKIP’s new leader Paul Nuttall stood for the Tories in 2002 – and failed:
The chairman of the party Paul Oakden also stood – and failed – as a Tory candidate before he joined UKIP:
The moneybags behind the party – millionaire Arron Banks – was once a Conservative Party backer too – before he realised senior Tories didn’t even know who he was and so decided to give his cash to Nigel Farage instead.
Not only that, but UKIP’s new deputy leader, Peter Whittle, used to be a regular contributor to influential Tory mouthpiece ConservativeHome before he obviously realised he wasn’t posh enough for the Tories to become a candidate and scuttled over to UKIP to become one for Nigel Farage.
And, of course, we already know UKIP’s new leader Paul Nuttall already supports traditional Tory policies such as bringing back hanging and fox hunting, privatising the NHS, outlawing abortion and gay marriage as well as extreme climate change denial.
‘Vote UKIP – Get Poundshop Tories’ …Guest Post
by David Gaughran
I have been campaigning against exploitative services like Author Solutions for a few years now, and it’s clear that the business model of such predators is to target the inexperienced and uninformed.
Some blame the victims, suggesting they didn’t do enough research, but this is more than a little unfair. These companies are extremely skilled at targeting writers before they discover the self-publishing community, and use a variety of deceptive means both to ensnare writers and to ensure that they don’t discover genuine reviews.
Also, the lines between traditional publishing, self-publishing, and vanity publishing are more difficult to define every year. Part of the reason is that vanity presses have now rebranded themselves as “self-publishing service providers” and they are often owned by traditional publishers.
Confusing already, isn’t it? Here are five ways you can cut through the crap and avoid predators:
1. Who is recommending the service?
Self-publishers would make the worst spies in the world because we can’t keep our mouths shut and tell everyone everything – which is great for those starting out because every service and provider out there has been used and reviewed, and every marketing strategy has been poked and prodded. Even the biggest sellers are happy to share what worked for them (and what didn’t).
Self-publishing platforms like KDP or Kobo have armies of successful self-publishers recommending their services, as do repubtable distribution services like Draft2Digital and Smashwords, and proven advertising sites like BookBub. Crappy vanity presses can’t point to successful self-publishers using their services.
Say no to the smiling stock model!
2. Is the service owned by a large publisher?
I wish I didn’t have to say this, but, if the service is owned by a large publisher, there is a very good chance it is a scam. If you think that’s a stretch, check out this (partial) list:
Abbot Press – owned by Writer’s Digest, operated by Author Solutions (closed June 2014)
Archway Publishing – owned by Simon & Schuster, operated by Author Solutions
AuthorHouse – owned by Author Solutions
Balboa Press – owned by Hay House, operated by Author Solutions
Dellarte Press – owned by Harlequin, operated by Author Solutions (closed Feb 2015)
iUniverse – owned by Author Solutions
LifeRich Publishing – owned by Reader’s Digest, operated by Author Solutions
Partridge Publishing – owned by Penguin, operated by Author Solutions
Trafford Publishing – owned by Author Solutions
Westbow Press – owned by Thomas Nelson/HarperCollins, operated by Author Solutions
Xlibris – owned by Author Solutions
If you are smart, and noticed a pattern, you get a free cookie. Oh, and I almost forgot one:
Author Solutions – owned by Penguin Random House
So, yeah. The name you know is often the name you can’t trust. But you can’t go far wrong running away from anything with a connection to Author Solutions. And if you don’t know about the awful history of Author Solutions, then you need to read this immediately.
3. How do they make their money?
The four biggest retailers all have their own self-publishing platforms. Amazon’s KDP, Apple’s iBookstore, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Press and Kobo Writing Life don’t charge any upfront fees and take a percentage of your earnings instead. This means they don’t get paid unless you make money.
Reputable distributors like Smashwords and Draft2Digital operate on the same model. They take a cut of your sales and don’t charge any upfront fees. They make money with authors, not from authors.
Vanity presses have the opposite model. They don’t really care if you sell books or not because they make their money from selling you stuff. Worthless marketing packages, hopeless Hollywood pitching services, useless YouTube advertising packages. The list is endless and varied, but they all have one thing in common: they won’t help you sell books.
4. Does it sound too good to be true?
Lots of people (me included) regularly parp about this being The Golden Age for writers, that we’ve never had it so good, and so forth. All that’s true, but it’s also relative. Writers have never had it better, largely thanks to the digital revolution and self-publishing, but that doesn’t mean that success is a click away. It’s still a tough game – it’s just that there are fewer landmines on the pitch.
There are no shortcuts, and that goes for publishing books as well as selling them. If someone is offering you a guaranteed path to success, you should be automatically skeptical. If a deal sounds too good to be true, then you really have to read the fine print.
An example:
BookTango pitches itself as the only self-publishing service that pays “100% royalties.” Which sounds pretty good until you read the small print – where you discover that they don’t mean “100% of the price you stick on your book” but “100% of the money we get from Amazon, minus various deductions and whatnot.”
In the end, you actually get paid less than going direct to Amazon and receiving the standard 70%.
Oh, and it’s owned by Author Solutions (them again), which means the service will be crappy, quality will be poor, sales reports will be delayed, you won’t be able to do something as simple as changing your book’s price without emailing them, and you will be hounded relentlessly to buy one of their eye-wateringly expensive and completely ineffective marketing packages (because that’s where they make their money).
5. What does Google say?
Scammy vanity presses spend huge sums on Google ads and SEO to try and push down genuine reviews of their services (as they are invariably negative).
But there’s a simple way to check the bona fides of any company. Simply put the word “scam” after the company name and see what comes up. For a reputable company like Kobo, searching for Kobo scam yields little or nothing. By contrast, searching for something like AuthorHouse scam generates pages and pages of customer complaints.
Google is your friend. Use it.
* * *
If you are in doubt, ask an experienced self-publisher. We are all pretty open and approachable, and there are self-publisher hangouts like the Writer’s Café at KBoards where you can get the skinny on any provider or service, and dedicated sites (for authors of all stripes) like Writer Beware – which has been naming and shaming the unscrupulous for years.
Be careful out there.
David Gaughran is an Irish writer living in Prague who spends most of his time travelling the world collecting stories, and campaigning against self-publishing predators. He runs the publishing blog Let’s Get Digital and the Latin American history site South Americana, and his work has been featured in the Huffington Post, The Sunday Times, and the Irish Times. Learn more about David on his Author Central page.
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Like this: Like Loading...University of Utah anthropologists counted the number of carbon-dated artifacts at archaeological sites and concluded that a population boom and scarce food explain why people in eastern North America domesticated plants for the first time on the continent about 5,000 years ago.
"Domesticated plants and animals are part of our everyday lives, so much so that we take them for granted," says Brian Codding, senior author of the study published online August 2 by the British journal Royal Society Open Science. "But they represent a very unique thing in human history. They allowed for large numbers of people to live in one place. That ultimately set the stage for the emergence of civilization."
Graduate student Elic Weitzel, the study's first author, adds: "For most of human history, people lived off wild foods -- whatever they could hunt or gather. It's only relatively recently that people made this switch to a very different method of acquiring their food. It's important to understand why that transition happened."
The study dealt not with a full-fledged agricultural economy, but with the earlier step of domestication, when early people in eastern North America first started growing plants they had harvested in the wild, namely, squash, sunflower, marshelder and a chenopod named pitseed goosefoot, a pseudocereal grain closely related to quinoa.
Codding, an assistant professor of anthropology, says at least 11 plant domestication events have been identified in world history, starting with wheat about 11,500 years ago in the Middle East. The eastern North American plant domestication event, which began around 5,000 years ago, was the ninth of those 11 events and came after a population boom 6,900 to 5,200 years ago, he adds.
For many years, two competing theories have sought to explain the cause of plant domestication in eastern North America: First, population growth and resulting food scarcity prompted people to grow foods on which they already foraged. Second, a theory called "niche construction" or "ecosystem engineering" that basically says intentional experimentation and management during times of plenty -- and not immediate necessity -- led people to manage and manipulate wild plants to increase their food supply.
"We argue that human populations significantly increased prior to plant domestication in eastern North America, suggesting that people are driven to domestication when populations outstrip the supply of wild foods," Weitzel says.
"The transition to domesticating food allowed human populations to increase drastically around the world and made our modern way of life possible," he adds. "People start living near the fields. Whenever you've got sedentary communities, they start to expand. Villages expand into cities. Once you have that, you have all sorts of social changes. We really don't see state-level society until domestication occurs."
When early North Americans first domesticated crops
The region of eastern North America covered by the study includes most of Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas, and portions of Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.
"This is the region where these plant foods were domesticated from their wild variants," Weitzel says. "Everywhere else in North America, crops were imported from elsewhere," particularly Mexico and Central America.
Four indigenous plant species constitute what scientists call the Eastern Agricultural Complex, which people began to domesticate about 5,000 years ago.
Previous research shows specific domestication dates were 5,025 years ago for squash at an archaeological site named Phillips Spring in Missouri, 4,840 years ago for sunflower seeds domesticated at Hayes in Tennessee, 4,400 years ago for marshelder at the Napoleon Hollow site in Illinois, and 3,800 years ago for pitseed goosefoot found in large quantities at Riverton, Illinois, along with squash, sunflower and marshelder.
Three more recent sites also have been found to contain evidence of domestication of all four species: Kentucky's Cloudsplitter and Newt Kindigenash rockshelters, dated to 3,700 and 3,640 years ago, respectively, and the 3,400-year-old Marble Bluff site in Arkansas.
Sunflower and squash -- including acorn and green and yellow summer squashes -- remain important crops today, while marshelder and pitseed goosefoot are not (although the related quinoa is popular).
Deducing population swings from radiocarbon dates
"It's really difficult to arrive at measures of prehistoric populations. So archaeologists have struggled for a long time coming up with some way of quantifying population levels when we don't have historical records," Weitzel says.
"People have looked at the number of sites through time, the number of artifacts through time and some of the best work has looked at the effects of population growth," such as in the switch from a diet of tortoises to rabbits as population grew in the eastern Mediterranean during the past 50,000 years, he adds.
Codding says that in the past decade, archaeologists have expanded the use of radiocarbon-dates for artifacts to reconstruct prehistoric population histories. Weitzel says radiocarbon dates in the new study came from artifacts such as charcoal, nutshells and animal bones -- all recorded in a database maintained by Canadian scientists.
The University of Utah anthropologists used these "summed radiocarbon dates" for 3,750 dated artifacts from eastern North America during the past 15,000 years.
"The assumption is that if you had more people, they left more stuff around that could be dated," Weitzel says. "So if you have more people, you conceivably should have more radiocarbon dates."
"We plotted the dates through time," namely, the number of radiocarbon dates from artifacts in every 100-year period for the past 15,000 years, he adds.
The analysis indicated six periods of significant population increase or decrease during that time, including one during which population nearly doubled in eastern North America starting about 6,900 years ago and continuing apace until 5,200 years ago -- not long before plant domestication began, Codding says.
Codding notes that even though plant domestication meant "these people were producing food to feed themselves and their families, they're still hunting and foraging," eating turtles, fish, water fowl and deer, among other animals.
The other theory
Weitzel says the concept of niche construction is that people were harvesting wild plants, and "were able to get more food from certain plants." By manipulating the environment -- such as transplanting wild plants or setting fires to create areas favorable for growth of wild food plants -- they began "experimenting with these plants to see if they could grow them to be bigger or easier to collect and consume," he adds. "That kind of experimentation then leads to domestication."
Codding says: "The idea is that when times are good and people have plenty of food then they will experiment with plants. We say that doesn't provide an explanation for plant domestication in eastern North America." He believes the behavioral ecology explanation: increasing population and-or decreasing wild food resources led to plant domestication.There are a multitude of “open” projects aimed at driving innovation in the network, especially in the realm of network virtualization and “software defined” initiatives. I created this cheat sheet to help me keep them organized. I plan to update this document to keep it fresh. The most recent update is March 2018. The previous update was June 2016 (hey, I’ve been busy).
In addition to the table below, I’ve included details on each project, along with resources for more information. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments section for projects I might have missed.
NOTE: This list doesn’t include open source network operating systems (NOSs). You can find a list of open and proprietary NOSs on our Virtual Toolbox page.
Some Comments On ‘Open’
As you can see from the list, the word “open” gets thrown around a lot. In some cases the projects listed below are open source, meaning the code is available under a traditional open source license.
In other cases, the project is ‘open’ in the sense that you can join the project (often for a fee) to access code and contribute to the project’s development.
The Projects
Description:
DPDK (Data Plane Development Kit) contains libraries and drivers to accelerate packet processing on general-purpose processors. Originally developed by Intel to boost the packet processing capabilities of x86 chips, DPDK is now an open source project under the auspices of the Linux Foundation.
DPDK has also been extended beyond x86 to work with ARM and IBM POWER CPUs.
The software is available under a BSD license.
Why It’s Relevant:
More and more networking functions (switching, firewalling, load balancing, and so on) are being performed in software that runs on commodity servers rather than in purpose-built appliances beefed up with custom ASICs.
DPDK can be used to accelerate network applications to squeeze more performance from those commodity boxes.
Resources:
DPDK.org
DPDK Project Moves To The Linux Foundation – Packet Pushers
Intel Network Autobahn: Maximizing Your Traffic Throughput – Network Field Day (Vimeo)
Description:
Free Range Routing (FRR) is an open source IP routing stack for Unix and Linux OSs that includes common routing applications such as BGP, OSPF, and others. FRR is a fork of the Quagga project.
While Quagga is a mature and established code base, the fork occurred for several reasons, including a desire to employ more modern development practices and tools such as continuous integration, the use of GitHub, and faster testing.
Why It’s Relevant:
The disaggregation of network software and hardware has created new opportunities for organizations of all kinds to mix and match various elements of a network stack to optimize the infrastructure for their needs.
FFR fits this trend by providing a routing stack that can run on a variety of platforms while also being developed independently of other hardware and software.
Backers of FFR include Cumulus Networks, Big Switch Networks, 6Wind, LinkedIn, and others.
Resources:
FRRouting.org
FRRouting – GitHub
PQ Show 112: Free Range Routing At IETF 98 – Packet Pushers
Free Range Routing Project Forks Quagga – Packet Pushers
Description:
OpenDaylight is an open-source SDN controller. The project is overseen by the Linux Foundation, and members include Cisco, Brocade, Dell, HP, Arista, and VMware.
OpenDaylight is designed to run in a heterogenous network; the controller can configure switches and other network devices that support OpenFlow. It also supports a variety of other networking protocols, including NetConf, SNMP, BGP, and LACP.
On the northbound side it exposes a set of REST APIs to allow third-party applications to interact with the controller and request network services.
OpenDaylight also includes an API for Neutron, the networking module in OpenStack.
OpenDaylight is currently on its third release, called Lithium. The OpenDaylight Project anticipates that the controller will be used in as many as 20 commercial products. Several network vendors, including Cisco, Brocade, and Extreme, offer commercial implementations of the OpenDaylight controller.
OpenDaylight is available under the Eclipse Public License.
Why It’s Relevant:
As with other open-source efforts, OpenDaylight provides a counterbalance to proprietary software, fosters competition in the marketplace, and gives customers more choice. A robust project such as ODL draws attention from developers to create applications that extend the value of the controller.
Perhaps just as important, when it comes to a new and disruptive idea such as SDN, an open-source controller is a low-cost, low-risk option for organizations to experiment with SDN concepts and technologies.
Resources:
SDN Series Part Six: OpenDaylight, the Most Documented Controller – The New Stack
2015 OpenDaylight Summit
Show 148 – Talking With OpenDaylight Leadership – Packet Pushers
Description:
OpenFlow is a protocol for configuring the forwarding plane of network devices. When used in conjunction with a centralized controller, OpenFlow can streamline and automate the configuration of network devices. Originally developed as a research project at Stanford University, OpenFlow is now overseen by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF), a non-profit industry consortium. ONF membership is required to access the protocol and contribute to its development, though it’s not required to use the specification.
Why It’s Relevant:
The creation of the OpenFlow protocol was an essential step in the development of software-defined networking. By defining a standard mechanism for configuring network devices, the protocol enabled both incumbents and startups to begin testing SDN concepts and to build—and ship—actual products.
Resources:
ONF Technical Library – Open Networking Foundation
OpenFlow @ Google – Video presentation by Google’s Urs Hoelzle (and slides)
Description:
OpenStack is an open-source cloud orchestration platform used to build private and public clouds. OpenStack is divided into modules for compute, networking, and both block and object storage. It also includes a management dashboard.
Queens is the most current release of the OpenStack platform as of March 2018. It’s available under an Apache 2.0 license.
Why It’s Relevant:
More enterprises want the flexibility and scale of cloud computing, whether to build a private cloud or a hybrid system that links premises systems and a public provider. At the same time, providers are looking to build public clouds to attract new customers. The OpenStack project targets both markets.
As with OpenDaylight, enterprises can download and experiment with OpenStack without having to make a substantial investment in proprietary software. At the same time, many vendors have released commercial distributions of OpenStack, including HP, Red Hat, Mirantis, Cisco, and IBM, to help organizations that want a more turnkey option and technical support.
Resources:
OpenStack.org
OpenStack Wiki
OpenStack Marketplace
Learning OpenStack Networking – James Denton
Description:
The Open Compute Project (OCP) shares design specs for data center infrastructure, including servers, storage, networking, and data center racks. OCP originally emphasized hardware designs, but the project has expanded to include software. The goals of the project are to promote energy-efficient designs, leverage commodity components, and reduce capital and operating costs for large data centers.
Why It’s Relevant:
OCP was launched by Facebook and attracted a variety of participants, including Microsoft and Intel. However, the designs are tailored to the needs of the world’s largest data center operators and verticals such as financial services, rather than the general enterprise.
That said, the project’s efforts are likely to yield improvements that could make their way to the masses, such as switch designs that might be adopted by white box manufacturers.
Resources:
Open Compute Wiki – Open Compute Project
Open Compute Summit
Facebook Unveils TOR Switch – Network Computing
Description:
Open Contrail is open source software for creating a virtual network. Juniper Networks, which acquired Contrail Systems in 2012, launched the open source version in 2013. Open Contrail provides SDN and NFV functions and targets both enterprises and service providers.
Open Contrail includes a software controller that configures the virtual network, provides management and analytics, and provides REST-based APIs for third-party applications.
Also included with Open Contrail is vRouter, a virtual router that runs in a hypervisor. The vRouter builds tunnels between virtual machines to provide connectivity. The vRouters communicate with the controller via XMPP.
Open Contrail supports MPLS over GRE/UDP and VXLAN to enable tunnels for a network overlay. It is also integrated with OpenStack.
OpenContrail is available under an Apache 2 license. Juniper also offers a commercial version of Contrail.
Why It’s Relevant:
Juniper has two main goals for providing an open source version of its SDN/NFV software. The first is to get it into the hands of users as quickly and easily as possible. Service providers and enterprise customers that want to get their hands dirty in a test lab can pull down the code and start learning right away. In the hyper-competitive SDN space, that’s a win.
And for those investigating OpenStack, Open Contrail’s integration with the cloud orchestration platform creates an affinity for organizations that are interested in open-source options.
The second is to attract developers and build a community. The more developers you can bring to the product, the more likely the community gets code improvements and new applications. A community of active users provides a multiplier effect that amplifies Juniper’s own development efforts.
On the downside, there are already numerous open source SDN projects in the works, and only so many developers and community members to go around. Juniper needs to make a significant effort to build an active community of contributors and adopters to keep Open Contrail relevant.
Resources:
Open Contrail.org
Juniper Launches Contrail SDN Software, Goes Open Source – Network Computing
Show 243 – Network Virtualization with Juniper QFX & Contrail (Sponsored) – Packet Pushers
Juniper Networks Balancing Engineering Simplicity with Randy Bias (Open Contrail) – Network Field Day (Vimeo)
Description:
The Open Network Install Environment (ONIE) is a project within Open Compute. According the site’s home page, ONIE “acts as an enhanced boot loader utilizing facilities in a Linux/BusyBox environment.” In other words, it allows a network operating system to be installed on a bare metal switch.
ONIE’s project supporters include Accton, Agema, Big Switch Networks, Broadcom, Cumulus Networks, Dell, Penguin Computing, and Quanta.
Why It’s Relevant:
ONIE enables a key value proposition for white box switching: to allow manufacturers, resellers, and customers to install the switch OS of their choosing.
By decoupling the hardware from the OS, customers have more options to match specific hardware and software needs. Customers also aren’t tied to a single vendor’s release schedule for OS and hardware upgrades and improvements, as they would be on an integrated product.
A decoupled switch OS also lets customers leverage traditional configuration and operations tools to align switch management with server management.
Resources:
ONIE – Open Compute Project Wiki
What Is ONIE? – Ethan Banks
Description:
ONOS, or Open Network Operating System, is an open source SDN project aimed at service providers. As with other controller-based systems, it supports OpenFlow (among other protocols) to program network devices, and has APIs to interact with applications. It’s based on a distributed core that can run across multiple instances in a cluster.
ONOS uses an intent-based model for application integration; in other words, applications specify high-level outcomes, but leave the low-level implementation details to the controller and the network.
Originally overseen by the Open Networking Lab (ON.Lab), a non-profit research consortium with ties to Stanford University and UC Berkeley, ONOS became a Collaborative Project at the Linux Foundation as of October 2015.
Why It’s Relevant:
At present, ONOS isn’t directly relevant to the enterprise because of its service provider/cloud provider focus. However, the project is being supported by major players, including AT&T, Huawei, Intel, NEC, and others. The emphasis on open source software and rapid innovation may result in code or features that could find their way to the enterprise market.
This summer at the Open Networking Summit, a proof-of-concept project called CORD (Central Office Re-architected as Data Center) debuted. CORD’s goal is to foster cloud-like agility for service providers through the use of ONOS, OpenStack, and commodity infrastructure such as white-box switches.
ONOS is also bundled in Atrium, a distribution of all-open-source SDN software released by the Open Networking Foundation (ONF). Besides ONOS, Atrium also includes Quagga BGP, and OpenFlow 1.3 device drivers.
Resources:
ONOS.org
Introducing ONOS – Whitepaper
ONOS Overview video – ON.Lab
CORD Presentation – Open Networking Summit
Description:
Open vSwitch is an open source virtual switch that provides forwarding capabilities for virtual machines. It can switch traffic among VMs on a single physical host, and connect VMs to the physical network. Open vSwitch can run on Linux-based hypervisors including KVM and Xen.
It’s available under an Apache 2.0 license.
Why It’s Relevant:
In addition to its networking capabilities in virtual environments, OVS is used in OpenStack, the cloud orchestration platform. More specifically, OVS is a plug-in within Neutron, the networking module within OpenStack. Open vSwitch is also OpenFlow-enabled |
others.
My next thought turned toward my meals. If my Fitbit didn't know what I was eating, how could it truly assess how fit I was? Again, Fitbit was way ahead of me — its food tracker (another section on the dashboard) allows you to enter what you've eaten just as the exercise tracker allows you to enter what activities you've done.
Tally, tally, tally
My exercise over two weeks. Erin Brodwin
Tallying all of my food and workouts from the past 48 hours took me about 30 minutes. Not so bad.
But in the days ahead, I couldn't get it out of my mind. When I'd reach for a granola bar in the office kitchen, I'd think about entering it in the food tracker.
After yoga each night, I'd think about typing it into the app.
All this logging and calculating was, quite frankly, really depressing.
Each of my actions came to be less about doing something I enjoyed — from enjoying the crunchy, sweet deliciousness of a midafternoon snack to sweating it out at a candlelit yoga class — and more about how it would weigh into a bigger, calculated view of my overall "fitness."
And constantly measuring myself up against my friends — one of whom runs regular marathons and consistently ranks No. 1 on my Fitbit friend list — made me feel like nothing I was doing was ever enough.
Plus, I found myself engaging in ridiculous behaviors, like walking back and forth to the bathroom at work, just to get in a few extra steps. Most often when I'd realize I didn't have enough steps at night, I'd find myself wandering around my tiny apartment in a slapdash effort to reach the 10,000-step milestone.
It was insanity, but I was too wrapped up in it to care.
A few days ago when I took off the hand-me-down Fitbit to shower, it came apart in my hands. At first I was upset. Now I'm relieved.
I still do some of the healthier things I learned to do with my Fitbit, like taking the stairs at work and going for a walk when I take a phone call. And while I'll miss that occasional 10,000-step party on my wrist, I feel a lot better without being constantly reminded of exactly how many steps I've taken and floors I've climbed.Another day, another Microsoft facial recognition tool that funnels the internet’s amusement straight into Bing’s search algorithm.
Just kidding! Microsoft said it doesn’t keep your photos, but they’re likely being used to help improve the AI. Today’s tool, Project Oxford, lets you upload a picture and the bot will guess your emotions. As you can imagine, the Web had a field day with it.
Let’s use the same model we did last time with Microsoft’s How Old bot. Dawson didn’t fare too well last time with an age guesstimation of 71, at least Microsoft knows he’s grieving pretty hard.
So is Kim Kardashian, with a peculiar 12 percent tint of potential happiness.
It’s also good for solving age-old mysteries.
How’s Riley really feeling? Okay, I guess.
Obviously, the tool still needs some tweaks to start factoring body position and food being consumed into consideration.
Only 7 percent angry, eh?
MS facial recognition showing emotion. Very awesome and pretty spot on… https://t.co/KgQCHXWpR5 pic.twitter.com/Aoi9I9Z34v — Joshua Combs (@JoshuaDCombs) November 11, 2015
Still, can’t say we’re not impressed.
If you have any more interesting results, share them with us below!
➤ Project Oxford
Read next: Comcast launches a $15 video streaming service that actually makes sense for cord cuttersCalgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi has made the official short list for the 2014 World Mayor Prize, an international search for the world's best mayor.
Nenshi, who has been elected twice as mayor, is just one of four North American mayors, and 26 mayors worldwide, to be nominated for the prize.
The honour, first awarded in 2004, is awarded every two years by the City Mayors Foundation.
"The City Mayors Foundation and the World Mayor Project were established in 2003 to promote, encourage and facilitate good local government," the foundation's website reads.
Iñaki Azkuna, Mayor of Bilbao, Spain, won the award in 2012.
Voting closes on Friday, and the winner will be announced in January.
Of course, we think Nenshi deserves the prize, but we're probably a bit biased. Click through the slideshow to see Nenshi's short list competitors:
Photo gallery World Mayor Prize 2014 Nominees See Gallery Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi Shortlisted For World Mayor Prize 1 / 166
World Mayor Prize 2014 Nominees 1 / 166
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Last week the Dow fell 2.9%; S&P 3.6%; the Russell 2000 3.3% and the Nasdaq 100 fell 3.9%. These numbers should make for a lower opening on Monday. Banks fell 1.7%; broker/dealers 2.2%; cyclicals 3.5%; transports 4.3%; consumers 4.1%; utilities 4.3%; high tech 4.6%; semis 5.2%; Internets 4.2% and biotechs 1.7%. Gold was unchanged; the HUI fell 0.2% and the USDX fell 0.4% to 85.32.
Two-year T-bills fell 8 bps to 0.61%; the 10-year notes fell 11 bps 3.11% and the 10-year German bund fell 12 bps to 2.61%.
The Freddie Mac fixed rate 30-year mortgage fell 6 bps to 4.69%, the lowest rate since 1971. The 15’s fell 7 bps to 4.13%. The one-year ARMs fell 5 bps to 3.77% and the 30-year jumbos fell 6 bps to 5.52%.
Fed credit rose $6.3 billion, up $108 billion YTD, or 10.1% and 16.6% YOY. Fed foreign holdings of Treasuries and Agency debt rose $10.1 billion to a new record of $3.090 trillion. Custody holdings for foreign central banks increased $135 billion YTD, or 9.5% annualized and YOY $326 billion, or 11.8%.
M2, narrow, money supply fell $37.5 billion to $8.564 trillion. It increased $52 billion YTD and YOY 1.4%.
Total money market fund assets rose $12 billion to $2.818 trillion. YTD they have fallen $476 billion, a one-year decline of $891 billion, or 24%.
The Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke tells us the American recovery is struggling because of European austerity. Does he really expect us to believe that? There is no question austerity in Europe will lead to a deflationary depression. Unemployment will rise quickly, which means major cuts in government spending and lessened revenues. Beside the public those affected the most will be towns, cities and states, many of which are on the edge of insolvency surprisingly even in Germany. The PIIGS unbelievably say their instability and debt is the result of the deflationary economic policies of the richer euro zone members. Germans and others are saving, agreeing to low salaries, producing more and not increasing debt. On the other hand the PIIGS and others were headed in the other direction. This is why the euro is doomed. After destroying their economies with one interest rate fits all, they are quick to blame others. Then again the bankers should never made the loans they did either. The result is deflationary depression, which is just getting underway. It is proper for Europe to use austerity, but it is a big mistake to raise taxes. That leaves little for the populace to spend to keep the economy going.
The US is determined to take the opposite tack. No austerity and full steam ahead. This in spite of the fact that the economy is faltering, especially in real estate, both residential and commercial. It is so bad that they have obscure government agencies buying mortgages. These new buyers plus Fannie, Freddie, Ginnie and FHA have been buying 95% of mortgages. Without massive stimulus and or Fed monetary expansion we will definitely see negative GDP growth in the last quarter of 2010. The indicators are in place and the tell tail signs of retrenchment abound. Wall Street is about to give up the ghost and see a test of the March 2009 lows. We are sure there will be rallies as the Fed unleashes trillions more in money and credit that as well will produce much higher inflation. This could produce $5,000 or more gold and a 5,000-point Dow.
As you are now well aware Fannie and Freddie are going to punish people who have stopped paying their mortgages, who can pay them, and who are paying other bills instead. This leaves lenders with foreclosures and much more inventory than they ever imagined. This additional problem will bring on the double dip that
Wall Street and Washington so fear. As a result of this and other failures we are about to experience the worst economic collapse sine 1348. The stock market is topping out readying itself for its most disastrous fall in history. The fall will be followed by years of depression, all of which has been deliberately created to bring the world economically and financially to its knees in an attempt to bring about world government by Illuminists. Some market analysts understand where the market is headed, but most who do understand, write and talk about the mundane observable trappings and not what the situation is really all about. We have several analysts talking about a market collapse. They do not talk about the real forces behind our misfortune. We recently watched an interview of a man who wrote about the Bush family. His only admission was that they were players in the game controlled by other forces, which he refused to mention. He wouldn’t say what they were up to and who they were. This shows you how terrified writers are who are confronted by the power of the Illuminists.
There are always these lone voices in the wilderness, which at best – some 15% of the populace – listens too. You had better listen this time because it could well cost you not only your assets, but your life, especially when another war is being prepared for you to engage in. Nothing is really as it seems to be and there are no coincidences. You are about to enter a world of chaos from which few will survive unscathed. A world of no banks, no public facilities, no food and rampaging gangs of desperate people. Unemployment of 50% and little law and order. Violence will be rife. This is not a pretty picture, but we have spared you the details. The world had better wake up fast so they’ll be prepared to deal with what is to come. If you were not aware of it the dark side really exists. We also want to remind you that for more than 20 years we have been almost totally right, and we have made some stupendous calls.
We are now entering the next to last phase of our journey. The wanton creation of wealth, inflation and perhaps hyperinflation, which will rob you of your assets. A stealth attack on what you have left by the people who control your government. Such monetary creation is the only way these people can keep the game going. They know it won’t last, but they proceed anyway. For awhile they’ll keep the multitudes at bay with extended unemployment and food stamps, but that will fade in time for lack of financial control, as the system begins to break down.
You already see all fiat currencies under fire, as is sovereign debt. Can it get any worse? Of course it can, and it will. Implosion is the word everyone is going to discover and understand. An event that cannot be hidden by zero interest rates and endless supplies of money and credit. That word implosion will describe what will happen as a result in the machinations of the Federal Reserve.
Now that you have seen a glimpse of your future we will move on to the deteriorating world that we now live in.
CNBC and the mainline media tells us all is well irrespective of a failing recovery, climbing unemployment, which has just recently been assisted by trillions of dollars in stimulus. The question is what comes next? More of the same, of course. There is no other avenue to pursue even though Mr. Bernanke knows such stimulus is not going to get the desired results. These players behind the scenes know history. They know what we know. They depend on 98% of the people not discovering what they and we know, and that is where this is all headed. The important people in Wall Street, banking, insurance and in transnational corporations know, but they are not about to tell you. The market doesn’t like what it sees, but it knows it cannot do much about it.
Americans are fighting back as millions have not made mortgage payments for a year and are living for free in their homes. As an antidote Washington is now considering charging them rent, something they should have done four years ago. If you add in the disaster that is commercial real estate, personal and corporate debt, and sovereign debt, you have an insolvable problem that can only end in great grief. The choice to expose Greece’s weaknesses from behind the scenes looks to be a fatal mistake. The elitists never envisioned the firestorm that the exposure has led too. Greece is about to explode, not because of the reduced socialist benefits, but because the people are finally realizing that they and others have been taken for a ride by the bankers and others behind the scenes and from within their own government. Discovery by the Greek people and others is not something the illuminists expected. They now are forced again to expedite their programs - when they have to do that they make mistakes, often-big mistakes, which gives us pursuers an advantage we could never hoped to have had. After their latest mistakes the bankers are scrambling to preserve the current system. It is not to be. There are far to many who now know what they are up too.
Europe is still struggling in an attempt to bailout the PIIGS, which if they take the loans they will live in financial bondage and depression for the next 30 years. We told the Greek people in a TV documentary last week to default, leave the euro, create the new drachma, lower taxes, make sure the rich pay their taxes, cut expenses in government by 30% and do not under any circumstances sell off any Greet assets, such as islands and utilities to foreign Illuminists for 20 cents on the dollar. The bankers created the money they lent out of thin air, so why should they be repaid. In addition they knew the risks and should have never made the loans in the fist place. The Illuminist-Bilderberg PM should be impeached for trying to destroy the country.
There is talk of a new northern euro to replace the current unit. Such a unit would need gold backing. Germany asked for the return of their gold from the US about a year ago. As far as we know they haven’t received it. The question then is, how do they back such a currency? France has sufficient gold, but they are in serious economic and financial trouble. We don’t think a northern euro is viable. Denmark is mentioned as a partner, a country that twice has rejected the euro. They also have serious problems. If the 5 PIIGS default how much bad debt will these nations be stuck with - $1 trillion or $2 trillion? That certainly is a salient factor in any new currency decision, and it is very possible default could become reality. Deficit reduction and austerity are not solutions without tax cuts. That is unless you want years and years of recession/depression. The public has to have money to spend to keep economies going. That isn’t a purge, but it is as close as you are going to get for the present.
Just headlines: "the audit board violates constitution, Supreme Court finds." As Reuters explains: "At stake in the case is how corporate America is audited and a key provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate reform law adopted in 2002 in response to the Enron and WorldCom accounting scandals. If the Supreme Court strikes down the board, the ruling will put pressure on Congress to revisit the law, opening it up for potential changes in the reporting duties of companies." Then again, who even pretends we have remotely credible filings anymore? With FASB indefinitely locked in the basement and companies allowed to report their numbers on a mark-to-unicorn basis, it is all lies anyway.
Legislation to overhaul financial regulation will help curb risk-taking and boost capital buffers. What it won’t do is fundamentally reshape Wall Street’s biggest banks or prevent another crisis, analysts said. A deal reached by members of a House and Senate conference early this morning diluted provisions from the tougher Senate bill, limiting rather than prohibiting the ability of federally insured banks to trade derivatives and invest in hedge funds or private equity funds. Banks ‘dodged a bullet,’ said Raj Date, executive director for Cambridge Winter Inc.’s center for financial institutions policy. The overhaul, which still requires approval from the full Congress, won’t shrink banks deemed ‘too big to fail,’ leaving largely intact a U.S. financial industry dominated by six companies with a combined $9.4 trillion of assets. The changes also do little to solve the danger posed by leveraged companies reliant on fickle markets for funding, which can evaporate in a panic like the one that spread in late 2008.
Fannie Mae will temporarily deny new loans to borrowers who deliberately default and walk away from their homes. Borrowers who have the means to make mortgage payments and don’t work with lenders to restructure loans will be banned from obtaining new mortgages backed by Fannie Mae for seven years from the date of foreclosure, the company said. Fannie Mae, along Freddie Mac, own or guarantee more than half of the $10.7 trillion U.S. mortgage market.
Californians don’t see much evidence that the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression is coming to an end. Unemployment was 12.4% in May. Lawmakers gridlocked over how to close a $19 billion budget gap are weighing the termination of the main welfare program for 1.3 million poor families or borrowing more than $9 billion in the bond market. Far from rebounding, the Golden State, with a $1.8 trillion economy that’s larger than Russia’s, is sinking deeper into its financial funk. And it’s not alone. Even as the U.S. appears to be on the mend finances in Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and other states show few signs of improvement. Forty-six states face budget shortfalls that add up to $112 billion for the fiscal year ending next June, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. ‘States are going to have to cut back spending and raise taxes the same way Greece and Spain are,’ says Dean Baker, co- director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
May personal income rose 0.4%, the PCE price deflator rose 1.9% and April personal income was revised to 0.5% from 0.4%. Spending rose 0.2%, real disposable income rose 0.5% and savings rose to 4%.
The Chicago Fed Activity Index was 0.21, down from April’s 0.25 and way down from 0.32 expert estimates.
The June Dollar Fed Manufacturing Index was minus 4%, down from May’s 2.9% and a 3.2% expert estimate.
The Friday Night FDIC Follies made a repeat when three more banks closed to total 86 YTD. We could get close to 100 by the end of the year.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the housing-finance companies supported by U.S. taxpayers, should take advantage of demand for government-backed mortgage debt and sell their holdings, according to Pacific Investment Management Co.
“Since the government’s going to want to unwind them at some point anyway, why not do it at the best levels ever?” Scott Simon, the mortgage-bond head at Newport Beach, California-based Pimco, manager of the world’s biggest fixed- income fund, said in a telephone interview. “It’s good for taxpayers, good for stakeholders, good for everybody.”
The average price of the $5.2 trillion of so-called agency mortgage bonds guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or federal agency Ginnie Mae rose last week to an all-time high of 106.3 cents on the dollar, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s Mortgage Master Index. The Federal Reserve said today it would replace its contracts to take delivery of certain bonds with other debt, reflecting a lack of supply in the market.
Legislation to overhaul financial regulation will help curb risk-taking and boost capital buffers. What it won’t do is fundamentally reshape Wall Street’s biggest banks or prevent another crisis, analysts said.
A deal reached by members of a House and Senate conference early this morning diluted provisions from the tougher Senate bill, limiting rather than prohibiting the ability of federally insured banks to trade derivatives and invest in hedge funds or private equity funds.
Banks “dodged a bullet,” said Raj Date, executive director for Cambridge Winter Inc.’s center for financial institutions policy and a former Deutsche Bank AG executive. “This has to be a net positive.”
Hashed out almost two years after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the legislation shepherded by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank places limits on potentially risky activities such as proprietary trading or over-the-counter derivatives and gives regulators new powers to seize and wind down large, complex institutions if needed.
For the last several months, Princeton professor Paul Krugman has become increasingly agitated about what he feels is a disastrous mistake in the making -- a sudden global obsession with "austerity" that will lead to spending cuts in many nations in Europe and, possibly, the United States.
Krugman believes that this is exactly the same mistake we made in 1937, when the country was beginning to emerge from the Great Depression. A sudden focus on austerity in 1937, it is widely believed, halted four years of strong growth and plunged the country back into recession, sending the unemployment rate soaring again.
In Krugman's view, the world should keep spending now, to offset the pain of the recession and high unemployment--and then start cutting back as soon as the economy is robustly healthy again.
Those concerned about the world's massive debt and deficits, however, have seized control of the public debate, and are scaring the world's governments into cutting back.
Californians don’t see much evidence that the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression is coming to an end.
Unemployment was 12.4 percent in May, 2.7 percentage points higher than the national rate. Lawmakers gridlocked over how to close a $19 billion budget gap are weighing the termination of the main welfare program for 1.3 million poor families or borrowing more than $9 billion in the bond market. California, tied with Illinois for the lowest credit rating of any state, is diverting a rising portion of tax revenue to service debt, Bloomberg Markets magazine reports in its August issue.
Far from rebounding, the Golden State, with a $1.8 trillion economy that’s larger than Russia’s, is sinking deeper into its financial funk. And it’s not alone.
Even as the U.S. appears to be on the mend gross domestic product has climbed three straight quarters -- finances in Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and other states show few signs of improvement. Forty-six states face budget shortfalls that add up to $112 billion for the fiscal year ending next June, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research institution. State spending is 12 percent of U.S. GDP.
Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret sent a letter to SBA Administrator Karen Mills complaining that the SBA is using its normal loan approval processes even though the circumstances are extraordinary, and that the agency is turning down far too many Louisiana businesses because of "credit concerns" or because they can't prove they'll be able to repay quickly.
Moret wrote that hundreds of the 21,000 claims filed with BP for losses due to the oil spill come from struggling small businesses, and most of them need the SBA loans to carry them through until they receive payment from BP.
But, he noted in the letter, SBA has informed him that 70 percent of those applicants have been denied.
Moret wrote that his office has been trying to work with SBA officials and was told that the federal agency could change its usual policy to soften underwriting guidelines and to consider the promise of future BP payments "in lieu of SBA's normal process for assessing credit history and repayment ability."
But that apparently hasn't happened. Moret noted that a similar process was used by SBA to help businesses after the Exxon Valdez tanker spill in Alaska in 1989.
SBA Assistant Secretary Jonathan Swain told The Times-Picayune that his agency typically approves more disaster loans as it goes along, and with a 30 percent approval rate now, SBA is already approaching its five-year average of 35 percent.
Uninspiring consumer income and spending data have pushed US stock futures ever so slightly into the red, as uneasiness over the US economic recovery lingers in the minds of investors. With less than 30 minutes before opening bell on Wall Street, all leading indices are nearly flat with the DOW off 0.06%.
Market sentiment remains fragile despite the weekend pledge by G20 leaders to reduce national deficits and debt. While waning off stimulus spending is looked upon highly by the investors, the fragility of the economic recovery is in the front of everyone’s mind with fresh austerity measures possible interfering with positive growth prospects. And as lackluster data continues to pour in from the US, investors are now questions the durability and pace of the recovery in the world’s largest economy with whispers of a double dip recession being heard more and more often.
Eight individuals were arrested Sunday for allegedly carrying out long-term, "deep-cover" assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russia, the Justice Department announced today. Two additional defendants were also arrested Sunday for allegedly participating in the same Russian intelligence program within the United States. Some of the Russians adopted Irish names in their spy work, including using the names Murphy and Foley.
Information they were seeking was pretty broad based but it included at least one report about gold. Moscow relayed back to the spies that the gold report was "very valuable" and reported that it was passed on to Russia's finance minister.
Also, according to the complaint, one spy, "Cynthia Murphy," was developing a relationship with a prominent New York financier. The financier is apparently a big political money raiser and has a close friend in the Cabinet.
The most interesting question is, of course, what kind of information could the spies have turned over about gold that Moscow deemed as "very valuable"? And let the guessing game begin as to who the "prominent New York financier" is.
It should also be noted that this decade long investigation was publicly revealed just days after Obama and Russian President Medvedev shared hamburgers together.Added Nov 27, 2013
"What happens after a disaster? What happens after 'The Flood'?
This is the bands third album was recorded at House Of Loud in New Jersey and produced by David Bendeth. The record is set for a January release on Rise Records. Restoring Force, is described in the press releases as "more than just a collection of songs but fundamentally a return to equilibrium - solidifying the sound our band has been developing over the years, incorporating Aaron for the first time & pushing ourselves to write the most meaningful material Of Mice & Men has ever released. This was by far the most in-depth writing & recording processes we've ever been through."
The release dates for the album is somewhat different depending on region, Release dates: 1/24/14: EU/AU, 1/27/14: UK/JP and 1/28/14: US.
There are different pre-order bundles available, including autographed versions of the album. Check out the site by using the link below.
Also added the lyric video to "You're Not Alone".Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Motion to withdraw from General Orders and be re-referred to Committee on Public Health and Welfare. The motion failed. 501
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Amendment by Senator Haley was rejected Yea: 8 Nay: 27 501
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Motion to Amend - Offered by Senator Haley 501
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Amendment by Senator Francisco was rejected Yea: 8 Nay: 28 500
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Motion to Amend - Offered by Senator Francisco 500
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Amendment by Senator Francisco was rejected 500
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Motion to Amend - Offered by Senator Francisco 500
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Amendment by Senator Pettey was rejected Yea: 10 Nay: 28 500
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Motion to Amend - Offered by Senator Pettey 500
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Amendment by Senator Francisco was adopted 498
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Motion to Amend - Offered by Senator Francisco 498
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Amendment by Senator Francisco was rejected Yea: 8 Nay: 28 499
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Motion to Amend - Offered by Senator Francisco 499
Mon, Apr 01, 2013 Senate Committee of the Whole - Amendment by Senator Haley was rejected Yea: 9 Nay: 28 498New Years Sale Now On!!! - Buy now to save ahead of improvements coming in early 2018!! The Clipboard feature is now available in this update - The description went out incorrectly previously which is why the function appeared to be missing. We have more planned for remote clipboard and this is just an early version of it for you to try out. After getting this version open it on your devices to make sure the endpoints are registered, it may take a few minutes for the new feature to start working - I'm working with the Microsoft API to further improve speed and reliability where possible. New feature in 1.6.1: Remote Clipboard feature added correctly New feature in 1.4.2: Remote Dialler added to Hand Off Hand Off provides a set of tools to help you work seamlessly across your Windows 10 devices. Use the core "Hand Off" feature to continue a task on another device, the Remote Dialler feature lets you trigger a new call on a second device, and Remote Clipboard lets you quickly send content between your devices. Hand Off continues to get new features which will be free to existing owners of the Windows 10 app. We are dedicated to making this the best tool to help you work seamlessly across all your devices. Hand Off Core: Continue your task on another Windows 10 device by "handing off" from your Phone or PC to another PC, Phone, or even your Xbox One! Found a web page on your phone and want to continue reading it on your PC or Xbox? Just use the share option and select this app to load up the page on another of your Windows 10 devices within seconds. This app acts as a share target and allows you to continue a number of tasks on another of your Windows 10 devices. Here are just some of the things you can do with the original Hand Off feature: - Share the URL of your current page in Edge to continue browsing on another device - From Groove on your phone, hand off to your PC by sharing an Album or Artist to view it on your PC or vice versa - Share an article from the Windows Central app - If you have "Apps for Websites" enabled it will load the article in the WC app on your other device - Share an app from the store to quickly get to the store listing on another device - Share a location you found in the Windows Maps to view it in the maps app on another device There are many other ways to use the sharing feature with this app, experiment by using the share option in other apps you have on your devices. Remote Dialler: Trigger a call on your Windows Phone from your PC - New improvements are coming to this feature in the next update to make this feature integrate even more seamlessly with Windows 10 Remote Clipboard: Quickly send text content between your devices and easily access this from the clipboard on your remote device. Perfect for quickly sharing text from one device to another. Please note: You must be signed into your Windows devices with the same Microsoft Account to use the app as intendedI just want to say thanks for all of the get well wishes I’ve been getting through comments and email from you guys. It means a lot and I appreciate it so much!
I’m feeling so much better these past few days although I did have to give up coffee and all caffeine for now. That’s been easier than I thought it would be so far, but I miss my coffee…a LOT! It’s not just the buzz, it’s the taste and the whole morning ritual of it. Decaf just doesn’t do the trick for me – it’s like….um…. Well I just sat here for five minutes and couldn’t think of a funny simile – I mean seriously, I’ve got nothing here, which isn’t like me. I blame the lack of caffeine in my system. Hopefully I can still get my snark on without it…
Meanwhile, let’s talk about artichokes! A lot of people are intimidated by them because of how they look. I’ll grant you, it’s not easy to get to the good stuff, but it’s so worth it when you do! I used to eat them all the time and I’d just pop a couple in the microwave and zap the heck out of them until they got nice and soft. But there is something about roasting them that makes them even sweeter and more delicious.
This is a very easy way to prep them, which is great for a dinner party because you slide them in the oven to roast while you make the rest of the meal, and then just drizzle a simple lemon tarragon butter over them to serve.
Roasted Artichokes w/ Lemon Tarragon Butter Author: Mellissa Sevigny
Yield: 8 halves
Category: Side dish
Cuisine: Vegetables Ingredients 4 artichokes
olive oil
salt and pepper
4 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp fresh tarragon, chopped Instructions Wash your artichokes and cut in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, carve out the hairy “choke” in the center along with the tiny, pointy leaves. When you are done they should look like the picture above. They will oxidize quickly, so you can drop them in lemon water if it’s your first time and you’re a little slow at it. Place them on a baking sheet and drizzle them with olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour (depending on size of artichoke, large ones could be longer) at 375 degrees (F) or until the heart is fork tender. Meanwhile, gently melt the butter in a small saucepan, add the lemon juice and cook for one minute. Remove from the heat and add the chopped tarragon. To serve, ladle a few teaspoons of the lemon butter over each artichoke. Use the center “cup” of the artichoke for dipping. Notes The tarragon enhances the slight anise flavor in the artichokes and makes them taste somehow sweet which is then balanced out by the tartness of the lemon. I don’t know how exactly to explain the flavor, but it’s delicious! To eat these simply peel the leaves out starting from the center and scrape the tender part off with your teeth. Serve with a small dish to put the discarded leaves into. Once you get all the leaves off you are left with the heart which is the absolute best part – dip that sucker into the butter and go to town! MY LATEST VIDEOS MY LATEST VIDEOS
Mmmmm….mmmmm….Good!Really cool runnings: Incredible 360 degree video which allows you to look in ANY direction as skier zips down mountainside
Professional skier Bruno Kernen has used a special camera on his helmet to capture the stunning video
In the clip he can be seen racing down the Lauberhorn, the longest run in the world, at speeds of up to 100mph
Arrows at the bottom of the video allow watchers to spin through 360 degrees and watch from every angle
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With the ski season well underway now is the time of year that many holidaymakers will be jetting off to the pistes of Europe for some fun in the snow.
But if you have been left stranded at home this winter longing for the enjoyment of the slopes, or just prefer a pair of slippers to ski boots, then fear not - as this amazing 360 degree video will let you enjoy the thrill from your computer.
Using the arrows at the bottom of this clip, you can watch from every angle as professional ski racer Bruno Kernen zips down the 2.7 mile-long Lauberhorn mountain track in the Swiss Alps at speeds approaching 100mph.
In order to rotate the video press and hold on the arrows at the bottom, or hold down the left mouse button and drag it across the video screen
Bruno Krenen has captured the longest professional ski run in the world using a specially adapted camera on his helmet allowing it to be viewed from every angle
The camera can be rotated through a full 360 degrees. This shot comes from the same point on the course as the previous one, but viewed from Krenen's left hand side
Using a specially adapted camera fixed on to his helmet, Kernen has captured the longest downhill race track in the world, allowing people to watch as the flags zip past his face, or rotate the lens to watch the slope disappear into the distance.
Using the magnifying glass keys, viewers can also zoom in and out for a closer look at the scenery of the famous mountain range, though the speed at which Kernen takes the corners of the run might make it difficult to concentrate.
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and fair. Opposition figures said they would not contest the result but they said victory had been achieved thanks to huge government funding and blanket state television coverage. Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez told the BBC's Newshour programme on Sunday that the campaign had been heavily weighted towards Mr Chavez. "In 10 years we have had 15 elections, 15, and this has been the most unequal, the most abusive campaign of all. "So that's why you are seeing more propaganda, more campaigning, more advertisement for the 'yes' vote." Challenges ahead Under existing constitutional rules, the president was limited to two six-year terms in office, which meant that Mr Chavez would have had to leave the presidency in three years' time. CHAVEZ DECADE: KEY DATES Feb 1999: Takes office after winning 1998 election July: Re-elected under new constitution for a six-year term April 2002: Abortive coup. Chavez returns to power after two days August 2004: Wins recall referendum on whether he should serve out rest of his term Dec 2006: Wins another six-year term with 63% Dec 2007: Loses constitutional referendum which included proposal to allow the president to run indefinitely for office Feb 2009: Wins referendum that lifts term limits on elected officials A proposal to end presidential term limits was one of a package of 69 constitutional changes narrowly rejected in a referendum in late 2007. Victory this time round was by a wider margin than many analysts and opinion polls had predicted. BBC Latin America analyst James Painter says it seems President Chavez managed to persuade more of his supporters to vote, as turnout was considerably higher than in 2007. One factor was probably the change in the wording of the question, so that this time voters decided on whether term limits would be lifted for all officials not just the president. President Chavez now faces the daunting task of grappling with the global economic crisis in a country dependent on oil exports, our correspondent says. Venezuela has the highest inflation in Latin America, running at just under 30% a year. There are also serious domestic problems such as violent crime that Mr Chavez will need to tackle in the next four years if he is to repeat his success in the presidential elections of 2012, our correspondent adds.
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionThe anime adaptation of Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou, or “Everyday Life with Monster Girls” has come and passed, leaving everyone who watched it who isn’t currently busy fighting the Great Monster Fetish War wanting their own everyday life with a monster girl.
“The show really opened my eyes, and showed me that everyone has a monster girl waiting for them out there somewhere to cater to their tastes”, began Reddit user /u/POP_A_PAPI. “Sure, we all argued about who the best girl in the show was […], and some went off to fight the Great War, which is useless since we all know […]. It’s like that, ya know?”**
**Note: Parts of Mr. POP_A_PAPI’s interview were omitted to prevent fetish-related cyberbullying.
Monmusu‘s influence has stretched further than this, though. After the series’ finale, Yoshihiro Togashi’s agent announced that the landmark manga HunterxHunter would be returning to a weekly format. Apparently after developing affection towards Monmusu‘s slime heroine, Togashi was unable to continue playing Dragon Quest, where slimes are a common enemy.
Unable to find any companionship on Earth, the fetishists have been looking towards the heavens to deliver their monster girls to them. Anime Maru traveled to the headquarters of the Atlantic Astronomy Association to ask about how space has, quite literally, become the final frontier and the final option for the Monster Girl fandom.
“We get dozens of letters every day asking if we’ve found these so-called ‘monster girls’ yet” says Jerg Pvetsen, a head research representative of the AAA. “Most of them are covered in greasy fingerprints, naturally, although a disturbing number have had bits of cobwebs in the envelopes. I regret to inform everyone sending us letters that we astronomers are much more focused on finding a planet in the universe that could even support simple life forms, much less alien ‘monster girls’ that fall in love with humans on a whim”.
It seems as though the battle will rage on for the Monmusu fans. Where the battle will go from this point on, we here at Anime Maru can only guess.An East-West clash over a Swiss referendum last week banning the construction of mosque minarets heated up today as Iran's foreign minister warned of unspecified "consequences" if the ban were enforced.
Manouchehr Mottaki spoke on the phone with his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey. Switzerland and Iran generally have good relations. The Swiss serve as Washington's representative in the Iranian capital in the absence of formal relations between America and the Islamic Republic, giving them exalted status in Tehran's diplomatic circles.
But Mottaki had harsh words for Switzerland, saying enforcement of the ban on new minarets was “against the prestige of a country which claims to be an advocate of democracy and human rights" and would "damage Switzerland’s image as a pioneer of respecting human rights among Muslims' public opinion," according to a report by the official Islamic Republic News Agency, or IRNA.media coverage flying tent
flying tent rendering
Description
You can use the flying tent as floating tent between two trees,
as well as a bivy tent on the ground.
floating tent
bivy tent
By removing the upper section using the zipper on the side you can easily turn the flying tent into a traditional hammock.
The optional use of the hammock as rain poncho protects you from bad weather conditions.
hammock and rain poncho
poncho
smart solution - adjustable in length
What's your color?
You can choose Your flying tent out of three colors - sunset, grasshopper and ocean view.
choose your color
Details
You know the moment when you struggle setting up your tent? Not with us.
The technically innovative, patent pending solution with its fibreglass poles is based on the simplistic function of throw tents and allows an uncomplicated setup within 7 seconds. Due to the ultralight materials and valuable workmanship the flying tent weighs only 1,2 kg/ 2.64 lbs.
To ensure a long lasting product we manufacture with high quality and weather resistant materials.
flying tent facts, features & benefits
hydrostatic head rating of 5000mm
It blows away any other hammock solution. No more mosquito bites, stay whereever, whenever you want. We keep the mosquitos away.
mosquito protection
The flying tent has a clever ventilation system. On the bottom cool fresh air gets in trough inlet and escapes at the crescent –shaped vent windows on head and foot end.
ventilation system
Smart Packaging
Our smart and small packaging size of 40 x 34 x 4 cm or 15.7 x 13.4 x 1.6 inches makes flying tent applicable in any situation.
smart and small packaging
fixed on backpack
easy fixing for biking
minimal size for hiking
ideal for fishing - set up fast and go
reliable companion on Your next family camping day
one product - lots of possibilites
tent dimensions
Project Timeline
flying tent timeline
Stretch Goals
Stretch goals
Our philosophy
We have moved ourselves away from nature. Our lifestyles don’t allow us to spend much time outdoors anymore. We, the flying tent team, think that it’s about time that we reconnect with our source. “I’m simply out”, to capture awake emotions and leave the daily grind behind for a few hours.
Mission
Whether in the Austrian countryside or mountains on our doorstep – the outdoors is our passion. Our mission is to share this passion: with smart and reliable outdoor gear, independent and free outdoors.
Vision
The flying tent is not a single product, but the start of a vision for fully enjoying nature and travelling. Our Vision: “Smart outdoor gear with freedom and lightness on top for all people, who are looking for the ‘simply out’“.
Two trees for one flying tent
Our hearts beat for nature and the environment. For that reason we want to plant two trees for each pre-ordered flying tent on a piece of land.
Team
the highly motivated team
Why we need your support
Until now we have developed a number of fully operative prototypes. Although we were able to finance the flying tent up to this point on our own, we now need your support to produce the first batch of flying tent.
Please help us make flying tent happen and take the chance to keep Your feet off the ground on your next outdoor adventure.
How you can support
By supporting us by reward you help us to produce the the first batch of flying tent.
Additional ways to support and help flying tent succeed:
tell your friends and family about flying tent
invite your friends to our facebook page and to this campaign
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Thanks to our supporter and especially to the incredible crew!
Video created by: Elias Jerusalem (2dream productions)
DoP: Ulrich Neuburg (frameworld.at) & Elias Jerusalem (2dream productions)
This project is promoted by Jellop, a direct response online advertising agency specializing in Kickstarter campaigns on Facebook Ads and Google AdWords.The theories of evolution and the Big Bang are real and God is not “a magician with a magic wand”, Pope Francis has declared.
Speaking at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pope made comments which experts said put an end to the “pseudo theories” of creationism and intelligent design that some argue were encouraged by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.
Francis explained that both scientific theories were not incompatible with the existence of a creator – arguing instead that they “require it”.
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.
“When we read about Creation in Genesis, we run the risk of imagining God was a magician, with a magic wand able to do everything. But that is not so,” Francis said.
Shape Created with Sketch. World's most popular religions Show all 7 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. World's most popular religions 1/7 Christians Source: Pewforum Getty Images 2/7 Muslims Source: Pewforum 3/7 Hindus Source: Pewforum 4/7 Buddhists Source: Pewforum 5/7 Folk Religions Source: Pewforum Getty Images 6/7 Other religions Source: Pewforum 7/7 Jews Source: Pewforum Getty 1/7 Christians Source: Pewforum Getty Images 2/7 Muslims Source: Pewforum 3/7 Hindus Source: Pewforum 4/7 Buddhists Source: Pewforum 5/7 Folk Religions Source: Pewforum Getty Images 6/7 Other religions Source: Pewforum 7/7 Jews Source: Pewforum Getty
“The Big Bang, which today we hold to be the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of the divine creator but, rather, requires it.
“Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”
The Catholic Church has long had a reputation for being anti-science – most famously when Galileo faced the inquisition and was forced to retract his “heretic” theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun.
But Pope Francis’s comments were more in keeping with the progressive work of Pope Pius XII, who opened the door to the idea of evolution and actively welcomed the Big Bang theory. In 1996, John Paul II went further and suggested evolution was “more than a hypothesis” and “effectively proven fact”.
Yet more recently, Benedict XVI and his close advisors have apparently endorsed the idea that intelligent design underpins evolution – the idea that natural selection on its own is insufficient to explain the complexity of the world. In 2005, his close associate Cardinal Schoenborn wrote an article saying “evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense – an unguided, unplanned process – is not”.
Giovanni Bignami, a professor and president of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics, told the Italian news agency Adnkronos: “The pope’s statement is significant. We are the direct descendents from the Big Bang that created the universe. Evolution came from creation.”
Giulio Giorello, professor of the philosophy of science at Milan’s University degli Studi, told reporters that he believed Francis was “trying to reduce the emotion of dispute or presumed disputes” with science.
Despite the huge gulf in theological stance between his tenure and that of his predecessor, Francis praised Benedict XVI as he unveiled a bronze bust of him at the academy's headquarters in the Vatican Gardens.
“No one could ever say of him that study and science made him and his love for God and his neighbour wither,” Francis said, according to a translation by the Catholic News Service.
“On the contrary, knowledge, wisdom and prayer enlarged his heart and his spirit. Let us thank God for the gift that he gave the church and the world with the existence and the pontificate of Pope Benedict.”
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
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Subscribe nowIn my most recent post about Ferguson, someone in the comment string assumed (and probably with good reason) that I was talking about policing in general and so asked about my thoughts about the necessity of policing in a socialist context. Actually-existing socialisms have possessed the institution of police, after all, and so it was assumed that my comments about policing applied to these contexts. To be clear and extremely simplistic: they do not.A following comment, most probably by a well-intentioned anarchist, demonstrated some understanding of where I stood on this issue and pointed out that while communists (at least of the Leninist/Maoist variety) often took a correct position against the police under capitalism, their theory of the dictatorship, if actualized, would produce "police states." Although I disagree with a historical analysis that filters all successful revolutions through the hermeneutic of "totalitarianism"––and, in this vein, often feel that many of these anarchist critiques are hampered by bourgeois "common sense" ideology––it presents me with an opportunity to briefly unpack my thoughts about the necessity of some mechanism of state repression following a revolution and the distinction between the institution of the police in socialist and non-socialist contexts.Let's begin with an axiom that should be treated as uncontroversial by the majority of marxists and many anti-capitalists: in a class-based society the institution of the police, along with the army, are a repressive state apparatus that exist primarily to defend the interests of whatever class is in command. That is, the institution of the police primarily function so as to ensure the "social peace" of the ruling class. Therefore, in capitalist modes of production the main function of the police (and the army) is to repress those classes that challenge the bourgeoisie, in whatever manner this challenge emerges, so as to secure the rule of capital. In the context of Ferguson, as in the context of so many other examples, this function should be clear. These are the moments where the confused complexity of social reality is stripped down to its essential basis and state repression, manifesting as phalanxes of riot cops, is brutally evident.But if socialism is a social formation in which the proletariat is in command then, as Lenin argues in, the expropriated machinery of the state needs to be used against the defeated bourgeois class so as to ensure the dictatorship of the proletariat over the defeated, but always desperate to return, dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. (Despite the arcane debates over the equivocation of the dictatorship of the proletariat with socialism, as evinced by the debates on this post, I side with Balibar's argument that the social formation of socialismthe dictatorship of the proletariat, a challenged transitionary period to communism.) Hence the emergence of policing institutions that are not embedded in capitalism, the possibility and necessity of policing that is determined by the ideology of an ascendant proletarian class, where the repressive state apparatus is brought to bear against those who wielded it against the classes that challenged bourgeois hegemony. This is because socialism is still a class-based society; toppling capitalism today will not suddenly produce the structures required to build a revolutionary society. Moreover, to even topple capitalism requires a counter-hegemonic movement, and not movementism which has led nowhere due to its strategic deficiencies, that will produce its own militarization, i.e. the nascent seeds of a socialist repressive state apparatus.To argue that the repressive state apparatus––that is, institutions designed for class pacification be they police or the army––is necessary for socialism is, of course, anathema to the average anarchist. So it is here that I again part ways with anarchism, that utopianism of my past, a confused body of theory that was generally under the assumption that communism could be accomplished without seizing the state and repressing the bourgeoisie and its ideology. Opposed to the idea of policing, and homogenizing capitalist and socialist policing, anarchism generally assumes that a post-capitalist utopia can be achieved without having to deal with the problem of state power and the appropriation of its repressive apparatus. To be honest, this was one of the (many) reasons that I stopped being an anarchist: I began to think about what it would require to deal with all of the reactionaries who would never accept communism, particularly those who would be inclined to start a counter-revolution, and realized that anarchism, unlike the theory developed through world historical revolutions, lacked an answer.(Even still, at least the serious and militant anarchists understand what it means to be anti-cop in the bourgeois context, unlike so many marxists who enjoy their cop-protected marches and spit on anything resembling militancy. This is especially amusing in the case of Ferguson where the same organizations who argued against militancy, and a respect for bourgeois law, hypocritically critique the very policing institutions they have no problem implicitly defending in their day-to-day practice. So in this context, up with militant anarchism.)Invectives about socialist "police states", aside from their basis in a cold-war understanding of communism, are generally moralistic. Based on an understanding of reality that locates capitalism's persistence in authoritarianism and hierarchy, a movement that develops from this understanding is usually incapable of understanding the necessity of organization, discipline, and what needs to happen if a revolution is to be sustained. To correctly grasp the failures of actually existing socialism is to realize that these revolutions turned in upon themselves not because of authoritarianism and a totalitarianism that did not really exist but because of an inability to eliminate bourgeois ideology and thus the return of the bourgeois as a class.The repressive state apparatus is not the mode of production itself, nor is it some authoritarian stand-in for a transhistorical state. The police and the military of capitalist states are similar only in function to the police and military of pre-capitalist states: both exist to preserve class power but both are essentially different because of the class power they defend. The former, once in power, brutally suppressed the defeated elements of the latter because a repressive state apparatus that defends a competing mode of production––that is, an entire social formation with another class in command––cannot be tolerated by a set of institutions who exist to defend that class which holds power. This analysis, of course, is lifted right out of Althusser who argued, in, "[w]ith possession of state power comes power over the state apparatuses [repressive and ideological], which constitute the very 'nature' of the state." What class holds power is key, and the repressive state apparatus of capitalism will be similar to the repressive state apparatus of socialism only insofar as they exist to maintain the power of this class, beyond this they possess a different content.(To be fair to those anarchists who do have a sophisticated analysis, such apparatusesto possess a different content and, as we know, what ought to be is not always the same as what actually takes place. When state apparatuses are simply taken over rather than being smashed and replaced, all that happens is a red-washing of structures and institutions that were generated to protect the interests of the previous social order: that class hegemony will linger, its individuals still possessing a conscious counter-revolutionary subjectivity, and a counter-revolution in the form of a coup is likely. Chile is a good example of this switching-up of state power without demolishing and replacing the mechanisms of repression with new ones developed through revolutionary struggle: Pinochet, we must remember, was a high-ranking army official before Allende was in power and, since this army was filled with people who thought similar to Pinochet, was promoted several times before the coup––it was not as if his politics were secret.)The history of actually existing socialism teaches us that, following a revolution, the bourgeoisie will attempt to return as a class. This is why socialism should be understood as the dictatorship of the proletariat since classes still exist and so the state will continue to exist, though under the command of the revolutionary class, until both it and classes are forced to wither away. We have witnessed the return of the bourgeoisie, following the emergence of "capitalist roaders", first in the Soviet Union and then in China. We cannot assume that the repression in the former USSR under Lenin and Stalin was simply a collection of baseless show-trials and megalomaniacal repression when even liberal scholars such as J. Arch Getty (who is recognized as one of the most important academic scholars on the former Soviet Union) have demonstrated that there were actual conspiracies to destroy socialism. As I have noted before, reactionaries will continue to exist––we can't just assume that sexists, racists, homophobes, etc. will just change their mind––as will the lure of bourgeois ideology. [EDIT: just to be clear, the aforelinked article about "gulags" is mainly tongue-and-cheek because, as a Maoist, I actually do not think that the "Stalinist" way of repressing state enemies is a good thing.]Of course, the way in which a socialist repressive state apparatus can and should exist needs to be understood as different from the way in which such an apparatus functions under capitalism. Once again the experience of the Soviet Union can teach us about the way in which socialist repression erred and most probably helped promote the return of capitalism. Indeed, in the exchange of polemics between the Soviet Union and China during the 1960s, Chinese communists argued that the Soviet Union under Stalin: "confused two types of contradictions which are different in nature, contradictions between ourselves and the enemy and contradictions among the people… In the work led by Stalin of suppressing the counter-revolution, many counter-revolutionaries deserving punishment were duly punished, but at the same time there were innocent people who were wrongly convicted; and in 1937 and 1938 there occurred the error of enlarging the scope of the suppression of counter-revolutionaries."If socialism is a social formation that is still defined by class struggle––but one in which the class terms of capitalism have been reversed––then this struggle will happen in every institution as well as the institutions designed to protect socialism. For if the line struggle between the communist and capitalist roads happens in the revolutionary party itself, as history has shown us, then it will be reflected by those forces commanded by the party. Or perhaps the party will lose control of the repressive state apparatus, failing to put politics in command, and the gun will command the party rather than the party commanding the gun.This last point about placing politics in command is essential to understand how a socialist repressive state apparatus should differ from the capitalist version. A peoples police force, and a peoples army, that is ideologically educated according to socialist hegemony (and do not imagine that capitalist cops and soldiers do not receive a similar education––this is why their ranks are not easily split), and thus a force that is taught to actually serve the people, is essential. This would mean a different detention system that focuses on rectification so as to cease existing altogether, as well as a different relationship between the police/army and the masses. We saw this different relationship expressed during the Cultural Revolution, just as we saw a different relationship between the people's army and the people during the Chinese Revolution (despite the unsubstantiated claims of reactionary historians), where a mass-line between the people and the state was, however messily, applied.I am not saying that the problem of policing socialism has been solved by the experience of the two great world historical revolutions of the 20th Century. Such a claim would be absurd because, as we know, these states ultimately failed to police/protect socialism and it is worth studying their mistakes in this area to think about what it would take to produce the kind of socialist policing that would, if another dictatorship of the proletariat ever emerges, be capable of doing a better job protecting socialism with the aim of ending both itself and the state. What is significant about these failures, though, is that they exist in the context of actually making revolution and so can tell us something, rather than baseless critiques delivered from a theoretical position of having done nothing to even warrant failure in the first place. (As an aside, I make a similar point in my upcoming book and so I shall take this opportunity to plug it yet again.)But if we are to learn anything from these failures we need to do in the context of the successes of these revolutionary experiences, lessons that may possess universal applicability. Revolution teaches us about revolutionary theory, not theories that have stayed "pure" because they have failed to make revolution. Most probably the institutions designed to protect socialism will be born in the revolutionary struggle against capitalism, in the peoples trials and peoples laws established in those base areas that offer an alternative to capitalism––places where people would seek justice from a revolutionary community instead of the still existent capitalist state. For if the aim of socialism is the end of the state formation and classes, policing/repression under socialism must also aim at ending itself and all of its institutions––and this goal is what makes it, though the same in form, different in essence from capitalist policing.SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — While it might not be news that the 16th Street Mission BART station is incredibly dirty, the fact that a member of the transit agency’s Board of Directors is taking a hands-on approach to fix the problem has garnered some attention.
The problems at the station are rampant between the trash, the graffiti and some messes that clean-up crews have trouble identifying.
Bevan Dufty, a member of the Board of Directors for BART, told KPIX 5 he’s had enough.
“I’m at lagerheads a bit with the BART executive management who are telling me a million reasons why, in this billion dollar budget, I can’t get a daytime cleaner here at 16th and Mission,” explained Dufty.
It was after learning that arguably one of the dirtiest stations in the system did not have a full-time, day shift janitor that he decided to grab a broom and come down to the Mission once a week to clean.
Currently there is a cleaner who comes on duty in the afternoon at 16th Street. Dufty specifically wants a daytime cleaner who works at 7 a.m.
He says he was told by BART management that they would have to take a janitor from the suburbs to move on into the city. Dufty counters that is not true because there are unfilled job openings at BART for janitors and the transit agency could hire someone specifically for the 16th Mission station.
Dufty says he knows it’s unusual to pick up a broom and a dustpan, but he’s trying to make a point.
He is also getting some high-profile help. Last Wednesday morning, BART Police Chief Carlos Rojas lent a hand. This week, Supervisor Hillary Ronen will pitch in.
“I’m kind of rattling the door and saying, ‘Come on, don’t give me excuses. Let’s do things,'” said Dufty.
When asked if he was concerned about people possibly saying that he is grandstanding with the public clean-up, he replied, “I’m not saying I’m great. I’m not running for any other office. I’m saying this is my responsibility. The conditions at this station are unacceptable. And I’m going to keep coming out here until we get this situation resolved.”
KPIX 5 asked BART management for comment, but has received no response from the transit agencyMost analysts consider WWI a pointless conflict that resulted from diplomatic entanglements rather than some travesty of justice or aggression. Yet, it was catastrophic to a generation of Europeans, killing 14 million people.[i]
The United States joined this unnecessary war a few years into the hostilities, costing many American lives, even though the U.S. was not party to the alliances that had drawn other nations into the fray. This even though Americans had been strongly opposed to entering the war and Woodrow Wilson had won the presidency with the slogan, “He kept us out of war.”[ii]
President Wilson changed course in 1917 and plunged the U.S. into that tragic European conflict. Approximately 320,000 Americans were killed or injured.[iii] Over 1,200 American citizens who opposed the war were rounded up and imprisoned, some for years.[iv]
A number or reasons were publicly given for Wilson‘s change of heart, including Germany‘s submarine warfare, Germany’s sinking of the British passenger ship Lusitania,[v] and a diplomatic debacle known as the Zimmerman Telegram episode.[vi] Historians also add pro-British propaganda and economic reasons to the list of causes, and most suggest that a number of factors were at play.
While Americans today are aware of many of these facts, few know that Zionism appears to have been one of those factors. [Zionism was a political movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine. When this movement began, in the late 1800s, the population of Palestine was 96 percent Muslim and Christian. The large majority of Jews around the world were not Zionists.]
Diverse documentary evidence shows that Zionists pushed for the U.S. to enter the war on Britain’s side as part of a deal to gain British support for their colonization of Palestine.
From the very beginning of their movement, Zionists realized that if they were to succeed in their goal of creating a Jewish state on land that was already inhabited by non-Jews, they needed backing from one of the “great powers.”[vii] They tried the Ottoman Empire, which controlled Palestine at the time, but were turned down (although they were told that Jews could settle throughout other parts of the Ottoman empire and become Turkish citizens).[viii]
They then turned to Britain, which was also initially less than enthusiastic. Famous English Middle East experts such as Gertrude Bell pointed out that Palestine was Arab and that Jerusalem was sacred to all three major monotheistic faiths.[ix]
Future British Foreign Minister Lord George Curzon similarly stated that Palestine was already inhabited by half a million Arabs who would “not be content either to be expropriated for Jewish immigrants or to act merely as hewers of wood and drawers of water for the latter.”[x]
However, once the British were embroiled in World War I, and particularly during 1916, a disastrous year for the Allies in which there were 60,000 British casualties in one day alone,[xi]Zionists were able to play a winning card. While they previously had appealed to religious or idealistic arguments, now Zionist leaders could add a particularly powerful motivator: telling the British government that Zionists in the U.S. would push America to enter the war on the side of the British, if the British promised to support a Jewish home in Palestine afterward.[xii]
In 1917 British Foreign Minister Lord Balfour issued a letter to Zionist leader Lord Rothschild. Known as the Balfour Declaration, this letter promised that Britain would “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and “use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object.”
The letter then qualified this somewhat by stating that it should be “clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” The “non-Jewish communities” were 92 percent of Palestine’s population at that time,[xiii] vigorous Zionist immigration efforts having slightly expanded the percentage of Jews living in Palestine by then.
The letter, while officially signed by British Foreign Minister Lord Balfour, had been in process for two years and had gone through a number of edits by British and American Zionists and British officials.[xiv] As Zionist leader Nahum Sokolow later wrote, “[e]very idea born in London was tested by the Zionist Organization in America, and every suggestion in America received the most careful attention in London.”[xv]
Sokolow wrote that British Zionists were helped, “above all, by American Zionists. Between London, New York, and Washington there was constant communication, either by telegraph, or by personal visit, and as a result there was perfect unity among the Zionists of both hemispheres.” Sokolow particularly praised “the beneficent personal influence of the Honourable Louis D. Brandeis, Judge of the Supreme Court.”[xvi]
The final version of the Declaration was actually written by Leopold Amery, a British official who, it came out later, was a secret and fervent Zionist.[xvii]
It appears that the idea for such a declaration had been originally promoted by Parushim founder Horace Kallen. [The Parushim was a secret Zionist society described by professor Sarah Schmidt and U.S. author Peter Grose; for more information and citations see Weir’s book.]
Author Peter Grose reports, “The idea had come to [the British] from an unlikely source. In November 1915, long before the United States was involved in the war, the fertile brain of Horace Kallen… had come up with the idea of an Allied statement supporting in whatever veiled way was deemed necessary, Jewish national rights in Palestine.”
Grose writes that Kallen suggested the idea to a well-connected British friend who would pass the idea along. According to Kallen, such a statement “would give a natural outlet for the spontaneous pro-English, French, and Italian sympathies of the Jewish masses.” Kallen told his friend that this would help break down America’s neutrality, which Kallen knew was the aim of British diplomacy, desperate to bring the U.S. into the war on its side.
Grose writes: “Kallen‘s idea lit a spark of interest in Whitehall.”[xviii]
While the “Balfour Declaration” was a less than ringing endorsement of Zionism, Zionists considered it a major breakthrough, because it cracked open a door that they would later force wider and wider open. In fact, many credit this as a key factor in the creation of Israel.[xix]
These Balfour-WWI negotiations are referred to in various documents.
Samuel Landman, the secretary of the World Zionist Organization, described them in detail in a 1936 article in World Jewry. He explained that a secret “gentleman’s agreement” had been made in 1916 between the British government and Zionist leaders:
After an understanding had been arrived at between Sir Mark Sykes and [Zionists] Weizmann and Sokolow, it was resolved to send a secret message to Justice Brandeis that the British Cabinet would help the Jews to gain Palestine in return for active Jewish sympathy and for support in the USA for the Allied cause, so as to bring about a radical pro-Ally tendency in the United States.[xx]
Landman wrote that once the British had agreed to help the Zionists, this information was communicated to the press, which he reported rapidly began to favor the U.S. joining the war on the side of Britain.[xxi]
Landman claimed that Zionists had fulfilled their side of the contract and that it was “Jewish help that brought U.S.A. into the war on the side of the Allies,” thus causing the defeat of Germany.[xxii] He went on to state that this had “rankled” in Germany ever since and “contributed in no small measure to the prominence which anti-Semitism occupies in the Nazi programme.”
British Colonial Secretary Lord Cavendish also wrote about this agreement and its result in a 1923 memorandum to the British Cabinet, stating: “The object [of the Balfour Declaration] was to enlist the sympathies on the Allied side of influential Jews and Jewish organizations all over the world… [and] it is arguable that the negotiations with the Zionists…did in fact have considerable effect in advancing the date at which the United States government intervened in the war.”[xxiii]
Former British Prime Minister Lloyd George similarly referred to the deal, telling a British commission in 1935: “Zionist leaders gave us a definite promise that, if the Allies committed themselves to giving facilities for the establishment of a national home for the Jews in Palestine, they would do their best to rally Jewish sentiment and support throughout the world to the Allied cause. They kept their word.”[xxiv]
Brandeis University professor and author Frank E. Manuel reported that Lloyd George had testified in 1937 “that stimulating the war effort of American Jews was one of the major motives which, during a harrowing period in the European war, actuated members of the cabinet in finally casting their votes for the Declaration.”[xxv]
American career Foreign Service Officer Evan M. Wilson, who had served as Minister-Consul General in Jerusalem, also described this arrangement in his book Decision on Palestine. He wrote that the Balfour declaration “…was given to the Jews largely for the purpose of enlisting Jewish support in the war and of forestalling a similar promise by the Central Powers [Britain’s enemies in World War I]”.[xxvi]
The official biographer of Lloyd George, author Malcolm Thomson, stated that the “determining factor” in the decision to issue the Balfour Declaration was the “scheme for engaging by some such concession the support of American Zionists for the allied cause in the first world war.”[xxvii]
Similarly, Zionist historian Naomi Cohen calls the Balfour Declaration a “wartime measure,” and writes: “Its immediate object was to capture Jewish sympathy, especially in the United States, for the Allies and to shore up England’s strategic interests in the Near East.” The Declaration was pushed, she writes, “by leading Zionists in England and by Brandeis, who intervened with President Wilson.”[xxviii]
Finally, David Ben-G |
No. 2 seed Illinois State the Guins came up just short dropping a 31-29 contest to the Redbirds.
YSU closed out October with a win at playoff qualifier Western Illinois to stay in the postseason hunt heading into November. After a big home win against Missouri State, the Guins dropped three-point contests in the final minute to North Dakota State and Indiana State.
The defense benefited the most from his take over as head coach in 2015.
YSU allowed just 288.7 yards of total offense per game the lowest total by the program since 2002. The Penguin defense allowed just 116.7 yards passing per contest, the lowest total since 1976 (116.1). The 41.1 completion percentage by the opposition was the lowest by an opponent since 1980 (40.6). The 83 pass completions allowed were the fewest since 1976 (79). The 145 first downs allowed were the fewest since 1975 (129).
In the FCS, the Penguins finished first in fewest passing yards allowed, tied for first in fewest first downs allowed, were fifth in pass-efficiency defense, seventh in total defense and ninth in third-down conversion defense.
Pelini began his duties as the seventh Head Coach in Youngstown State history on Dec. 17, 2014, bringing with him an impressive 21 years of coaching experience.
One of the most respected defensive minds on all levels of football, he is a graduate of Youngstown’s Cardinal Mooney High School and returns his hometown with some of the most impressive credentials in all of college football.
Of Pelini’s 25 years on the sidelines, 16 have been either as a head coach or collegiate coordinator while nine were as a defensive assistant in the NFL. He was an assistant coach for a Super Bowl Champion (San Francisco) and a BCS National Champion (LSU). Altogether, he has coached in 12 bowl games, 11 NFL playoff games and six conference-title contests.
Overall, the 15 college teams Pelini has been a part of have compiled an impressive 149-59 record, winning at least nine games in all but three seasons. His defenses have posted 11 shutouts and held the opposition to seven points or fewer 70 times.
He is 94-50 in 11 full years as a head coach. In his four seasons with the Penguins, Pelini owns a 27-22 record.
Pelini became just the sixth coach in FBS history at a Power Five conference (Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) school to win nine games in each of his first seven campaigns. The others in the group include Osborne (Nebraska), Barry Switzer (Oklahoma), Earle Bruce (Ohio State), Steve Spurrier (Florida) and Mack Brown (Texas). Pelini and Alabama’s Nick Saban were the only two FBS coaches to notch nine-or-more wins in each season since 2008.
Nebraska Career
Pelini spent seven years as the Head Coach at the University of Nebraska where he guided the program to nine wins or more in each campaign, including 10 victories on three occasions. He posted a 67-27 record with the Cornhuskers and guided NU to four divisional titles in his tenure as head coach. Overall, he had a winning percentage of.712. His 67 wins trail only Tom Osborne and Bob Devaney on the NU wins list. The Huskers had 22 NFL draft picks as well.
Under his guidance, Nebraska was one of three schools to win at least nine games in each of the past six seasons, joining Alabama and Oregon. In his seven full years on the Husker sidelines, Pelini won 66 games, which was one more than Osborne did in his first seven campaigns at NU.
NU won 10 games in 2009, 2010 and 2012, and it appeared in the Big 12 Conference Championship Game in 2009 and 2010. The Huskers won the Big Ten Legends Division crown in 2012 and made the school’s lone appearance in the Big 10 title game that year.
Most recently, he led Nebraska to a 9-3 campaign in 2014 and a berth in the Holiday Bowl. The Huskers posted a 5-3 conference record marking the seventh straight season they had a winning conference record. Two Huskers (DE Randy Gregory and WR Kenny Bell) earned first-team All-Big Ten accolades, three were chosen as second-team honorees and six players were honorable-mention all-conference choices this past season.
One of his most high-profile players was defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, who finished his career as one of the most decorated defensive players in college football history. The first defensive lineman to be a finalist for the Heisman Trophy in 15 seasons, Suh finished fourth in the voting in 2009. He was also the first defensive player to be named the Associated Press Player of the Year, and he was a unanimous All-American. Suh’s hardware included the Outland, Lombardi, Nagurski and Bednarik awards. The award-winning season for Suh came just two seasons after LSU defensive tackle Glenn Dorsey won three major national awards and was an All-American while Pelini served as LSU’s defensive coordinator.
Not to be overshadowed with the on-field success were the academic accolades that were a key part of his Nebraska programs. In seven years, NU had 11 Academic All-America honorees (five first teamers), 20 CoSIDA Academic All-District selections and an impressive 145 student-athletes who earned academic all-conference honors.
Among his first six senior classes, 122 of the 132 student-athletes earned their degrees. That number should reach 136 of 146 at the conclusion of the 2014-15 academic year in May. Of the 14 seniors he coached in 2014, all are set to earn their degrees, including 13 who will graduate by the end of the fall semester.
Collegiate Coordinator Success
Pelini took over the Nebraska program after a highly successful five-year run as a collegiate defensive coordinator, including orchestrating NU’s defensive efforts in 2003. Pelini picked up his first college head coaching victory as NU’s interim coach in the 2003 Alamo Bowl against Michigan State.
Following his one year at Nebraska, Pelini served as the co-defensive coordinator at Oklahoma in 2004, helping the Sooners to the Big 12 title and BCS title game.
More defensive dominance followed in Pelini’s next two stops at Oklahoma and LSU.
Pelini served as the co-defensive coordinator on Bob Stoops’ staff at Oklahoma in 2004, helping the Sooners win a Big 12 title and reach the national championship game against USC. Oklahoma finished the season ranked sixth nationally in rush defense, 11th in scoring defense and 13th in total defense.
He then followed with three seasons as the defensive coordinator at LSU. In 2007, the Tigers won the BCS National Championship by knocking off Ohio State, 38-24.
In his three seasons as the defensive coordinator at LSU from 2005 to 2007, Pelini’s units helped the Tigers compile a 34-6 record, including the 2007 BCS national championship and the Southeastern Conference championship. The BCS title game in January of 2008 marked the third time in four years that Pelini was a part of a team that played in a BCS game.
The play of his defenses was a key part of LSU’s success. The Tigers ranked third in the nation in total defense in 2007, surrendering an average of 288.8 yards per game. LSU also ranked in the top 20 nationally in pass efficiency defense (3rd), passing yards allowed per game (9th), rush defense (14th) and scoring defense (17th). Dorsey was the nation’s most decorated defender in 2007, earning the Outland Trophy, the Lombardi Award and the Bronko Nagurski Trophy.
Pelini’s defenses have a history of swarming to the football. LSU forced 36 turnovers in 2007, the third-most takeaways in the country. The Tigers’ 2007 defensive success was the standard for Pelini at LSU, as each of his three LSU defenses ranked No. 3 nationally in total defense.
Pelini’s 2006 unit surrendered just 242.8 yards per game, the fewest by a Tiger team since 1976. A pair of Tigers earned first-team All-America honors, including Dorsey and safety LaRon Landry, who went on to become the sixth overall pick in the NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins.
In 2005, the Tigers allowed just 266.9 yards per game and ranked in the top 10 nationally in all four major defensive categories, including third in total defense, scoring defense and pass efficiency defense. Kyle Williams and Claude Wroten were both first-team All-America selections.
Professional Ranks
In addition to his five seasons as an assistant at the collegiate level, Pelini coached in the NFL for nine seasons, serving three years each with the San Francisco 49ers, New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers. In 1994, he was part of the 49ers’ Super Bowl Champion squad.
Pelini started in the NFL in 1994 as assistant secondary coach for the San Francisco 49ers. With the 49ers, Pelini coached in the Super Bowl, helping San Francisco to a 49-26 win over San Diego in Super Bowl XXIX. Pelini held that position for three years before moving to the Patriots. He spent three years as New England’s linebackers coach under current Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, helping the Patriots to a 27-21 record and two playoff appearances.
After three years with the Patriots, Pelini went on to coach the Packers’ linebackers for three seasons. In three years in Green Bay with coach Mike Sherman, the Packers posted a 33-15 record and advanced twice to the playoffs.
Pelini got his start in coaching in 1991, serving as a graduate assistant coach at Iowa under Hayden Fry. From there he moved into the high school ranks, serving as quarterbacks coach at Cardinal Mooney High School in 1993 before taking the leap to the 49ers.
Before Coaching
Pelini was a team captain and four-year letterman as a safety at Ohio State from 1987 to 1990. He was coached by Bruce in 1987 and John Cooper his final three seasons. Pelini helped the Buckeyes to a 15-8 record over his final two seasons as a starter, and he was a three-time selection to the Academic All-Big Ten team. As a senior co-captain Pelini received the “Bo Rein Award,” given annually to the Buckeyes’ most inspirational player.
After earning his bachelor’s degree in business marketing from Ohio State in 1990, Pelini completed his master’s degree in sports administration at Ohio University in 1992.
He and his wife, Mary Pat, have three children, a son, Patrick, and two daughters, Kate and Caralyn. Patrick is a student-athlete at Notre Dame. He is a member of the Fighting Irish football program.Yesterday Google announced the launch of YouTube TV, a US$35 bundle that lets subscribers watch more than 40 TV channels, including all four major U.S. broadcast networks. The announcement is not serendipitous in the slightest – we all saw this coming. How my fellow digital media buyers & planners take YouTube’s audience claims and value proposition is another story altogether. In a world that has purchased DVR and downloaded adblockers to communicate annoyance towards ads, marketers must not clog the breaks sold by YouTube with even more ads which only lap on top of those already in the programs. As a digital marketer, you will need to weigh the possibility of annoying a viewer with yet another intrusive ad. In an interview with WSJ, Neal Mohan claimed that the platform crossed an average of one billion hours of video a day, stating it exceeded 2016’s numbers. However, the image below suggests that the total number of YouTube streams were relatively flat to declining in the 2nd half of 2016.Clearly,Perhaps this particular piece of “audience data” needs independent verification. Which is a movement P&G’s Marc Pritchard is strongly pushing for from agencies and media partners. Clearly, with good reason too. It seems that YouTube TV is trying to insinuate itself into the spot cable business by selling national ads to advertisers who do not happen to be in the same shows. That’s not a very attractive proposition unless YouTube TV can tailor its buys on a market by market basis. Doing so creates many issues like ‘what do you do with those geographies that nobody wants?’. Or maybe YouTube is counting on some sort of geographical profiling system to make its offerings attractive to advertisers. Otherwise, how does YouTube determine who is watching and their marketing value? Perhaps, by analyzing their other online activities via Google? It sounds very experimental and if ad sales don’t pan out as expected, can YouTube continue to charge subs “skinny” subscriber rates? Or maybe YouTube is counting on some sort of geographical profiling system to make its offerings attractive to advertisers. Otherwise, how does YouTube determine who is watching and their marketing value? Perhaps, by analyzing their other online activities via Google? It sounds very experimental and if ad sales don’t pan out as expected, can YouTube continue to charge subs “skinny” subscriber rates? It’s likely that your agency qualifies for Google’s rebates program and will be pushing this new ad format towards you, even on an experimental level. While there is no harm in entertaining the pitch, be sure to raise the questions mentioned here to make sure your ad dollars are being spent wisely. Ignoring the bigger picture is risky. Forrester Research published a 2017 report that said one-third of CMO’s would be fired in 2017 for failing tp upskill in digital. Many a marketer have fallen into the ‘fear of missing out’ trap and become yet another statistic of the report. Ask questions, you have every right.In 1999, my family visited Disneyland. We happily rode the Small World ride. I was 12 at the time and my sister was 6. We loved every moment and our parents smiled with nostalgia.
At one time near the end, some lights suddenly shut off and rear lights illuminated the ceiling.
The moving display parts shut off and crew members wearing red overalls walked along them to help passengers in the boats onto the stages to direct them out of the building via emergency exits.
A voice came over the loudspeakers. “Disneyland thanks you for your visit. Please evacuate the attraction in an orderly fashion. Keep looking foward and follow the directions of staff. Thank you.”
The staff wouldn’t tell us much as they quickly ushered us out of the building. Ambulances were outside and a police car was parked in the main walkway. At the time, my mother still had her camera out and snapped a few photos of the crewmen and close-ups of the mechanical children.
She snapped a few last-minute photos of whatever to use up the last of the roll of film on the camera, since we were going to develop them later that afternoon, anyway. This was the last photo on the reel, aimed at the ceiling at the attraction.Roger Stone claims he was poisoned by political enemies. He appeared at Trump Tower in December with lesions on his face (above) he said were a symptom
Roger Stone has sensationally claimed he was poisoned by political enemies who wanted to kill him before he could 'debunk' their 'lie' that he knew Russians would hack the US election.
The longtime Trump supporter claimed to have been told by doctors that a mysterious and debilitating virus he was suddenly struck with in December was in fact polonium poisoning.
At the time, Stone had just been accused by the Obama administration of having prior knowledge Vladimir Putin was planning to meddle in the election.
He says the poisoning was an attempt to stop him from testifying at a Congressional Hearing where he claimed he could prove the accusation was a lie.
'I believe I was poisoned to stop me from exposing the Russian Hacking LIE b4 the Congressional Investigation,' Stone, 64, told his Twitter followers.
Appearing on fellow Trump loyalist Alex Jones's Info Wars earlier, he said he was targeted by the 'deep state' who wanted to stop him from revealing the truth.
'I became extremely ill. This manifested itself in over 14 days of high fever, delirium, night sweats, I had lesions on my chest and my face...
'The general consensus is I was poisoned. I was poisoned with polonium or a substance that has the characteristics of polonium and this made me exceedingly ill,' he said.
During a visit to Trump Tower on December 6, Stone had several small cuts to his face and neck.
While admitting he is an 'enemy' of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Stone said neither the couple nor the Russians were responsible for the apparent attempt on his life.
The 64-year-old shared his sensational claim on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon
Stone, a longtime Trump supporter who describes himself as one of the President-elect's advisers, has been accused of knowing Russia would hack the election
Failing to specify any specific culprit, he said: 'I come back to the deep state, I come back to our own people.
'This is about stopping the Trump agenda. I would blow the whistle on this whole bogus Russian narrative that they just won't let go of,' he said.
Polonium is a highly radioactive chemical which caused the 2006 murder of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko (above) after ingesting it
Polonium is a rare and highly radioactive chemical. It was used in the 2006 murder of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko who is believed to have been slipped the substance in a cup of tea.
His death sparked a lengthy inquiry but was later determined to have been likely ordered by Putin's regime because he was acting as a double agent.
Traces of polonium were also found on the clothes and personal effects of the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat who died in 2004.
Stone claims he was targeted as a 'whistle blower' who could pull apart claims made by Democrats that he and other members of Trump's closest circle were working alongside the Kremlin to hack Hillary Clinton's team.
A focal point of his book, The Making of The President: How Donald Trump Orchestrated A Revolution, is his 'debunking' of the theory.
Intelligence chiefs have directly accused Putin of ordering the hack on members of Hillary Clinton's circle and say it was a deliberate attempt to sway the election in Trump's favor
Stone, appearing on friend Alex Jones's Info Wars on Tuesday, said he was targeted by the 'deep state' who did not want him to testify at a Congressional hearing into the hack
President-elect Trump has repeatedly denied working alongside Russia to sway the election. A 'dirty dossier' produced by a British spy which apparently laid bare their close relationship has been repeatedly slapped down by the President-elect and his advisers
Stone describes it as a 'direct refutation' of claims made by Clinton's campaign manager John Podesta, arguably the most violated victim of the hack who saw thousands of personal and work emails pillaged by hackers and then released by WikiLeaks in the weeks before the election.
President Obama accused Putin of ordering the hack late last year and ordered a Congressional Hearing into it but Trump has never squarely laid blame with the Russians.
He has tirelessly denied working with Putin or his regime and most recently furiously rejected claims he frolicked with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel - an allegation included in a 'dirty dossier' produced by a British spy.
'I think it is a disgrace that information was let out. It is all fake news. It is phony stuff. It didn’t happen,' Trump said of the allegation.
The hearing took place on January 5 where intelligence chiefs shared their beliefs the hack could have been organized by senior Kremlin officials.
Senators called for tougher cyber-security protections to prevent future hacks.World's most renowned dictionary of the English language has said they are looking into how same-sex couples marrying in England and Wales will affect the word
The world’s most renowned dictionary of the English language has said the definition of ‘marriage’ will change to include gay people.
The home of the Oxford English Dictionary, England, has recently passed a law allowing same-sex couples to get married.
While the definition and the law did not change simultaneously, the brains behind the words say they will monitor how the word marriage changes over the next year.
Speaking to Gay Star News, an Oxford University Press spokeswoman said: ‘We continually monitor the words in our dictionaries, paying particular to those words whose usage is shifting, so yes, this will happen with marriage.’
As it currently stands, OxfordDictionaries.com defines marriage as being a ‘formal union of a man and a woman, typically as recognized by law, by which they become husband and wife.’
In a reference, it says marriage could also be ‘(in some jurisdictions) a union between partners of the same sex’.
Gay rights activists have long said this secondary reference is discriminatory, saying if it is law in any country it should be on the same ‘ranking’ as a heterosexual union.
‘We are constantly monitoring usage in this area in order to consider what revisions and updates we may need to make,’ the Oxford University Press spokeswoman added.
‘It’s worth pointing out that, as the OED is distinct from other dictionaries in being a historical record of the language, meanings of the past will remain, even while language changes and new ones are added.’
The definition of ‘marriage’ changed in the leading French dictionary before the law changed in France.
Instead of defining marriage as between a man and a woman, the Larousse changed it to a ‘solemn act between two same-sex or different-sex persons, who decide to establish a union’.
Other countries with marriage equality, such as Canada, define marriage by avoiding gender. The Canada Space Dictionary describes it as ‘the state of being a married couple voluntarily joined for life (or until divorce)’.
Queen Elizabeth II passed same-sex marriage in England and Wales into law on 17 July. The first gay weddings are expected to take place in summer 2014.CLOSE The American Legion Walter L. Fox Post #2 near Dover Air Force Base has had it's Sunday NFL viewership drop significantly since players began protesting the national anthem this season. The result of the protests have hit the post in a major way. Jerry Habraken / The News Journal
Buy Photo Patrons at the American Legion Walter L. Fox Post #2 watch various NFL games Sunday in Dover. NFL viewership the post has dropped significantly since players began taking a knee in protest during the national anthem. The change has hurt the post's income greatly. (Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)Buy Photo
On any given Sunday during the NFL season, the Dover American Legion is packed with as many as 40 to 50 raucous fans watching their favorite NFL teams.
This isn't a typical season. Protests by NFL players during the national anthem have turned many fans away from the games and hurt attendance at Walter L. Fox Post 2.
Mike Windows is in charge of prepping for what used to be a large crowd at the Legion post to watch the 12 televisions placed throughout the lounge area and two bars.
But in recent weeks, that crowd has gone from double digits to fewer than 10. Windows said there are more TVs than people now.
"This place used to be packed every week with the bar full and most of the tables occupied," said Windows, the 1st vice commander who proudly dons his Pittsburgh Steelers gear each week. "We're losing our tail each week and there is no coming back from this."
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Windows says the decrease in the number of people coming out on Sundays is hurting the Legion's bottom line.
Last Sunday, Windows arrived at the Legion around 12:30 p.m., a half-hour before games started, and the only people in the place were two bartenders, a cook and the janitor.
By kickoff, only two people had shown up to watch the games. Because of the low turnout, Windows had to lay off a bartender, a cook and even the janitor. He also had to close the downstairs club room, which is for members only.
"We do this to bring people in, but that hasn't happened in weeks," he said. "I get their (players) point, but there has to be a better way. Three people are getting hit in the mouth here. I feel awful, but I had to make the best decision for Post 2. Hopefully, things will take a turn for the best and I can bring them back."
Buy Photo The American Legion Walter L. Fox Post #2 has closed it's downstairs bar after NFL viewership has dropped since the NFL player protests have begun. (Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)
Windows blames the drastic turnaround on the protests, where many players, and in some cases entire teams, have been showing their opposition to the treatment of minorities in America by taking a knee during the national anthem.
The original protest by San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick occurred in August 2016 when he took a knee before a preseason game in protest of police violence against minorities.
President Donald Trump has fueled the fire with his admonishment of the NFL. Last week, he called on Americans to sign a petition asking the NFL to make it mandatory to stand. The NFL said players “should” stand.
These actions have triggered a fault line in America between those who defend their right to speak freely and those who think it is a travesty to disrespect the U.S. flag.
Windows said the American Legion is a veterans' organization and most of the members there see the NFL protests as disrespecting the country and the flag.
Buy Photo NFL viewership the American Legion Walter L. Fox Post #2 has dropped significantly since players began taking a knee in protest during the national anthem. The change has hurt the post's income greatly. (Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)
"Many of the members just aren't interested in seeing that played out each week," said Windows, a 22-year veteran of the United States Air Force who also works at Dover Air Force Base. "People are angry here and across the country. My passion is to help take care of veterans and I can't do that if they aren't coming in."
Dennis Suter was one of eight people watching the early games in the lounge on Sunday. He said he was there to support the club despite his feelings for what is happening across the NFL.
"Whether I agree or disagree with what's happening, I still think people are entitled to their opinions," said Suter, who has been a member of Sons of the American Legion for five years. "Personally, I still stand for the anthem whether I'm here or at home. It's a big deal."
Suter is concerned for the health of the club if protests continue across the NFL. He said he looks forward to coming to the Legion on Sundays to watch football with a mob of cheering fans. That's not happening in Dover, and from what he's been hearing, not at a lot of other American Legion posts.
Screens go blank at some posts
There are reports that attendance is down at American Legion and VFW posts across the country. Some posts have canceled the NFL Ticket, the package that allows them to show all of the games, or refused to turn on the televisions.
Some Delaware posts have followed suit.
In Laurel, members voted to ban watching the NFL in opposition to the player protests. Board president Richard Elliott said that so far, people haven't been too upset, though.
"We did have a group that wanted the hall for a cornhole tournament with the stipulation of having NFL games on the TVs and we had to tell them sorry," he said. "They canceled."
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Elliott said there was a little bit of moaning and groaning on Thursday night, the first time the TVs weren't tuned to the NFL after the decision.
"Thursday we packed the house but there was no NFL," he said. "Posts nationwide have been doing this and the reaction has been mixed. It wasn't that big of a deal here."
Harrington American Legion commander Steve Burge hasn't seen a big difference in the folks who show up on Sunday. He said that even though NFL is advertised on the marquee outside the post, he hasn't heard any complaints.
The American Legion in Dagsboro has experienced a noticeable drop in the number of people coming in on Sundays to watch the NFL.
Buy Photo The Minnesota Vikings game is reflected in a POW/MIA poster at the American Legion Walter L. Fox Post #2 Sunday in Dover. NFL viewership the post has dropped significantly since players began taking a knee in protest during the national anthem. The change has hurt the post's income greatly. (Photo: Jerry Habraken, The News Journal)
Viewership is down nearly 8 percent over the first six weeks of the season compared to the same time period last season, according to Nielsen, the company that measures ratings for television programs.
Across all networks, 15 million people on average are tuning in to NFL games compared with 16.2 million people watching through Week 6 in 2016.
On the social media front, a Facebook group called “Boycott the NFL” is encouraging people to avoid watching football over Veterans Day weekend in an attempt to show support for the national anthem.
The group is urging people to turn off the National Football League on Nov. 12, the day after Veterans Day, to show solidarity with veterans around the country.
"Football players have continued to disrespect the national anthem, the American flag, and everything our nation stands for," read a statement on the page.
While Windows believes Americans fought and died for the right to protest injustices, he finds himself in the precarious position of doing all he can to keep Walter L. Fox Post 2 running.
"I don't know if we'll ever get all of the people back. It's really hurting us," he said. "We're in damage control right now and we're trying to offer different things to bring them back, but it's going to be an uphill battle."
Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.
Read or Share this story: https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2017/10/23/dover-american-legion-penalized-nfl-player-protests/781389001/A novel effort to get big drug makers to bear the downstream costs of their products survived a constitutional challenge in federal court in San Francisco last week, but Big Pharma still has the option of filing an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The drug makers—specifically the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Generic Pharmaceutical Association, and Biotechnology Industry Organization—had filed suit claiming that the Alameda County Safe Drug Disposal Ordinance, which was passed in July 2012, violates the commerce clause of the Constitution. The commerce clause gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, and the so-called “dormant” commerce clause doctrine says that state and local governments may not enact laws that unduly burden interstate commerce, for example by directly regulating it or by discriminating against it.
The law, which is apparently the first of its kind in the U.S., requires makers of prescription drugs sold or distributed in Alameda County, California, to fund and operate product stewardship programs allowing consumers to turn in unused medicines safely, rather than flushing them down the toilet and into the water supply or letting them hit the streets. Failure to comply carries up to a $1,000 per day fine.
U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2009, found that the ordinance, which will take effect in November, does not discriminate against out-of-state companies or place an impermissible burden on interstate commerce.
“The ordinance applies to producers who elect to sell their products within Alameda County, regardless of where the producers are based or the product originates. Nothing in the structure of the ordinance targets producers on the basis of their location—they are being required to participate in providing take-back programs because they sell prescription drugs in the county, not because they are out-of-state actors,” Seeborg wrote in an 11-page decision.
Rejecting Big Pharma’s argument that the cost of the program constituted a burden on interstate commerce, Seeborg explained that Alameda County has “adequately shown that the Ordinance serves a legitimate public health and safety interest, and that the relatively modest compliance costs producers will incur should they choose to sell their products in the county do not unduly burden interstate commerce.”
-Matt Bewig
To Learn More:
Return Plan for Unused Drugs Wallops Challenge (by Elizabeth Warmerdam, Courthouse News Service)
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, et al. v. Alameda County (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California) (pdf)A day after a friend of presidential candidate Michele Bachmann recommended she change up the way she campaigns in Iowa, Bachmann’s aides say she’s coming to Iowa for a football tailgate, accompanied by four conservative opinion leaders.
Bachmann, who won the Iowa Straw Poll Aug. 13 but has since seen her popularity in public opinion polls drop in Iowa and nationally, will arrive at Jack Trice Stadium at 9 a.m.
The sold-out Iowa/Iowa State game, an annual September matchup that inspires intense rivalry between fans of the two teams, begins at 11 a.m.
“She’s going to mix and mingle and do the tailgate rounds” until about 10:30 a.m., said Eric Woolson, a former Tim Pawlenty staffer who is helping the Bachmann campaign for now.
Bachmann will hang out at Ankeny Sen. Jack Whitver’s tailgate space outside the east stadium gate.
State Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Indianola, her campaign chairman, and Sens. Mark Chelgren, R-Ottumwa, and Brad Zaun, R-Urbandale, will accompany her. All four Republican state senators have endorsed the Minnesota congresswoman.
In the wake of criticism about Bachmann’s “rock star attitude” on the campaign trail, her pal Steve King said yesterday that she needs to mingle.
“My advice would be to her: Just dive right into the mosh pit and go out there and campaign and be yourself,” King, a GOP congressman from western Iowa, said on ABC’s “Top Line.”
Iowa Republicans have grumbled that Bachmann comes off as too standoffish when she doesn’t mingle with the crowd during campaign events or take local reporters’ questions.
The complaints began at a Waterloo event the day after the staw poll. Texas Gov. Rick Perry bigfooted Bachmann’s straw poll win by announcing his candidacy the same day in South Carolina, then scheduling his Iowa debut in Bachmann’s native Waterloo. Bachmann that night didn’t spend as much time mingling with the audience as Perry.
Yesterday night, at the GOP debate in California, Bachmann had a hard time breaking through with her message as rivals Rick Perry of Texas and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts dominated the attention.
At this point, the tailgate is the only public event on Bachmann’s Iowa schedule.
Recommended PhotosSomalia has one of the highest rates of mental illness in the world and with a healthcare system devastated by years of war, most sufferers receive no medical help. Many are chained up - to trees or at home. Some are even locked in cages with hyenas. But one man is trying to change all that.
Dr Hab's advert runs up to three times a day on Mogadishu's radio stations.
"He's gone crazy! He's running away!" screams the actor. "Chain him down!"
The scenario is familiar in Somalia. A man has become possessed by spirits and the only option for his family is to restrain him and call the sheikh. But as the young man protests, a voice that challenges Somali tradition booms out.
"Stop with the chains!" the voiceover orders. "Take him to Dr Hab's hospital! If he's having mental problems, take him to Dr Hab. He won't chain him, he'll help him."
Dr Hab is not actually a real psychiatrist. Rather it's the persona of Abdirahman Ali Awale, a nurse who after three months of specialist training from the World Health Organization (WHO), has made it his mission to rescue Somalia's mentally ill. He claims he is able to treat everything from post-natal depression to schizophrenia.
But the alternative to a trip to Hab could be a visit to one of Somalia's popular herbalists or sheikhs who still advocate traditional - and sometimes barbaric - cures.
"There is a belief in my country that hyenas can see everything including the evil spirits people think cause mental illness," says Hab. "So in Mogadishu, you will find hyenas that have been brought from the bush and families will pay £350 ($560) to have their loved one locked in the room overnight with the animal."
The expensive treatment - more than the average annual wage - is as brutal as it sounds. By clawing and biting at the patient, the hyena is thought to force the evil spirit out. Patients, including young children, have been known to die during the process.
"We are trying to show people that this is nonsense," says Hab. "People listen to our radio advert and they learn that mental illness is just like any other and needs to be treated with scientific methods."
Hab's campaign was prompted by an incident in 2005 when he witnessed a group of female patients being chased through the streets by youths. "There was no-one to help them," he says. "I decided after that I would have to open Somalia's first mental hospital."
The Habeb Public Mental Health Hospital in Mogadishu became the first of Hab's six centres across Somalia. Together, they have now treated over 15,000 patients.
There were only three practising psychiatrists in the whole of Somalia at the last count, and Hab - despite his lack of advanced qualifications - is head of what has become the country's leading provider of mental health services. He even carries a letter from the minister of health that says so.
Image caption Chaining mentally ill patients to trees has been a widespread practice in Somalia
Hab faces a near insurmountable task. WHO estimates that one in three Somalis either is or has been affected by mental illness, compared to a global average of one in 10. In parts of the country, where the population has been the most psychologically scarred from decades of conflict, the rate is even higher. Cases of post-traumatic stress disorder are common and the situation is further complicated by widespread substance abuse.
"Khat is a big, big problem," says Hab of the herbal stimulant which has been chewed for centuries in East Africa. Side effects are thought to include anxiety and even psychosis. "We treat them in the hospital and they leave, but then they start eating khat again. Sometimes I see the same patients seven or eight times."
Western aid agencies in Somalia have often |
It's 2014. All Children Are Supposed To Be Proficient. What Happened?
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ron Edmonds/ASSOCIATED PRESS Ron Edmonds/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Take yourself back to those highly emotional, patriotic months after the 9/11 attacks.
In the midst of war, terrorism, fear and mourning, one bill passed 87-10 in the Senate and by a similar margin in the House — with equal support from both sides of the aisle. It was signed into law in January 2002 by George W. Bush, with the liberal lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, by his side.
The law set a simple if daunting goal: All of the nation's students would perform at grade level on state tests. Every single one. 100 percent. Or as the name of the law put it, there would be No Child Left Behind. Here's the formal language:
"Each State shall establish a timeline for adequate yearly progress. The timeline shall ensure that not later than 12 years after the end of the 2001-2002 school year, all students... will meet or exceed the State's proficient level of academic achievements on the State assessments..."
So here it is, 12 years later, 2014. And the law, NCLB, is still in effect. All children, under federal law, are supposed to be at grade level.
Spoiler alert: They're not.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the "Nation's Report Card," "proficiency" rates last year were below 50 percent for every racial and ethnic group, in both reading and math, in both 4th and 8th grade. The exceptions? Asians, in all subjects (51-64 percent) and whites in 4th grade math only (54 percent).
So, what is proficiency, anyway? Did the 100% goal ever make sense? What were the impacts of setting such a goal, positive and negative? And where do we go from here?
Proficiency, as defined by the law, ain't nothing but a number. Morgan Polikoff, an education professor at the University of Southern California, calls it a "crude gauge of student performance."
It's a particular score on a particular test of reading or math given by states to students each spring in grades 3 through 12. Change the test, or the passing score, and you change the definition of proficiency.
"I've called proficiency a 'weasel word,' " says Andrew Ho at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "It inspires consensus where there really is none."
Did The Goal Make Sense?
Sandy Kress was a lawyer and school board president in Dallas, Texas in the 1990s when he got interested in the role of tests in ensuring educational accountability. As a top education advisor to President George W. Bush, he became one of the chief architects of No Child Left Behind. He says the inspiration for the 100 percent goal was simple.
"This was a bipartisan consensus. The Democrats, under [California Congressman] George Miller in particular, with involvement from the Education Trust, along with President Bush and Republicans, essentially asked themselves in 2001: What's our vision? Do we want to get a few kids performing better? Most kids? Which kids don't we want to get better? Which kids don't we want to make it to the bar of grade-level proficiency?"
It sounds convincing. Harvard's Andrew Ho says that's the problem.
"Leaving no child behind is the right rhetorical goal. It generally resonates with educators, students, teachers, administrators, and the public. We don't want to leave a child behind, and the standard we want them to achieve should be high."
The law required that states report more than just average test scores. It made them report, separately, the scores of traditionally disadvantaged subgroups: ethnic and racial minorities, disabled students, low-income students and English learners.
Ho, like most observers, agrees that this focus on the achievement gap is NCLB's most important and positive legacy.
But, he adds, "I think it's safe to say, and we anticipated this early on, that policymakers erred. They turned an aspirational goal that inspires support, into a target for accountability, meant for consequences."
Some of those consequences were intended, and others were unintended.
The reason we're still talking about No Child Left Behind is that it included an "or else." Schools that failed to make 'Adequate Yearly Progress' toward the 100 percent proficiency goal for each subgroup would face sanctions, such as reorganization or closure.
There were far fewer provisions for positive incentives, either to reward schools that did well or to help the students that weren't doing as well.
"We tried to push that, and it never really got done because I don't think anyone understood how the federal government could create carrots," says Kress, pointing out that the feds contribute a small portion, about 12 percent, of the public school budget. "That's a fair criticism of the law."
What Was The Impact?
No Child Left Behind coincided with real gains on national tests. A widely cited NAEP analysis shows statistically significant gains in math attributable to NCLB, but no evidence for such gains in reading. According to other analyses, the achievement gap narrowed too.
Kress says he'll take those numbers "to meet my maker."
But the structure of the law, with an aspirational goal married to real punishments, brought with it a wide range of unintended negative consequences.
Here's a little thought experiment to illustrate:
Let's say, for some reason, you came to work tomorrow and were put before a group of 10 kindergartners. By the end of the month they all have to be playing the piano proficiently. No exceptions. Or you lose your job.
The kids are from a wide variety of backgrounds. Four of them come from families that struggle economically. Two of them are already Suzuki-trained, but others are far behind.
What do you do?
You could define "proficient" as playing a single scale with one hand.
You could ask that the slower kids be left out of the test.
You could spend all day, every day, practicing.
You could simply ask for more time to meet the goal.
The evidence shows that states and schools, to varying extents and in various ways, did all these things.
"At least in the academic community, it was well know that 100% proficiency wasn't going to happen without gamesmanship, and the amount of improvement that was needed in some states was not plausible," says USC's Polikoff.
In response, he says, schools gave more and more tests to prepare students to take the state tests. They practiced "educational triage," focusing more resources on students who were just below passing, to the detriment of both higher and lower achievers. They classified more students as disabled to get them out of taking the tests. In certain cases, they cheated.
As the years passed and the "adequate yearly progress" targets grew, he says, more and more schools in more and more states fell into the category of "failing" — 50 percent, 60 percent, even 70 percent. "By setting up an unattainable target, states stopped paying attention," says Polikoff. They just gave up.
Joanne Weiss inherited No Child Left Behind as chief of staff to President Obama's Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. The biggest downside of the law, she said, was the games that states played with the definition of proficiency.
"By letting every state set their own benchmark, define their own standard and use their own assessment, combined with the requirement of 100 percent proficiency, they basically incented states to keep dumbing down and lowering their cut score in order to get more kids across the bar," Weiss explains. "And that has done a huge disservice to our educational system. Huge."
By the time Weiss, Duncan and Obama arrived on the scene, NCLB was already overdue for reauthorization.
Political realities made passing any large piece of legislation through Congress difficult, so the Education Department came up with another solution. They would write permission slips, known as waivers, to each state that wanted to change their accountability formula. Essentially those states make up a new definition of "adequate yearly progress."
Where Do We Go From Here?
Almost every state is currently operating under an NCLB waiver.
They have constructed what Ho calls "Rube Goldberg" accountability formulas, specifying different targets for different groups. A big change seen in about half the states is a focus on growth — how fast test scores are moving and in which direction, not just how many kids have passed a specific score on the tests.
"If you focus on growth you can see which schools are improving," says Weiss, who is now an independent consultant. High-achieving schools won't stagnate. Schools full of poor kids won't be unfairly punished if they're making progress. "It makes sure the kids at the top are being served as well as the kids at the bottom."
Some states, such as Massachusetts and Kentucky, as well as the CORE group of districts in California, are including new indicators alongside test scores: graduation rates, college readiness and even school-climate surveys.
The other big change, of course, is the Common Core State Standards. In theory, by setting out a common definition of what students should know and be able to do, the Common Core takes some of the "weasel word"-ness out of proficiency.
Plus, states are using a smaller number of different tests: PARCC, Smarter Balanced, and a few privately created tests. This makes it easier to compare results.
But the "new accountability" lacks something No Child Left Behind had: simplicity.
"It's harder to have a clear easy talking point for people to rally around," acknowledges Weiss. On the other hand, this approach "acknowledges the complexity of the real world." And she says, it also allows states to experiment with different approaches to find out what works best.
For Sandy Kress, though, the loss of a clear goal brings a loss of urgency: "I feel very sad because rather than fixing and advancing accountability, we seem to be weakening and abandoning it."Hong Kong (CNN) -- A series of explosions tore through an open-air market in the capital of the volatile western Chinese region of Xinjiang on Thursday, killing dozens of people and wounding many more, state media reported.
China's Ministry of Public Security said the attack in the heavily policed city of Urumqi was "a serious violent terrorist incident" and vowed to crack down on its perpetrators. President Xi Jinping called for the terrorists behind it to be "severely" punished.
Two SUVs slammed into shoppers gathered at the market in Urumqi at 7:50 a.m. Thursday, and explosives were flung out of the vehicles, China's official news agency Xinhua said.
The vehicles then exploded, according to Xinhua, which said at least 31 people were killed and more than 90 wounded.
Some of the photos circulating on social media suggested a hellish scene, with bodies strewn on the ground amid burning wreckage. Others showed flames and smoke billowing out of the end of a tree-lined street guarded by police officers.
'An enormous sound'
"I heard an enormous sound, then I looked out from my balcony," said a resident of a building near the explosion who would only give his surname, Shan.
He told CNN that trees obscured much of his view of the scene, but that he "could see there was chaos, with people injured."
Many of the victims caught in the blasts were elderly people who regularly visited the morning market, Xinhua reported.
"It's mainly people coming to trade vegetables, especially the elderly who get up early and buy vegetables to cook," Shan said.
The U.S. government condemned the attack.
"This is a despicable and outrageous act of violence against innocent civilians, and the United States resolutely opposes all forms of terrorism," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.
String of recent attacks
Chinese authorities have stepped up security measures in Xinjiang in recent months amid a series of attacks within the region and in major Chinese cities outside it.
On Wednesday, the day before the blasts, Xinhua reported that 39 people had been sentenced to prison in the past two months for "inciting violence" in Xinjiang.
But the devastating blasts Thursday suggest the government is facing a foe determined to wreak havoc.
Thursday's attack at the market comes less than a month after an explosion hit a train station in Urumqi, killing three people and wounding 79 others.
That blast took place on April 30, just after Xi had wrapped up a visit to the region.
Ethnic tensions
Chinese officials have linked a mass knife attack in March that killed 29 people at a train station in the southwestern city of Kunming to Islamic separatists from Xinjiang.
They have also blamed separatists for an attack in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October in which a car rammed into a pedestrian bridge and burst into flames, killing two tourists and the three occupants of the vehicle.
The knife-wielding assailants in the Kunming attack and the people in the car that hit Tiananmen were identified as Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group from Xinjiang.
Ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and Han Chinese people, millions of whom have migrated to resource-rich Xinjiang in recent decades, have repeatedly boiled over into deadly riots and clashes with authorities in recent years.
Some Uyghurs have expressed resentment over harsh treatment from Chinese security forces and Han people taking the lion's share of economic opportunities in Xinjiang. The Han are the predominant ethnic group in China, making up more than 90% of the overall population.
Shift in target
The pattern of ethnic violence in the region goes back decades, according to James Leibold, an expert in ethnic relations in China at La Trobe University in Melbourne.
"But what's new, and what I think is significant, is that we have a shift in target," Leibold said. "We have a targeting of innocent civilians, places where innocent civilians gather -- an attempt to maim innocent civilians in large numbers."
The other change is that the violence has "seeped outside" the borders of Xinjiang into other parts of China, he said.
It remains unclear who exactly is behind the high-profile attacks in recent months.
Chinese officials have pointed to a murky separatist group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which they have blamed for violent acts in the past. East Turkestan is the name used by many Uyghur groups to refer to Xinjiang.
But analysts are divided about the extent of the ETIM's activities and its links to global terrorist networks like al Qaeda.
"Generally, the government response is to blame terrorists without providing many details," Leibold said. "So I suspect it's going to be very difficult to get to the bottom of this incident like previous ones."
Q&A: Xinjiang and tensions in China's restive far west(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Sunday said his country will stop exporting oil to the United States if there is a military attack stemming from escalating tensions between Venezuela and Colombia.
Speaking at a political rally, Chavez warned of a military attack from Colombia, and accused the United States of being behind such an attack.
"The Yankee empire has no limit to its manipulation," Chavez said.
Colombia and Venezuela are at odds over accusations that Colombian rebels have found refuge in Venezuela. Colombia called an emergency meeting of the Organization of American States last week, in which it provided photos that it said were evidence of camps belonging to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by its Spanish abbreviation, FARC -- in Venezuela.
Venezuela denies the accusations, and in response broke off diplomatic ties with the neighboring country.
If there is an attack from Colombia, Chavez said Sunday, Venezuela would stop supplying oil to the United States, "even if we have to eat rocks" because of the repercussions.
"That would be a response of dignity and high caliber," Chavez said.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Venezuela is the fifth-largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, delivering an average of 894,000 barrels of oil per day.
He also warned there would be "internal measures" in Venezuela against the opposition and media in case of a war. He accused opposition governors of being in contact with the Colombian military.
Chavez said Venezuela rejected the possibility of any foreign guerrilla or paramilitary group to operate in his country.
Colombia has accused Chavez of supporting the rebels, and Chavez has said Colombian officials and right-wing paramilitary units have plotted his assassination.
Security analysts say FARC guerrillas operate mostly in Colombia but have carried out extortion, kidnappings and other activities in Venezuela, Panama and Ecuador.
FARC is said to traffic in cocaine to finance its insurgency.
Colombia has also accused another neighbor, Ecuador, of giving refuge to rebels. In 2008, Colombia carried out a raid in Ecuadorian territory that resulted in the killing of a top FARC leader.
Last week was not the first time Chavez cut off diplomatic ties with Colombia.
A year ago, Chavez "froze" the nations' relationship over Colombian accusations that Venezuelan weapons had made it into the hands of rebels.
Colombia said it had evidence that shoulder-fired anti-tank weapons recovered from FARC guerrillas were of Venezuelan origin. Venezuela denied the allegations and said the rebels may have stolen the weapons from a Venezuelan base.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Memorials have sprung up around the site of the Kiev's violent confrontations
Kiev's Independence Square has been turned into a giant memorial complex.
Dozens of impromptu shrines to dead anti-government activists are scattered around the movement's camp and its barricades.
Sunday was a day of mourning and people poured into the square. At the shrines, piles of flowers became mountains and the candles became a glowing sea.
After the previous day's jubilation at the flight of Viktor Yanukovych, the reality of what happened finally seemed to be sinking in.
People stood silently in front of the shrines with stunned expressions, as if the incomprehension and grief was too great to process.
Ukraine at the moment is like a bone with a small fracture - many small fractures in fact. Support and attention could help them heal, maybe even make the body grow stronger. But added pressure could make them rupture even further.
Different agendas
The issue is whether the new government is capable of starting that healing process. Vitaly Klitschko, a boxer turned politician, recognised the urgency of the situation. "We do not have much time," he said.
At the moment, opposition leaders are speaking with one voice. But this may be only temporary.
Their different political agendas and ambitions may emerge now that the unifying goal of deposing Mr Yanukovych has been achieved.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Dressed for battle but carrying a flower, it is hard to predict which direction the country will go in
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Standing firm, supporters of the deposed president try to prevent celebrations by his opponents in Donetsk
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Once the iron fist of the president, police in Donetsk are now cast in the role of diplomats as they try to prevent clashes between supporters and opponents of Mr Yanukovych
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption In Sevastopol, home of Russia's Black Sea fleet, thousands of people turned out to oppose the new government
And then there is the matter of Ms Tymoshenko.
As her dramatic speech in Independence Square on Saturday night demonstrated, the last two and half years of incarceration have not diminished her rhetorical power.
She remains a formidable politician and operator. If she is determined to, she will undoubtedly become a major force in Ukraine once again.
But she is also a divisive, and ultimately disruptive, figure. For many on the Maidan she also represents much of what is wrong with Ukraine's political class as a whole - filled more with more ambition than imagination, ability or honesty.
Cautious Kremlin
Much speculation has been devoted to whether or not there is an East-West split in Ukraine. There is. Even if separatism is not an immediate threat - and this remains to be seen - the east and south have their own economic and cultural concerns, which have contributed to Ukraine's long-standing political dysfunction.
It should be remembered that many in the industrial east echoed Mr Yanukovych's concerns over the possible economic consequences of the planned association agreement with the European Union.
Although his popularity has waned amongst traditional supporters, that does not mean they necessarily back the people that were - until Saturday - the opposition, or their new administration.
Already there have been demonstrations against the incoming government. In Sevastopol in Crimea on Saturday thousands of people waved placards calling for "Mother Russia" to save them.
Many in the east and south greatly distrust the Euromaidan movement and its leaders. Even if they acquiesce for now, that does not mean they will continue to do so in the months to come.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Protesters in Sevastopol hold up a sign reading "Russia, we are your abandoned children, we ask you to help in our fight against fascism".
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption It remains to be seen whether these symbols of national unity in Kiev, will win over their opponents elsewhere
But right now, Ukrainians are waiting to see what the next move will be of two people in particular - Viktor Yanukovych and Vladimir Putin.
Mr Yanukovych says that he is still the country's president, but he has still not spelt out what he is prepared to do to assert this. It is not even clear where he is.
Officials around Mr Putin have expressed their disquiet at what has happened in Ukraine, but so far have not said what they will do.
Kremlin officials have indicated they might delay an economically vital $2 billion loan to Ukraine, pending "what the position of the new government will be." But, at the same time, they floated the possibility of an IMF bailout as a replacement.
The carrots, and especially sticks, that Moscow has at its disposal are many. If Russian officials choose to, they could easily add to the pressure on Ukraine's already dangerously fractured society.RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – A 2009 law prohibiting Outer Banks retailers from providing plastic bags to customers would be repealed in a wide-ranging environmental measure advancing through the state Senate.
The bill approved Monday by a committee and heading next to the chamber floor would do away with the program, which supporters say keeps beaches clean for tourists and protects wildlife.
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Grocery stores and retailers along the barrier islands of Currituck, Dare and Hyde counties are required to offer recycled paper bags or provide incentives for customers bringing reusable bags.
Repeal sponsor Sen. Bill Cook of Beaufort County called the ban a feel-good idea that’s cost retailers plenty of money to follow. The North Carolina Retail Merchants Association supports repeal. Several local governments at the coast have passed resolutions asking to preserve the ban.
(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)Ray Dalio, the Westport hedge fund executive who cited “radical transparency” as a principle of his company, is pushing back at media coverage of previously unreported incidents regarding a top executive’s relationships with two female employees.
Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, objected to coverage by The Wall Street Journal of incidents involving Greg Jensen, co-chief investment officer, which stated the company paid $1 million to a female employee who had a consensual relationship with Jensen. Another female employee complained that Jensen groped her backside, but she left the company on her own accord and did not receive a financial settlement.
Dalio was reportedly personally involved in mediating both cases and assigned James Comey, who was Bridgewater’s general counsel at the time, to conduct his own internal investigation on the matter. The incidents took place three years ago but were never made public until The Wall Street Journal’s article, which based its reporting on “people familiar with the matter.”
After the news coverage was published online last week, Dalio issued a statement that read, “I judge Greg to be a man of high character and I would not have tolerated the pattern of behavior inaccurately described by The Wall Street Journal.” He also took to Twitter, referencing his recently published book “Principles” by writing, “A good principle is ‘Don’t believe everything you read in the newspapers’”
This is the not the first time that Dalio criticized media coverage of a Bridgewater story sexual misconduct. Last year, a male employee was placed on indefinite paid leave after filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that a male supervisor allegedly propositioned him for sex. The story was initially reported in The New York Times. Dalio took to LinkedIn to complain that the newspaper “intentionally strung together a series of misleading ‘facts’ in ways they felt would create the most sensationalistic story.” The NLRB and Bridgewater later agreed to a settlement that was not made public.Negotiators for a newly unionized group of part-time professors at Tufts University have reached a tentative contract agreement with school administrators, the two parties said Tuesday.
The deal could influence bargaining between adjunct faculty and leaders of several other local schools where part-time professors have recently organized or are considering doing so.
The Tufts agreement — which will go before approximately 200 adjunct teachers at the school for final approval — would improve job security, wages, benefits, and other working conditions, according to Andy Klatt, a longtime part-time lecturer at the university.
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“We’re proud of it,” said Klatt, who helped lead the unionization and negotiation efforts. “I think it’s going to be a positive contract both for the university and for part-time faculty.”
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Officials said the two sides had agreed on a three-year contract, but they said they will not disclose specifics until the deal is ratified. Union members are expected to vote on the contract later this month.
James M. Glaser, interim dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts, said the contract “reflects our commitment to recognizing those contributions within the overall context of the university’s priorities.”
The announcement marked a significant milestone for a campaign that has successfully organized part-time faculty at two other local colleges and that is pushing for professors at several other area institutions to unionize.
The Service Employees International Union, which launched a national campaign a year-and-a-half ago to organize adjunct faculty at campuses across the country, discussed the idea with part-time faculty at more than 20 Boston-area colleges.
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In September 2013, Tufts adjuncts became the first local group within the SEIU campaign to unionize.
A month later, a push to organize at Bentley University in Waltham fell two votes short.
In February, about 700 adjuncts at Lesley University in Cambridge unionized, followed by about 960 adjuncts at Northeastern University who organized in May. Faculty from both of those schools are now in negotiations.
Meanwhile, campaigns to unionize adjuncts are underway at Boston University, Simmons College,and other area schools that SEIU officials have declined to identify because part-time faculty there are not ready to publicly announce their intentions.
William Shimer, an adjunct who is helping to lead part-time faculty negotiations at Northeastern, said he hopes the Tufts agreement will help pave the way for adjunct contract talks at other colleges.
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“I think it’s a very good development that the Tufts administration is taking such an enlightened view and is negotiating in good faith and has tried and succeeded in reaching an agreement with its teachers,” he said.
The number of tenure-track positions has dropped as colleges have become increasingly dependent on the low cost and flexibility of adjunct faculty.
In 1975, about 30 percent of faculty across the country were employed part time, according to the American Association of University Professors. Today, part-time faculty account for more than half of college teaching jobs, and about 76 percent of higher education instructors hold non-tenure-track positions.
Before the SEIU campaign, part-time faculty at other local schools had unionized and negotiated contracts. Suffolk University adjuncts unionized in 2006 and signed their first contract three years later. Adjuncts at Emerson College unionized in 2001 and signed their initial contract in 2004.
Matt Rocheleau can be reached at matthew.rocheleau@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrocheleMexican Chocolate Filled Vanilla Bean Mesquite Ravioli With Caramel Sauce
I recently taught a gluten-free pasta-making class, in which one of the attendees recounted her growing up years, when she and her siblings gathered fallen mesquite pods from the ground to be given to a Hill Country rancher who used them to feed his livestock. For most of its existence in Texas, however, the tenacious mesquite tree has been the bane of Texas ranchers and farmers. The mesquite tree spreads like a weed, absorbs much of the water from the ground in which it grows, and causes other vegetation to die. Long before this hearty tree gained its bad reputation, the mesquite tree was valued as a important food source among ancient peoples in South America, Mexico, and the Southwestern region of the United States. As I explained in past post about mesquite flour, these people used the dried, ground mesquite pods and beans for drinks, as well as for breads, tortillas, and porridge.
The reputation of the oft-maligned mesquite tree has been redeemed in recent years, as the flour made from its dried pods is again recognized for its nutritional value. Mesquite flour, in fact, is now considered a super food. Additionally, mesquite flour, as well as mesquite molasses, has gained popularity among homebrewers as an ingredient in beer. In a continuing effort to at least reduce (though not completely remove) carbs from our diet, I use mesquite in many of my grain-free, gluten-free recipes. Because it is naturally sweet and fermentable, it makes a great food for feeding my gluten-free sourdough starter; my starter starts quickly and joyfully bubbling away when I add mesquite flour to it (the cinnamon-colored flour does, however, make the starter a bit of a funky hue).
I even use it in combination with other gluten-free, grain-free flours to make pasta. It makes a lovely gluten-free, grain-free savory pasta (paired with a red wine reduction shallot mushroom sauce), and and a richly flavorful grain-free, gluten-free dessert ravioli. Either way, savory or sweet, mesquite flour adds something a little special, and maybe a little exotic, to any dish in which is appears as an ingredient.
Below is the recipe for my dessert ravioli. Apparently I am missing some of the photographs I took the last time I made this pasta dessert, so I don’t have images that show every step of the ravioli making process. I’ll make the dessert again soon, and take more photos to fill in the gaps. In the meantime, if you want to make this recipe and have questions about any part of the process, please feel free to ask your question in the comment box, or email your question to me at tdmorris@atxultraeats.com. I promise to respond quickly!
Mexican Chocolate Filled Vanilla Bean Mesquite Ravioli With Caramel Sauce Mexican Chocolate Filling 8 oz Cream cheese (Challenge, 365 brand), softened at room temperature
6 oz Guittard 63% dark chocolate chips
1 tsp (or more, to taste) Ceylon cinnamon
Cayenne pepper to taste Place the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Zap the chips in 20 second increments, stirring well after each 20 seconds, until the chips are nearly melted. When most, but not all, of the chips are melted, stir the chocolate vigorously to let the heat from the melted chips melt the rest. Pour the melted chocolate over the remaining ingredients in a food processor; blend until smooth. Set aside to cool completely.
Classic Caramel Sauce
(from (from Epicurious.com ¾ cup Heavy whipping cream
½ cup Sugar (organic dehydrated sugar cane)
2 tbls Water
1 tbls Honey
4 tbls Unsalted butter
½ tsp pure vanilla extract
El Rey ICOA white chocolate (or other quality true white chocolate, for drizzling on finished ravioli) Bring heavy cream to boil over medium heat. Set aside. In a 3 qt saucepan, bring the sugar, water, and honey to a boil over high heat. At least twice during the cooking process, brush the inside of the pot with a damp pastry brush to prevent the sugar from crystalizing. Continue to cook the sugar mixture over high heat, until amber-colored: about 6 – 8 minutes. Lower the temperature to medium and very slowly add the hot cream to the mixture. The mixture will bubble up and foam, so be sure to use at least a 3 qt pot for this recipe. Continue to stir the mixture until it is completely smooth. Remove from heat; add the butter and stir until the butter is melted. Stir in the vanilla. Transfer the caramel sauce to a jar. Cool slightly and serve warm. Sauce can be refrigerated and reheated.
Mesquite Ravioli Dough 100 g mesquite flour
100 g almond flour
100g tapioca flour
3 tbls Powdered Sugar
½ tsp gound vanilla bean
2 eggs (room temperature)
Egg yolk, as needed
Extra tapioca flour for dusting In a food processor, mix together the gluten-free flours. Add the first two eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. If the dough begins to form a solid ball after the addition of the second egg, add only an egg yolk, if necessary, to make the dough the right consistency (it should be a little on the sticky side). Remove the pasta dough from the food processor, form into a flat disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest for thirty minutes (the dough can be refrigerated for several hours or over-night). Cut the room-temperature disk of dough into fourths. Working with ¼ of the dough at a time, cover the other ¾ with plastic wrap to keep it from drying out. Flatten the quarter of dough, and dust on both sides with tapioca or cassava flour. With the pasta machine dial set on zero, pass the dough through the sheet attachment. It will be raggedy. Fold the sheet in thirds, like an envelope, and pass it through the sheet attachment again. You will repeat this step several times, until the dough is an even rectangle and has smooth edges. Turn the dial to 1 and pass the pasta sheet through once or twice.Repeat this step with the dial set on 2, then 3, then 4. You might be able to pass the dough through on the 5 setting, but usually gluten-free dough does best no thinner than the four setting. Place the long sheet of pasta on a floured piece of parchment, or a silicon rolling mat. Mark the half-way spot on the pasta sheet. Place about ½ tbls of Mexican chocolate filling evenly, in double rows, on the bottom half of the pasta sheet.Be sure to leave space for cutting and sealing the ravioli pieces. Wet your finger tip with water, and draw wet square around each of the fillings. Fold the top layer of pasta dough carefully over the bottom half. Using your fingers, carefully press the air out of the dough while simultaneously pressing to seal the top layer of dough around the fillings on the bottom layer of dough. Use a dough cutter to cut the ravioli into squares, or use a cookie (or ravioli) cutter to cut the ravioli into desired shapes. Place the cut ravioli on a parchment-lined or cassava-floured baking sheet to dry. Repeat with the remaining pasta dough and Mexican chocolate filling. Refrigerate or freeze the ravioli at least two hours before cooking. Cook ravioli in boiling water 5 – 6 minutes, or a little longer if the ravioli was frozen. Place five or six pieces of ravioli on a dessert plate. Drizzle with home-made caramel sauce and melted El Rey white chocolate. Add a dollop of whipped cream in the middle of the ravioli, and garnish with a rose-cut, or heart-shaped cut strawberry.Makes 4 -5 servings.
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Like this: Like Loading...Somewhere in Volusia County, in a patch of scrub pine dense enough to block the wind but not the sun, is a sinister-looking building -- a cross between a house and a shack -- that looks like the kind of place you'd find corpses stacked like cordwood. There's a loud, gas-powered generator droning away near the side, and a bright orange extension cord running up through a boarded window. A small, hand-lettered, cardboard sign on the door reads, "dougs." No apostrophe.
It isn't Doug's house; there is no Doug. The name is an inside joke, and inaccurate at that. More on that later.
On April 29, a Tuesday, I took the phone call that led me to that shack. It was from a guy named Jim, no last name. He called me late, at home.
I'd been researching a story on manatee protection zones. Boaters and fishermen vs. environmentalists, sea cows scared by propellers, etc. An old story in Florida, but evergreen. During my research, Rick Rescott, a towboat operator from Brevard County, was sentenced for a ticket he got while speeding in a manatee protection zone en route to rescue a sinking vessel in April 2002. Rescott refused to pay the $100 fine, which he called "ludicrous," and was convicted by a federal judge of "unlawful waterborne activity" April 21. He was looking at six months in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. He got a $400 fine and says he'll appeal.
Then there was the flap in Volusia County between the Save the Manatee Club, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Environmental Protection Agency, which hadn't really taken manatees very seriously, failing to create new boat speed zones. But they finally got together, right before a federal judge held U.S. Interior Secretary Gail Norton in contempt of court for failing to protect sea cows.
Jim, no last name, got my home phone number from Dale Koontze, a Bithlo-based boating activist with a "grassroots" group called Stopping Petty Environmentalists Everywhere Daily (SPEED, get it?). I interviewed Koontze in his garage for the story, despite the fact that, as far as I could tell, his group consisted primarily of himself, his cousin Lenny Staver, and a neighbor of Koontze's who never said a word and wouldn't tell me his name.
Koontze is about 5-feet, eight-inches tall and at least 200 pounds. He wore greasy jeans and an inexplicably spotless white dress shirt. In |
object.
Functional Programming
In FP metaphysics, we would say that we never step in the same river twice. What we see as a discrete thing which actually exists in the world independent of its mutations is in reality a succession of discrete, unchanging things.
The "river" is not a thing in and of itself; it's a concept that we superimpose on a succession of related phenomena. This concept is very useful - I won't belabor that point - but it is just a concept.
What really exists are atoms (in the sense of atomic, unchanging, stable entities) and processes. The river is not a stable object; rather, it is a succession of related atoms which are generated by some kind of process.
These atoms don't act upon each other and they can't be changed. They can't do anything. Change is not the result of one object acting on another; change is the result of a process being applied to an unchangeable atom. To say that something has changed is to say, "Oh, there's a new atom in this stream of atoms." It's like saying that HEAD points to a new commit in your Git repo.
OK! Enough with metaphysics. Now let's describe the more immediately useful topics, starting with Value.
Value
It's obvious that numbers like 3 and 6 and 42 are values. Numbers are stable, unchanging.
It should also be obvious that OO languages have "no proper notion" of values in this sense. As Rich Hickey points out, you can create a class whose instances are composed of immutable components, but there is no high-level concept of immutable value implemented as a first class construct within the class.
This is one of the main causes of headaches when doing OOP. How many times have you pulled your hair out trying to figure out how an object's attribute got changed? The fact is, in OO languages there is no built-in mechanism to ensure that the object you're dealing with is stable.
This is the big reason why concurrent programming is so difficult. Even in single-threaded programs this is a problem, and it's one of the reasons why we develop sprawling test suites. You can't be sure if a method call on your Toupee object is somehow going to cause a change in your HipsterGlasses object.
By contrast, in FP languages emphasis is placed on working with immutable values. Since these values can't change, a whole class of problems simply disappears.
Identity
In the video, Mr. Hickey says:
The biggest problem we have is we've conflated two things. We've said the idea that I attach to this thing that lasts over time is the thing that lasts over time.
In FP, identity is essentially a name we give to a sequence of related atoms. "River" refers to the sequence R1, R2, R3, etc, produced by the river process. This is directly analogous to HEAD in Git - it's just a name which is used to refer to actual values. In OO, there really isn't such a distinction.
Or as the man himself says,
Identity is a putative entity we associate with a series of causally related values (states) over time. It's a label, a construct we use to collect a time series.
State
In OO, there is no real clear definition of state. Maybe it's, "the values of all the attributes within an object right now." And it has to be "right now", because there's no language-supported way of holding on to the past.
This becomes clearer if you contrast it with the notion of identity in FP. In the Hickeysian universe, a State is a specific value for an identity at a point in time. (For me, this definition really clarified my own thoughts.)
Time
There's no real notion of time in OO. Everything's just "right now". This is part of what causes problems in concurrent programs.
By contrast, in the FP worldview we've been exploring, time is well-defined. Time is a by-product of ordering states within an identity.
(By the way, I'd really like to write more here, and would appreciate any suggestions.)
Behavior
Finally, behavior. I don't have too much to write here - I might need to watch some more talks - but I'll include Mr. Hickey's thought-provoking observation:
There is no behavior. When you get hit by lightning, who's behaving?
This may be what inspired Steve Yegge's post, Execution in the Kingdom of Nouns.
The End
Well, that's it for now. I hope you've found this post useful. If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!
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At Microsoft’s special Mixed Reality event today, the company announced that all of their VR headsets destined to ship this holiday season are accounted for, and are now available for pre-order including headsets from Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and the newly revealed Samsung ‘HMD Odyssey’. There’s still no word on a launch date for Asus’ futuristic low-poly headset.
Since Microsoft provided its list of OEMs the same reference design, all of the available headsets except Samsung Odyssey follow the basic specs below.
Windows VR Headsets: Basic Specs
Dual displays at 1440 x 1440 per eye
2.89” diagonal display size (x2)
Front hinged display
95 degrees horizontal field of view
Display refresh rate up to 90Hz (native)
Built-in audio out and microphone support through 3.5mm jack
Single cable with HDMI 2.0 (display) and USB 3.0 (data) for connectivity
Inside-out tracking
4.00m cable
Samsung HMD Odyssey
Leading the pack is Samsung’s HMD Odyssey, featuring a higher comparative resolution with its 2880 x 1600 OLED, pushing a 90Hz refresh and up to 110 degree field of view. Integrated audio and integrated dual mic array clearly put this ahead of its Windows “Mixed Reality” cousins, but it also comes at the price tag of $500 (with motion controllers), the same as an Oculus Rift.
The Samsung HMD Odyssey will be available later this year in the US, China, Korea, Brazil and Hong Kong, with pre-orders beginning in the US only on October 3rd. US launch is slated for November 6th.
Samsung HMD Odyssey Pre-order
Acer Windows Mixed Reality Headset
At the lowest price tier for $400 (with controllers) is Acer’s retro-styled headset. Like all headsets in Microsoft’s lineup, it features a halo-style head strap and a flip-up design, although it uses less expensive materials in its construction, making it seem a little more plasticy than the others while offering the same basic functionality. Shipping October 17th.
Acer VR Headset Pre-order
Dell Visor
Smooth and futuristic, Dell’s Visor falls in line with some premium styling that will set you back $450 (with controllers). A rubberized texture gives the headset good grip without collecting finger prints, and was supposedly weighted in strategic spots to be more comfortable for longer play sessions. Shipping October 17th.
Dell Visor Pre-order
HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset
HP’s headset is more business than play in styling, with its facial interface featuring cutouts for eye glasses to go along with its sober grey scale tones. HP matches Dell in pricing at $450 (with controllers). Shipping October 17th.
HP VR Headset Pre-order
Lenovo Explorer
Another headset that looks like it means business is the Lenovo Explorer. With styling that looks at home with Lenovo’s line of ThinkPads, the headset sits at the lowest price tier of $400, of course offering all the same functionality. Shipping October 17th.
Lenovo Explorer Pre-orderUnbridled Kentuckians Decide It's Time For A Kick-Ass New Slogan
toggle caption KentuckyForKentucky/KentuckyForKentucky
Kentucky is known for horse racing, bourbon and college basketball. And if a couple of creative advertising professionals have any say in the matter, the Bluegrass State will be world renowned for something else.
They want the state to replace its current slogan, Unbridled Spirit, with a new one — Kentucky Kicks Ass.
In a five-minute online video, Kentucky natives Griffin VanMeter and Whit Hiler stand on the steps of the state Capitol and make their case.
"Go ahead and Google 'unbridled spirit' and you know what you come up with? Horseback riding lessons — in San Antonio," VanMeter says in the video.
VanMeter and Hiler work for different advertising firms, but two years ago, the two and another friend started a Facebook page called Kentucky for Kentucky with the goal of crowd-funding a Super Bowl ad focused entirely on the state. They weren't able to reach the $3.5 million needed for the commercial, but Hiler considers the project a success.
The Kentucky Kick Ass campaign video. YouTube
"Everybody was saying 'kick ass,' " Hiler says. "That was our thing on our Facebook page, and so that seemed logical when we came up with the idea of rebranding the state."
Kentucky adopted the Unbridled Spirit slogan in 2004 and incorporated it into marketing materials, government stationary and license plates. But VanMeter says that the state's message is not something people would actually use in normal conversation.
"You have to stand out, and you have to take risks if you want to do this branding and to get noticed," he says. "And you need mantras that people can rally behind."
Tourism slogans come and go. Last year, Florida unveiled "Must Be the Sunshine" and Connecticut wants you to know that it's "Still Revolutionary."
When the Kentucky Kicks Ass campaign launched, VanMeter wasn't sure how officials would respond.
"Maybe the state will just write us a check and be like, 'You guys are awesome,' and give us a key to the state of Kentucky. Um..." he says jokingly.
They didn't get a key to the state, but the guys did catch the attention of national press. A state tourism spokesman told USA Today that officials would not endorse the "kick ass" phraseology because the campaign organizers have a "different constituency. Which is no one."
Fans of the edgy campaign fired back at the state for its stiff response, and officials have softened their opinion.
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ed Reinke/AP Ed Reinke/AP
"I think that they probably have a pretty good constituency," Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear says. "I think it's fun. I think these guys are very innovative and they're attracting a lot of attention, good attention, for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. So I urge them on in all of their innovative thinking."
Officially, Kentucky is sticking with Unbridled Spirit, but VanMeter and Hiler were able to sit down and discuss the campaign with state tourism officials.
They're now selling T-shirts and prints of their slogan to customers all over the world; apparently there are people in England and Japan who also think Kentucky "kicks ass."IDEAS David Miliband is the President and CEO of the International Rescue Committee. His new book Rescue: Refugees and the Political Crisis of Our Time is out now
Correction appended, Oct. 27, 2015.
The maritime arrival this year of more than 560,000 people on Greek and Italian shores, and their subsequent, dramatic trek across the continent by bus, rail, car and on foot, has latterly been described as a “European migrant crisis.”
This description is misleading. More than half of those crossing the Mediterranean and Aegean are from Syria, a country devastated and emptied of a quarter of its population by four and a half years of war. Prima facie they have good claim to refugee status. The second-largest group of arrivals, Afghans, constitute just 14% of the total. So what is unfolding in Europe is overwhelmingly, though by no means exclusively, a Syrian refugee crisis. Its seemingly sudden onset speaks to just how dire the situation in Syria and the region has become, and the absolute urgency of tackling the humanitarian impact of the war.
The conflict in Syria has wrought a terrible toll on the population. Hundreds of thousands have been killed and nearly eight million internally displaced. Civilians and civilian infrastructure are deliberately and wantonly targeted. In a country where every second person needs aid, belligerents, by means ranging from bureaucracy to besiegement, are obstructing almost five million people’s access to food, water and medicine, in flagrant violation of successive U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Difficult as it is to imagine, the situation has in recent months deteriorated even further. Fighting—barrel bombs, shells, rocket and mortar attacks—has intensified in almost every governorate. The U.N. predicts that a million more Syrians will abandon their homes by Christmas unless it abates. Despite the spiraling needs in the country, which have grown 12-fold since the beginning of the conflict, the U.N.’s humanitarian appeal for Syria for 2015 is just one-third funded, 12 weeks from the year’s end.
Heightened terror and deepening poverty, then, are forcing flight from Syria, in a continuation of the exodus that has seen more than four million people flee into neighbouring states since 2011. But that is only part of the explanation. Last month I visited the Greek island of Lesbos, boat-borne refugees’ primary gateway to Europe, and met among the arrivals young, educated Syrians, who to date have managed to avoid the worst of the conflict.
The disruption of basic services in previously untouched parts of cities like Damascus and Aleppo, the contraction by more than half of Syria’s economy, widespread unemployment, soaring inflation, a plummeting currency, forced conscription, and the complete absence of a political process aimed at securing an end to the violence have forced a recalculation on the part of this technocratic class, and a realization: The case for their staying in Syria has been eroded.
This sense of despair goes some way towards explaining why those fleeing the country are now transiting through rather than sheltering in Syria’s neighbors, and why Syrian refugees in those countries are joining them in seeking protection in Europe. Ebbing international interest and diplomatic engagement give Syrians little cause to believe that the conflict will be resolved in the near future, or its long-term effects readily addressed. Russia’s intervention heightens rather than tempers the uncertainty. The case for remaining in the region in hope of eventual return is, therefore, collapsing, too.
Conditions in Syria’s neighbors have also worsened significantly as the war has dragged on, forcing refugees there to push on to Europe and those contemplating flight to discount the region as a haven. Last month Turkey put the cost of sheltering some two million Syrians at $7.6 billion. Jordan’s Economic and Social Council predicts that its provision of protection to nearly 630,000 refugees will cost the kingdom $4.2 billion by 2016. The World Bank estimates that Lebanon’s basic infrastructure will require investment of up to $2.5 billion just to be restored to pre-crisis levels. Yet donors outside the region have not stepped up: the U.N.’s 2015 appeal for Syrian refugees and their hosts is just 46% funded.
As in Syria, the impact of such a shortfall has been profound, forcing desperate refugees to risk the journey to Europe in hope of a better life. U.N. World Food Program vouchers have been cut by a third since the beginning of the year. Poverty rates are rising. With limited access to legal employment, more and more refugees are running out of cash and sinking deeper into debt. Parents are struggling to feed, clothe and shelter their children. Instead of being in school learning, some boys and girls are on the streets begging. The most desperate women are forced into survival sex and early marriage.
This, then, is the “European refugee crisis.” The exodus from Syria, and the needs generated by its civil war, have created the biggest humanitarian emergency since World War II. Addressing it and the insecurity that is forcing Syrians onto Europe-bound boats requires international investment of the scale and ambition that characterized American support for Europe in the aftermath of that conflict—a Marshall Plan for the Middle East.
By this name or another, the U.N.’s appeals for the region must be funded. Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq should receive the direct financial support and long-term development assistance that they require to repair their economies and create jobs for Syrians and the communities hosting them. Expanding resettlement programs and establishing safe and legal routes for refugees seeking to reach Europe are essential counterparts to such a plan.
Of course, none of this will stop Syrians from seeking to flee Syria. Only an end to the conflict, to attacks on civilians, to the blocking of aid can do that. All of this is the responsibility of the U.N. Security Council and those countries backing the warring parties. The need for support for the humanitarian effort, and for a renewed political and diplomatic drive to end the war, has never been more urgent.
Correction: The original version of this article misstated the amount it would cost Jordan to protect Syrian refugees. It would cost $4.2 billion by 2016.
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Like hospital patients, US farm animals tend to be confined to tight spaces and dosed with antibiotics. But that’s where the similarities end. Hospitals dole out antibiotics to save lives. On America’s factory-scale meat farms, the goal is to fatten animals for their date at the slaughterhouse.
And it turns out that antibiotics help with the fattening process. Back in the 1940s, scientists discovered that regular low doses of antibiotics increased “feed efficiency”—that is, they caused animals to put on more weight per pound of feed. No one understood why, but farmers seized on this unexpected benefit. By the 1980s, feed laced with small amounts of the drugs became de rigueur as US meat production shifted increasingly to factory farms. In 2009, an estimated 80 percent of the antibiotics sold in the United States went to livestock.
This year, scientists may have finally figured out why small doses of antibiotics “promote growth,” as the industry puts it: They make subtle changes to what’s known as the “gut microbiome,” the teeming universe populated by billions of microbes that live within the digestive tracts of animals. In recent research, the microbiome has been emerging as a key regulator of health, from immune-related disorders like allergies and asthma to the ability to fight off pathogens.
In an August study published in Nature, a team of New York University researchers subjected mice to regular low doses of antibiotics—just like cows, pigs, and chickens get on factory farms. The result: After seven weeks, the drugged mice had a different composition of microbiota in their guts than the control group—and they had gained 10 to 15 percent more fat mass.
Why? “Microbes in our gut are able to digest certain carbohydrates that we’re not able to,” says NYU researcher and study coauthor Ilseung Cho. Antibiotics seem to increase those bugs’ ability to break down carbs—and ultimately convert them to body fat. As a result, the antibiotic-fed mice “actually extracted more energy from the same diet” as the control mice, he says. That’s great if you’re trying to fatten a giant barn full of hogs. But what about that two-legged species that’s often exposed to antibiotics?
Interestingly, the NYU team has produced another recent paper looking at just that question. They analyzed data from a UK study in the early ’90s to see if they could find a correlation between antibiotic exposure and kids’ weight. The study involved more than 11,000 kids, about a third of whom had been prescribed antibiotics to treat an infection before the age of six months. The results: The babies who had been exposed to antibiotics had a 22 percent higher chance of being overweight at age three than those who hadn’t (though by age seven the effect had worn off).
The connection raises another obvious question: Are we being exposed to tiny levels of antibiotics through residues in the meat we eat—and are they altering our gut flora? It turns out that the Food and Drug Administration maintains tolerance limits for antibiotic residue levels, above which meat isn’t supposed to be released to the public (PDF). But Keeve Nachman, who researches antibiotic use in the meat industry for the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, told me that the FDA sets these limits based solely on research financed and conducted by industry—and it refuses to release the complete data to the public or consider independent research.
“We may not understand the biological relevance of exposures through consuming meat at those levels,” he says. Indeed, a recent European study showed that tiny levels of antibiotics could have an effect on microorganisms. The researchers took some meat, subjected it to antibiotic residues near the US limit, and used a traditional technique to turn it into sausage, inoculating it with lactic-acid-producing bacteria. In normal sausage making, the lactic acid from the starter bacteria spreads through the meat and kills pathogens like E. coli. The researchers found, though, that the antibiotic traces were strong enough to impede the starter bacteria, while still letting the E. coli flourish. In other words, even at very low levels, antibiotics can blast “good” bacteria—and promote deadly germs.
Nachman stressed that we simply don’t have sufficient information to tell whether the meat we eat is messing with our gut microbiome. But, he adds, “It’s not an unreasonable suspicion.” If that’s not enough to churn your stomach, there’s also the fact that drug-resistant bugs—which often emerge in antibiotic-dosed livestock on factory farms—are increasingly common: Remember the super-salmonella that caused Cargill to recall 36 million pounds of ground turkey last year? Luckily for me, it’s unlikely that drug-laced meat will mess with my gut. I think I’ve lost my appetite.San Francisco: A secret court overseeing US government domestic surveillance activities has sided with Yahoo and ordered the Obama administration to declassify and publish a 2008 court decision justifying Prism, the data collection program revealed last month by former security contractor Edward Snowden.
Judge Reggie Walton of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court issued Monday's ruling. The government is expected to decide by August 26 which parts of the ruling may be published, according to a separate court filing by the Justice Department.
The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews government requests to spy on individuals, ruled information should be made public about a 2008 case that ordered Yahoo Inc. to turn over customer data. Credit:AP
Controversial US data collection activities are overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and its appeals body, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review. Both have been shrouded in secrecy since their creation more than three decades ago.
Snowden applies for asylum in RussiaMr. Christie’s strategy of bipartisanship and outreach deliberately echoed that of another Republican governor who seized the White House after eight years of Democratic control: George W. Bush.
“We work together and they don’t,” Mr. Christie said in an interview on Tuesday morning, contrasting Trenton and Washington. “It’s not like we like each other any more than they do. I got plenty of Democrats I don’t like here and that don’t like me. But we’ve made the decision that we’re going to work together.”
In the interview, Mr. Christie said intelligent voices were being drowned out in Washington, and described the effort led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas to cut off funding for President Obama’s health care program as “a monumental failure.”
The swell of national attention around Mr. Christie had grown in the run-up to Election Day, as network cameras filmed his every move — he had a CNN microphone clipped to his tie as he campaigned on Tuesday morning at the Peterpank Diner in Central New Jersey. His campaign bus had been swarmed by people seeking autographs on photos of the governor at the White House, on the cover of Time magazine, and even with his wife, Mary Pat, on their wedding day. Some clearly hoped to offer the souvenirs later for sale.
Mr. Christie’s national profile will only increase later this month as he assumes leadership of the Republican Governors Association, which gives him sway over which state candidates the party will support, allowing him to rack up favors with other Republicans and create relationships with local leaders in key presidential states.
In the interview, Mr. Christie said he would be appearing frequently in “places like Ohio and Michigan and Florida,” all states with incumbent Republican governors up for re-election next year. He has also told South Carolina Republicans that he wants to help Senator Lindsey Graham, who is facing a conservative primary challenge next year. And in New Hampshire, which has the country’s first presidential primary, the national committeeman, Stephen Duprey, said he was inviting Mr. Christie to the state to discuss policy and to raise money for the party.
Still, Mr. Christie has to be governor of New Jersey, and that may complicate his plans to run for the presidency.Three community-minded NFL players will be recognized during Super Bowl week as finalists for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award, it was announced today. Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals, Joe Thomas of the Cleveland Browns and Jason Witten of the Dallas Cowboys are the top candidates for this year's award, named for the legendary Bears running back who died in 1999.
The Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award is the only league award that recognizes a player's off-the-field community service as well as his playing excellence.
The winner of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award will be announced in New Orleans, the site of Super Bowl XLVII, during the second annual NFL Honors, a two-hour primetime awards special to air nationally on Saturday, Feb. 2, from 9-11 p.m. ET on CBS.
Recent winners of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award include Matt Birk of the Baltimore Ravens, Madieu Williams, then of the Minnesota Vikings (2010) and Brian Waters, then of the Kansas City Chiefs (2009).
The three finalists were chosen from among the 32 team nominees for the award, all of whom receive a $1,000 donation from the NFL Foundation to the charity of their choice. The three finalists will receive an additional $5,000 donation in their name. The selection panel is comprised of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, Connie Payton, Pro Football Hall of Fame members Frank Gifford and Anthony Muñoz, 2011 winner Matt Birk, and Sports Illustrated football writer Peter King.
The winner of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award will receive the Gladiator statue, an original art creation by the noted sculptor, Daniel Schwartz. In addition, the player's favorite charity will receive an additional $20,000 donation in his name.
LARRY FITZGERALD (Arizona Cardinals)
The third overall selection in the 2004 NFL Draft, wide receiver Fitzgerald is a six-time Pro Bowl selection and holds virtually every receiving record in Cardinals franchise history. This past season, he became the youngest player in NFL history to reach 700 career receptions and joined Randy Moss as the only players in league history to reach 10,000 career receiving yards before the age of 30. The NFL's TD reception leader in both 2008 (12) and 2009 (13), Fitzgerald turned in one of the greatest postseason performances in NFL history during the Cardinals run to Super Bowl XLIII in 2008.
Fitzgerald has been just as prolific in terms of his philanthropic efforts and community work, both in the U.S. and throughout the world. In August of 2012, he was honored with Pro Football Weekly's Humanitarian of the Year Award for his outstanding community and charitable contributions. Through his two foundations-the Larry Fitzgerald First Down Fund and the Carol Fitzgerald Memorial Fund, he has helped thousands by providing funds for kids and families in crisis and to honor his late mother, Carol, has been heavily involved in furthering breast cancer awareness and research. He has served as a spokesman for the NFL's A Crucial Catch campaign each of the last three seasons, donating funds for each reception and TD reception during the month of October.
Globally, Fitzgerald has done extensive work with the Starkey Hearing Foundation, providing hearing aids for those in need throughout Africa. He has also traveled to Ethiopia with good friend and former teammate Anquan Boldin on behalf of Oxfam America, helping work on irrigation systems and digging wells in local communities. As part of his strong support of the military, Fitzgerald has helped raise money for the Semper Fi Fund, which benefits injured and critically ill members of the U.S. Armed Force; he also joined other NFL players on a USO Tour of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009.
JOE THOMAS (Cleveland Browns)
Thomas has not missed an offensive snap since joining the Browns as the third overall pick of the 2007 NFL Draft, starting the past 96 consecutive games at left tackle. He has been selected to the Pro Bowl in all six of his NFL seasons. Thomas joins Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown (1958-66) as the only Browns selected to the Pro Bowl in each of their first six seasons in the league. He is one of six Browns to earn Pro Bowl honors six or more times. In addition, Thomas has been selected to numerous All-Pro teams during his career.
The only two-time Man of the Year in Browns history (2010 and 2012), Thomas has a deep connection with those who serve our country. In 2010, he traveled more than 14,000 miles round trip to visit troops in Afghanistan through the NFL/USO Tour. To this day, he is still in contact with many of the service members he met during that trip. Upon his return, Thomas supported a national USO campaign to raise additional funds in support of our troops, lending his name to the nationwide effort as well as creating "Thomas' Troops," a gameday ticket program for the USO of Northern Ohio. Along with other former NFL players and coaches, Thomas visited the Pentagon this offseason to take part in the Military-NFL Culture Change Campaign focus group to help educate people about the dangers of traumatic brain injuries.
He and his wife, Annie, are also committed to other causes including the local Animal Protective League and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In addition, Thomas has annually served as the Honorary Co-Chair of the "Taste of the Browns" to benefit the Cleveland Foodbank, and held a similar role this year with the Providence House and the Cleveland Browns Courage House. Thomas has also served as a spokesman for both United Way and Fuel Up to Play 60. In addition to "Adopt-A-Family" programs and "Shop With a Pro" events, he helped provide school supplies for local teachers by making the largest individual financial contribution that the local "Kids in Need Resource Center" has received. The center helps provide school supplies for more than 180 schools in impoverished areas.
JASON WITTEN (Dallas Cowboys)
One of the game's most prolific pass catching tight ends of all time, Witten's 110 receptions in 2012 established an NFL single season record for tight ends, and his 806 career catches are ranked No. 3 among all tight ends in the history of the NFL.
A seven-time Pro Bowl selection, Witten is just as passionate and successful off the field as he is on game day, and his career has been characterized by a sincere and genuine interest in giving back to the community where he resides and the community that raised him. Since becoming a Cowboy in 2003, Witten has been actively involved with many non-profit organizations helping a wide-range of people from all demographics and of all ages. He serves as the Dallas Cowboys spokesman for NFL PLAY 60 to bring awareness to youth health initiatives, and he supports youth football and hosts a free football camp for 1,200 kids in his hometown.
Through the Jason Witten SCORE Foundation (JWSF), he has funded several building projects in Texas and his native Tennessee. The SCOREkeepers program is a unique initiative placing full-time, trained male mentors in battered women's shelters throughout Texas. The mentors demonstrate positive male behavior to the children in these shelters in an effort to break the cycle of violence that plagues families affected by abuse. JWSF has placed SCOREkeepers in six shelters across Texas, and Witten hosts children from these shelters for special events throughout the year. The foundation's newest domestic violence prevention program, "Coaching Boys Into Men," trains high school coaches to educate their players on the dangers of dating violence.
The Wittens make giving back a family affair and involve their young children both in the team's early Thanksgiving Day meal at The Salvation Army and underwrite the Dallas Cowboys Women's Association's Christmas of Giving benefiting families from The Family Place.Guidance for mitigation action should come from the insights that global mean temperatures respond to cumulative carbon emissions and that there are risks beyond warming alone. Momentum for the negotiations requires a sense of opportunity.
Mountain of coal. Cumulative emissions of CO 2, for example from fossil fuel burning, determine global mean warming. Image: © CBPIX / ALAMY
Leaders from around the world have made at least a prospective commitment: they promised to agree on a binding climate change mitigation strategy in 2015. How this strategy can be forged is less clear. A United Nations Climate Summit has been called for 23 September 2014 in New York1 to bring fresh ideas and momentum to the process. Nature Geoscience and Nature Climate Change take this opportunity to present scientific background for the upcoming climate talks in a joint Focus, along with opinion pieces on some of the crucial crunch points that the negotiators face: allocation of carbon budgets to countries, over-reliance on carbon removal from the atmosphere and making cooperative bottom-up diplomacy work (http://www.nature.com/ngeo/focus/climate-change-countdown/index.html).
In terms of climate science, there has been a key change in perspective since earlier negotiations. It has become clear that whether CO 2 emissions occur in a single burst next year or gradually over the next few decades makes little difference for global mean temperature change in the long run. At least in terms of CO 2, the total sum of emissions determines how warm the planet will become2,3,4, regardless of when these emissions occur and how they change over time.
Another insight emerged as a corollary once temperature change projections were drawn up against cumulative carbon emissions (see Fig. 1b in the Commentary in the Focus; http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2254): the warming response to cumulative emissions is almost perfectly linear. That is, the degree of warming per unit of CO 2 that reaches the atmosphere is roughly the same, whether we drastically reduce CO 2 emissions or carry on with unabated fossil fuel and cement use. The difference between the various emissions scenarios — from aggressive mitigation to business as usual — lies almost exclusively in how quickly, and how far, we move along the warming road.
As outlined in the Commentary, it is clear that short-term measures for climate change relief other than reductions in CO 2 emissions, such as limiting the release of short-lived greenhouse gases, need to be evaluated against their long-term contribution to reductions in cumulative emissions: flash-in-the-pan actions to cool the planet in the next few years will not necessarily buy time, but catch up with us later. If they take this message on board, the negotiators must consider a timeframe extending many decades into the past and future, which complicates the attribution of responsibility and the allocation of allowances.
Time is of the essence. A Review Article in the Focus (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2248) concludes that our cumulative carbon emissions so far have already sent us two thirds of the way towards the threshold of 2 °C of warming over pre-industrial levels that has served as a focus point for policy. The countdown has started, not only on the negotiations, but also the emissions clock.
In addition, although global mean temperature rise may be the best-understood response to greenhouse emissions, it is not the only one. Indeed, perhaps it is not even the most important one. As outlined in a Perspective in the Focus (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2253), aspects of climate change that are related to atmospheric circulation, such as changes in regional weather events (including extremes) and to some degree rain- and snowfall, are significantly more uncertain than global mean temperature. For these aspects — often the most important for human societies — climate model projections show significantly less agreement than for the more straightforward warming response. It is therefore less clear at which point in the cumulative emissions curve substantial changes in atmospheric circulation may occur. These uncertainties are unlikely to be resolvable in the near future.
For the negotiations, it will be important to keep in mind that additional climate change impacts may come from changes in atmospheric circulation — some might call these the 'known unknowns'. One example is the risk that the frequency or pattern of extreme weather events in the North American and Eurasian mid-latitudes could change in response to Arctic sea ice loss6: a risk that is not well quantified, but that would severely affect many people. Given the potential for substantial damage from such circulation-related aspects of the climate system, we need to avoid the risk of altering weather patterns too much, even if we do not know precisely what 'too much' is.
The case that the Earth is warming, largely in response to human action, has been documented in the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in 2013. Impacts, adaptation and mitigation options have also been synthesized in depth in the report, and the literature is constantly being updated by the scientific community. We know that, with the cumulative emissions so far, we have already committed ourselves to substantial warming; it is time for negotiators to commit themselves to a binding long-term plan.
Perhaps a stronger involvement from the political sciences (Nature Clim. Change http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2396; 2014). could help pave the way to less confrontation and more collaboration among countries; this avenue needs to be explored in earnest. Most importantly, climate change mitigation must acquire positive connotations of future well-being, economic opportunity and positive intellectual challenge. Once this is achieved, the field and the negotiations will gain momentum for change too.
References 1. http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/ 2. Allen, M. R. et al. Nature 458, 1163–1166 (2009). 3. Meinshausen, M. et al. Nature 458, 1158–1162 (2009). 4. Matthews, H. D. et al. Nature 459, 829–832 (2009). 5. Nature Geosci. 7, 157 (2014). 6. Cohen, J. et al. Nature Geosci. 7, 627–637 (2014). Download references
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About this article Publication history Published 21 September 2014 DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2266{snip}
Despite this difficult climate, political support is rapidly building in favor of legislation that has |
(Reuters) - Belgian police killed a gunman after several officers were wounded on Tuesday in a raid on a Brussels apartment linked to investigating November's Islamist attacks in Paris, public broadcaster RTBF said.
Two other suspects were being sought, it added.
But after five hours of intense police activity in the area, security forces escorted children away from nearby schools and kindergartens and began to allow residents back to homes in the suburban neighborhood, Reuters journalists at the scene said.
Belgium's federal prosecutor, leading the investigation, said one or more suspects barricaded themselves in an apartment after firing through a door at police who arrived to search it. Police said two officers were wounded then and another was hit later. Local media said four police were injured in total.
DH newspaper said one suspect was shot dead after being spotted from a police helicopter in a nearby garden.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said French police took part in the raid in the Belgian capital. Streets around the house in the city's southern borough of Forest were sealed off by police.
"This operation is connected to the Paris attacks," a spokesman for the federal prosecutor said.
Prime Minister Charles Michel met ministers and was expected to give a news conference later.
Reuters journalists heard gunshots as police commandos crowded into the street where the raid unfolded.
Investigators believe much of the planning and preparation for the Nov. 13 bombing and shooting rampage in Paris that killed 130 people were carried out by young French and Belgian nationals, some of whom fought in Syria for Islamic State.
The attack strained relations between Brussels and Paris, with French officials suggesting Belgium was lax in monitoring the activities of hundreds of militants returned from Syria.
HELICOPTERS
The area around Tuesday's raid, near a car factory and a major north-south railway linking Paris and Amsterdam, was sealed off, and a police helicopter buzzed overhead.
Police told residents to stay indoors and children were kept inside schools and kindergartens for hours into the evening.
Belgian security forces have been actively hunting suspects and associates of the militants involved in the attacks in Paris. Some of the attackers came from Brussels.
One of the prime suspects, 26-year-old Brussels-based Frenchman Salah Abdeslam, is still on the run. He left Paris shortly after his brother blew himself up in the attacks. Belgian authorities are holding 10 people who have been arrested in the months since the attacks, mostly for helping Abdeslam.
RTBF quoted French police sources as saying Abdeslam had not been the target of Tuesday's raid.
Brussels, headquarters of the European Union as well as Western military alliance NATO, was locked down for days after the Paris attacks for fear of a major incident there. Brussels has maintained a high state of security alert since then, with military patrols a regular sight.
Soldiers were on streets in central Brussels on Tuesday as the operation continued.
Belgium, with a Muslim population of about 5 percent among its 11 million people, has the highest rate in Europe of citizens joining Islamist militants in Syria.
(Additional reporting by Miranda Alexander-Webber, Jan Strupczewski and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Janet Lawrence)Quebec's economic fortunes brightened towards the end of 2016 as unemployment reached historic lows, and forecasts suggest the good news will continue this year.
But economists are also warning the province's growth prospects — already modest to begin with — are vulnerable to whatever volatility may accompany the presidency of Donald Trump.
In a series of forecasts released last month, several leading financial institutions sketched a generally positive outlook for Quebec's economy.
Desjardins, TD and the Royal Bank all predict real GDP growth of 1.6 per cent for 2017, a marginal improvement over 2016, which is expected to be around 1.5 per cent when the final numbers are counted.
Quebec's economy stumbled somewhat in the first half of last year. But consistent recent gains in manufacturing, finance and real-estate, among other sectors, has economists bullish about the coming months.
It is, in particular, difficult to ignore Quebec's unemployment rate, which dropped to 6.2 per cent by November, the lowest its been since Statistic Canada began releasing the figure in 1976.
"The tides in Quebec's economy seem to have turned, with more positive results rolling in for some time now," Desjardins said in its December economic outlook.
"Since July, Quebec has gained 71,900 new jobs — a 1.8 per cent increase. In contrast, job growth in the other provinces was only 0.5 per cent for the period."
Quebec Finance Minister Carlos Leitao has hinted his next budget will contain more public spending. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)
Gains from public spending
The rosy forecasts for 2017 are driven, in part, by the expectation that government spending will stimulate growth — a change from recent years.
Philippe Couillard's government spent the first part of its mandate dramatically scaling back government expenses. That, said RBC, acted as more of a "headwind" to provincial GDP growth.
But in his fall economic update, Finance Minister Carlos Leitao revealed he was pumping $2.2 billion back into the economy, the frugal years having left the government with a small surplus.
With the government's books now balanced, economists believe Leitao's next budget will contain further reinvestments.
TD said it is anticipating more money for public infrastructure, contributing to activity in the industrial construction sector. RBC noted the federal government is also planning to release more infrastructure funds in its next budget.
For his part, Leitao himself hinted his spring budget would carry forward the cautious investments first announced in his last economic update.
"We will take a targeted approach to reinvestment," he told The Canadian Press in a recent interview.
"We will not open the spending taps without thinking. No. We we will target education, health care and economic development."
Ah yes, the wildcard
So far markets have reacted well to Donald Trump's election, but economists are worried about his protectionist campaign rhetoric. (ablo Martinez Monsivai/The Associated Press)
The other major drivers of growth this year are expected to be exports and manufacturing, long-standing pillars of the Quebec economy that have underperformed at times in the recent past.
Optimism about these sectors largely reflects the belief that the economic situation south of the border will continue to improve.
TD is predicting U.S. economic growth to reach 2 per cent for 2017-2018, and will translate into higher demand for Canadian manufactured goods.
Already in the final months of 2016, Quebec manufacturing contributed to a slight surge in the provincial GDP, RBC's forecast said.
But if Quebec's growth in 2017 is dependent on a better American economy, the incoming president represents something of a wildcard.
Quebec's economic fortunes for the coming year are tied to the continued strength of the U.S. economy. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)
Trump's campaign struck a decidedly protectionist tone and the possibility that NAFTA could be renegotiated adds another element of uncertainty.
"A great deal of protectionist rhetoric was a big part of the presidential campaign, which could be harmful to Canada's manufacturing and exporting regions should such policies be enacted," TD warned investors.
Moreover, the bank's economists point out that bond yields in the U.S. have risen since the election, based on inflation fears (possibly linked to Trump's spending promises).
That, in turn, could drive up mortgage rates in Canada, where federal officials have already taken steps to tighten home-lending rules.
"Not everything is rosy," Desjardins' forecast said about the Quebec economy.
"[T]he introduction of new federal measures to restrict residential credit combined with the uptick in mortgage rates should put the brakes on the resale and residential construction markets."ERBIL-Hewler, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— A Peshmerga fighter was injured in Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan on Tuesday after being accidentally shot by a Dutch soldier on a training location, the Ministry of Defense announced in a press statement on its website.
The Kurdish fighter was taken to a hospital and the Ministry of Peshmerga has been informed.
The Koninklijke Marechaussee is at the training location to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
The Dutch army began training the Kurds in mid-February, and in the coming months, the training mission will be relocated to the Kurdistan Training Coordination Center (KTCC), close to Erbil International Airport.
A recently leaked German army report suggest that the growing presence of German soldiers in Kurdistan increases the terrorist threat to foreign soldiers involved in the mission, reports Der Spiegel.
Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, nltimes.nl | Ekurd.net | Agencies
Comments
CommentsA new patch has been released! This one contains a small amount of changes/bug fixes as well as this year’s Halloween event and one more event that will begin later on.
Two things to note: they actually removed some unused data this patch!! Also, the patch notes mention how Aswan is ‘currently undergoing changes’ so… updated Aswan soon?
Here are the two world select screens for this patch! The first is Hallocat and the second is Detective Pepe!
Game Related
When selling Cash items in the Auction House, the following changes have been made.
When selling a bundle of items, the wording has been changed to specify that you are setting the bundle price.
A confirmation message showing the number of items you are selling and the total price will now appear before the item is listed.
The Reporting system has been reorganized.
The Report UI has been changed to allow for easier reporting.
‘Gambling’ and ‘Illegal programs’ have been added as report reasons.
Reports will now be able to include text from megaphones.
The reporting fee has been removed.
The daily limit for reporting has been changed to 10 per day.
The following items have been changed so that you can sell them to stores.
Eye of Fire
You can now purchase Accelerators from the NPCs Cute, Moody, and Patricia.
For data optimization, Battle Monster only equipment and other unused data have been removed from the game.
The V Matrix’s Special Cores will now have an icon that shows that they are time-limited. You can hover over to read the tooltip to see the expiry date.
Due to the current changes being made to Aswan Liberation War, the NPC Woodwan‘s reward menu has been removed. (Updated Aswan soon??)
The following errors have been fixed.
An error where Pianus would not drop potions has been fixed.
An error where you could not acquire Item Pot items from mining/herb collecting has been fixed.
An error where certain time-limited Android Hearts’ potential options would apply without equipping an Android has been fixed.
An error where the Golden Hammer UI would not disappear has been fixed.
An error where only up to 5 monster buffs/debuffs would be shown has been fixed.
Arcane Symbols have been added to the list of items that you can ignore using pets’ Item Ignore skill.
An error where Chloe’s Enhancement Potion could not be used with the Miho pet has been fixed.
An error where boss Suu (Hard mode) would sometimes recover HP randomly has been fixed.
An error where you would receive E rank in Urus if you cleared it in a very short time has been fixed.
Skill Related
Cannon Shooter’s Cannon Bazooka ‘s cast delay has been adjusted. The total cast delay will remain unchanged.
Cannon Shooter’s ‘s cast delay has been adjusted. The total cast delay will remain unchanged. Soul Master’s character card effect has been changed from weapon defense to defense.
Luminous’ Death Scythe has been changed from being centred on the screen to being centered on your character.
Luminous’ has been changed from being centred on the screen to being centered on your character. Demon Avenger’s Release Overload UI can now be moved using the mouse.
The level 20 effects of certain Enhancement Cores have been changed.
Night Walker’s Lucky Seven, Shadow Stitch, Dominion: 5% critical rate
Night Lord’s Sudden Raid: 5% critical rate
Shadower’s Meso Explosion, Sudden Raid: 5% critical rate
Dual Blade’s Chains of Hell: 10% increased damage to normal monsters, Sudden Raid, Hidden Blade: 5% critical rate
Captain’s Rapid Fire, Captain Dignity: 5% critical rate, Head Shot: 10% increased damage to normal monsters
Xenon’s Pinpoint Rocket, Aegis System, Triangle Formation, Confine Entangle: 5% critical rate
Magnificent Lucid’s Soul skill Ruler of Nightmares’ attack range has been adjusted.
The following errors have been fixed.
An error where certain Special Cores’ activation cooldowns would be increased has been fixed.
When you use a Buff Freezer, any summons that appear in your Buff Window will also be kept when you revive.
An error where the client would exit when using Shadower’s Shadow Assault or Soul Master’s Solunar Slash on the boss Von Leon has been fixed.
An error where Thieves’ 5th job skill Venom Burst’s effect would not appear correctly when finishing off a monster has been fixed.
An error where Dark Knight’s Reincarnation – Damage wold not apply to Reincarnation has been fixed.
An error where Wind Breaker’s Trifling Whim would not activate on certain bosses has been fixed.
An error where Night Walker’s Shadow Spear would cancel Dark Sight has been fixed.
An error where Blaster’s guard judgement would disappear has been fixed.
An error where Mechanic’s 5th job skill Multiple Option: M-FL’s attacks would sometimes not deal damage has been fixed.
An error where Mercedes’ 5th job skill Elemental Ghost’s extra attack would have a lower activation rate than it should on Ishtar’s Ring has ben fixed.
An error where monsters hit by Zero’s 5th job skill Limit Break would not receive the resistance to binds has been fixed.
An error where Kinesis’ Ultimate – Psychic Shot would not deal damage to enemies in Chew Chew Island – Torrential Zone has been fixed.
Quest Related
You can now go directly to the NPC Ifia to begin the quest Ifia’s Desire.
An error where the following quests could not be completed after completing the 5th job advancement has been fixed.
He Who Walks the Road of the Viper
Everyone’s Superstar
Cash Shop
The November Royal Hair Coupon and Trendy Royal Face Coupon have been added and will be sold until November 23, with new hairs and faces.
The Royal Style Coupon, Special Label, and Master Label items have been updated with new, spooky Halloween themed items~
The Gold Apple rewards ave been updated with new special items, including the Liquid Metal Heart (3 all stats, 100 HP, 9 slots, tradeable until equipped, level 120), the Ghost Damage Skin, Transparent Damage Skin, new Halloween Cube chairs, and some new ridings.
The Thrilling Halloween Cash Shop event has begun and will run until November 9.
The Choice Hair/Face Coupons have been updated with new choices!
The Sweet Pig Package and the Halloween Leopard Package will be on sale as well.
30 kinds of Halloween coordi items will also be on sale during this event, 70% off!
Finally, the Fairytale Land Orca pets have been added and will be sold until November 16.
The Wounded Orca and Corrupted Suu packages will be sold until November 16, at a 20% discount.
For the Sweet Cash Shop event, the Sweet Choco Hat Box (which gives 1 of 6 random hair pins), the Lovely Choco Stick weapon and the Heart Package will be sold until November 23.
Events
Hallocat’s Halloween Party
Enjoy Hallocat’s Halloween Party with various events and Halloween decorations across Maple World. This event will run from October 27 to November 9.
During this event, you can collect Halloween Candy by doing the following things:
Hunt monsters around your level
Hunt Elite Monsters during the event
Hunt the Halloween Big Pumpkin Monster that spawns in Henesys and Leafre every hour
You can double click the Halloween Candy to receive a random type of candy or even a chair if you’re lucky.
Pumpkin Flavoured Halloween Candy (see below)
Trick or Treat Candy (see below)
Strong Flavoured Halloween Candy (gives 20 attack/magic attack for 15 minutes)
Jumbo Halloween Candy Chair
For this event, everyone will receive the Cat-O’-Lantern Summon item. You can use it to summon a Cat-O’-Lantern that increases certain stats for your character.
Attack/magic attack: 0~20
Damage when attacking regular monsters: 0%~20%
Damage when attacking boss monsters: 0%~20%
Defense ignore: 0%~20%
Critical rate: 0%~20%
Each stat goes from level 0-10 (so each level is a 2% boost). How do you level them up? If you get the Pumpkin Flavoured Halloween Candy, you can spend 5 of them to level up one stat by one level.
Every day, Hallocat will have a gift for you if you have levelled up your Cat-O’-Lantern enough!
October 27: level 1 or higher – 3 2x Exp Coupons (15 mins)
October 28: level 4 or higher – Special Medal of Honor
October 29: level 7 or higher – Craftsman’s Cube
October 30: level 10 or higher – Powerful Rebirth Flame
October 31: level 13 or higher – Together with Hallocat Chair, Selective Halloween Mask Voucher (Permanent)
November 1: level 16 or higher – 100% Gold Hammer
November 2: level 19 or higher – Prepared Pendant of the Spirit (7 days)
November 3: level 22 or higher – Meister’s Cube
November 4: level 25 – 50% Epic Potential Scroll
November 5: level 25 – 100% Additional Potential Scroll
November 6: level 25 – Eternal Rebirth Flame
November 7: level 30 – Miracle Circulator
November 8: level 40 – Selective 8 Slot Coupon
November 9: level 50 – Eternal Rebirth Flame
Sometimes, when you open your Halloween Candy, you’ll get the Trick or Treat Candy. By sitting on the Trick or Treat Chair, you can share your Trick or Treat Candy with other users.
You can also collect candy from other users sitting in their chairs by clicking on them, up to 5 times per day. You’ll get the Gift Received Trick or Treat Candy which you can double click to receive a 15 minute 2x experience buff effect.
If you can give out at least 25 Trick or Treat Candy during the event, you’ll receive the Halloween Cat-O’-Lantern Mask, and if you can give out 50, you’ll get the Halloween Candy Wealth Chair.
In addition, at the end of this event, the top 1031 people (October 31, get it?) that have given out the most candy will receive extra prizes!
1st~100th: Hallocat Damage Skin, Hallocat’s Witch Hat, Jumbo Halloween Candy Chair
Hallocat Damage Skin, Hallocat’s Witch Hat, Jumbo Halloween Candy Chair 101th~500th: Hallocat Damage Skin, Hallocat’s Witch Hat
Hallocat Damage Skin, Hallocat’s Witch Hat 501th~1031th: Hallocat Damage Skin
Every day during this event, you can select one of five Halloween masks to wear! They expire in one day. In addition, if you get one of each, you’ll receive the Selective Halloween Mask Voucher (permanent).
Halloween Dracula Mask
Halloween Frankenstein Mask
Halloween Skeleton Mask
Halloween Werewolf Mask
Halloween Mummy Mask
Finally, during this event, the following benefits and changes will take place:
Henesys and Leafre will be all decked out with Halloween decorations.
The Multi Kill and Combo Kill effects as well as Rune appearances will be changed to a Halloween style.
Instead of Elite Monsters, Halloween Elite monsters will spawn.
Every hour, the Halloween Big Pumpkin Monster will spawn in Henesys and Leafre.
Compensation
After this patch was released, there were a series of server checks due to server issues and to compensate, Nexon gave everyone a bunch of prizes! You can talk to Maple Admin to take out any prizes, so you can get specific items on specific characters.
10 3x Experience Coupons (15 minutes)
10 Special Medals of Honor
3 Personality Trait Growth Potions
3 Storm Growth Potions
2 8 Slot Inventory Expansion Coupons
Character Slot Expansion Coupon
Selective Halloween Mask Voucher
Hallocat’s Witch Hat
100 Halloween Candy
In addition, if you logged in between 10AM and 11:59PM on October 28, you would receive 3,000 Maple Points.
Finally, from 10 am to 11:59 pm on October 28, the following benefits took place:
2x drop
7 free Monster Park Extreme runs
30% Star Force enhancement cost discount (does not apply to Superior items or destruction chance removal)
Detective Pepe’s Pepero Day
Detective Pepe’s precious pepero has disappeared?! Join Detective Pepe and his Assistant Yeti to begin a thrilling tale to find it! This event will run from November 10 to November 23.
Each day, you can log on and complete another episode to receive rewards and find out who the culprit is.You can clear each episode once per character, and if you miss any days, you can catch up (i.e. you don’t have to finish every episode the day it comes out).
Episode 1: Pendant of the Spirit
Pendant of the Spirit Episode 2: 5 Strange Cubes
5 Strange Cubes Episode 3: 10% Clean Slate Scroll
10% Clean Slate Scroll Episode 4: 60% Innocent Scroll
60% Innocent Scroll Episode 5: 100% Gold Hammer
100% Gold Hammer Episode 6: Special Medal of Honor
Special Medal of Honor Episode 7: 60% Miraculous Positive Chaos Scroll
60% Miraculous Positive Chaos Scroll Episode 8: Powerful Rebirth Flame
Powerful Rebirth Flame Episode 9: Damage Skin Storage Slot Expansion Coupon
Damage Skin Storage Slot Expansion Coupon Episode 10: Detective Damage Skin
Detective Damage Skin Episode 11: 5,000 Scroll Traces
5,000 Scroll Traces Episode 12: 50% Epic Potential Scroll
50% Epic Potential Scroll Episode 13: Meister’s Cube
Meister’s Cube Episode 14: Eternal Rebirth Flame
You can receive each of the prizes above only once per world. If you repeat an episode on another character in the same world, you’ll receive 500 Honor instead. In Reboot, you’ll receive Mysterious Meso Bags instead of the scrolls.
After completing episode 1, you’ll be able to complete the Clue Search Operation quest from the Assistant Yeti. Collect Mysterious Clues and Vital Clues from monsters around your level and trade them in for Honor! You can get up to 15,000 Honor per day.
Mysterious Clue: 10 Honor per item
10 Honor per item Vital Clue: 100 Honor per item
If you clear an episode on November 12 or 13, you’ll receive the Assistant Yeti Chair! If you clear an episode on November 20 or 21, you’ll receive the Detective Pepe Chair!
In addition, on November 12 and 19, the Honor cost to reset your Ability will be halved!
AdvertisementsGenerating economic growth in the Middle East is crucial to defeating extremism, Iranian President Hassan Rowhani said on Tuesday, putting forward his country as a regional trade hub and pillar of stability.
Rowhani is on a four-day trip to Italy and France, looking to rebuild Iranian relations with the West some two weeks after financial sanctions on Tehran were rolled back in the wake of its nuclear accord with world powers last year.
Italy announced some 17 billion euros ($18.4 billion) of business deals with Iran on Monday. Mega contracts are also in the offing in France, reflecting EU countries’ keenness to cash in on the diplomatic thaw with the Islamic Republic.
Underscoring the growing warmth, Rowhani said he expected Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to visit Iran in the coming months to help boost bilateral economic alliances.
“We are ready to welcome investment, welcome technology and create a new export market,” Rowhani told a business forum on the second day of his visit to Rome, saying Iran had ambitions to develop its own economy after years of curbs and hardship.
“Under the new conditions, we want to export 30 percent of what we produce in Iran.”
Italy has rolled out the red carpet to Rowhani and his 120-strong delegation of business leaders and government ministers, seeing Shi'ite Muslim Tehran as a possible partner in the battle against ISIS.
“If we want to combat extremism in the world, if we want to fight terror, one of the roads before us is providing growth and jobs. Lack of growth creates forces for terrorism. Unemployment creates soldiers for terrorists,” Rowhani said.
Also read: ‘Pray for me:’ Iranian president asks pope during visit to the Vatican
‘Strategic alliance’ eyed
Many Western nations accuse Iran of funding various militant groups that are on U.S. and EU terror blacklists. Despite Iran's deal with world powers to curb its disputed nuclear program, the United States is keeping some of its financial sanctions in place because of its links to organizations such as Hezbollah.
Any such criticism has barely been heard in Rome, with the government eager to welcome Iran as a potentially positive force in an increasingly fragmented Middle East.
“We are not looking at simple reactivation of our cooperation with Iran, but rather a comprehensive relaunch of a strategic alliance,” Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told the business conference.
Among the deals signed on Monday were a $4 billion contract for oil services group Saipem, up to 5.7 billion euros in contracts for steel firm Danieli, up to 4 billion euros of business for infrastructure firm Condotte d’Acqua, 4 billion euros for rail and road company Gavio and 400 million euros for planes from Finmeccanica.
Industry Minister Federica Guidi told la Repubblica newspaper that the total value of the contracts could exceed the 17 billion euros initially indicated by the government.
Two large Italian business delegations went to Tehran soon after the nuclear deal was inked last year. Another such group is scheduled to visit Iran from Feb. 8 to 10.
($1 = 0.9224 euros)
Last Update: Tuesday, 26 January 2016 KSA 16:35 - GMT 13:35President Obama just did something he hasn’t done in years: speak frankly and passionately about his views on climate change.
It happened when New York Times columnist Tom Friedman interviewed the president for tonight’s season finale of Years of Living Dangerously, the Showtime series about climate change. The episode airs Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, but Friedman offered a preview of the president’s remarks in the Times on Saturday. It’s well worth reading.
From a policy standpoint, the takeaway is that the president explicitly called for a price on carbon. It’s something he has been reluctant to do ever since a bipartisan climate bill died in Congress in 2010. From the Times:
What is the one thing you would still like to see us do to address climate change? Said Obama: put a price on carbon.
The way we’ve solved previous problems, like acid rain, he noted, “was that we said: ‘We’re going to charge you if you’re releasing this stuff into the atmosphere, but we’re going to let you figure out—with the marketplace and with the technology’ ” how best to mitigate it. But “you can’t keep dumping it out in the atmosphere and making everybody else pay for it. So if there’s one thing I would like to see, it’d be for us to be able to price the cost of carbon emissions.
Perhaps even more surprisingly, when Friedman baited the president by asking whether he doesn’t sometimes just want to “go off like a Roman candle” on climate deniers in Congress, Obama snapped up the bait. “Uh, yeah,” he said, laughing, and then launched into a diatribe that included the classic line, “science is science.” See the video above for his full response. Now that is the answer environmentalists have been waiting forever to hear from a sitting president.
Granted, acknowledging the findings of climate science and calling for a price on carbon are hardly revolutionary. Mainstream economists, let alone environmentalists, have been doing just that for years, as have Republicans like John McCain and Lindsey Graham. Hell, even Shell, Exxon, and BP have endorsed a carbon price.
It’s true that we won’t get a grip on global warming until rising economies like China and India get more serious about it. But that’s never going to happen until the United States puts its money where its mouth is. A nationwide cap-and-trade scheme, or better yet a straight-up carbon tax, is the step the world has been waiting for.
And yet Obama has been dancing around the issue for years, so much so that I’ve made something of a hobby out of trying to parse his statements on climate change. One day he’s delivering anodyne proposals to improve energy efficiency in buildings. The next he’s going toe-to-toe with Mitt Romney over who’s a stauncher defender of oil and coal. And the next he’s dragging God into the fight. Even after he won re-election, a reporter’s direct question about a carbon tax drew a mumbly response about an entirely different issue.
The clarity of Obama’s answers to Friedman contrast starkly to his recent half-measures, diversions, and bromides. Given his past timidity, it’s fair to ask how we know for sure that Obama’s strong words today reflect his real views. The answer is that they’re the same ones he espoused before he was president. It was only after Congress stymied him in 2010 that he went wobbly on the need to tackle climate-change head-on. He all but admits this in the Friedman interview:
“We have got to meet folks where they are,” said Obama. “We’ve gone through, obviously, in the last five years, a tough economic crisis. … I don’t always lead with the climate change issue because if you right now are worried about whether you’ve got a job or if you can pay the bills, the first thing you want to hear is how do I meet the immediate problem? One of the hardest things in politics is getting a democracy to deal with something now where the payoff is long term or the price of inaction is decades away.
To his credit, Obama has quietly done about as much as a president could do on climate change without Congress. Efficiency standards on their own don’t amount to much of a climate strategy, but couple them with support for renewable energy, a war on coal, and some Cleveland Browns-level punting on the Keystone Pipeline, and you’re starting to look at a real environmental legacy.
One other thing: About a year ago, the Obama administration snuck in a recalculation of the social cost of carbon, hiking it from $23.80 to $38 per metric ton. So if a carbon price ever does get through Congress, that price will have a significantly higher starting point in the negotiations.
Of course, Obama telling Tom Friedman he’d like to see a price on carbon does not make it so. All along there have been those who praised Obama’s shrewd maneuvering on climate change, arguing that deeds are more important than words. But in a country where a huge swath of the population somehow still believes that man-made climate change is a conspiracy, words matter, too. And Obama’s careful, conciliatory rhetoric made it hard to shake the feeling that he was leading from behind.
Today, he’s finally putting himself out front on the climate-change issue, calling it perhaps “the most significant long-term challenge that this country faces and that the planet faces.” And he’s calling on his fellow politicians to catch up.
Previously in Slate:I think I want to be sick to my stomach. How much longer before it’s another $50 billion? When do we say enough?
The company said it would be able to borrow up to $20.9 billion under the new program, raising its maximum available credit from the Fed to $144 billion under three different programs. The credit includes an earlier emergency loan of $85 billion from the Fed that carries a much higher interest rate.
A.I.G.’s big borrowings underscore the company’s bewilderingly rapid decline. When it suddenly faced a cash crisis in mid-September, the original estimate of the amount it needed was just $20 billion. A few days later, the Fed stepped forward with its $85 billion credit line. And now, the stunning size of that original bailout has grown by almost 70 percent.
A.I.G.’s cash needs could grow even further. Much of the cash it needs is being used to meet collateral calls from its derivatives counterparties, and the precise collateral triggers and amounts are not public information. In general, the derivative contracts cost A.I.G. more as the real estate markets decline. The company’s financial products division did a lot of business in that type of derivative, called credit-default swaps.Donald Trump is inaccurately claiming that President Barack Obama yelled at a protester for the GOP nominee. In reality, Obama had actually encouraged his supporters to act respectfully toward the man.
“If I spoke the way Obama spoke to that protester, they would say, ‘He became unhinged!’” Trump told supporters at a campaign rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania on Friday night.
“He spent so much time screaming at this protester and frankly, it was a disgrace.”
Trump also bizarrely claimed that the president, a Democrat, should not be campaigning for his party’s nominee Hillary Clinton.
He accused the broadcast media taping the event of being more favorable toward Obama than the GOP nominee by not panning cameras to capture the protester.
“They wouldn’t put the cameras on him,” Trump said. “They kept the cameras on Obama.”
Trump repeated his false accusation at a campaign rally in Tampa, Florida on Saturday.
In reality, Obama did just the opposite at a North Carolina rally for Clinton’s campaign earlier Friday, as The Huffington Post reported. Obama told the crowd not to boo a pro-Trump protester, acknowledging the man’s advanced age and apparent military service.
“We live in a country that respects free speech,” he said. “Don’t boo, vote.”
Obama just lost control of the crowd in North Carolina which was shouting down a Trump supporter; Obama defended the guy's right to protest pic.twitter.com/bTjHPvadcj — Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) November 4, 2016
Ironically, Trump has a history of berating protesters and inciting violence against them, whereas Obama has been known to engage them in conversation.
Last week, at a rally in Kinston, North Carolina, Trump mistook an African-American supporter for a demonstrator, called him a “thug” and had him ejected from the event.Afternoon, May 14, 2017
Citadel West
The alarms went silent. North American airspace went black. The lights went out. THARMAS went quiet, then released an arc of electrical energy which briefly lit the otherwise pitch-black room before dying back down. Sohu gave a horrible primal scream.
“THEY KILLED URIEL!” she screamed. “THEY KILLED URIEL! THEY BROKE MALKUTH! EVERYTHING IS…” She gave a horrible noise, like she was being pulled apart.
Someone said the Luminous Name, and I saw her there, clutching her head. I saw the rest of them. Nathanda looking grave, Jinxiang looking angry, Caelius still mangled and bloody, sitting with THARMAS, hitting it, trying to get it to turn back on. I saw Sarah, her face emotionless.
“Sohu!” said Nathanda, placing her hands on her sister’s head. “Can you hear me, Sohu? Tell me what’s going on?”
“THEY KILLED URIEL!” she screamed. “THEY KILLED URIEL AND NOW IT’S ALL…” She looked like she was trying to find a word for how bad things were. She started saying something else, but I wasn’t sure whether she was speaking some language I didn’t know or just having a seizure.
The real power of angels and demons was unplumbably immense. They’d been hobbled to a semi-human level by Uriel’s filters, which denied them the divine light they devoured for sustenance. If that was gone, there was nothing hyperbolic about Sohu’s reaction. We had lost in the most final and terrifying way possible.
“Sohu,” said Caelius, very quietly, and I could see he was having trouble staying conscious, but he was Cometspawn, and there was a job to be done. “Sohu, we need THARMAS back. This must have been the Other King’s plan all along. He would deny us THARMAS and the Names by – ” he stopped for a second, took a deep breath ” – by preventing computer technology from working at all. I need to know, can you bring THARMAS back? The lights can wait. The airspace map can wait. But Sohu, we need THARMAS.”
“Can’t…do it,” said Sohu, panting. “Never could…get Briah…right. Computers…too hard.”
Now it was General Bromis’ turn. “Can you at least get radio connections back up? We’re flying blind in here! I need to hear from the armies!”
Sohu paused for a second. “Kay…did it…radio…works,” she said. “Can’t manage anything more. Also, all of…the rivers in the world are…running in reverse.” She laughed fatalistically. “Never fails. Hardly…matters now.” She grabbed her head again. “Oh God…Uriel. It’s too much.”
Bromis and his soldiers had left, probably trying to radio their battalions, tell them that the artillery wasn’t going to fire, that the tanks would just stand motionless. “Got…to get…THARMAS back,” Caelius was saying, but his words were slurred and he sounded half-asleep. For the first time, I thought I saw Nathanda…not at a loss, exactly. Just sitting quietly, trying to figure out what to do.
“Put me in THARMAS,” Sarah said suddenly, and we all turned to her.
“What?” asked Nathanda.
“Put me in THARMAS. I’m still working. I have a soul, a divine spark, so I’m mind and not machinery. If Vihaan hadn’t bombed the original THARMAS, the one with the soul, and forced Caelius to switch it to a different configuration, it would be working |
wine, a long run, or a haze of citrusy steam and some forgiving waters to wash the unpleasant stickiness away.
As for grapefruit fans, they'll have to figure something else out.NDP Leader Tom Mulcair will tell a luncheon audience in Ottawa Wednesday that a New Democrat cabinet would abandon the power to overturn decisions by the National Energy Board on projects such as pipelines, party officials say.
Mulcair is set to announce the NDP will make sweeping changes to the environmental assessment rules for major energy projects if the party forms the government after the next election.
Environmental assessments have undergone dramatic changes in recent years by the Conservative government. Those changes include a requirement to submit all future NEB decisions on major pipeline projects to cabinet for approval. Ministers can directly overturn decisions made by the NEB after months of hearings.
An NDP government would give the NEB more independence by restoring its final say on environmental assessments, NDP officials said.
The policy proposals are an attempt to starkly contrast Mulcair’s vision of energy development with that of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who both broadly support pipeline development and more specifically the Keystone XL pipeline.
Mulcair will tell his audience that he wants the basis of NDP energy policy to be about “sustainability partnerships” based on working with both the provinces and First Nations.
The proposals represent the first new policy initiative for Mulcair in several months and they would come almost two years before the next election is scheduled. That would make his pitch a target for critics among the governing Conservatives, as well as rival Liberals.
A spate of recent polls suggest the NDP has lost significant ground to the Liberals since Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party earlier this year.
Mulcair to outline cap and trade plan
Mulcair is against the Keystone XL pipeline, but supports the idea of a pipeline running from west to east to refine oil within Canada.
The NDP leader's first foray into energy policy was not a success. Mulcair was heavily criticized for suggesting Canada was suffering from Dutch disease: the theory that oil exports raise the value of the Canadian dollar, which in turns hurts the economy in the rest of the country. He has since abandoned that language.
Mulcair will also announce plans to improve the current standards for transporting hazardous goods through railways, pipelines and tankers.
And he will promise to introduce a new homeowner energy retrofit program. The energy retrofit program was first introduced in 2007 and subsequently renewed owing to its huge popularity.
The program encouraged homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient by conducting an energy audit in return for a federal grant. But the Conservative government cancelled the program two months ahead of schedule in 2012.
Mulcair will also begin to outline his plans for a cap and trade program to control greenhouse gas emissions and how the program could be implemented.
NDP officials said the announcements tomorrow will not be costed until closer to the election campaign.Barry Robert Baker Jr., 29, was sentenced Wednesday for assaulting a cerebral palsy sufferer, 22, back in May
An attacker who imitated a cerebral palsy sufferer then socked him across the face has been jailed for up to six years.
Barry Robert Baker Jr., 29, who had previously admitted to robbing veterans' graves, sobbed in court Wednesday as he received three to six years for the sickening May 10 assault against an innocent man, 22.
The attack happened outside a 7-Eleven convenience store in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Baker pleaded guilty in September to assault and flight to avoid apprehension, which the state generally gives 'three and 14 months incarceration' for assault and'six months probation' for flight, according to the Daily Local.
Judge William P. Mahon felt the harsher sentence was more than appropriate for Baker - who pleaded guilty in 2007 to robbing marked graves of veterans.
He also violated his probation back in 2015 after being convicted of theft from a motor vehicle.
During the two-and-a-half-hour meeting Wednesday, Mahon said in his 18 years on the bench, he'd 'never had someone misrepresent' him and 'be caught doing it' as horrendously as Baker.
'You are a bully. You are a predator. You are a coward. I have never had such tangible evidence of someone's moral compass being so askew,' Mahon went on to say.
Baker was filmed on surveillance at the time outside the convenience store mocking the young man as he was simply walking back to his vehicle.
Out of the blue, Baker approached him and sucker-punched him - then walked away without a flinch.
The heartbreaking attack happened to the victim, who the Daily Mail has chosen not to name, around 2.15am.
Baker was filmed on surveillance outside the convenience store mocking the young man as he was simply walking back to his vehicle
The sickening incident took place outside a 7-Eleven convenience store in West Chester, Pennsylvania
Baker said he was 'drunk' that night and claimed he mistook the man for another he got into an altercation with earlier
The man fell onto the hood of his car and could be seen gripping his face in pain.
Baker fled from police after the victim called for help. Eventually, he was tracked down and located at a hotel in Exton.
Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said at the time 'every decent citizen should be outraged' by the defendants repulsive actions.
'The victim is to be commended for keeping his cool and notifying the police,' Hogan told CBS's Pennsylvania affiliate KYW-TV.
Out of the blue, Baker approached him and sucker-punched him - then walked away without a flinch
The heartbreaking attack happened to the victim, who the Daily Mail has not named, around 2:15 am that May morning
Baker cried during his sentencing: 'I want my life back. This will affect me for the rest of my life. I just want a chance to rebuild it... I want this behind me.'
His attorney, Thomas Purl, added his client is'very remorseful' for the crimes.
Baker was apparently intoxicated at the time, and claimed he mistook the victim for a man he had gotten into an altercation with earlier that day.
'He doesn't go around hitting people. He's had a very traumatized time,' said Purl.
The man fell onto the hood of his car and could be seen gripping his face in pain
It seems the attacker grew up in a 'dysfunctional' home and lost his mother to a drug overdose.
Baker's father also suffered substance abuse throughout his life, Purl announced in court.
He now has one month to appeal to the sentence.
'I think the defendant has proven himself to be a menace to society,' Assistant District Attorney, Cynthia Morgan said of his maximum sentence.Taipei, Oct. 24 (CNA) The Taiwan branch of Samsung Electronics Co. was fined NT$10 million (US$340,000) Thursday by Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) for using an advertising campaign that gave misleading impressions about consumers' views on Samsung and its rivals, including HTC Corp., on local online forums.
The South Korean electronics giant's campaign consisted of Internet posts purported to be from satisfied customers praising Samsung at the expense of its rivals' products, which is in violation of fair trade rules, the FTC said in a statement.
OpenTide Taiwan Co. and Sales and Profit International Co., the marketing companies hired by Samsung Taiwan to make the posts, were fined NT$3 million and NT$50,000, respectively, by the commission.
Samsung was also fined NT$300,000 by the commission earlier this year for a misleading advertisement about the camera functions on Samsung's Galaxy Y Duos GT-S6102 phone.
(By Jeffrey Wu)
ENDITEM/JHere at Open Culture, we can never resist the chance to feature books free to read and download online. Books can become free in a number of different ways, one of the most reliable being reversion to the public domain after a certain amount of time has passed since its publication — usually a long time, with the result that the average age of the books freely available online skews quite old. Nothing wrong with old or even ancient reading material, of course, but sometimes one wishes copyright law didn't put quite such a delay on the process. The Internet Archive and its collaborators have recently made progress in that department, finding a legal means of "liberating" books of a less distant vintage than usual.
"The Internet Archive is now leveraging a little known, and perhaps never used, provision of US copyright law, Section 108h, which allows libraries to scan and make available materials published [from] 1923 to 1941 if they are not being actively sold," writes the site's founder Brewster Kahle.
Tulane University copyright scholar Elizabeth Townsend Gard and her students "helped bring the first scanned books of this era available online in a collection named for the author of the bill making this necessary: The Sonny Bono Memorial Collection." Yes, that Sonny Sono, who after his music career (most memorably as half of Sonny and Cher) served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1994 until his death in 1998.
At the moment, the Sonny Bono Memorial Collection offers such 94-to- 76-year-old pieces of reading material as varied as André Malraux's The Royal Way, Arnold Dresden's An Invitation to Mathematics, René Kraus' Winston Churchill: A Biography, Colonel S.P. Meek's Frog, the Horse that Knew No Master, and Donald Henderson Clarke's Impatient Virgin. Kahle assures us that "We will add another 10,000 books and other works in the near future," and reminds us that "if the Founding Fathers had their way, almost all works from the 20th century would be public domain by now." The intentions of the Founding Fathers may matter to you or they may not, but if you're an Open Culture reader, you can hardly quibble with the new availability of dozens of free books online — and the prospect of thousands more soon to come. Stay tuned and watch the collection grow.
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800 Free eBooks for iPad, Kindle & Other Devices
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Free: You Can Now Read Classic Books by MIT Press on Archive.org
British Library to Offer 65,000 Free eBooks
74 Free Banned Books (for Banned Books Week)
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.Manchester United will face Sunderland on Boxing Day
The Manchester United squad will train on the afternoon of Christmas Day this year, it has been confirmed.
Although it is traditional for professional football clubs to have their players train for around an hour on the morning of December 25, it is unusual for them to be in for an afternoon session.
Jose Mourinho will run the rule over his squad on the main pitch at Old Trafford as part of his preparations for the festive fixture period.
Mourinho's predecessor at the club, Louis van Gaal, gave the entire squad all of Christmas Day off last season, although they still lost their Boxing Day game, going down 2-0 at Stoke City.
Man United’s Top 5 Goals Man United’s Top 5 Goals
Sixth-placed United play Sunderland, managed by their former boss David Moyes, in this year's game on December 26 before a home game against Middlesbrough on New Year's Eve.
They then travel to West Ham on January 2 before an FA Cup third-round tie against Reading at Old Trafford on January 7.Image copyright Getty Images
Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has called for an end to the "toxic blame game" between Greece and Germany.
He made the call as Greece prepares to finalise its list of economic reforms to present to its international creditors.
The reforms are needed to unlock a new tranche of bailout cash for Greece, which could run out of money in weeks.
Mr Varoufakis said that finger-pointing between Germany and Greece would only aid Europe's enemies.
Athens and Berlin have been engaged in a bitter war of words as the Greek government seeks to renegotiate the terms of its bailout.
German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has publicly expressed his anger, claiming last week that Greece "has destroyed all trust". He also acknowledged that Greece could "accidentally leave the eurozone".
Writing in the German business newspaper Handelsblatt, Mr Varoufakis said that tensions between the two countries "must stop", adding: "Only then can Greece, with support of its partners, focus on implementing effective reforms and growth-orientated policy strategies."
Greece submitted preliminary plans to the European Union, International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank on Friday night that it says will raise some €3bn (£2.2bn) in state revenues.
They include measures to combat tax evasion, more privatisations and higher taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, but no "recessionary measures" such as wage and pension cuts.
However, the reforms as initially proposed do not appear to have been specific enough to win the approval of the lenders, formerly known as the "troika".
'Positive sign'
European Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas said on Monday that the list of reforms still "requires a lot of technical work" despite talks over the weekend.
However, he added that the continuing discussions were "a positive sign that shows willingness and seriousness of all sides to constructively engage".
Officials say the final list may not be ready for several days.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Greece had some flexibility about the reforms it chose, but that they must "add up".
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Angela Merkel is meeting Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb in Helsinki on Monday.
"The question is can and will Greece fulfil the expectations that we all have," she said on a visit to Helsinki.
"In the end the financial stability of the country must be restored. Greece is talking with the institutions now. We are waiting on these talks. And we will wait for the evaluation of the institutions."
Speaking in parliament later on Monday, the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras repeated that his government was ready to strike a deal with creditors - but not at any cost.
But he did acknowledge the need to restructure the country's debts.
"There is the recognition [from lenders] of the need to finally begin a debate on the necessary restructuring of the Greek debt," he told parliament.
"Because without such an intervention it is impossible to repay it."
Greece faces a deadline on 9 April when it is due to repay a tranche of funds to the IMF.
Mr Tsipras added that the country was already seeing the benefits of his strategy, with the introduction of a new law making it easier to repay tax arrears leading to 100 million euros in a week.900 years of time and space and I have never met someone who wasn't importantI did quite a few tricky things with this one... first being the phrasing. I did basically the same thing as I did to "hope," so I would assume this would be rather easily understood as well. To the actual spelling...the "a"s in "and" and "space" might get somewhat lost or confused for each other.Two of the lines on the "m" in "someone" look like a "b" stem around the "o" causing the "o" to look like an "e".The "a" in "imagine" is a bit off center and far awayother than that, watch out for the lines, the third line in a group of three is often by itself in this one.I made a fairly complete and detailed sketch for this, which is here imgur.com/Nya1J1n“I try as much as I can to organize our money, so that we often go without a meal to reduce our daily spending. My children also share clothes, which they trade between them”
Residents of the areas under siege by the Assad regime and its militias in the northern Homs countryside live a bitter reality in managing their daily needs, as most people exist without work and no source of income, coupled with an increase in the prices of basic food items incompatible with the regular family wage.
Siege Alternatives
Residents have been forced to look for alternatives and solutions which are in line with their reality by lowering their daily nutritional intake and going without many basic needs, especially fuel, for which people have found alternatives by relying on natural power and alternative energy.
Abou Mohamed al-Salah, a man in his 40s and the breadwinner for a family of five, spoke to Alsouria Net about his previous work as a shop owner and truck driver. He said, “My monthly revenues were more than enough to secure the needs of my family. But now, after the regime’s siege of the town of Rastan, I can no longer work on the truck. The regime has also hit the main market in the city and destroyed my shop.”
Salah continued, “My family needs 90,000 Syrian pounds ($420) a month to buy food, clothes and the like to secure our needs at an acceptable level. A gas canister, if it’s available, costs 20,000 pounds, and a bundle of bread costs 300 pounds. This is not to mention that the rest of the food prices have gone up too much for me to be able to afford them.”
He added, “We’ve used wood as an alternative to gas for cooking and heating, and now after two years the price of wood has risen too and we can no longer provide it. The price of one ton has gone up to 80,000 pounds.” He said, “We’ve started to use a new method, the ‘miraculous tin box’, as the people of Rastan like to call it — a jerry can usually used for storing oil or fat — by burning a little straw and nylon bags by moving an air stream over it with a small fan.” This is a good method that can save families a great deal of money, according to Salah.
Limited Income
According to Alsouria Net’s correspondent, many people manage their affairs with much less than the 90,000 pounds Salah mentioned, and some budgets barely exceed 500 pounds ($2.30) a day, while the price of a daily pack of bread is 300 pounds.
Abou Adi works to break up the rooftops of buildings destroyed during bombardments, pulling steel rods from the dilapidated constructions and selling the material. This earns him between 500 and 1,000 pounds a day.
“My work is extremely exhausting from morning until evening,” Abou Adi says, “but I don’t have any other choice. Five hundred pounds can buy my family bread, which is better than nothing.”
Many families have lost their main income earner, which has forced mothers to provide for their children, as with what happened to Omm Hayyan, a widow to a martyr who died during regime bombardment two years ago.
Today Omm Hayyan, a mother of three children, has no income except handouts for orphans given to her by a charity, which is about 60,000 pounds per month.
Omm Hayyan says, “I try as much as I can to organize our money, so that we often go without a meal to reduce our daily spending. My children also share clothes, which they trade between them.”
“We rely on provisions which we prepared in the summer by storing wheat and bulgur and other grains and food that can be stored. But it’s not enough to go on, and we repeatedly have to deal with this during the week,” she said.
About 250,000 people live in the northern Homs countryside, 60 percent of them without work and with no fixed source of income because of the regime’s bombardment of the institutions and markets, from which checkpoints prevent people from leaving by the city’s entrances and exits.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.American and Canadian diplomats based in Cuba suffered mild traumatic brain injury and damage to the central nervous system in a suspected sonic weapon attack on their homes.
The diplomats, based at Havana's US Embassy, began complaining about a series of symptoms ranging from hearing loss and nausea to headaches and balance disorders, in late 2016, according to the State Department.
An investigation concluded an advanced sonic weapon had been operated outside the range of audible sound, either inside or outside officials' residences.
Medical records, seen by CBS News, now reveal the diplomats appeared to have suffered mild traumatic brain injury and even suspected damage to their central nervous systems in the attack. Many of the diplomats cut short their assignments in Cuba because of the attacks.
Cuba has denied any involvement in the attacks.
American and Canadian diplomats based in Cuba suffered mild traumatic brain injury and damage to the central nervous system in a suspected sonic weapon attack on their homes (Pictured, a supporter waves flags of the United States and Cuba in front of the country's embassy in Washington, DC in July 2015)
Canada has revealed that at least one of its officials in Havana has also been treated for hearing loss.
'The government is actively working – including with US and Cuban authorities – to ascertain the cause,' said a spokesman for Canada's diplomatic service. She added that officials did not believe Canadian tourists had been affected.
The US embassy in Cuba reopened in 2015 as part of President Barack Obama's re-establishment of diplomatic relations. Canada helped broker talks between the countries. Last autumn, several US diplomats began suffering unexplained deafness.
The source says that the diplomats have also been subjected to harassment, had their cars vandalized, been under almost constant surveillance, and even had home break-ins.
The US expelled two Cuban diplomats from Washington in retaliation.
A source told CBS that further attacks on US embassy workers still in Cuba have continued.
An American doctor had visited Havana in spring to assess the diplomats, who underwent a series of tests.
The State Department has not yet identified a definitive source of the attacks, but officially reminded Cuban authorities of their international obligations to protect diplomats.
In fall 2016, the US diplomats reportedly began suffering unexplained losses of hearing. After an investigation, officials concluded that the diplomats had been attacked with an advanced sonic weapon that operated outside the range of audible sound (Pictured, the US Embassy in Havana in December 2015)
'We hold the Cuban authorities responsible for finding out who is carrying out these health attacks on not just our diplomats but, as you've seen now, there are other cases with other diplomats involved,' Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters earlier this month.
Officials familiar with the probe said investigators were also looking into the possibilities that the incidents were carried out by a third country such as Russia, possibly operating without the knowledge of Cuba's formal chain of command.
Some of the diplomats' symptoms were so severe that they were forced to cancel their tours early and return to the United States, officials said.
After months of investigation, US officials concluded that the diplomats had been exposed to an advanced device that operated outside the range of audible sound but it was not immediately clear if the device was a weapon used in a deliberate attack, or had some other purpose.
The US officials weren't authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert did not say how many US diplomats were affected, saying only that they had 'a variety of physical symptoms'.
The incident is a set back for the recently restored US diplomatic relationship with Cuba.
The US embassy in Cuba reopened in 2015 as part of President Barack Obama's re-establishment of diplomatic relations.
The Cuban government said in a lengthy statement that 'Cuba has never permitted, nor will permit, that Cuban territory be used for any action against accredited diplomatic officials or their families, with no exception'.
The statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry said it had been informed of the incidents on February 17 and had launched an 'exhaustive, high-priority, urgent investigation at the behest of the highest level of the Cuban government'.
It said the decision to expel two Cuban diplomats from the US in retaliation was 'unjustified and baseless'.
The ministry said it had created an expert committee to analyze the incidents and had reinforced security around the US embassy and US diplomatic residences.
'Cuba is universally considered a safe destination for visitors and foreign diplomats, including US citizens,' the statement said.
US officials told The Associated Press that about five diplomats, several with spouses, had been affected and that no children had been involved. The FBI and Diplomatic Security Service are investigating.
Cuba employs a state security apparatus that keeps many people under surveillance and US diplomats are among the most closely monitored people on the island.
Like virtually all foreign diplomats in Cuba, the victims of the incidents lived in housing owned and maintained by the Cuban government.
Nauert said investigators did not yet have a definitive explanation for the incidents but stressed they take them'very seriously', as shown by the Cuban diplomats' expulsions.
'We requested their departure as a reciprocal measure since some US personnel's assignments in Havana had to be curtailed due to these incidents,' she said. 'Under the Vienna Convention, Cuba has an obligation to take measures to protect diplomats.'
US diplomats in Cuba said they suffered occasional harassment for years after the restoration of limited ties with the communist government in the 1970s, harassment reciprocated by US agents against Cuban diplomats in Washington.
The use of sonic devices to intentionally harm diplomats would be unprecedented.article
President-elect Donald Trump may be open to eating Oreos once again. After famously saying he wouldn’t eat another black and white cookie after Nabisco, owned by Mondelēz International (NASDAQ:MDLZ), finished moving some Chicago area jobs to Salinas, Mexico, the company tells FOXBusiness.com it wants to open the lines of dialogue with Trump on future policies.
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“We have not had any contact with the new administration, but, as with any new administration, we look forward to working with them and having a constructive dialogue about policies of interest to our business,” said Laurie Guzzinati of Mondelēz Global LLC in a statement to FOXBusiness.com.
She also notes the layoffs, about 600 at the Chicago plant earlier this year, are completed and were related to a $130 million investment in Salinas, Mexico announced in 2015. Today the Chicago factory remains open and is an important part of the company's future. “The Chicago plant continues to play an important role for us, representing a key Midwest manufacturing site for us” said Guzzinati. The company also has manufacturing plants in Fair Lawn, NJ, Richmond, VA and Portland, OR.
Just weeks after winning the Presidential Election, Trump is on a roll striking back-to-back deals with air conditioning company Carrier, and Ford (NYSE:F), to keep jobs in the U.S. He verbally blasted both companies, along with Nabisco, during the campaign.
Ticker Security Last Change %Chg UTX UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION 127.19 -1.08 -0.84% F FORD MOTOR COMPANY 8.88 +0.12 +1.37% MDLZ MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL INC. 47.43 +0.22 +0.47%
While it is unclear what his next deal with be, more are on the way. “It’s not just here with Carrier. We’re going to see some future announcements as well with some other companies. They’ve already been working behind the scenes. I mean this is really going to fundamentally help our manufacturing industry and so many other industries,” said Trump Transition spokesman Jason Miller during an appearance on FOX & Friends Wednesday.
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Trump and Vice President-elect Pence reportedly personally called the CEO of UTX (NYSE:UTX) Gregory Hayes, which owns Carrier, to negotiate the deal. Late Wednesday the company provided more color on how it all came together. "Today's announcement is possible because the incoming Trump-Pence administration has emphasized to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improved, more competitive U.S. business climate. The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration" said the statement.
As for Ford, Trump broke the news via a tweet, citing Chairman Bill Ford’s change of heart over moving a Lincoln plant to Mexico.
Just got a call from my friend Bill Ford, Chairman of Ford, who advised me that he will be keeping the Lincoln plant in Kentucky - no Mexico — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 18, 2016
These deals come as Trump continues to build his dream cabinet. Steve Mnuchin, former Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) partner and Hollywood producer, is his choice for Treasury Secretary and billionaire Wilbur Ross is his pick for Commerce Secretary.
Trump Cabinet Picks Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross On the Economy Mnuchin and Ross’s Top Priorities for Trump’s First 90 Days
Appearing together on the FOX Business Network’s Mornings With Maria, the two promised to work in tandem to get the U.S. economy in better shape.
“Our number one priority is going to be tax reform. We think that by lowering the corporate tax rate we're going to make US corporations incredibly competitive. And create enormous amounts of money that comes back onshore and creates jobs,” said Mnuchin.
Suzanne O’Halloran is Managing Editor of FOXBusiness.com and a graduate of Boston College. Follow her on @suzohalloran.A new Matangi train rolls off the assembly line in at Hyundai-Rotem's factory in Changwon, South Korea in December 2014. The first of the new batch have now started arriving in Wellington.
Wellington's newest trains rolled off a boat from Korea on Sunday, the first of 35 two-car units due to arrive by mid-2016.
As the new Matangi trains, made by Hyundai, arrive in stages the remaining Ganz Magav units will be phased out. The new trains look just like the first 48 Matangis that arrived in 2010, but will have in-built sound dampeners to reduce wheel squeak.
Wellingtonians overwhelmingly preferred the new trains to the old, Greater Wellington Regional Council chairwoman Fran Wilde said.
"This is the final step on the way to having the single, modern, electric train fleet the region's commuters deserve," she says. "And it can't come soon enough. If you stand on a platform today you can still hear a collective groan when the old units come into view instead of one of our new Matangi.
"It will be a good day for Wellington commuters when we've got the new fleet fully in place. From that day on every journey will be a smooth and comfortable one and I'm sure Wellingtonians will continue flocking to trains as a result."
The council is splitting the total project cost of $170 million with the New Zealand Transport Agency. The deal with Hyundai-Rotem also includes $10m worth of upgrades for the existing Matangi trains to fit them with auto-couplers and new lights.CANON CITY - A peaceful protest was staged Saturday in front of the Fremont County Sheriff's office where three officers have been placed on administrative leave since January.
About 35 protestors attended the event waving signs urging change. Among those in attendance was Dolores Hiltz, whose daughter Candace was murdered in 2006 at the age of 17.
Apparent evidence from the Hiltz homicide was recovered in late December from a defaulted storage unit that once belonged to Fremont County Sheriff Lt. Robert Dodd. Dodd has been on leave from his job pending a Colorado Bureau of Investigation probe into the case.
"Yes, this has opened wounds, but doing anything is better than nothing," Hiltz said. "This is the first stand against corruption here in Fremont County, and this is not just about Candi."
Rebecca Cardinell said she is outraged by the thought of evidence being in a personal storage unit.
"I am heartbroken and I am a little pissed off by it all. Yes, we have some good sheriff officers, but this was not right," Cardinell said.
Also in attendance was Debi Weger, who was arrested by Fremont County Sheriff Sgt. Arin Hart. Hart was placed on administrative leave in March pending an internal affairs investigation into allegations that he has mishandled several DUI/DUID cases.
Weger said she was moving from one home to another and was weaving when Hart pulled her over. He ordered her to do a roadside test, which she said she did not want to do because of bad knees and recent surgery.
"He intimidated me into doing it, and I still have nightmares about it," she said. "My blood test came back with zero (THC). They were looking for marijuana, and when that didn't stick they went after me for careless driving.
"I have no criminal record and no driving violations in the nine or 10 years I have lived here. My case has been pending five months," Weger said.
Horse owner Penny Gingerich also attended the protest. She is under investigation for 64 counts of cruelty to animals after Fremont County sheriff deputies and other animal welfare authorities seized 63 of her horses from her Penrose ranch and a sale barn on Jan. 20.
A judge later ordered 24 of her horses returned to her after ruling the seizure was "overbroad."
Another protestor was Cheryl McDowell, whose son Brandon Atencio was shot and killed by Canon City Police officers who were attempting to arrest him Dec. 11, 2014. Atencio allegedly charged at the officers with a box cutter, but McDowell said she believes officers did not have to use lethal force against her son.
The two officers involved were cleared of any wrongdoing following an investigation.
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 34 President Russell Hickman attended the rally to talk to people about their concerns and get their side of the story.
"Everybody, even an officer, is innocent until proven guilty and has a right to defend himself," Hickman said. "The sad thing about this is it can be demoralizing to the rest of the force. It is rough being a public safety officer."
Hickman urged protestors to wait until all the facts are in and said the cases, "Should not be a reflection on all the deputies. There are a lot of good ones."
"This is a peaceful protest and we are just getting the word out," said Rick Ratzlaff, event organizer.
Ratzlaff was the person who bought the contents of Dodd's storage unit and discovered the items apparently related to the Candace Hiltz case in envelopes marked "Evidence."
Ratzlaff said he also hopes to organize a recall effort of Sheriff Jim Beicker.
"Recalls are very costly, time consuming and often fizzle out," Hickman said. "But I like democracy."
tharmon@chieftain.com"A major challenge for WiGig in moving to the 60GHz band is to build up an ecosystem and solid set of use cases to drive growth," says Andrew Zignani, Industry Analyst at ABI Research. "WiGig-enabled docks can be costly, and OEMs may choose not to implement the technology if there are only a limited number of devices that will work with the accessories."
ABI Research expects to see growing confidence in the standard as more WiGig chipsets come to market from key industry players like Broadcom, Intel, Lattice Semiconductor, MediaTek, Nitero, Peraso, and Qualcomm. This will build momentum and help cut costs with the first WiGig-enabled smartphones, anticipated to come to market in 2017, will lead to greater adoption of tri-band products that incorporate 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 60GHz technologies. ABI Research forecasts 28% of smartphones will support WiGig by 2021.
WiGig can also help to expand the total network speed and capacity by offloading data traffic from the crowded 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands onto the 60GHz band, selecting the most appropriate band depending on the environment. The expansion into this unlicensed millimeter wave spectrum lays the groundwork for the continued evolution of Wi-Fi for years to come. However, due to range limitations of the technology, questions remain over how prolific WiGig will be for Internet access, particularly as new and faster Wi-Fi standards such as 802.11ax arrive to the market.
And while WiGig will ultimately play a key role in the transition to completely cable-free computing, it will also drive new opportunities in AR/VR applications in which cutting the cord is even more vital and desirable. WiGig can remove a literal obstacle in the devices' path to adoption.
"With continual improvements in physical connectivity through Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C, in addition to the next-generation 60GHz Wi-Fi protocol (802.11ay) on the horizon, the time is now for WiGig to forge its place in the market," concludes Zignani. "2017 will be a critical year for growth and adoption of WiGig across the PC, mobile, consumer electronics industry, and beyond."
These findings are from ABI Research's Wi-Fi (https://www.abiresearch.com/market-research/product/1024535-wi-fi/).
About ABI Research
ABI Research stands at the forefront of technology market research, providing business leaders with comprehensive research and consulting services to help them implement informed, transformative technology decisions. Founded more than 25 years ago, the company's global team of senior and long-tenured analysts delivers deep market data forecasts, analyses, and teardown services. ABI Research is an industry pioneer, proactively uncovering ground-breaking business cycles and publishing research 18 to 36 months in advance of other organizations. For more information, visit www.abiresearch.com.
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http://www.abiresearch.comSNIPER Corporal Scott Smith becomes the 39th Australian killed in action in Afghanistan's Helmand province. The Mentoring Task Force's pulling out of Uruzgan. You might think the Taliban is exultant. If so you would be wrong.
Here is one among hundreds of reasons why. Earlier this year a Commando sniper team was secreted in Helmand. Through binoculars at a distance invisible to the naked eye they spotted a group of Taliban. The soldiers having means of identifying targets went through a process of obtaining verification and permission to engage.
Two marksmen using Barrett M82A1 50 calibre rifles simultaneously fired. The bullets were six seconds in the air. One killed the Taliban commander. It is not known for certain which sniper fired the fatal shot.
While there have been no triumphant press releases, in the tight global Special Forces sniper community the shot is much discussed, because it seems certain to be a world record.
As the bullet yawed through the thin air on a windless morning, GPS aids measured the distance at 2815m. That amounts to 2 1/2 times the length of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The targeted Taliban would not have heard the gunfire.
The previous world record achieved by British Corpor |
peplus”? Alas, the judges had to supply two characters of missing code (“w =”) to make the submission work; thus, his entry was disqualified from winning a prize.
A second Honorable Mention went to Sascha Kratky for his “Desktop Search Engine”, a 140-character implementation of an interactive, full-text search of the files in a directory. Unfortunately, Sascha’s function required an additional 32 characters to invoke, which put it over the 140-character limit.
Chuck Ronco won an Honorable Mention for “The Music of π”, 128 characters that play a melody obtained by mapping the digits of π to a set of notes. His code makes clever use of ArrayRules to create the mapping and ToString to save quotation characters.
Play Audio
An Honorable Mention went to Stephan Leibbrandt for “Fractal”, a 130-character rendering of the Mandelbrot set that not only works, but uses Compile to make it efficient enough to work in practice. Perhaps a reader can figure out what in the world the hyperbolic tangent of a seventh root does.
We received the competition’s first 0-character submission from Dave Lawrence—his “World’s Smallest Mathematica Quine”—with the comment “See below. Don’t miss it.” Here it is in its entirety:
Those who are baffled might want to check out the Wikipedia definition of “quine”. For providing the judges with comic relief, Dave’s submission was awarded an Honorable Mention. Unfortunately, the judges couldn’t tell whether his submission was written in Mathematica or C.
This year’s Dishonorable Mention went to Zdeněk Buk for his 125-character “White Space Data”, which renders a stunning image of Stephen Wolfram. Amazing! Until you realize that Zdeněk’s submission includes 5,073 characters of white space—which don’t contribute to an entry’s character count—that encode the image. Nice try, Zdeněk! The judges didn’t buy it.
This year’s Third-Place prize went to William Wu, who paradoxically used Compress to increase the size of his submission from 75 to 137 characters. You realize why he used that strategy when you execute the code, which the judges said belongs in the “Heart Attack” category.
The Second-Place prize went to Yves Klett (last year’s Third-Place winner) for “Instant Recursive Art”. With 101 characters, Yves’s submission images the notebook in which it resides, applies Erosion to merge the image’s “ink” into larger regions (by eroding the white background), and then partitions the result into colored regions via WatershedComponents and Colorize. The operation can be executed multiple times to generate beautiful abstract recursive images.
The judges commented that Yves’ 101 characters could have been further reduced to a mere 71 by replacing the ImportString [ ExportString [...]] trick with Rasterize, which can be applied directly to Notebook objects:
First-And-a-Half prize goes to Stephan Leibbrandt (last year’s First-Place winner) for two equally impressive interactive submissions, “Shooter” and “Slow Motion”.
The 140-character “Shooter” implements a complete interactive shooting game. Stephan was so razor-close to exceeding the 140-character limit that he had to omit the usual semicolon following the first initialization line, but in this case, that doesn’t matter.
Stephan’s 130-character “Slow Motion” implements a surreal motion trail in real time from the images of a computer’s camera. It shows unusual mastery of functional programming constructs to achieve a beautiful graphic result.
This year’s First-Place prize goes to Zdeněk Buk, whose submissions were so compelling that the judges initially awarded him both First- and Second-Place prizes—with the judging being anonymous, they had no idea they were awarding both prizes to the same person. Zdeněk received this year’s Dishonorable Mention as well, an impressive accomplishment.
Zdeněk’s 140-character “Recursive Image Collage” recreates an image from scaled copies of the image itself, each adjusted in darkness to match the average brightness of the original in that area. Zdeněk’s entry shows clever use of Mathematica‘s functional programming constructs for nesting, replacement, and image operations.
Zdeněk’s second, 137-character submission, “Animated Sky Chart”, makes exemplary use of Wolfram|Alpha’s integration into Mathematica to gather 10 days’ worth of sky charts from Wolfram|Alpha via natural language queries that the code constructs. The resulting animated charts are useful as well as beautiful.
You can get a real education in Mathematica programming techniques by going through these concise examples step by step to understand how they function. To see just the winning entries or all of the Mathematica One-Liner submissions, download one of the notebooks below. Thanks to all who participated. You’ve inspired us with your creativity.
Download a notebook of the winning 2011 Mathematica One-Liner Competition submissions.
Download a notebook of all 2011 Mathematica One-Liner Competition submissions.Workplaces Can Be Particularly Stressful For Disabled Americans, Poll Finds
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ruby Wallau/NPR Ruby Wallau/NPR
More than 4 in 10 working Americans say their job affects their overall health, with stress being cited most often as having a negative impact.
That's according to a new survey about the workplace and health from NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
While it may not sound so surprising that work affects health, when we looked more closely, we found one group was particularly affected by stress on the job: the disabled.
More than 60 percent of people with a disability in our poll say their job has a bad impact on their stress level.
Jason Olsen says he's not surprised by the poll's findings. As I meet him at his home in Gaithersburg, Md., we start trading commuter complaints. Traffic was terrible getting here, I say.
But his story wins out.
"The other day I had to wait 45 minutes to finally get a train where I could get myself and the wheelchair onto the train," he says. Navigating Washington's Metro system is always a challenge, he says.
And then there was the time when someone ran their luggage over his foot, breaking it in multiple places.
But because a car accident left Olsen paralyzed from mid-chest down, he didn't realize his foot had been broken.
Another time — a couple of weeks before our meeting — he suddenly fell ill at work.
"Three hours later, I'm in the ER, and two hours later I'm in the ICU," he tells me. "Some of the stuff, you know, when you don't have the sensation, your body doesn't give a lot of warning signs."
Warning signs, in this case, that might have signaled that a cut on his foot had turned into a septic infection. He was ultimately hospitalized for two weeks.
Our workplace and health survey found that 62 percent of people with disabilities say their job adds to their stress level, compared with 41 percent of the nondisabled.
The Workplace And Your Health How does work affect your health? What can be done to make for healthier workplaces? Stories in this series include: For many, the workplace is a dangerous, stressful place.
Taking time off for needed health care can put the job at risk.
Most people say they go to work when they're sick. And some really shouldn't.
Take that vacation, really. It will make you happier and more productive.
Perhaps more stark is that over a third (35 percent) of disabled workers say their job has a bad impact on their overall health. That's more than double the rate for their nondisabled peers (15 percent).
Olsen, who works on disability policy for the federal government, says it often isn't the work that's stressful, but the time, energy and physical toll it takes to get to the office, sit in a chair for hours, and manage the other demands of living with a disability.
Those demands can require specialized equipment and extra time and care.
For example, because he uses a catheter and other equipment, going to the bathroom can take an hour.
And when he falls ill, it also affects his wife B.J.'s work schedule as an emergency room nurse, adding to the stress.
"I think it's a double-edged sword," she tells me. "I want him to go and do work and stuff like that, but then because of his physical problems, it makes it harder to work."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Ruby Wallau/NPR Ruby Wallau/NPR
Jason Olsen's main sources of stress relief, he says, are his son, Gunnar, and baby daughter, Scottie. They keep him motivated.
"Your option is to sacrifice some of your own self-care and health or to live in destitution," he says. "For me, that's not a choice."
On balance, the income, independence and social contact that work provides are good for people with disabilities, says Cheryl Bates-Harris, an advocacy specialist with the National Disability Rights Network.
"We have study after study that shows that for people with psychiatric disabilities, work is part of recovery, and it helps them," she says. But she can also see how it adds stress.
"If you're worried about whether your performance is going to be acceptable, whether they're going to keep you beyond your probationary period, whether there's going to be opportunity for advancement, God forbid that you could request some kind of reasonable accommodation, I imagine that could be pretty stressful for people," Bates-Harris says.
When considering whether to hire a disabled worker, employers worry that accommodating disabilities might cost a pretty penny. In fact, the average cost is only about $500 per person, Bates-Harris she says.
Judy Owens says that persistent misconception is one reason she started Opportunity Works five years ago, helping more than 70 people with disabilities find jobs. She says it can be so hard to find jobs, some people might stick with a bad job.
"You might have five other friends with disabilities who don't have jobs at all, so you just kind of deal with the bad environment you're in, because at least you have a job," Owens says.
That was not the case for James Schwonek, who left his previous job in IT after his boss fell ill.
"That actually prompted me to go find a different job," he tells me, "because I didn't have the arranged accommodation that was there previously."
The accommodations in his case were basic: His boss took care to face him when talking, so Schwonek could read his lips. Without the boss around, however, the workplace seemed less welcoming. Co-workers ridiculed him, he says, for trying to teach them basic sign language.
His experience appears to be fairly common. According to our survey, just over a third of disabled workers say their workplace policies helped them. But more than half (55 percent) rated their workplace fair or poor in terms of providing a healthy work environment, as compared with 21 percent of the nondisabled.
Still, that's progress, says Clay Bradley. He's a 51-year-old man who was born missing part of each limb.
He recalls the era before the Americans with Disabilities Act, when buses often didn't come with ramps.
"Now buses automatically have ramps in them," he says. "When I was using buses in the '90s or in the '80s, half of them would have ramps and then half of them wouldn't. So you'd have to schedule your trips for a bus that was going to have a ramp on it."
Bradley, who works in customer service at a health insurance firm, says other than a ramp, he requires no special equipment.
"I use both arms and I can touch the keys individually; I make mistakes but I've used the computer so long, I correct them very quickly, so my typing speed is about 35 words per minute," he says.
And once he's at work, he says, work is just as stressful for him as the next person.A recent study by the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica-based think tank, has listed Dayton and other Ohio cities among the nation’s best-performing cities. The study is published annually and “uses a fact-based set of metrics such as job creation, wage gains, and technology developments to evaluate the relative growth of metropolitan areas.”
According to the institute, “[t]he goal of our Best-Performing Cities index is to help businesses, investors, industry associations, development agencies and government officials, academics, and public-policy groups monitor and evaluate how well their metro is promoting economic vitality relative to the rest of the country. The index also provides benchmarking data that can inform approaches to improving a region’s performance.”
The study used each city’s metropolitan statistical area (MSA) as a basis for determining each city’s rank. For Dayton, this includes Montgomery, Greene and Miami counties.
>> Related: 5 reasons to love living in Ohio
The study looked at both large cities and small cities (no statistic was listed for what determines a city as large or small).
On this year’s list, Dayton was ranked 129, up from 174 in 2015. This is behind Columbus (65), Cincinnati (84), Toledo (99), and Akron (124). Here are how large Ohio cities ranked:
65. Columbus
84. Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN
99. Toledo
124. Akron
129. Dayton
154. Cleveland-Elyria
161. Canton-Massillon
193. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
196. Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
San Jose topped the list, same as it did last year. Shreveport-Bossier City, LA rounded out the 200 city list, same as it did last year. According to the report, Dayton, Toledo, and Akron all benefited from exposure to the auto sector
Fuyao has hired extensively in the Miami Valley for its Moraine plant. STAFF PHOTO Photo: Staff Writer
Dayton is noted later in the list as one of the top gainers from last year. Dayton improved 45 ranks over last year, due in part to its exposure to the auto industry.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of March 2016, Montgomery County has an employment level of 251,500, which is 5th highest in the state and an average weekly wage of $843. The Dayton MSA, as of September 2016, has employment of 366,902, an increase of 5,050 over September 2015.
Other top gainers in Ohio included Toledo, which gained 63 ranks (162 in 2015, 99 in 2016) and Akron, which gained 44 ranks (168 in 2015, 124 in 2016)
>> Related: Unemployment down across Miami Valley
>> Related: Ohio, Michigan teachers get top pay
The study also looked at best performing small cities, which included some Ohio cities:
119. Lima
157. Wheeling, WV-OH
167. Mansfield
191. Springfield
Bend-Redmond, OR ranked first for small cities, an improvement of 8 ranks from last year. Pine Bluff, AR finished last on the 201 city list.A letter that M.J. Iuppa wrote 23 years ago to her daughter’s second-grade teacher. She was going by the name Mary Jo Tonery at the time. (Photo: Provided)
Twenty-three years ago, M.J. Iuppa took out some stationery bordered with flowers and wrote a letter to her daughter's second-grade teacher. She was pleased that Todd Brindle was teaching her child not just to read, but also to find joy in the act.
"You have created a wonderful menu to encourage the love of reading," she wrote. "I appreciate your daily efforts to make this year memorable for Meghan Rose."
A few weeks ago, Iuppa passed through Brindle's class at Barclay Elementary School in Brockport. He's teaching third grade now and she travels to different schools doing poetry workshops. Iuppa thought it possible that Brindle would remember teaching her daughter Meghan more than two decades ago.
She never dreamed, though, that he would still have her letter in his desk. When he pulled it out to show it to her, she thought she was going to cry. "Think of all the pieces of paper that man has had in 23 years," she said.
But Brindle kept the letter, through many years and many classroom moves. He said he's not much of a collector, but it touched him. "It gives you a real sense of worth as a teacher when you read something like that," he said.
Iuppa, a teaching poet and the director of St. John Fisher College's visual and performing arts program, said that she appreciated the fact that her daughter would come home excited about books and book discussions and various reading contests that her teacher had cooked up. "Being hooked on reading is a guaranteed success in future studies," Iuppa wrote in the letter to Brindle, which is dated Feb. 3, 1992.
Back then, teachers were using the "whole language" philosophy for language arts instruction. They were encouraged to immerse children in as much good literature as possible, without much emphasis on phonetics and spelling. The thought was that children would pick up these concepts naturally. Brindle said this method had its strengths, but didn't fit all students. Common Core curriculum offers a different approach to language arts, one of many things that has changed since 1992.
Todd Brindle (Photo: Provided photo)
Brindle mainly teaches math now and says that 8- and 9-year-olds are being asked to master concepts — like the distributive property — that he would never have even dreamed of introducing 15 years ago. Much more is expected of teachers as well, said Brindle, noting that the student teachers who enter his classroom face a much more rigorous journey than he did years ago.
Many things about education will never change, like the value of a teacher who is enthusiastic and teaches kids not just to do well on tests but also to really love the subject matter. Brindle remembers that his own third-grade teacher, Miss Vellekoop, had a lot of energy and led the class in fun games related to what they were learning. He remembers discovering how reading could open doors to new worlds. "I probably read every dinosaur book in the library," he said.
Though these days he focuses on math, Brindle is still the "read-aloud" teacher in his classroom. He still gives life to books like Matilda, Old Yeller and Call it Courage. He still does different voices for all of the outrageous characters in Holes by Louis Sachar.
Seeing the letter that a young mother wrote to a young teacher 23 years ago, Iuppa is glad that she took the time to say thanks. "I think he kept it because it came from my heart," she said. "People should act on telling other people what they are doing well. You don't know how someone might hold onto that."
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Read or Share this story: http://on.rocne.ws/1LAsJF0In the second of a major series on precious marine environments under threat, Guardian Australia’s ocean correspondent asks why areas such as the massive Jervis commonwealth marine reserve – a stunning ocean wilderness – remain open to mining and fishing interests
Those who have spent their lives fighting for the protection of the Jervis Bay region, such as the film-maker Attila Kaszo, say the commonwealth’s massive marine park in the area achieves nothing and needs to be overhauled.
Astonishingly perhaps, not one square inch of the recently-declared Jervis commonwealth marine reserve is closed to mining or fishing interests.
And, while what is happening at Jervis Bay is an extreme case, it is a story being repeated around the continent.
The Jervis commonwealth marine reserve sprawls across 2,473 square kilometres of wild ocean, from depths of 120 metres to five kilometres.
It is far offshore, over the horizon from two of the nation’s oldest and most loved marine parks – the NSW-state-run Jervis Bay marine park and the commonwealth-managed Booderee marine park.
Out of the blue, on the edge of the world, killer whales converge to feast Read more
The entire park is a stunning ocean wilderness about which very little is known. In spite of its proximity to Sydney it might as well be another planet for the extent to which it has been explored by humans.
Even going there in a boat is a difficult adventure because the seas off Jervis Bay are often rough and the distance makes the journey impossible for all but big ships and very well prepared boaties.
Vast canyons incise the seafloor there, inhabited by entire ecosystems that science is yet to study, let alone understand. The east Australian current, which brings warm water down from the tropics moves through the reserve, which means that at its surface the area is rich in pelagic species, such as marlin and tuna, that are highly sought after by both game and commercial fishers. It is also a whale thoroughfare, on the route of one of the world’s great mammal migrations – the journey of humped-backs from the Antarctic to far northern waters and back again.
But none of these values are actually protected by the park because all of it is still zoned as open to business.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Film-maker Attila Kaszo at the NSW-state-run Jervis Bay marine park. Photograph: James Woodford for the Guardian
Kaszo who was the chair of the Jervis Bay marine park advisory committee from 2006 to 2011 says, apart from having no sanctuary zones whatsoever, the other big problem with the Jervis commonwealth marine reserve is that, because it starts some 20 kilometres offshore from the entrance to Jervis Bay, it provides no connectivity benefits to either Booderee marine park or Jervis Bay marine park, both of which hug the mainland.
But even if it was close enough to have some connection to Jervis Bay Marine Park, says Kaszo, its current zoning prompts him to say bluntly: “What’s the bloody point if there’s no protected zones? It’s got no teeth and it’s in the wrong place.”
There are two things obscuring the truth when it comes to the management of marine parks in Commonwealth waters – they are usually far out to sea, beyond the jurisdiction of state waters, which extends three nautical miles and, secondly, the technical details of their zoning is mind numbing.
But there is much at stake because, right now, the management of around two million square kilometres of commonwealth marine reserves is being reviewed and the public only has until the end of March to make submissions.
Given that these areas are some of the most extraordinary marine environments on Earth, the stakes for Australia’s oceans are high.
One of the parks being reviewed is the Jervis commonwealth marine reserve, which is currently zoned into two huge blocks, both with the lowest possible levels of management controls, allowing everything other than a very small subset of some types of commercial fishing. All other commercial and recreational fishing and other mineral prospecting activities are permitted.
And it is this that is upsetting scientists and environmentalists because the problems with the Jervis commonwealth marine reserve are a microcosm for what is happening everywhere.
They say it just doesn’t make sense to call vast swathes of the sea around the Australian continent marine park if they are not managed to protect anything.
The Jervis reserve is part of the federal government’s temperate east commonwealth marine reserves network which covers 383,352 square kilometres and includes eight separate commonwealth marine reserves.
According to the federal government’s website on its marine reserves: “The Temperate East marine region is recognised as an area of global significance for a number of protected marine species. Several significant seamount ridges run parallel to the coast in this region. Scientists have recently discovered that these features support hundreds of species, including some previously unknown to science.
“The seamounts rise from seafloor depths of approximately 4,800 metres to up to 130 metres from the surface (more than twice the height of Mount Kosciuszko), and are home to deep water shark species that are only found in Australia.”
Kaszo says that while it is an area that not much is known about, he is absolutely certain that if it was extended to come closer to shore and was at least partly sanctuary (excluding all commercial activities and recreational fishing) then it would help maintain the health of the much better known and used Jervis Bay marine park, because species would be able to move safely between the coastal and offshore marine parks.
“It’s an incredibly deep outlier, a long way offshore,” says Kaszo. “It’s a very difficult area to study and what the park actually shows is how little we know about the ocean and that is what boosts the majesty.”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Southern Bluefin tuna. The warm waters of the east Australian current mean the Jervis Bay commonwealth reserve is rich in pelagic species, such as marlin and tuna, that are highly sought after by both game and commercial fishers. Photograph: Kerstin Fritsches/AAP
Dr Hugh Possingham is Professor of Ecology at the University of Queensland and one of the world’s leading experts on how to design protected areas.
Professor Possingham has also just co-authored a submission from the centre of excellence for environmental decisions that has been submitted to the commonwealth marine reserve review, which was launched late last year.
The submission says: “Marine reserves are an important strategy for conserving biodiversity and ensuring resilient fisheries. The ecological benefits of marine reserves are extensively documented both internationally and in Australia. By prohibiting extractive uses, habitats and populations of targeted species can recover from damage and exploitation. Benefits range from improved species richness, greater fish biomass, and increased habitat complexity both inside and outside of reserves. Reserves often demonstrate substantial financial returns from tourism related revenue streams, and provide enhanced opportunities for community education and recreational activities.”
The submission says the current commonwealth marine reserve system does not meet global best practice or even the federal government’s own policies.
Nearly half of the nation’s 58 bioregions have no strictly protected areas whatsoever, the submission says. Only 3% of total shelf areas around the continent have adequate protection.
“If we do not have strict nature reserves in every bioregion then it will not be possible to scientifically evaluate the costs and benefits of marine reserves for biodiversity and fisheries. Failure to take advantage of the opportunity to learn and adaptively manage marine environments is essential to evidence based decision-making in the future.”
At the recent World Parks Congress in Sydney the International Union for Conservation of Nature agreed that the global target for full protection of the marine environment should be a minimum of 30% no-take areas.
“What is the point of putting all these colours on the maps if areas are not being adequately protected?” Professor Possingham said. “They are not protecting the ecosystems that are under so much stress and there is an opportunity here to do a much better job. And if we don’t do a good enough job now we are just going to have to do this again properly in 15 or 20 years.”
He also said that if there were not enough protected areas within the commonwealth marine reserve network then it would be impossible to assess whether they contributed to stronger ecosystems.
• James Woodford is Guardian Australia’s ocean correspondent. The position is a non-profit journalism project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. For more information on Woodford’s work for Guardian Australia, click here. He is on Twitter at @jameswoodford1.Bitcoin is on a lot of radars these days, as governments, companies and consumers grapple with how, exactly, to deal this new kind of online currency. To address the relevant issues from inside the industry, top thinkers in the Bitcoin space announced Tuesday that they are forming an industry group to set their own best practices and standards before governments move to impose regulations.
For the uninitiated, Bitcoin is a digital currency that is not regulated by any central bank but is accepted at many places across the Web as a form of payment just like any other. Bitcoin also has a reputation for anonymity, meaning that it has become popular not only with privacy-conscious folks who don’t want records of their transactions, but also with those looking to mask criminal pursuits such as buying drugs.
Fiscal regulators across the world have taken notice, particularly since an April boom and bust demonstrated just how volatile the currency can be.
On the flip side, there’s been a push to bring Bitcoin more into the mainstream. As my Post colleague Timothy B. Lee noted, prominent investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss (of Facebook lawsuit fame) recently took steps to create a mainstream vehicle for investing in Bitcoins.
With the general public becoming more aware of Bitcoins, now is a good time for the new group, called the Committee for the Establishment of the Digital Asset Transfer Authority, to work with regulators and policymakers to adapt current currency requirements to digital currency technology and business models, as well as develop and implement risk management standards.
The group has yet to say what those standards and practices may be, but the fact that industry players are looking to control the discussion around Bitcoin is another indication of how the digital currency market is maturing.
In some cases, the discussion with regulators can’t come soon enough. Tuesday’s announcement comes just a day after the Associated Press reported that a Bitcoin exchange in Thailand said it had suspended trading because officials in that country declared the currency illegal in all its aspects. According to the report, Thailand’s central bank told the exchange that it is unlawful to trade Bitcoins, move them over the country’s borders or use them to buy or sell goods and services.Unexplained disappearances of aircraft in flight, 19th–21st century
For aircraft that were previously reported as missing but have since been found, see List of previously missing aircraft
This list of missing aircraft includes all of the aircraft that have disappeared in flight for reasons that have never been definitely determined. According to Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organization, an aircraft is considered to be missing "when the official search has been terminated and the wreckage has not been located".[1] However, there still remains a "grey area" on how much wreckage needs to be found for a plane to be declared "recovered". This list does not include every aviator, or air passenger that has ever gone missing as these are separate categories.
In the tables below, each missing aircraft is defined (in the Aircraft column) using one or more identifying features. If the aircraft was known by a custom or personalized name (e.g. Pathfinder), that name is presented first (in italics) followed by the aircraft type (in parentheses). The make of aircraft, although not necessarily a unique identifier, is also provided where appropriate. Aircraft registrations began to be used in the early 20th century for individual identification, so this is also included in the later tables (in parentheses).
Legend [ edit ]
Civilian flight (commercial and cargo) Civilian flight ( private
Military flight (patrol, training, transport, etc.)
Some wreckage was found, but aircraft never declared "recovered"
19th century [ edit ]
20th century [ edit ]
21st century [ edit ]
See also [ edit ]Friday traffic alert: Obama is coming to downtown S.F.
President Barack Obama waves as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., then onto California for three days. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) less President Barack Obama waves as he walks to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, for a short trip to Andrews Air Force Base, Md., then onto California for three... more Photo: Susan Walsh / Associated Press Photo: Susan Walsh / Associated Press Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Friday traffic alert: Obama is coming to downtown S.F. 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
President Obama will be back in San Francisco on Friday and Saturday for a pair of fundraising events, bringing along the usual throng of deep-pocketed donors, chanting demonstrators and angry motorists stuck in motorcade-caused South of Market traffic.
“At least the Giants are away, which helps,” said Officer Gordon Shyy, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department.
Although details are limited for security reasons, the president will be flying in to San Francisco on Air Force One on Friday afternoon after spending time in Los Angeles. He will speak at a fundraiser Friday evening at the W Hotel at Third and Howard streets, stay overnight in the city and then will appear at a roundtable to raise money for the Democratic National Committee on Saturday morning before flying back to Washington.
The Friday event will feature the “neo-soul” singer Maxwell in the ballroom and plenty of antiwar protesters on the streets outside the hotel.
The demonstrators will be calling for an end to U.S. bombing in Iraq and Syria, a complete withdrawal of forces from the Mideast and an end to U.S. aid to Israel.
“The president represents everything the country is doing to the world,” said Stephanie Tang of the World Can’t Wait, one of the groups organizing the protest. In the Mideast, “ISIS is terrible, but whatever the United States is doing is far worse.”
San Francisco police officers will keep an eye on the protesters, who will begin gathering at about 3 p.m. Friday.
“We’ll be allowing them to have their free speech rights, but also making sure that people abide by traffic laws and other regulations,” Shyy said. “We’ve got a lot of experience with this, since (Obama) comes here quite often.”
Experience doesn’t make it easier to eliminate the traffic woes caused whenever the president is on the move. From the time Obama’s motorcade leaves San Francisco International Airport on its way downtown, California Highway Patrol and San Francisco police officers will be shutting down freeway off-ramps and streets along the route.
“The Secret Service works with our traffic unit on the route the motorcade takes into the city,” Shyy said. “They give us enough notice to let us stage our units so we can close off the streets as needed.”
In most cases, traffic delays will be minimal, he added, because the streets can be reopened as soon as the motorcade passes. Longer delays and detours can be expected around the sites of the presidential events and protests.
The president has no public events scheduled during this trip to San Francisco, although there’s always the possibility of an impromptu stop or visit.
Obama’s Los Angeles trip, however, was a combination of public and private events. He was scheduled to attend a town hall meeting at a business incubator in Santa Monica before going to a Democratic National Committee fundraising dinner at the Los Angeles home of actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
The president has another fundraiser on Friday morning before traveling to San Dimas at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County at 1 p.m. to dedicate part of the San Gabriel Mountains as a national monument.
Obama has drawn criticism in the past for the amount of time he has spent raising money. On a trip to the Bay Area in July, for example, Republicans and even a few Democrats suggested it was bad form for the president to be out on the fundraising trail in the midst of crises in Ukraine and Gaza.
But with the midterm elections less than four weeks away and the very real possibility that Republicans will take control of both houses of Congress, saving embattled Democrats is high on Obama’s to-do list.
“We still have an opportunity to organize and win the tough races we have to win,” Obama said in a fundraising message from the DNC last week. “But time is the thing we’re just about out of.”
John Wildermuth is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jwildermuth@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jfwildermuthHouse legislators voted 82-11 in favor of House Bill 1151, which would no longer require companies to report spills of crude oil, produced water or natural gas that are contained to a well site or production location and are less than 10 barrels, or 420 gallons.
"It will make government more efficient by focusing resources on spills that pose a threat to health, safety and the environment," said Rep. Dick Anderson, R-Willow City, noting that the bill does not change the requirement to clean up all spills.
The bill was supported by the oil industry but opposed by landowners during a two-hour committee hearing.
The House Energy and Natural Resources Committee made amendments to the bill in response to some of the concerns raised, Anderson said. One change was to require that all legacy oil sites continue to report spills of 1 barrel and above unless they upgrade the sites with modern containment berms and other safeguards.
The Northwest Landowners Association, which represents 500 farmers, ranchers and property owners, plans to continue opposing the bill when it's under consideration by the Senate, said Chairman Troy Coons.
"It feels like it goes against protecting our environment and our property," he said. "It goes against who North Dakotans are."
The landowners would like to see the bill become law, but they prefer that oil companies report all spills that are above 1 barrel, or 42 gallons, regardless of the location of the spill, Coons said.
Supporters of the bill say reporting small spills that are contained to sites designed to protect the environment is an administrative burden on the state. But there was no fiscal note with the bill so it's unclear what cost savings the bill would provide.
When asked how much time the bill would save staff at the Department of Mineral Resources, spokeswoman Alison Ritter said "probably not much."
Oil and gas field inspectors do not immediately respond to a spill of 10 barrels or less that is contained on site, Ritter said. During routine inspections, staff check on possible spills to ensure they have been cleaned up, she said.
The North Dakota Department of Health would not be affected by the bill because the agency does not respond to spills contained to oilfield sites.Students may have to start swiping their student IDs every time they ride on a UT shuttle bus route after Capital Metro phases out the older bus models for city buses.
Capital Metro plans to gradually trade out the orange and white UT shuttle buses for the city-style models in part to standardize the look of the bus system, Amy Peck, communications specialist at Capital Metro, told The Daily Texan in late September.
While the current UT shuttle buses don’t have fare boxes for students to swipe their student IDs, the city buses have fare boxes at the front of the bus which require students to swipe their ID card to serve as their fare. UT students are able to access any Capital Metro service for free with their student IDs.
Melissa Ayala, communications specialist at Capital Metro, said the UT shuttle buses have been scheduled to be phased out for nearly five years.
“If changes are made, Capital Metro and the University will work |
the right versus the good" form. The goodness of the ends is the only consideration for a teleological theory, and the rightness of the means is the only consideration for an exclusive deontological theory. To the extent that such dilemmas are ruled out rather than accounted for, we may say that the given of ethical life (with dilemmas) falsifies both teleological and exclusive deontological ethical theories.
The alternative then, is to go with the other logical possibility for deontological ethics: Both the means and the ends count. This allows for common dilemmas, since good ends may be chosen despite the wrongness of the means used to obtain them OR the right means may be chosen despite the fact that they lead to bad or worse ends than the wrong means. This is a weak or inclusive deontological ethics. What it implies is just the Polynomic Theory of Value, where the means and ends are judged in terms of different domains of value, which may agree or conflict in their valence. Similar dilemmas can occur between further distinct domains of value, including conflicts between the domains here represented by being and doing. Consequently, this all represents a significant discovery in ethics for the Friesian School.
The Seven Sins and Virtues In Mediaeval Europe the "Four Cardinal Virtues" -- wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance -- were the virtues listed in Plato's Republic. The three Christian or Theological virtues -- faith, hope, and charity -- were given by St. Paul (Corinthians I, 13:13). These seven together are sometimes said to correspond to the Seven Deadly Sins -- pride, envy, wrath, sloth, avarice, gluttony, and lust (in this form the original work of Pope Gregory the Great). So far, however, I have not seen these systematically matched up and explained. A clue, however, may be found in Dante's Divine Comedy. The levels of Purgatory in the Purgatorio are organized around the Seven Sins, while the levels of Heaven are organized around the seven virtues in the Paradiso. If we match these up, top to top and bottom to bottom, we get the first two sections (3 columns of virtues, 2 of vices) of the following table. At the top of the table are Love (or Charity), which of course is the most characteristic of God in Christianity, and Lust, characteristic of the highest circle of Purgatory for Dante, and which may be the functional equivalent of love for some people. It is not hard to see how Love and Lust correspond to each other. The others, if they are really supposed to correspond, pose more of a challenge. Virtues Vices Virtues Love/
Charity Caritas Lust Luxuria Chastity
Hope Spes Gluttony Gula Abstinence
Faith Fides Avarice/
Greed Avaritia Liberality
Temperance Temperantia Sloth Acedia,
La Paresse Diligence
Justice Justitia Wrath Ira Patience
Courage Fortitudo Envy
[note] Invidia,
L'Envie Kindness
Wisdom Sapientia Pride Superbia Humility
That Wrath can be a corrupted sense of Justice is something that we might see at the end of the very disturbing movie Seven (1995), where Brad Pitt, who has tracked down the serial murderer Kevin Spacey (who has killed people he thinks are guilty of each of the Seven Deadly Sins) and has just discovered that the man has also murdered and decapitated Pitt's own pregnant wife, kills him. This exemplifies Wrath, but it also happens to be Just Retribution. Divine Justice, indeed, has commonly been characterized as the Wrath of God.
Felix Vallotton, La Paresse, "Sloth," 1896
The final column is called the "Heavenly" or "Contrary" virtues, which clearly are intended as the opposites of the Seven Sins. I had not heard of these for years, but they may originate, like the Sins themselves, in the pious moralizing of Late Antiquity. These terms all derive from Classical Greek, but several of them are only used in the New Testament, and, "liberality" or "generosity" (literally "noble giving"), with the most appropriate meaning, although with ancient roots, I only find in Modern Greek.
Vice Demon Lust Luxuria Asmodeus Gluttony Gula Beelzebub Avarice/
Greed Avaritia Mammon Sloth Acedia Belphagor Wrath Ira Amon Envy Invidia Leviathan Pride Superbia Lucifer
One interesting addition to the lore mentioned in these venues is the demonology of the Sins. From the 16th century we have the demon of Lust identified as "Asmodeus," of Gluttony as "Beelzebub," of Avarice as "Mammon," of Sloth as "Belphagor," of Wrath as "Amon," of Envy as "Leviathan," and of Pride as "Lucifer." A curious thing about this list is that several of the names, especially "Beelzebub" and "Lucifer," are alternative names for Satan himself. Indeed, I wasn't aware the "Lucifer" could possibly refer to anyone else. "Mammon" is now commonly used to mean wealth and greed -- Jesus says that you cannot serve God and Mammon, without saying really what "Mammon" is [Matthew 6:24].
This may be an example of a general problem with supernatural beings, whether different names go with different beings or belong to the same one.
Hermann Fenner-Behmer (1866-1913),
The Bookworm, 1910, detail;
complete painting in popup.
Envy and Jealousy in Peter Toohey's Jealousy
The Virtues of Franklin and Wooden
Critique of Roman Catholic Ethics The Roman Catholic Church (i.e. the Church of the Latin Rite under the authority of the Bishop of Rome) includes, of course, a system of moral teaching, largely founded on Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas. As we see in the Catechism of the Catholic Church [Doubleday, 1995, pp. 407, 411; translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, United States Catholic Conference, Inc., Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1994], the "Sources of Morality" are divided up in a fashion comparable, in some ways, to the system here [with the section numbers of the edition, pp.485-487]:
The Object Chosen The End in View or the Intention The Circumstances
of the Action §1751 The object chosen is a good toward which the will deliberately directs itself. It is the matter of a human act. The object chosen morally specifies the act of the will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges it to be or not to be in conformity with the true good. Objective norms of morality express the rational order of good and evil, attested to by conscience. §1752 In contrast to the object, the intention resides in the acting subject. Because it lies at the voluntary source of an action and determines it by its end, intention is an element essential to the moral evaluation of an action. The end is the first goal of the intention and indicates the purpose pursued in the action. The intention is a movement of the will toward the end: it is concerned with the goal of the activity. It aims at the good anticipated from the action undertaken. Intention is not limited to directing individual actions, but can guide several actions toward one and the same purpose; it can orient one's whole life toward its ultimate end. For example, a service done with the end of helping one's neighbor can at the same time be inspired by the love of God as the ultimate end of all our actions. One and the same action can also be inspired by several intentions, such as performing a service in order to obtain a favor or to boast about it. §1753 The circumstances, including the consequences, are secondary elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral goodness or evil of human acts (for example, the amount of a theft). They can also diminish or increase the agent's responsibility (such as acting out of a fear of death). Circumstances of themselves cannot change the moral quality of acts themselves; they can make neither good nor right an action that is in itself evil. §1755 A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the object is good in itself (such as praying and fasting "in order to be seen by men"). The object of the choice can by itself vitiate an act in its entirety. There are some concrete acts -- such as fornication -- that it is always wrong to choose, because choosing them entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil. §1758 The object chosen morally specifies the act of willing according as reason recognizes and judges it good or evil. §1759 "An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention" (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Dec. praec. 6). The end does not justify the means. §1760 A morally good act requires the goodness of its object, of its end, and of its circumstances together.
The treatment of the "sources of morality" in the Catechism begins in medias res, i.e. "in the middle of things," in terms of the analysis above, with the action considered first. However, there is a significant ambiguity here. The "object chosen" can mean either the action that is the immediate manifestation of the will (the legal actus reus), or the goal, end, or purpose that the action is intended and expected to bring about. This confuses the means and the ends of action and thus does not promise a clear analysis, despite the later statement, suddenly introducing the distinction, that "The end does not justify the means." This ambiguity puts us in the position that we cannot immediately say whether the system of morality will be deontological or teleological. The absence of the terms right and wrong, and a preference for the terminology of "good" and "evil," betrays a neglect of the centrality of the action itself in moral judgment. The "virtue ethics" form of Aristotelian ethics may explain the underdeveloped character of the distinctions.
The end of action as such is introduced under the heading of the intention, which again involves an ambiguity, since the inherent value of an end, as a good or evil object, is a different question from the internal quality of the intention or motive (the legal mens rea). Thus, a good action, such as distributing food to the poor, although causally resulting in a good end, that the poor have been fed, may be done from a bad motive, for an ulterior end, "in order to be seen by men." This may be seen as something that "corrupts the action," but the action and its outcome as such actually remain good and laudable. As Sir James Frazer said, it is better (for all the rest of us) to have people doing good from bad motives that doing evil from good ones. The objective value of the action or its natural outcome are different from what the subject thinks he is doing, and why. The Catholic system makes it difficult to separate these elements.
What are then called the "circumstances" of the action involve a further ambiguity. The circumstances of an action may determine whether it is right or wrong, or even a moral issue at all. But the Catechism includes the consequences in these "circumstances," which again confuses the means with the ends. The statement of §1760, that "A morally good act requires the goodness of its object, of its end, and of its circumstances together," is simply false. As we see in moral dilemmas, right action may have bad consequences, or wrong action good consequences. Hence the dilemmas. The act of killing may be right or wrong depending on the circumstances, with good or bad consequences, or even good or bad motives, occurring quite independently. A person may hate another and wish them dead yet quite justifiably end up killing them in self-defense -- and thankful for the opportunity to do so. In fact, a morally good act does require a morally innocent motive -- an act of out good will. That does not affect whether the action is right or wrong in itself. Jesus may reproach the killer for ill will, but the law will stop at a justifiable actus reus. Yet the formula just quoted does not even mention the motive, unless, because of the previous ambiguity, the phrase "of its end" is supposed to refer to the mens rea.
Failure to Distinguish Means from Ends Intention from Object
i.e. Determination of Will from Action or Purpose Circumstances from Consequences
i.e. what may determine the rightness of an action from what results from the action Failure to Order in Sequence: Will from Action from Consequences
Thus, every one of the three "Sources of Morality" cited in the Catechism involves ambiguity and confusion that subvert an understanding of the structure of morality. Some of the consequences of these confusions may be seen in the general statement, "There are some concrete acts -- such as fornication -- that it is always wrong to choose, because choosing them entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil." Choosing a moral evil may involve a "disorder of the will," and fornication may even be, ex hypothese, an intrinsic moral evil; but a "disorder of the will" is not entailed by the act, as this statement asserts, unless fornication is itself a evil independently of an ordered or disordered will. Thus, it doesn't explain anything to a person committing fornication to say, "You have a disordered will." They will want to know why, in itself, fornication is wrong. We are not told that here and are provided with nothing that would enable us to figure it out. Instead, the confusion we see in these distinctions allows a statement like that to come in "under the radar."
Despite these confusions, Catholicism features conceptions of atonement and expiation that are generally superior to what we find elsewhere in philosophy and religion. These motivate the theory of Purgatory, which, although rejected by Protestants, is morally more sophisticated than their view of forgiveness, redemption, and the afterlife.
The Structure of Confucian Ethics The terminology used by Confucius easily fits the categories of the analysis above. The discussion of Confucianism is reserved for the page at the link. We should note, however, that, while Confucius has no theoretical treatment of the structure of ethics, we don't seem to have anything that would generate the kind of muddle we just saw in Catholic ethics.
Confucian Terminology Rén,, "benevolence, charity, humanity, love," kindness. The fundamental virtue of Confucianism. Confucius defines it as, "Aì rén," "love others." Yì,, "right conduct, morality, duty to one's neighbor," which may be broken down into: zhong1,, doing one's best, conscientiousness, "loyalty"; and shù,, "reciprocity," altruism, "what you don't want yourself, don't do to others." Li3,, "propriety, good manners, politeness, ceremony, worship." Xiào,, "to honor one's parents," filial piety. Lì,, "profit, gain, advantage': NOT a proper motive for actions affecting others. The idea that profit is the source of temptation to do wrong is the Confucian ground of the later official disparagment of commerce and industry.
Chinese Virtues
Confucius [K'ung-fu-tzu or Kongfuzi]
Key Passages in the Analects of Confucius
The Polynomic Theory of Value
Crime and Punishment, Repentance, Restitution, and Atonement
The Fallacies of Moralism and Moral Aestheticism
Ethics
Value Theory
Home Page
five virtues benevolence propriety good faith righteousness knowledge wood fire earth metal water five, perfect benevolence gravity,
deference,
coutesy,
reverence,
respectful-
ness generosity,
tolerance,
breadth,
liberality,
leniency good faith,
sincerity,
confidence,
trustworthi-
ness ernestness,
diligence,
quickness,
promptness,
wit kindness,
generosity,
clemency,
gracious-
ness
The second set of fives given here are those actually listed by Confucius at Analects XVII:6. Confucius says that these are the five things that define "perfect benevolence,". There are multiple translation for each term, based on those given by James Legge [1893], Arthur Waley [1938], D.C. Lau [1979], Joanna C. Lee & Ken Smith [2010], and Mathews' Chinese Dictionary [1943, 1972]. The order is that given by Confucius, which only coincidentally would match the order here used for the five elements, except that does occur in the middle, where earth belongs, in each case.
four principles humanity propriety rectitude wisdom East South West North four virtues (of women ) right
behavior proper
speech proper
demeanour,
appearance proper
employment,
needlework
& cookery four studies literature conduct loyalty faith
The next set of four, although simply the "four virtues," are traditionally supposed to be those in particular of women. Their content would, of course, be traditional notions about the proper roles of women, though, curiously, the gloss of "proper employment" meaning "needlework & cookery" is from a modern dictionary [ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, edited by John DeFrancis, University of Hawai'i Press, 2003, p.888] rather than in an old source like Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary [Harvard University Press, 1972, p.770]. There is an old expression, the "three obediences and the four virtues" for women,. The "three obediences," "subjections," or "dependencies," are upon the father, the husband, and the son. As elsewhere historically, these attitudes tend to persist in rural society but break down in urban, if not liberal, society.
The "four studies" mostly involve virtues of conduct, including, "loyalty" or "conscientiousness," which we do not otherwise find in these lists -- despite its importance for Confucius. But we also find "literature," which sounds like it should be in the "six arts" below, but isn't. The character for "study,", can also mean "teaching," "doctrine," "religion," etc., as discussed with the Six Schools of Japan.
six virtues wisdom bene-
volence good faith righteous-
ness moderation harmony six (virtuous) actions filial piety friendship kindness love of kin endurance charity six arts propriety music archery chariot-
eering writing mathe-
matics
The "six virtuous actions" definitely fall into the class of virtues, and they lead off with the significant Confucian virtue of filial piety,. The character here for "action" we have seen already as "conduct" among the "four studies."
Next, with the "six arts," we mostly get things that are extra-ethical skills, even two martial arts (archery and charioteering), but they lead off with propriety,, which is not only a significant Confucian virtue, but one of the "five virtues" and "four principles." This is an interesting and perhaps revealing choice. "Propriety" encompasses manners and etiquette. In general, such things seem to have less to do with morality than with the artistry of polite society. As such, "propriety" was despised by Taoism but treasured by Confucianism. If propriety is not fully a matter of ethics, but a kind of art, this would effect a compromise between Taoism and Confucianism, retaining a place of importance for it, while exempting it from the "persuasion by force" that to Taoism was the "beginning of disorder [ ]."
Despite all these virtues, actions, and arts, we are still missing an important Confucian moral quality. Thus, at Analects IV:15 we see the "one thread" that runs through the teaching of Confucius, the qualities of and, "conscientiousness and reciprocity." "Reciprocity," though defined with the Confucian equivalent of the Golden Rule, is missing from the lists here. So we still don't get a comprehensive system. Profit,, of course, is not a virtue for either Confucianism or Taoism. It might be for Mohism, but does not occur here anyway.
seven passions joy anger sorrow fear love hate lust
Other Numbers in the Chinese Tradition
Return to the Structure of Confucian Ethics
Psychological Types, Typology of the Chinese Virtues
Confucius [K'ung-fu-tzu or Kongfuzi]
Emperors of China
Ethics
History of Philosophy
Home Page
Chinese Virtues, Note;
Other Numbers in the Chinese Tradition
This section is on "Chinese Virtues," but with the Chinese habit of creating lists of certain numbers of things, it is hard not to continue with some sets that are not virtues. The "Four Classes," the "Seven Passions," and even the "Four Beauties," may nevertheless have some connection to the theme of virtues.
six schools Yin-Yang,
Cosmologists Names,
Sophists Mohism Legalism Taoism Confucian-
ism
six kingdoms Ch'i Ch'u Han Wei Chao Yen
four classes scholars farmers artisans merchants
Return to Chinese Virtues
Key Distinctions for Value Theories,
and the Importance of Hume Karman.y evâdhikâras te mâ phales.u kadâcana /
mâ karmaphalahetur bhûr mâ te sango'stv akarman.i, Set thy heart upon thy work, but never on its reward.
Work not for a reward; but never cease to do thy work. The Bhagavad Gita, 2:47, Juan Mascaró translation [Penguin Books, 1962, p.52] Should we then, in the face of this criticism, reconcile ourselves to the view -- expressed countless times by so many: by some of the Sophists in Plato's dialogues, by Hobbes and by many more recent authors -- that what is just is what has been laid down as law by the legislator, and that there is no other valid law apart from this? This view can of course be expressed with varying degrees of consistency. The radical version says that whatever a sovereign or ruling power has established is indeed just: Hitler's Nürnberg laws, and Stalin's codes, and the American Constitution -- all are equally just. But this compels us to accept the inconvenient conclusion that norms which contradict each other may be equally legitimate and equally just. Advocates of this view, therefore, usually try to circumvent the problem by arguing that the value-laden concept of justice has no discernible meaning if it is taken to suggest a supreme paradigm according to which we can measure and assess existing legislation; if, on the other hand, 'justice' means nothing except positive law, i.e., what is established in existing legislation, it is a misleading and useless concept. Leszek Ko akowski (1927-2009), "On Natural Law," Is God Happy? Selected Essays [Basic Books, 2013, pp.242-243] Objectivism and Subjectivism Some key distinctions can be used to characterize the nature of ethics. Most fundamental is whether morality is a matter of rational knowledge or not. If it is a matter of rational knowledge, then our doctrine would be objectivism, which implies that morality is "out there," in the objects, and so is independent of personal preferences or sentiments. If it is not a matter of rational knowledge, then we could subscribe to subjectivism, that morality is indeed a matter of personal preferences or sentiments, in the subject, i.e. only in the mind or self. David Hume, is very properly often cited as the classic representative of subjectivism, as in the ethics textbook Moral Reasoning, by Victor Grassian, which I used to use in my ethics class. To Hume, morality depends on our own sentiments or feelings, as there is no matter of fact to determine moral truth [note]. Nor does this reasoning only prove, that morality consists not in any relations, that are the objects of science; but if examin'd, will prove with equal certainty, that it consists not in any matter of fact, which can be discover'd by the understanding. This is the second part of our argument; and if it can be made evident, we may conclude, that morality is not an object of reason.... Take any action allow'd to be vicious: Wilful murder, for instance. Examine it in all lights, and see if you can find that matter of fact, or real existence, which you call vice. In which-ever way you take it, you find only certain passions, motives, volitions and thoughts. There is no other matter of fact in the case. The vice entirely escapes you, as long as you consider the object. You never can find it, till you turn your reflexion into your own breast, and find a sentiment of disapprobation, which arises in you, towards this action. Here is a matter of fact; but 'tis the object of feeling, not of reason. It lies in yourself, not in the object. So that when you pronounce any action or character to be vicious, you mean nothing, but that from the constitution of your nature you have a feeling or sentiment of blame from the contemplation of it. [A Treatise of Human Nature, Shelby-Bigge edition, Oxford, 1888, 1968, pp.468-469, original spelling, boldface added] If morality is just a matter of feeling, and not a matter of rational knowledge, then it is not really amenable to dispute. I have my feelings and you have yours. It is not uncommon, however, for people to think that others disagree with them on moral issues, not because of different feelings, but because of a lack of feeling. We see this in an example given by Victor Grassian, who recalls responding at the time to a speech by Secretary of State Dean Rusk on the war in Vietnam. At that moment, it appeared to me that the Secretary of State simply did not feel sufficient sympathy for the vast suffering of human beings who were being sacrificed for unclear ideals of American security. As I listened to Rusk, my predominant reaction was not to argue with him rationally, but in some sense to shake him into an emotional realization of the enormity of human suffering we as a nation were creating in Vietnam. [Moral Reasoning, Second Edition, Prentice Hall, 1992, p.24] We have no difficulty, however, imagining Rusk telling Grassian that he "did not feel sufficient sympathy for the vast suffering of human beings" who lived under Communism. There are no "unclear ideals of American security" involved. After mass murderers like Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Kim Il Sung, and Ho Chi Minh, the United States wanted to preserve South Vietnam and Cambodia from Communism. We failed. As it happens, more people were murdered in Indo-China after the Communist takeovers than had died in the wars there that involved France and the United States [cf. Death by Government, by R.J. Rummel, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1995]. Many Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees live in the United States after fleeing the terror (often as "boat people") of the new regimes. Richard Nixon's prediction that there would be a "bloodbath" after a Communist victory, greeted with smug derision at the time, was fully born out by events -- to the horror of some former supporters (e.g. Joan Baez) but with compacency by others (e.g. Jane Fonda). Basing a moral argument, with an appeal to feeling, on only part of a story of suffering, has also occurred in relation to the invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003. Many antiwar protesters express outrage over the suffering to the Iraqi people caused by the United States in military actions in Iraq. But the story of an Iraqi exile in Los Angeles, Tamara Darweesh, was related by the Los Angeles Times on 24 March 2003: A few days ago, Darweesh went to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, where antiwar protesters were gathered. She asked to talk to them about why it is important to topple Hussein. The protesters thanked her, turned and walked away. "I'm so disappointed with the left," said Darweesh, who considers herself a liberal. "They are in complete denial because it doesn't fit into their equation of the Mideast. But Saddam is an Arab leader who has killed more Arabs than Israel ever has." The antiwar protesters, she added, are "very condescending. They are supposed to be for human rights, but the suffering of the Iraqi people just doesn't exist for them. They deny us our stories." For people whose argument is their sensitivity to suffering, the political left thus puts itself in the position of protecting one of the nastiest neo-Nazi dictators in recent history. As a matter of fact, examined elsewhere, feeling cannot be morally commanded; and so the approach of insufficient feeling for moral correctness is barking up the wrong tree [note]. If morality is not just a matter of feeling, but of rational knowledge, we then must face the question of how that works. This is addressed in detail elsewhere. Here it may be noted that Aristotelian arguments about knowledge, which reduce reason to the self-evidence of first principles, known by intuition, leaves us with certainties that seem fully as subjective as Hume's moral sentiments. There is no more verification of self-evident propositions than there is of those based on feeling. This problem is resolved when it is noted that Socratic Method, as used by Socrates himself (not that described by Plato in the Meno), examines the logical consequences of propositions in order to expose contradictions. This will falsify some of our premises, in a manner first appreciated by Karl Popper. Which premises is a matter of continuing inquiry. This does not, to be sure, verify with certainty any remaining premises, but it does give us something to do, which subjectivism and self-evidence do not. They both leave us at dead ends. Autonomy and Heteronomy A common misconception in ethics is that another distinction, between absolutism and relativism, means or amounts to the same thing as objectivism and subjectivism, and that any absolutist or objectivist view of ethics is necessarily heteronomous. Likewise with relativism, subjectivism, and autonomy. "Heteronomy",, is the doctrine that moral knowledge comes from outside the self, i.e. from the world, the state, society, history, etc. "Autonomy,",is the doctrine that moral knowledge comes from within the self. Two key versions of autonomy are found in Plato and in Kant (who originated this terminology). In Plato, the paradigms of value (the "Forms" or "Ideas") are indeed outside of us, but they are in the World of Being, which is ontologically separate from the World of Becoming within which we live. Our connection to the World of Being is by way of memory, since we experienced that world in between lives, before being reincarnated, as was Plato's belief (introduced in the Meno). In turn Kant, believed that morality results from an application of pure Reason, which is something that does not exist in the visible world, the Phenomenal world, but that we possess in our relation to things-in-themselves, which lie behind visible reality. The autonomy of Plato and Kant is opposed to the heteronomy of Aristotle and Hegel. Thus, Aristotle believed that nothing like the Forms of value existed separately, but only in the specific examples found in experience. These could only be learned about through experience, which is why Aristotle says that ethics is not a study for the young. They don't know enough yet. Similarly, although Hegel talks about "Reason" and might, to some, sound like Kant, he thinks that Reason exists in the visible, Phenomenal world. The doctrine that "Real is Rational" means that what you see is what is rational, the basis of the principle of "judicial positivism" discussed below. Hegel reinforces this with the metaphysical view that only universals (including the State) are real and that individuals are ultimately unreal. In that, he was closer to Plato than to Kant or Aristotle, but Plato's metaphysics, that only the Forms are ultimately real, cannot be construed into a form of heteronomy -- except perhaps as combined with Aristotle by the Neoplatonists, who eliminated reincarnation and Recollection. In Kant, the individuality of phenomenal beings corresponds directly to the individuality of those same beings among things-in-themselves, by which he would be closer to Aristotle than to the others. The structure of metaphysics and ethics in Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel is reexamined in a footnote below. The "Pirsig" of the following chart is Robert Pirsig in the popular philosophizing novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Grassian and Pirsig, although no more than a popular novelist, are taken to represent views that are very characteristic of current academic philosophy. (A further version of this chart, below, proceeds to better known recent philosophers.) It is easily assumed that autonomy implies subjectivism and relativism. This is especially deceptive when dealing with Hume, who is a subjectivist and is thus liable to be presented (as in Grassian's Moral Reasoning, and elsewhere) as a relativist. But Hume's theory of knowledge allows him to believe things he cannot rationally know (or prove); so while his theory is subjectivist, his beliefs are in fact absolutist. That was also the case with the issue he is the most famous for -- causality: He had no doubt that everything that happened had a cause, he just didn't believe that this could be proven or otherwise rationally motivated.
Most important for our purposes is the Socratic differentiation of absolutism. Socratic Ignorance means that ethical values are real, objective, and absolute but that the human condition is to be ignorant of them. This enables us to distinguish Socratic Absolutism, where values are absolute but unknown, from Dogmatic Absolutism, where absolute values are claimed to be already known. Platonic Recollection is Plato's theory that knowledge is possible but that it comes from within and is our memory of another world, a place of perfect goodness, justice, and beauty (the "World of Being"). This is the classic combination of autonomy with objectivism, although, of course, it is not the only way that autonomy can be combined with objectivism.
"Is" and "Ought" Whether Hume was a heteronomist or autonomist is a good question. After a fashion he was both: he explains the occurrence of morality by reference to the customs of society as those develop over time, just as he explains causality itself on the basis of habit and custom. That sounds very heteronomous. However, as with causality again, he is aware that morality is not proven or rationally justified by his explanation. Indeed, it cannot be: Hume is also famous for noting that a proposition with an "ought" (assertions of value) cannot be logically derived from propositions merely with an "is" (assertions of fact): I cannot forbear adding to these reasonings an observation, which may, perhaps, be found of some importance. In every system of morality, which I have hitherto met with, I have always remark'd, that the author proceeds for some time in the ordinary way of reasoning, and establishes the being of a God, or makes observations concerning human affairs; when of a sudden I am surpriz'd to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not. This change is imperceptible; but is, however, of the last consequence. For as this ought, or ought not, expresses some new relation or affirmation, 'tis necessary that it shou'd be observ'd and explain'd; and at the same time that a reason should be given, for what seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others, which are entirely different from it. But as authors do not commonly use this precaution, I shall presume to recommend it to the readers; and am persuaded, that this small attention wou'd subvert all the vulgar systems of morality, and let us see, that the distinction of vice and virtue is not founded merely on the relations of objects, nor is perceiv'd by reason. [op.cit., pp.469-470, original spelling, boldface added] And so the assertions of morality cannot be logically derived from factual assertions about social or historical habit and custom. The force, certainty, and actual moral nature of morality is a residue that reference to society cannot account for. Since that residue is found in our own moral sentiments, this is something left to autonomy. While Hume's distinction between "is" and "ought" is often used as an argument that moral statements are baseless or meaningless, this was not what Hume had in mind. Instead, we must take him as arguing for what now would be called the "axiomatic independence" of ethics, something that would have already been comprehensible to Aristotle, who expected that each area of knowledge possessed its own first principles. It seems like many recent philosophers neither know their Aristotle nor understand their Hume. Hume is a skeptic (which in philosophy means believing that knowledge is impossible) but of a certain kind. "Pyrrhonian" skepticism, named after Pyrrho of Elis (365-275 BC), is that because knowledge is impossible, we should practice suspension (, epochê) of judgment on all things. On the other hand, this was later modified when the scholars in Plato's Academy went through a phase of skepticism. Carneades of Cyrene (d. 129 BC), a Scholarch (president) of the Academy, is particularly associated with this movement of "Academic" skepticism. The Academic skeptics ultimately said that although there may be no certain knowledge, there is reasonable belief, and this is necessary for practical judgments in life. That is the term that Hume uses, as he says, "The great subverter of Pyrr |
the most of your fuel supplies.
Cons:
Despite some tough-nut equipment, the Panda is still pretty dinky compared with other 4x4s. A 225-litre boot doesn’t leave much room for equipment and the interior doesn’t have much room. A weak 90bhp engine a limp torque rating of just 145Nm also means the Panda could quickly find itself in severe pandemonium.
Zombie survival rating:
Land Rover Defender
The Land Rover Defender has been employed by the Army since it was released, and has also historically been a firm favourite with the Royal Family as well. This thing has literally survived bombs, so a bunch of walking corpses should be no problem, right?
Pros:
Utilitarian to the core, the Defender has a plastic interior and hose-down floor that means it’s easy to wipe blood and brain matter off after a hard day’s work bashing zombie heads in. A large boot means plenty of room for equipment, while the 2.2-litre engine has enough torque to pull up to 3,500kg.
Cons:
Unfortunately, its rock-solid build leaves little room for comfort. It’s so basic in fact that it doesn’t even come with airbags as standard, but less equipment does mean that less can go wrong. Where this Land Rover really falls is its piddly fuel efficiency; built like a brick house, it comes at the expense of a rubbish 25mpg, which could leave you stranded unless you have backup jerry cans.
Zombie survival rating:
Toyota Hilux
Toyota claims that its Hilux is virtually invincible, with the stalwart pick-up truck even getting an ‘Invincible’ trim option to hammer home that fact. Top Gear fans will know it as the car that conquered the North Pole and an erupting Icelandic volcano, so how does it fare against zombies?
Pros:
Notorious for use as an improvised fighting vehicle by militias, the so-called Toyota War of the 1980s between Libya and Chad was named for the heavy used of the Hilux as a light cavalry vehicle. Tough, with a massive 2,315mm by 1,520mm deck for storing equipment and weapons, it’s also known to exceed 300,000 miles with regular maintenance.
Cons:
Accomplished off-road thanks to four-wheel drive, unfortunately the toughness and durability of the Hilux comes at the cost of driveability. Tight turns to escape navigate zombie hordes will be pretty impossible, given that it “drives like a ski lift”, according to one reviewer.
Zombie survival rating:
Nissan X-TRAIL
Bigger brother to the Qashqai, the Nissan X-TRAIL is larger, leaner and meaner. Unfortunately, the latest X-TRAIL has shed some of its ruggedness for a more family friendly vibe. Does family friendly equal zombie friendly?
Pros:
Constructed of high-strength steel, the X-TRAIL is extremely resilient, while the rear doors open a full 90 degrees to easily load equipment and personnel. It also comes with a wide range of kit that includes a 360-degree camera to spy zombies sniffing around your car, plus a quick and punchy diesel engine with fuel economy of up to 57.7mpg.
Cons:
That said, four-wheel drive doesn’t come as standard, and specifying extra seats drops boot space from 550 litres to 445, meaning you might have to sacrifice some supplies for more people. Still, the X-TRAIL offers a rock-solid mobile base that even the toughest undead will have trouble breaking into.
Zombie survival rating:The San Antonio Spurs aren’t getting any younger, and could look to be players in NBA free agency next offseason. Tim Duncan finished off an amazing career last season, and walked away into retirement this offseason. Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are also getting up there in years, and don’t have too much left in the tank.
Looking ahead to next offseason, the Spurs could consider pursuing one of the bigger name free agents. One point guard in particular would make a lot of sense for the Spurs and would fit their culture.
Chris Paul is set to hit open free agency next offseason after a very successful tenure with the Los Angeles Clippers. Now that Parker is getting older, the Spurs would be wise to look at better starting point guard options. Parker could serve as Paul’s backup, although there is no guarantee that he will play another season.
Last season with the Clippers, Paul ended up averaging 19.5 points, 10 assists, and 4.2 rebounds per game. He shot 46.2 percent from the field overall, and knocked down 37.1 percent of his three-point attempts. Paul is widely considered to be one of the best NBA point guards of all-time on both ends of the court.
[Photo by AP Photo/Danny Moloshok] At 31-years-old, Paul has at least one more big contract left in his career. He could play the foreseeable future with the Spurs at an All-Star level.
Nick Petrusevski of the Windy City Tribune opined that Dwyane Wade could recruit stars to Chicago. He has a very close friendship with Paul, which could make the Bulls a potential landing spot for Paul.
If the Spurs want to make a play for Paul, they will have to be very aggressive right off the bat. They can still boast a star-studded roster and the ability to form a legitimate “big three” with Paul, Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge. That offer would be intriguing for Paul to say the very least.
Needless to say, it will be interesting to see which teams line up with interest in Paul. He will have quite a few teams interested in throwing max contract offers his direction.
San Antonio will be able to create enough cap space to sign Paul if they are in the running to bring him on board.
[Photo by AP Photo/Chris Szagola] Being able to play for a proven franchise like the Spurs would be an intriguing option for Paul. He would play for one of the best head coaches in NBA history as well in Gregg Popovich. All of those things would make turning the Spurs down a difficult thing to do.
It will be interesting to see what next offseason holds for Paul and the Spurs. He is going to be one of the most talked about players in free agency and the Spurs will have a lot of competition to bring him on board. Paul has to cash in on what could be his last free agency.
Expect to see the Spurs at least show interest in signing Paul when free agency opens up next offseason. They showed interest in Mike Conley this offseason, although the Memphis Grizzlies overpaid to bring him back. San Antonio is still a team to be reckoned with in the Western Conference, and adding Paul would make them a powerhouse that could compete with the Golden State Warriors once again.
Popovich would likely welcome Paul with open arms and it would be a changing of the guard for the Spurs.
Do you think the San Antonio Spurs should pursue superstar point guard Chris Paul in free agency next offseason? Would he make the Spurs a legitimate contender in the Western Conference? Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below!
[Photo by AP Photo/Rick Bowmer]Campaigners call for use of eco-friendly options and tax on paper and plastic takeaway cups as most are not recyclable
UK's billions of takeaway cups could each take '30 years' to break down
Coffee-addicted Britain is leaving a mountain of toxic waste for the next generation as scientists warn it could take decades for paper cups from Starbucks, Pret a Manger and other chains to decompose.
The environmental cost of the coffee-to-go culture has been highlighted amid growing concerns that much of the public wrongly believe the cups are recycled, when in fact they are dumped in the green bin in the office or the recycling bin on the street.
Switch disposable coffee cups for reusables, urge campaign groups Read more
While the paper can be recycled, the problem arises because recycling plants do not have the facility to remove the plastic lining which makes the cups impermeable.
Chris Cheeseman, a professor of materials resources engineering at Imperial College London, says the polyethylene is resistant to degradation and could take around 30 years to break down. “Even then we don’t know for sure, because nobody has looked at the cup specifically,” added Cheeseman.
Even if there were no plastic lining, the cup could take at least two years to start breaking down because of the high quality paper. “In terms of environmental impact the cellulose fibre is potentially more of an issue than the plastic,” he said.
“This could take 18 months to two years to start to break down and then it produces methane gas which is probably not collected.”
For health and safety reasons the paper must be virgin, prompting claims that it takes at least 100,000 trees to fuel Britain’s coffee habit a year.
Last week the Liberal Democrats called for a 5p tax on coffee cups following the success of the plastic bag tax in a bid to change consumer behaviour.
“The coffee cup is clearly another icon of the throw-away society,” said the party’s environment spokeswoman Kate Parminter. She said that unless the government formulated a strategy to grab “the low hanging fruit”, they would never tackle the issue of greenhouse gases.
Would you favour a tax on coffee cups? Read more
Parminter is planning to call all the main coffee chains to talks to discuss the issue of recycling and pressure them into doing more.
The recycling issue only recently came to light after chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s BBC programme War on Waste, which exposed the fact that few of the cups were recycled.
Frugalpac, a company which featured on the showand has developed a 100% recyclable eco-cup, has been contacted by 25 companies since the show aired in July.
“We were going round for a couple of years talking to coffee shops and the general reaction was it wasn’t an issue for customers and when we said if customers knew it would be an issue, they were quite laid back. Then Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall got his megaphone out and now they are beating a path to our door,” Martin Myerscough, founder of Frugalpac.
Among those in touch were executives from Starbucks in Seattle who have now agreed to trial the cup. There has also been a heightened interest in finding ways of recycling the plastic in the cup.
Simply Cups, a company that collects cups from businesses and event organisers for specialist recycling has launched a plastic product developed from the cups.
It estimates the number of cups in circulation could be as high as 5bn when caterers, hotels, restaurants such as McDonald and shops such as Waitrose and Greggs are taken into account.
Efforts to fight paper cup waste will be centre stage in Manchester city centre next week when a series of giant cup-shaped bins will appear on pavements.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest One of Hubbub’s giant coffee cup bins Photograph: Hubbub charity
Charity Hubbub has launched the scheme with the city council and high street coffee retailers in a bid to change coffee-drinker habits. It says the cups collected will be taken to a specialist recycling centre and turned into plastic pellets which can then be used in products such as garden furniture.
Jason Cotta, managing director of Costa, said the company was hugely concerned with this important issue and it had partnered with a university to understand the lifecycle of a cup once it left its stores. It was also trialling in-store waste disposal and since April has been donating 25p to anti-litter charities every time a customer uses a disposal cup.
Nestlé, if you care about the environment what's with your disposable coffee cups? Read more
A spokeswoman for Pret A Manger said it had signed the Paper Cup Manifesto, an industry-wide initiative to improve collection and recycling of paper cups.
She said: “Pret’s take away cups are recyclable, however very few paper mills will currently recycle paper coffee cups.” She said the company removed the recyclable symbol “well over a year ago to avoid misleading customers”.
Starbucks, which offers a 25p discount to anyone who brings in a reusable cup, said it was working with waste company Veolia to trial eco-options.Once upon a time, around the turn of the last century, pizza in America was an inexpensive peasant food, made casalinga (home-style) by southern Italian immigrant women in their kitchens. Adverse economic conditions had forced four million southern Italians to come to America by 1900. Descendents of all the seminal American pizza makers indicated their ancestors learned to make pizza by watching relatives make it at home.
In 1905, Gennaro Lombardi applied to the New York City government for the first license to make and sell pizza in this country, at his grocery store on Spring Street in what was then a thriving Italian-American neighborhood. In 1912, Joe's Tomato Pies opened in Trenton, New Jersey. Twelve years later, Anthony (Totonno) Pero left Lombardi's to open Totonno's in Coney Island. A year later, in 1925, Frank Pepe opened his eponymous pizzeria in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1929, John Sasso left Lombardi's to open John's Pizza in Greenwich Village. The thirties saw pizza spread to Boston (Santarpio's in 1933) and San Francisco with the opening of Tommaso's (1934), followed shortly thereafter with additional openings in New Jersey (Sciortino's in Perth Amboy in 1934 and the Reservoir Tavern in Boonton in 1936). In 1943, Chicago pizza was born when Ike Sewell opened Uno's. What did New York, New Haven, Boston, and Trenton have in common? Factory work available to poorly educated southern Italian immigrants. Pizza at this point was very much an ethnic, poor person's food eaten by Italians in the urban enclaves in which they had settled.
The mainstreaming of pizza into American life began after World War II, when American GIs stationed in Italy returned home with a hankering for the pizza they had discovered overseas. In 1945, one of these returning soldiers, Ira Nevin, combined his eating experiences during the war with the know-how he had gained repairing ovens for his father's business to build the first gas-fired Bakers Pride pizza oven. These pizza ovens allowed retailers to bake pizzas quickly, cleanly, efficiently, and cheaply. Armed with a little knowledge, a Bakers Pride oven, and a by-then ubiquitous Hobart Mixer, aspiring pie men were ready to go into business.
Between 1945 and 1960, pizzerias began sprouting up all over the country. Most were owned by independent operatorssome Italian, some Greekbut all of them American. People were either making their own mozzarella or buying fresh mozzarella from a local purveyor. They were originally making their own sauce from fresh tomatoes, but at the very least they were making it from canned tomatoes. Dough was made in-house. Toppings were made in-house or locally.
The pizza-eating habit spread quickly to workers on their lunch hour, families looking for a cheap and satisfying meal out, and bar habitués looking for a food chaser for their alcohol. It is no coincidence that so many pizzeria/bars opened up after the end of Prohibition in 1933. And unlike other classic American foods such as hot dogs, meat loaf, ham sandwiches, and hamburgers, pizza was a perfect communal food. In fact, it was meant to be shared. There were no slices in most places, so you needed a group to order and eat a pizza. The group could be coworkers, teammates on a ball team, or a family.
Many of the seminal pizzerias started as taverns, which could be frequented only by adults or kids accompanied by adults. At Vito & Nick's in Chicago, there's still a sign that greets you, saying, "No one under 21 is allowed in unless accompanied by adults." Lots of seminal pizzerias have "tavern" in their names: Reservoir Tavern in Boonton, Star Tavern in West Orange, Top Road Tavern in West Trenton. Jimmy DeLorenzo told me that the original DeLorenzo's in Trenton had a dance floor that made it the best place to meet girls in the city at the time it opened in 1936. Sociologists talk about the need for third places in every culture, the one place people can gather besides work and home. It seems to me that pizzerias were a third place in many Italian-American communities.
The pizza at most of the early American pizzerias was thin-crusted and casalinga in style. This kind of pizza is still being made all along the Jersey Shore at places such as Pete and Elda's/Carmen's in Neptune and Vic's in Bradley Beach, on Long Island at Eddie's in New Hyde Park, and in Chicago at the aforementioned Vito & Nick's. I've eaten at many of these pizza taverns in researching A Slice of Heaven. The pizza tends to be very good, it's always made by hand, and it tastes great as long as you don't overanalyze it. It's true that none of this pizza is as good as the classic coal-fired pies that were coming out of the ovens in New Haven and New York and even Trenton before they changed over to gas. But that doesn't matter. This pizza was honest, handmade food that brought people together. Pizza is, after all, the ultimate populist, minimalist food.
What changed the pizza-scape in this country forever was the proliferation of chains. Pizza Hut started in Wichita, Kansas, in 1958; Little Caesar's emerged in 1959 and Domino's in 1960 (both in Michigan); and Papa John's opened in 1989 in Indiana. None was started with the idea of making the great home-style pizza the founders grew up with. If you go to each of the websites, you find that they all started as, first and foremost, a business proposition.
The chains made pizza a commodity. Though they still made pizza by hand, they used sauce and cheese and dough made in a central location and shipped to each city and location. Pride in the pizza-maker's craft disappeared. Chain pizza shops sold cheap, communal food with a fun image. Independents couldn't compete on price. At House of Pizza and Calzone in Brooklyn, former owner John Teutonico told me that when a Domino's opened a couple of blocks away, he knew his business was in trouble. "How can I compete with this?" he asked, showing me a flyer offering a large pizza with two toppings for $10. Teutonico and his partner sold the business in 2004.
The chains produced a chain reaction (pun intended). The independent pizza makers were and are being driven out of business. Between 1960 and 2000, the number of independents decreased markedly while the number of pizza chain outlets increased exponentially. As a result, many people had their first exposure to pizza in a chain restaurant. The Pizza Huts of the world became the pizza taste standard bearer in their minds. Even chain pizza tastes eminently satisfying, especially if you've never had the real thing.
But the chains haven't won the war. I found there are still hundreds of independents selling good, honest, handmade pizza all over the country, and it's these pizza makers that I've tried to identify and celebrate in A Slice of Heaven. I'm sure I haven't hit them all, and for that I apologize. Please let me know about the ones I've missed. No matter where you live, you can find them. And you don't have to be a food critic to be able to taste the difference. The best pizza has the taste of great handmade food; it's the taste of love and family and community, and it's the taste we all should seek out no matter what we want to eat. The chains are not going to go away, but that doesn't mean we have to eat at them if we have a choice. And in most places we do have a choice. We might have to pay a little more for a pie, but what we get in return is a better-tasting pizza made by hand, with love and perhaps with a local ingredient or two.
The last time I went to Pizzeria Bianco, a young man with a short haircut and a baseball cap on backwards was leaving the restaurant as I was talking to owner/ pizzaiolo Chris Bianco. "Are you the owner?" the young man asked Chris. "I am," Chris answered. "Well, I just want to tell you that your pizza rocks. It's way better than Pizza Hut." After he left, Chris smiled and said, "I guess that's progress."
Ed Levine is a regular contributor to the New York Times Dining section and is author of New York Eats and New York Eats More. He also maintains a blog: Ed Levine Eats. This entry is an excerpt from his book Pizza: A Slice of Heaven, published on Slice through special arrangement.
This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.Indian education is one of the last areas still in the clutches of the licence raj. A new committee appointed by the centre to provide advice on education policy should make dismantling controls in the education sector one of its primary tasks. The committee will be headed by space scientist K. Kasturirangan.
The issue is not just about whether education should be provided by government or private institutions. There are no such binaries. India is a complex country that should allow different types of schools, colleges and universities to flourish. Newer options such as online education should also be encouraged. The unfair provisions of the Right to Education Act—which favours minority schools—also need to be done away with.
Institutional diversity cannot grow unless regulatory dinosaurs such as the University Grants Commission are shut down. States, too, must have a greater say in education policy. What works in Uttar Pradesh may not work in Tamil Nadu. What works in a remote tribal area may not work in a metropolitan city. The broken education system needs urgent attention.On Thursday, a group of union protesters gathered outside the offices of Bushburg Properties in Borough Park in support of nine maintenance workers, after learning that the company would be cutting both their pay and benefits, Gothamist reports.
The protesting workers are employed at 1711 Fulton Street (also known as 88 Chauncey Street), a 79-unit rental building recently purchased by Bushburg for $38 million, according to The Real Deal. When Bushburg bought the property in March, the new management announced that maintenance workers would see their pay cut by $10/hour and the revocation of most benefits.
The group is affiliated with building service workers union 32BJ SEIU and has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. They are alleging that Bushburg's management company Vertices Holding Company has refused to negotiate terms of the new contract and have threatened workers affiliated with the union, with Ronnie Coppage (who's worked at 1711 Fulton for almost 40 years) saying he believes that Vertices is attempting to "strong-arm them out of their jobs." The workers also claim that they have been forced to work extra days per week with no overtime.
Under the terms of the new contract, workers would be making $12/hour, and would receive no pension, no health insurance, 40 hours of paid sick leave per year, and one week of vacation after a year of full-time employment.
The building itself is currently part of the Mitchell-Lama affordable housing program. However, with the building's obligations set to expire later this year, the new owners are set to perform extensive luxury renovations on the property.
· Bed-Stuy Maintenance Workers Say "Hip" Luxury Developer Is Trying To Force Them Out [Gothamist]
· Bushburg buys Bed-Stuy rental complex for $38M [TRD]
· All 32BJ SEIU coverage [Curbed]First baby night parrot spotted, hope for an elusive bird takes flight
For the better part of a century, the night parrot – Pezoporus occidentalis – was considered an extinct Australian legend.
Even after their "rediscovery" in 2013 by naturalist John Young, the birds have remained elusive, and very few people have ever seen one in the wild. Now, new photographic evidence of a fledgling member of the species has given conservationists renewed hope that the parrots are not only surviving, but also beginning to prosper.
Queensland University scientists Nick Leseberg and James Watson were conducting a field study in the state's Pullen Pullen Reserve when they spotted the fledgling bird take flight from a clump of spinifex grass.
"To see your first one and to realise what it was that you're actually seeing, not just a night parrot but a fledgling and the first evidence of successful breeding was very, very exciting," Leseberg explained to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "There were a few deep breaths."
Standing no more than 22-25 cm tall, the little green-and-gold birds are often described as "dumpy" – but despite that small stature, they've been making big waves in the scientific and conservation communities for a good while now. Known for being one of the few completely nocturnal bird species (a distinction shared by New Zealand's kakapo), the night parrots are also known for building their nests on the ground.
The birds were originally thought to have gone extinct in the late 19th or early 20th century, after the introduction of cats and foxes to their natural habitat collided disastrously with their ground-nesting habits. Prior to 2013, there had been some limited evidence that the species might still exist: in 1990, Australian Museum scientists found a dead parrot in south-western Queensland, and in 2006, a ranger found the remains of another parrot in Diamantina National Park, also in south-western Queensland.
These isolated incidents, however, had not given conservationists a clear picture of where the birds might be living, or even if they existed in any meaningful numbers.
All that changed in 2013, when Young presented a collection of videos and images of the colourful parrots to a group of fellow naturalists and media at the Queensland Museum. The evidence was compelling enough for the Australian government to create the Pullen Pullen Reserve with the specific purpose of protecting the species.
The reserve's exact location was kept under wraps to protect the parrots from poachers and human tourists – but that secrecy has also meant that very few people have actually seen the birds firsthand, even years after their rediscovery. Population estimates at the time of Young's findings ranged between 50 and 250 animals – not extinct, perhaps, but critically endangered nonetheless.
This notion of their scarcity persisted until October this year, when a team of researchers lead by Young spotted some of the parrots and recorded their calls in Diamantina National Park. The discovery suggests the birds' range is wider than expected, and the footage of the fledgling captured in the Pullen Pullen Reserve this month further reinforces the idea of the parrots being more populous and widespread than expected.
For conservationists like Bush Heritage Australia's Jim Radford, this is a good sign that the birds are back on their way up, at least for now. And that's combined with good rains this year, which usually prompt night parrots to mate.
"All indications are that it will be a very good year, not just for night parrots but for other birds," Radford told The Guardian. "I fully expect that [night parrots] will be discovered in other places in Australia in time as well, because I don't think that this can be the only population."
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Top header image: John Turnbull, Flickr. The night parrot was rediscovered among spiky spinifex grass, which covers much of Australia's arid regions.Paramount’s Seth Gordon-directed feature adaptation of 1990s TV show Baywatch will now go on Memorial Day weekend, May 26, instead of May 19.
Baywatch moves out of a weekend that got very crowded with four other wide releases that included Fox’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, Alien Covenant, Open Road’s The Nut Job 2, and New Line/Warner Bros.’ Annabelle 2 and will now square against Disney fifthquel The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.
What happened to Sony’s sci-fi thriller Life? Due to great audience reactions, that Ryan Reynolds movie has now flown to March 24, leaving Baywatch all alone to battle Pirates 5. On its new date, Life faces off with Lionsgate’s Power Rangers and Warner Bros.’ King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. The Bella Thorne horror pic from Sony Keep Watching, which was originally on this March date, is now undated temporarily.
Baywatch has social media stars Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron on their side. The pic also reteams Johnson with his San Andreas co-star Alexandra Daddario. The last Pirates movie opened to $90.1M and that was on a three-day. But Pirates star Johnny Depp has recently struggled at the B.O. Last Memorial Day the opening for Alice Through the Looking Glass tanked with a FSSM of $33.5M and finaled with a 2.2x gross of $77M, -77% behind its first 2010 installment ($334M domestic).
Johnson’s last two live-action movies, San Andreas and Central Intelligence were back-to-back summer hits respectively making $155.1M and $127.4M at the domestic B.O. He provides the voiceover in Moana which has been making dough in the last two weeks with close to $120M.Ever wonder what an animal whose whole life has been dedicated to pharmaceutical research looks like when and if it is ever let out of a cage?
Reports HuffPo:
Forty male beagles raised inside a lab in Spain arrived in Los Angeles last week where they will be put up for adoption after being freed from captivity by the Beagle Freedom Project.
The rescue mission is the largest yet for the group Animal Rescue Media Education (ARME). A total of 72 dogs were rescued in the effort, 32 of them having already been adopted in Europe, according to NBC Los Angeles.
ARME’s Beagle Freedom Project spokesman Gary Smith said the beagles, all between ages 4 and 7, had lived in cages their entire lives.
“We’ve been told they lived one per cage in rooms of 10 beagles, but they never had any physical interaction with one another,” Smith told the station. “They’ve been in kennels since they were rescued about a week ago, but aside from that, they’ve spent most of their lives locked up.”"I can confirm that I drew the 40 pages comic, plus a cover image, for the Man of Steel Wal-Mart promotion," Ordway confirmed in the comments below. "It's a great story, and it was really fun to do."
The cover at right, provided by Wal-Mart as part of their Man of Steel ticket presales, clearly shows Ordway's name on the art. Fans can buy tickets starting tomorrow at 8 a.m. for 7 p.m. showings the day before the movie opens. Wal-Mart has promised that these special Wal-Mart-exclusive screenings will be the earliest showings for Man of Steel at the theaters in question.
In addition to movie tickets, fans will be able to pre-buy Blu-Ray copies of Man of Steel--and as part of the presale, will get a digital code giving them access to special features including Superman cartoons and an exclusive digital comic. It had been previously noted that the writer of the comic would be Goyer, but until now it was not clear who the artist was. Marvel and Wal-Mart did a similar promotional deal with Iron Man 3 the week it hit theaters; the presale code gave fans access to some of the home video's special features and sneak previews of upcoming, animated Marvel projects. It also reserves an Ultraviolet copy of the movie in your account which will be unlocked when the film is released on home video. They also recently pre-sold Blu-Ray copies of The Walking Dead season three, including a digital code that allowed you to redeem some of the disc's special features ahead of time.
When the first art debuted this morning, it was not only revealed that the story revolves around Superman's cousin Kara Zor-El (Supergirl), but it also seemed obvious from the style of art that it was Ordway. None of the previous pieces featured a signature, though, and so ComicBook.com reached out to both DC Entertainment and to Jerry Ordway to confirm his involvement. DC has not yet responded, although as noted above, Ordway commented below to confirm our assumptions. Ordway made headlines recently by publicly blogging about his lack of paying comics work, in spite of being widely regarded as a living legend in comics and in spite of having an exclusive contract with DC. The publisher responded to inquiries at that time by saying that Ordway had work in the pipeline.Post-modern Warfare
Call of Duty has become the ultimate "no-win" situation for reviewers. What once may have been the biggest job of the game critic's year is now an annual exercise in being caught between the Devil and the deep blue sea. Love it or hate it, the outcome is never going to be pretty.
Ever since the intense backlash against Call of Duty last year, those who commit the crime of enjoying the series are subject to bitter value judgments and outrage, while those who dislike it are all too familiar with the army of COD fans who eviscerate any fools daring to reprimand their shooter of choice.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II seeks to change many things. It adds a dash of sci-fi, a greatly expanded campaign, and all manner of fresh gadgets. It hopes to be a reinvention of the franchise that hardcore gamers have clamored for. There is one thing, however, that it cannot alter...
... The fact we're all screwed no matter what we think of it.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [reviewed])
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Release: November 13, 2012
MSRP: $59.99
Call of Duty: Black Ops II follows on from 2010's Cold War misadventure, this time making a dramatic leap forward to the year 2025 and giving the series its first taste of post-modern warfare. The near-future setting gives Black Ops II a lot more creative freedom, while still tying it to familiar scenarios. While there are no jetpacks or excursions to the Moon, there are attack drones, wrist-mounted grenades, and cloaking devices. Oh, and electric knuckle-dusters.
The solo campaign is where these changes are most readily felt, and it's here that Treyarch has truly stepped out from under Infinity Ward's shadow to craft a COD that's all its own. BOII's story takes place over two time periods, revolving around the search for a charismatic and dangerous enemy, the messianic Raul Menendez. In flashbacks to the 1980s, players follow Alex Mason and Frank Woods as they pursue the villain across war-torn lands and learn of his motivations. In 2025, we play Alex's son David, as his team attempts to stop Menendez's plans to cripple the United States.
Though starting haphazardly and doing little to make itself digestible, Black Ops II's story eventually calms down and settles into a genuinely enthralling tale of revenge (and an admiral who has a fascination with the word "cocksucker.") In Menendez, Treyarch has crafted a charismatic nemesis who remains difficult to dislike even in the face of his atrocities, while his plot to sow chaos across the world is gradually revealed with a fantastic sense of pacing and drama. Location variety is also a big part of the campaign, as players go from poverty-stricken countries to opulent cruise ships and urban cities, in a world more colorful and interesting than those of normal brown, dreary military shooters.
While combat is still quite linear, the corridors and arenas have been expanded and come across as infinitely more energetic. Fighting doesn't simply consist of hiding behind crates and popping off enemies in the distance, nor is it a case of running from checkpoint to checkpoint. Enemy soldiers can flood in from any direction, on large fields of battle that will eventually start tossing up robotic CLAW units, armored Quad drones, and mercenaries in cloaking suits. During the course of the game, players may also access optional rooms with unique toys inside, such as their own cloaking suits, or animal traps. Personal loadouts can be created prior to each mission, giving one plenty of stuff to play with -- and that's before vehicular sections, horseback combat, and remote-controlled air missiles come into play.
During each mission, player actions can have an effect on the story, determining when certain characters live or die, and even leading to alternate endings. In one mission, for instance, you're driving with your partner while enemies are in hot pursuit. At a certain point, you speed under a burst gas pipe that's spewing flame -- whether or not you avoid the flame determines what happens to your partner's face, and whether he spends the rest of the game disfigured. That's just one small example, with more dramatic and spoiler-flavored choices available throughout the game.
As well as story levels, players can also take on optional Strikeforce missions revolving around a military group and its attempts to overthrow the Asian continent. Actions taken in Strikeforce can affect the Cold War between America and China, and determine whether or not the two nations with be allies or enemies. Choosing not to do them, or failing them entirely, can have a negative impact on the narrative, but failure does not equal death. There are no checkpoints in Strikeforce -- if you can't meet the objective, the game will continue and the results will be logged.
Strikeforce is a very different beast from story missions, giving players command of a battlefield made up of multiple units, which can be ordered into position from above and directly controlled. Objectives range from attack and defense to assassination or rescue, and players can treat the mission like a real-time strategy game, a straight FPS challenge, or a mixture of both. As well as regular infantry, here players directly control CLAWs, Drones, and other machinery, hopping from unit to unit to fight where the action is fiercest. The action certainly does get fierce, with enemies pouring in aggressively and victory often coming right down the wire as forces close in and threaten to destroy key objectives or repel your units without mercy. It's a hectic experience, but a thrilling one all the same.
Strikeforce is fantastic, and my only complaint here is that there aren't many Strikeforce missions to complete. They certainly contribute to making Black Ops II's campaign one of the lengthiest and deepest in the series (and really, the whole military FPS genre at this stage), but I really would have loved more of it.
One criticism of the campaign overall is the weirdly laggy loadout screen. For some reason, browsing new weapons, skins, and perks for the solo missions are excruciatingly slow at random points, with item selection |
pox, and passed away on the very day that the wedding was supposed to take place. Several weeks later, the Dolgorukovs were already on their way to Siberian exile, following that same bitter road which two years earlier had been travelled by Prince Menshikov and his family. To protect themselves from similar unpleasantness, the nobles from the Supreme Privy Council decided to place upon the throne someone who depended upon them completely.Download a pdf copy of the report here.
THE PROCESS
Excited to receive Southern Methodist University’s prestigious Meadows Prize, Creative Time proposed a yearlong study of the Dallas art community, looking at its strengths and helping to identify potential areas for growth. As part of this process, Creative Time made regular trips to Dallas to meet with artists, curators, collectors, gallery owners, visual and performing arts organization leaders, school administrators, philanthropists, writers, community organizers, and city officials. The goal was to begin an inclusive dialog about where Dallas could focus energies to nurture its artistic life, a conversation that would hopefully continue long after Creative Time’s meetings ended and lead to new initiatives, policies, and opportunities for artists.
Our approach was simple: to listen. We met with individuals and groups throughout the area – from North, South, East, and West Dallas to city neighbors such as Arlington and Fort Worth. Along the way, we took note of impressions, common issues, unique perspectives, and ideas—both big and small. Each meeting contributed to our understanding of the health and vitality of contemporary art-making in the region, and also helped to illustrate how Dallas’ geographic, social, and demographic makeup has affected the arts.
WHAT WE HEARD
From the get-go, a few things became clear. Dallas rightly prides itself as a place of enormous ingenuity and ambition, and it has the resources to achieve its dreams. Dallas thinks big and is open to trying new things. Over and over again, we heard that people wanted Dallas to be a “world class” art city. In many ways, it already is. In fact, Dallas is uniquely well positioned to grow its local artist population and become a leading force in the larger contemporary art world. Dallas has great artists, extraordinary museums and collections, terrific Master of Fine Arts (MFA) programs, curious audiences, generous philanthropists, collectors, and much more. Importantly, affordable live/work spaces are plentiful and there is a strong sense of community. In short, Dallas has a lot going for it.
We also heard that there was great potential for Dallas to grow as a place to nurture, present, and support contemporary art. After building signature homes for the city’s museums and theaters, Dallas citizens can take important steps to advance the city’s commitment to the arts, attract greater international attention, and engage broad and diverse audiences. For example, although there is affordable live/work space, there are very few small and mid-sized alternative spaces supporting the production of new work. While there are amazing institutions organizing exhibitions, there is limited arts coverage in the local press. Although there are many artists living and working in Dallas, the planning of the city fragments them across a large geographical area, undermining their sense of community and potential for collaboration. And although there are terrific institutions for the public to visit, Dallas could benefit from greater opportunities for art to be created within its diverse neighborhoods.
Our report primarily includes observations and proposed solutions from those living and working in the Dallas art community, interspersed with a few thoughts of our own. All conversations Creative Time participated in as part of our research were conducted in confidence, and no specific quotes are included in this document from these confidential discussions. This allowed us to have frank and candid conversations about the community’s issues, goals, and wishes from a range of sources. As a result, this report looks at Dallas’ strengths as an arts center and suggests next steps for individual and collective action to grow opportunities for artistic production.
FOUNDATIONS FOR SUCCESS
We believe there are certain key elements that are necessary for any art community to thrive. These key factors are, in no ranked order:
1. A sustainable artist community and opportunities for live/work space
2. Cultural institutions with international reach, innovative programs, and historically relevant collections
3. Great patrons who support the creation, presentation, and acquisition of art
4. Mid-sized and small art spaces that support the creation of new and experimental work by local and international artists
5. Skilled and visionary arts leaders in institutions big and small
6. Excellent contemporary art galleries with international reach
7. Residency programs for national and international artists to create in Dallas
8. Master of Fine Arts programs to train and attract artists
9. Arts education in Dallas public schools
10. Public art to engage broad audiences and activate public spaces
11. Engaged audiences
12. Experienced art writers featured daily in primary news media
13. Civic championing of the arts through policies and urban planning
RECOMMENDATIONS
These recommendations are intended to generate dialog. In no way could this brief report be comprehensive. Instead, it aims to encourage your feedback and inspire your individual and collective commitments to change and further conversation.
1. A sustainable artist community and opportunities for live/work space
In Dallas, artists support and collaborate with each other, know about each other’s practices, and attend each other’s openings. The abundance of affordable space is something that should attract artists from all over the country to live and work. However, the geography of Dallas is such that most artists work separately and are spread out throughout the city. Many key elements of a successful artist community exist, but in order for the community to be sustainable for generations to come, artists need to take the lead in shaping their framework for living, working, and supporting each other. Artists need to build their own community and exercise agency in coming together with their colleagues. For example:
— Rent studio buildings together. Shamrock Hotel Studios in Dallas, which provides studio and communal space to artists, both long- and short-term, is one model. More buildings can be used in this way to provide communities of artists with new studio opportunities.
— Purchase property collectively. This option provides the long-term stability of owning your own workspace and helps to develop a resident artist community within a particular neighborhood.
— Get actively involved in the communities around your studios. This allows artists to become visible participants in their communities and connect to new audiences.
— Share meals. Everyone loves to eat, so make informal dinners and host parties regularly. Collaborations and new professional opportunities result when artists invite other artists over, even just two or three times a year.
— Take agency. Create your own new programs that address your needs. Work together to take over spaces and create group shows to highlight each other’s work. Propose that institutions host events that interest you. Open your studios, start alternative and informal art spaces, and make public interventions.
2. Cultural institutions with international reach, innovative programs, and historically relevant collections
Dallas excels in the quality of its institutions and the collections they build. Institutions in Dallas are doing great things—from hosting exhibitions and events that attract large audiences, to acquiring some of the most important works of our time. Dallas institutions can work both individually and collectively to achieve goals, and many institutions have had successful collaborations with each other by co-hosting events and cross-promoting activities. All institutions can regularly evaluate and grow their programs and audiences in a variety of ways. For example:
— Promote international reach. Continue to build historically significant collections and develop exhibitions that bring global voices, attention, and audience to the region.
— Involve the local artist community. Include local artists in your exhibition program, hire artists to work at the institution, invite local artists to exhibition previews, and host artist happy hours and professional development workshops.
— Commission new work and support artistic experimentation.
— Collaborate across disciplines. Think about the cultural community as a cohesive whole, not one compartmentalized by practice. Performance spaces can host visual artists and performers can engage in exhibitions at museums or nonprofits. A great example of visual and performing arts cross-over is in the Dallas Museum of Art’s recent exhibition Performance/Art, which was presented in celebration of Dallas’ new AT&T Performing Arts Center.
— Initiate big annual or biannual events. Festivals, biennials, and art fairs bring in huge audiences from in and outside the region. Institutions can combine forces to organize such programs with an international reach, bringing huge visibility to the entire area.
— Spread the word about what you do well. Often the full scope of an institution’s activities isn’t widely known. Tell your audience your success stories and highlight areas of growth to get people excited about your role in the community.
3. Great patrons who support the creation, presentation, and acquisition of art
Institutions all over the world envy Dallas. Its arts patronage and generous collection gifts provide financial support for new buildings, collections, programs, and more. Dallas collectors discuss their purchases with one another, coordinating their gifts to local institutions to build comprehensive civic collections. Patrons in Dallas can also support the production of new art, not just existing work, in the following ways:
— Think big and small. Small and medium-sized organizations need your support, too. These organizations are the stepping-stones for artists between the studio and the museum, and are where careers are launched. Support initiatives that advance the capacity and caliber of these organizations and spread the word about their importance.
— Support new commissions and experimental work.
— Support institutional innovation to ensure that Dallas organizations stay relevant, ambitious, and connected with broader audiences.
— Support opportunities for local artists to advance their work through travel grants, residencies, and prizes.
— Support programs and initiatives that encourage curators and artists from other places to come visit artists and institutions in Dallas, and Dallas curators and artists to travel outside of the region.
— Buy local. If you like an artist’s work don’t just purchase from NY or LA galleries, also purchase from local galleries.
— Mentor new generations of patrons and collectors. Collectors should play a role in the nurturing of new collectors. Guide young and prospective collectors through studio visits, gallery tours, and museum events. Take art trips with friends, acquaintances, and family members.
4. Mid-sized and small art spaces that support the creation of new and experimental work by local and international artists
Dallas has a number of high profile, large institutions known nationally for their programming. However, it seriously lacks mid-sized and small organizations that present new work by emerging and mid-career artists. Mid-sized and small nonprofits are key to a successful art community, as they foster artist careers, artistic dialog, and experimental practices. Curators, artists, arts administrators, and boards should work to promote the growth of these organizations and stress their importance as the foundation of a sustainable art community in the following ways:
— Hire experienced and skilled directors with vision and strong ties to artist communities.
— Hire curators who are artist-centered, smart, knowledgeable about contemporary art practice, skilled communicators, curious, and engaged with audiences.
— Think strategically and innovatively. Make sure missions are clear and relevant. Invest in thoughtful strategic planning and think of new ways to fulfill your institution’s mission. Develop a clear programmatic vision, set ambitious marketing and fundraising goals, and execute a plan.
— Nonprofit boards, stay out of programming. Remember, the job of a board is to protect and defend the mission, provide legal and fiscal oversight and support, and nurture the vision of institutional leadership.
5. Skilled and visionary arts leaders in institutions big and small
For organizations to be great they need great leaders, and Dallas has some of the most accomplished and visionary leaders in the field. That said, Dallas organizations should always strive to have the best people in place to carry out their mission. For example:
— Hire right. Boards should allocate the time and resources to fill leadership positions well, conducting both national and international searches for candidates. They should look for leaders with the vision and drive to take their institutions to new and exciting places—from the directorship to curatorial, education, development, and marketing positions.
— Invest in training. Boards should invest in employee training, research trips, and leadership forums. As an institution grows, so too must the skills of the staff.
— Reward vision and leadership. Boards should reward visionary thinking, responsible strategic planning initiatives, effectively managed staff and resources, and programmatic excellence. Give credit where credit is due.
— Attract and retain the best. To attract and keep talented leaders, Dallas organizations should provide regular growth opportunities, respectful and competitive compensation, and enough autonomy for a visionary leader to have an impact on a particular organization and the larger artistic community.
6. Excellent contemporary art galleries with international reach
For Dallas artists to sell their work locally and production to thrive, they need great galleries. There are already a number of galleries in Dallas, as well as a contemporary gallery association that advocates for commercial growth. However, in this economy, galleries need to be proactive and creative about developing audience and cultivating collectors. Steps they can take to accomplish this include:
— Collaborate. Dallas galleries should continue to coordinate their openings. Work together in planning gallery walks and advertising collectively for shared events. Collector’s tours, opening nights, and receptions get people into your space and the spaces around you.
— Take Dallas artists national and international. Participate in art fairs and keep cultivating relationships with collectors from both in and out of the region.
— Grow audiences. Galleries as well as museums can act as a hub for discourse and should pursue inventive partnerships with universities, alternative spaces, and cultural institutions to encourage collecting in the Dallas community. This can be done through events like talks, book launches, film screenings, and museum member tours.
— Gallerists, give collectors space. Collectors feel pressured every time they walk into a gallery. Foster relationships with collectors over the long term rather than focusing on a one-time sale. When collectors feel comfortable, they will return.
7. Residency programs for national and international artists to create in Dallas
Residency programs are key for any arts community to attract new artists, promote dialog about artistic production, and provide local artists with opportunities to engage with their international peers. There are residencies in Dallas, including CentralTrak and La Reunion. However, residency programs are too few in number in Dallas and are currently not reaching as broad a national and international community as other Texas-based residencies like Art Pace in San Antonio and the Core artist-in-residence program in Houston. The Dallas art community needs to develop, support, and promote residencies. For example:
— Expand reach. Create and support residency programs that foster production by bringing artists to the city with fresh perspectives.
— Set standards. Include regional, national, and international artists. Set policies for selection, and think about what new residents can bring to the Dallas art community.
— Create a residency framework that allows artists to live in and engage with the city. Dallas is not a walking city, so make sure that artists have the resources to get around and meet new people. Isolation in the studio does not allow for discourse with peers. Provide artist housing, effective transportation options, and organized opportunities to interact with other artists, curators, and students in the area. If artists get to know the city and its people, they may stay on to become permanent residents.
— Get audiences into your space. Host dinners, talks, and exhibitions that link residents and visitors. This makes the program a hub of artistic production for the entire community.
8. Master of Fine Arts programs to train and attract artists
Art schools are essential to a thriving artistic community, and the Dallas area has several established MFA programs. MFA programs employ working artists and act as a launching pad for conversation about artistic practice. They connect generations of artists at all professional levels through lectures, programs, and studio visits. MFA programs also bring in artists from other parts of the world to work, lecture, and present, which helps infuse the local scene with new ideas and energy while fostering connections and opportunities. Dallas’ MFA programs could do more to engage the broader community. For example:
— Attract new residents to Dallas. MFA programs can bring new people and perspectives to the city by attracting national and international faculty and students.
— Bring in new voices from around the region and expand your program. Utilize the amazing brainpower in the city to expand course offerings, including new programs in areas like curating, social justice, and art criticism. Invite experts from other fields, including new technology, urban planning, architecture, public policy, and science to create new and robust curricula.
— Balance the traditional with the new. The best MFA programs have a diversity of courses that reflect the larger ecology of how artists are making work. The foundations are essential, but should be taught in concert with programs that explore new modes of production.
— Get off campus. Bring your programs to other neighborhoods and connect with new audiences. Require that students go to shows and openings off campus, visit local artists’ studios, attend lectures at museums, and intern at local institutions.
9. Arts education in Dallas public schools
Despite the fact that K-12 arts education budgets have been slashed nationwide in the past few decades, youth who have access to art education learn more, are better at problem solving, and are less likely to get in trouble. Fortunately, Dallas is home to acclaimed arts education programs. In particular, Big Thought is a national leader in connecting art programs with diverse communities and under-served students across the city. Many of Dallas’ leading institutions also host educational programs for students of all ages. Like all cities in the United States, Dallas would benefit enormously from more quality arts programs in its schools. Educators can grow these programs in the following ways:
— Think big. Advocate for arts education in all of Dallas’ public schools, not just a select few, securing public and private funding to serve every K-12 student in Dallas.
— Get local artists involved. Artists must be working in the schools, in after-school programs, and at community centers.
— Set up partnerships between schools and arts institutions. Expand on existing programs and develop new initiatives that broaden the exposure to and engagement with the arts for all K-12 students in Dallas, including strategies that bring students into the institutions and workers into the schools. This can be accomplished through internships that place students in institutions, curricula shaped around exhibitions, and classroom lectures from local artists and curators.
10. Public art to engage broad audiences and activate public spaces
Art doesn’t happen just in a studio, gallery or museum—it can also connect with people where they live, play and work. By commissioning artists to engage in public space, art and life intersect. When working in public, artists often collaborate with professionals outside the field of art—from engineers and architects to educators and community leaders. Public art, both temporary and permanent, promotes community dialog, provides new opportunities for artists to grow their practice, and acts as an incubator for a variety of programs and events that bring people together. Artists, arts organizations, and the city of Dallas can promote public art in the following ways:
— Think outside the box. Organizations should explore opportunities to present work in unexpected, unlikely, culturally rich, and diverse places. Bring events, temporary projects, and artist commissions outside and think dynamically about new partnerships with civically and privately owned public sites.
— Hold public projects to the same standards as your institutions. Though public art commissions exist in Dallas, they are not executed with the curatorial rigor of the city’s institutions. Start supporting the professional curation of projects in public space.
— Don’t wait for an invitation or open call. Artists should launch their own interventions in public space, working in surprising ways that generate interest around projects and challenge notions of public versus private space.
— Work locally. Collaborate with community groups and members of individual neighborhoods throughout Dallas to broaden the locations of public art commissioning and engage new audiences.
— Rewrite master plans. The city can continually re-evaluate its public art master planning, creating new models for civic commissions. It should look at successful programs nationally to update its selection process and commissioning protocols. Master plans should be living and evolving documents, always striving to be responsive to artistic practice and the professional practices of the time.
— Maintain public art commissions. Public art programs need to take care of the work in their collections. If a piece is commissioned, create a maintenance plan and secure funding to preserve the work. If the work cannot be adequately cared for, develop new policies for de-commissioning and seek new funding possibilities for conservation, such as preservation grants and public/private partnerships.
11. Engaged audiences
Dallas is an event-oriented city, and people come out in large numbers to support single events. There are several ways for Dallas audiences to harness this energy. For example:
— Attend events. The best way to show your support for artists or organizations is to engage in their events. Check out the diversity of arts programming in Dallas.
— Spread the word. If you attended an event or exhibition you feel strongly about, continue that dialog. Blog about it, post it on Facebook, tweet, tell others to attend, and come back with family and friends. Word of mouth is incredibly valuable to institutions of all sizes.
— Advocate on behalf of the arts in Dallas in your schools, local governments, neighborhoods, and places of work.
— Support local institutions by giving to annual appeals, becoming a member, volunteering, or buying tickets to an event.
12. Experienced art writers featured daily in primary news media
Dallas has a large group of talented arts writers living in and around the metro area. As in most major cities across the United States, Dallas publications have cut the amount of art criticism or reduced the number of staff dedicated to cultural writing. More writing creates a greater visibility for the arts as a discipline. It enriches our shared cultural experience and creates platforms for audiences to learn about new work and discuss it in a public forum. Dallas needs to foster critical dialog on the arts through print and online arts writing. For example:
— Media agencies need to create more writing jobs. Hiring more arts writers across genres, including daily, monthly, online, and TV, will bolster audiences’ attention to arts programming and drive dialog about new work. Polls have shown that the overwhelming majority of Americans say they value culture in their communities. You should, too.
— Publications need to investigate and pursue potential grants and funding models that would support staff positions in arts writing, including collaborating with other local, national, and international media organizations to share writers.
— Expand the discourse. Newspapers, universities, and museums should examine ways of partnering—pushing artistic dialog across many platforms in the classroom, museum lecture hall, online, and in print. This can include arts journalists contributing essays to museum publications, university faculty writing regular columns in newspapers and online magazines, curators hosting online chats, and arts writers moderating public programs for arts groups.
— Use your social media tools to spread the word about the arts. Post updates about cultural issues on Facebook, tweet about local exhibitions, and upload Flickr feeds on exciting art in the city.
13. Civic championing of the arts through policies and urban planning
Healthy communities are those in which culture is considered a major factor in the success of a city, and civic leaders play a huge role in defining language about culture in Dallas. Culture needs to be part of a holistic plan for the city, from the creation of social and economic policies to urban planning. Urban planning until recently has been inconsistent and sporadic in Dallas and this is clear in the fragmentation of communities throughout the area, including the cultural community. Urban planning should be part of a larger dialog about linking existing and historic communities to cultural resources throughout the city. City officials and urban planners can spearhead civic initiatives in the arts throughout Dallas in the following ways:
— Make culture a key priority on a civic level. Integrate art into all areas of policy by supporting public art projects, developing civic granting programs for the arts, and initiating new economic policies that make Dallas a good place for artists to live and work.
— Promote new ideas in urban planning. Everyone in Dallas is affected by the shaping of public space, and the cultural community should engage with and champion innovative urban planning. Support young and dynamic architects and civic leaders in developing responsible plans for Dallas and its communities. Urban planners can participate in local MFA programs, sit on panels, serve as lecturers at arts institutions, and collaborate with artists in the area.
— Value and champion cultural production. Cultural workers and the programs they develop contribute to the building and identity of a city. Civic agencies can support artists, arts administrators, and scholars by addressing their work with constituents, the press and governmental colleagues around the country.
NEXT STEPS
Artists, curators, gallerists, collectors, educators, patrons, writers, civic leaders, students, and audiences all play a part in shaping how the art community in Dallas functions. Everyone who engages in the cultural landscape of Dallas needs to actively contribute to its success, and take action to ensure that the arts thrive locally, nationally, and internationally. By launching new partnerships and initiatives, creating new organizations and exhibiting models, supporting artistic experimentation and the commissioning of new work, and setting up more platforms for artistic dialog in our schools, newspapers, and public spaces, Dallas will be an incubator for the creation of new art and ideas.
Creative Time’s goal for these observations is to spark a conversation that will continue long after our Meadows residency has come to a close. These action points and recommendations are open to interpretation, and can be acted on now and throughout the coming years. We advise that SMU and the wonderful institutions of Dallas lead the way in guiding this discussion. These areas identified for growth can be considered a basic blueprint for larger, more in-depth plans, both for the city and individuals who want to take action.
In the spring, SMU, through Creative Time’s advice, will organize a summit on social practice in the visual arts. Like this report, this should not be seen as the final word but instead a part of a larger and continued dialog. The participating artists will provide their unique perspectives on art’s role in the community and their practice outside of the museum. Events like this push the dialog of art locally and internationally. Our hope is that programming of this kind will become a regular presence in the city. This event and the recommendations above are the first of many steps that will have a lasting impact on the arts in Dallas.
Upon the public launch of this report, a conversation about Creative Time’s study and the Dallas art community will be opened up to audiences online with D Magazine’s FrontRow. We encourage you to read the report, consider its recommendations, and post your reactions on the website.
Visit www.frontrow.dmagazine.com/creativetimeRyan Lochte Nailed by USOC... No White House Visit, No World Championships
Ryan Lochte Nailed by USOC: No White House Visit, No World Championships
Breaking News
The USOC dropped the hammer on Ryan Lochte because his full punishment includes a ban from the next swimming National Championships meet... which could put his swim career in jeopardy.
Lochte is also banned from visting the White House with the rest of Team USA Olympians. TMZ Sports broke the story... Lochte will be banned from swim meets for 10 months, but the USOC just released the full list of punishments he's facing.
He has to return the money he was awarded for winning a gold medal at the games... perform 20 hours of community service... and he will have no access to training centers.
The National Championship ban -- which falls outside his 10 month suspension -- is a real shot, since it also means Lochte can't compete in the World Championships... which could hamper the 32-year-old's hopes of competing in the 2020 Olympics. On the other hand, Michael Phelps got the same ban, and ended up kicking ass this year.
The other swimmers involved in the Rio incident -- Gunnar Bentz, Jack Conger and James Feigen -- got 4 month suspensions... and will also be banned from the White House visit.
Bentz will also do 10 hours of community service.A spokesman for Cardinal George Pell at the Vatican in Rome has criticised a motion that passed the Australian Senate calling on him to return to assist police with child sexual abuse investigations as a “political stunt” and “pathetic point-scoring”.
On Wednesday afternoon the Greens senator Rachel Siewert put forward a motion acknowledging the 4,444 alleged victims of child sexual abuse by the Catholic church in Australia between 1980 and 2015 uncovered by the child sexual abuse royal commission.
George Pell'still too unwell' to fly to Australia for child abuse royal commission Read more
Victoria police are investigating allegations against Pell and last year travelled to Rome to interview him. A brief of evidence was handed to Victoria’s Department of Public Prosecutions, which is still considering the file. Pell has consistently denied allegations against him.
The motion “notes the allegations of criminal misconduct against Cardinal George Pell have been forwarded to the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions by the Victoria police” and called on Pell to “return to Australia to assist Victorian police and the Office of Public Prosecutions with their investigations into these matters”. The motion was supported by the Senate.
“Cardinal Pell has done a very good job at avoiding a return to Australia,” Siewert said. “I urge the cardinal to consider the view of the Senate and return to Australia as soon as possible”.
But overnight Pell’s spokesman issued a statement criticising the Greens.
“The Greens have opted for an obvious political stunt while knowing full well Cardinal Pell has consistently co-operated with the royal commission and the Victorian police,” the statement said.
“The suggestion that Cardinal Pell should be accountable for all the wrong doings of church personnel throughout Australia over many decades is not only unjust and completely fanciful but also acts to shield those in the church who should be called to account for their failures.”
The spokesman added that the Greens had an “anti-religion agenda” and that “most fair-minded Australians would see this motion as pathetic point-scoring”.
Siewert dismissed Pell’s comments on Thursday morning.
“I’m not going to lose sleep over the fact Cardinal Pell is upset we had motion to the Senate calling for him to come home,” she told Guardian Australia. “My focus is the thousands victims of abuse, many of whom would like him to come home to assist police in their investigation in person.
Police send sexual abuse brief about George Pell to prosecutors Read more
“It’s important to note that, while the motion was put forward by the Greens, it was supported by the Senate as a whole. Cardinal Pell is the only one who seems to think this is a partisan political issue. It is time for Cardinal Pell to come home”.
Last year, Pell gave evidence before the child sexual abuse royal commission via video link from the Vatican after his lawyers said that he was too unwell to fly to Australia to appear in person.Banks have received 14.97 trillion rupees as of Dec. 30, the deadline for handing in the old bank notes.
Highlights PMs drive against black money hit as almost all banned notes deposited Banks have received Rs 14.97 trillion as of December 30 Centre expected Rs 5 trillion of 15.4 trillion old cash to be undeclared
Indians have deposited nearly all the currency bills outlawed at the end of the deadline last year, according to people with knowledge of the matter, dealing a blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive to unearth unaccounted wealth and fight corruption.Banks have received 14.97 trillion rupees ($220 billion) as of Dec. 30, the deadline for handing in the old bank notes, the people said, asking not to be identified citing rules for speaking with the media. The government had initially estimated about 5 trillion rupees of the 15.4 trillion rupees rendered worthless by the sudden move on Nov. 9 to remain undeclared as it may have escaped the tax net illegally, known locally as black money.A full validation of the bank notes is a set back for Modi who had been relying on this move to burnish his administration's corruption fighting credentials and boost its popularity ahead of key state elections. The anti-corruption measure has dented economic growth and forced millions into lengthy bank queues, although it remains broadly popular."The prime minister had been ill advised and the government was not prepared to handle the situation," said Nilakantha Rath, honorary fellow at the Indian School of Political Economy. "The government expectation has been belied."Private indicators published over the past week signal that the $2 trillion economy will be hurt by the cash clampdown, raising fears that a continued slowdown will strip India of its position as one of the world's fastest-growing major economies. The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers' Index shrank in December, the second straight month of contraction, a report showed.The benchmark stock index ended little changed in Mumbai on Wednesday, while the rupee strengthened 0.4 percent to 68.0450 a dollar the yield on the 10-year sovereign bond fell to 6.36 percent from 6.44 percent.Banks have disbursed about 8 trillion rupees in new currency bills, the people with knowledge of the matter said. The figures of bank notes deposited are provisional and may change, they added. Finance Ministry's spokesman D.S. Malik didn't respond to a call and a message sent to his mobile phone.Uttar Pradesh, a bellwether state of 200 million people that sends more representatives to India's upper house than any other region, will vote in seven phases between Feb. 11 and March 8, chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi said Wednesday. Punjab and three other states will also vote during this period to select a local government. All results will be announced March 11.Although Modi's credibility has been dented, the jury is out on the long-term economic and political fallout. So far his public support remains strong, with some standing in lines waiting to access cash still voicing their approval of his decision to target unaccounted wealth.community
Fanny's site has thousand tales to tell ICONIC Newcastle nightclub Fanny’s will literally rock out on New Year’s Eve, with its owner confirming yesterday he will close the colourful and controversial venue. ‘‘Fanny’s will always hold a special place in Newcastle history but the city we live in now is different and lifestyles change,’’ said owner Russell Richardson, who plans to give the heritage-listed building a facelift before relaunching the venue – probably with a new name – to appeal to a broader market of revellers. ‘‘We have watched as the foreshore has grown and developed outside our door, as Newcastle turned from coal town to vibrant cosmopolitan centre, and we are heavily investing in seeing Newcastle thrive and maintain that level of growth.’’ To celebrate the end of a heady era lasting almost three decades, Fanny’s will go out with three bangs: Sneaky Sound System plays at the venue tonight, the final raucous student night falls on Boxing Day and it will host a ‘‘last dance’’ extravaganza on New Year’s Eve. News of Fanny’s closure – which comes one month after it topped the state government’s 2011-2012 most violent venues list with 28 incidents, and days after its licensee, Greg Mathew, was fined $500 over a licensing breach – will prompt a trip down memory lane for many locals. Australian Hotels Association Newcastle president Rolly de With, who started his career at Fanny’s as a barman in 1984 and bought the business a decade later before selling it to Mr Richardson, said Fanny’s would be missed. ‘‘Times have changed but it’s gone through a number of changes to appeal to different people over the years,’’ said Mr de With, adding that the nightclub had both entertained and employed thousands of locals. ‘‘It does have a soft spot with Novocastrians – a lot of people started their relationships there and quite a few probably ended them there too.’’ Mr Richardson, who owns the King Street Hotel and is on the Newcastle Entertainment Precinct alliance that has helped curb night-time violence in the city, said the renovation would respect the 1860s-era heritage of the building. Council is still assessing the application; however a Statement of Environmental Effects document states the facelift will address ‘‘current deficiencies’’ including a lack of internal smoking areas. ‘‘This causes management problems and issues in the public domain as patrons have to go into the street to smoke and [this] often leads to anti-social and violent behaviour,’’ according to the environmental document. ‘‘This proposal is a major step in redressing these issues and moving the nightclub into a different patron demography and with broader public appeal, without intensifying the operation.’’ The document also raises the ‘‘strong and real potential’’ for a cafe or ‘‘street cart’’ operation at the site on week days only. ‘‘While Fanny’s is a long-term iconic commercial resident of this area, its ongoing presence and response to local residents as an amenity and a successful economic venture is important in keeping the centre of Newcastle active and vibrant,’’ it says. Share your memories news@theherald.com.au
https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/resize/frm/storypad-36mDshx2U2dAuMR3XyjpW6R/322a4052-75cb-4d08-87d0-a9579ac72ed4.jpg/w1200_h678_fcrop.jpgAlmost nine years after Y.V. Reddy demitted office as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor, his autobiography Advice & Dissent: My Life in Public Service was released last week. He is not the first RBI governor to write his memoir. Reddy’s successor D. Subbarao wrote a tell-all book, Who Moved My Interest Rate? in less than three years after leaving the central bank. However, there are differences between the two—both in the narrative as well as the structure. Reddy’s book is an account of his life and his career, from a young IAS officer to India’s chief money man and the chairman of the 14th Finance Commission while Subbarao’s book starts with his appointment as RBI governor and ends with the end of his five-year tenure.
Even before Subbarao, at least three RBI governors have written their memoirs. The first Indian governor at RBI, who later became the finance minister, C.D. Deshmukh, has written The Course of My Life; 13th governor M. Narasimham’s book is called From Reserve Bank to Finance Ministry and Beyond and I.G. Patel, Narasimham’s successor, has written Glimpses of Indian Economic Policy: An Insider’s View. Narasimham’s book is the slimmest of the three autobiographical accounts.
Reddy’s book is different from them too as unlike these three RBI governors, he has spent more time at the central bank—first as a deputy governor and then as a governor and, naturally, his book tells much more about the policy making at RBI than others.
Globally, many central bankers have written autobi |
identify a number of victims in the days immediately after the fire. But progress has slowed since then, with Paulous the only new death announced in the past nine days.
Identification work is "complex"
All future identification work will be "much more complex", McCormack said, making it impossible to predict when, or at what pace, the running total may change.
Sources close to the investigation said some remains were so fragmentary, and so badly burned, that it may be impossible to run DNA tests on them.
McCormack said officers have now been in every single flat, and on the building's roof, as part of the "painstaking, fingertip search."
She said: "We are working very hard to identify everyone who died. But the tragic reality is that, due to the intense heat, there is a tragic reality that some may never be identified."Image caption The ship was renamed the Baymaud and became the Cambridge Bay area's first radio station
A hearing on Thursday will decide the fate of a ship once captained by Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer first to reach the south pole.
The Maud is partially sunk in Cambridge Bay in Nunavut, northern Canada.
A permit to return the ship to Norway was denied in December and Canadian officials have argued the ship is crucial to the nation's heritage.
Campaigner Jan Wanggaard is spearheading a project to overturn the decision.
CalledMaud Returns Home, the project would see the wreck towed back to Norway to become a museum near Oslo.
Amundsen was using the ship to sail through the Northeast Passage between 1918 and 1920 but was unable to launch an expedition to the north pole from there.
The ship was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company and became a warehouse and radio station before sinking in 1930.
Asker Council in Norway bought the ship back for $1 in 1990, securing a permit to repatriate it - but the permit has since expired.
In December, the Canadian Border Services Agency rejected a renewed request to export the wreck.
Mr Wanggaard will appear before the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board in Ottawa on Thursday to overturn that decision.
The board may roundly reject the proposal or impose a delay of up to six months on the decision, during which time it is believed a Canadian buyer may be sought.Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denounced Israel on Wednesday for what he called its "insult" to Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque in connection with Israeli actions at one of Islam's holiest places.
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Israeli-Palestinian strife has risen sharply in recent weeks as Arab states and Palestinians have accused Israeli forces of violations at the mosque.
"The Zionist regime's crimes in Palestine and repeated insult of the sacred sanctuary of the al-Aqsa Mosque... are the foremost problem for Muslims," Khamenei was quoted as saying by his official website.
Khamenei described Israeli behavior towards Palestinians as the "ultimate degree of ruthlessness and evil".
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Photo : AP)
Israel captured the site when it seized East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East War. It left al Aqsa under the religious control of Muslim authorities, but Palestinians fear that control is being eroded by increasing visits by Jewish groups.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said last week that Israel was committed to maintaining the status quo and that Palestinian rioters would not be allowed to prevent Jews visiting the area. Jews refer to the area as Temple Mount, where an ancient Jewish temple once stood, and it is the most sacred place in Judaism.
In another passage in the statement, Khamenei appeared to blame Saudi authorities for a Sept. 11 crane collapse onto Mecca's Grand Mosque that killed 107 haj pilgrims.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Photo: AFP)
"It's true those who passed away in this incident found salvation and rejoined God... but this will not take the responsibility off the shoulders of those who should provide security for pilgrims," Khamenei said.
The incident, which happened in a dust storm days before the annual haj pilgrimage in the city, was embarrassing to the country's ruling Al Saud dynasty because it presents itself as the custodian of Islam's most sacred places.× Close 100% Satisfaction
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To prepare this recipe we need:
head of cabbage (weighing about 5 pounds)
half a pound of carrots
two ounces of salt
For making sauerkraut you can use a sauerkraut crock or large mason jar with a volume greater than two quarts. The mason jar is more convenient to use in the first time because you can see fermentation process and store the sauerkraut in the same jar. Please, sterilize the jar before starting.
Ok, wash the cabbage and remove the outer green leaves. Leaves should be only white or slightly green. Wash the carrots, peel them, then rinse them.
Cut the cabbage into quarters and remove the stalk from every part. Then finely chop half of the cabbage. Grate half of the carrots using a coarse grater. Put everything into a bowl and add salt.
Toss the cabbage mixture with your hands, crumpling the cabbage to release the juice. Gradually transfer the cabbage from the bowl to the jar and crush the cabbage in the jar with a wood rolling-pin like this or with a vegetable pounder to release a large amount of juice.
Note: Be sure to use a wooden or plastic stomper. Do not press too hard or you could break the jar. A few light taps are enough for the juice. If you are afraid of damaging the jar, do everything in a sauerkraut crock, then transfer the mixture to the jar.
When you have finished transferring the mixture to the jar, repeat the previous process for the other half of the cabbage and carrots. In principle, you can do the whole process in one go. However, we have divided the process into two parts for ease of handling and for a more even distribution of the carrots. Do not fill the jar to the neck; leave a space at the top, but make sure that all the cabbage is covered with juice. Put the plastic cover on top of the jar. Do not close the jar with the lid; just put the lid on top. The lid is necessary only as a protection from dust. Put the jar in a warm place; normal room temperature should also be enough.
Over the next few days the cabbage will be in a process of fermentation. The fluid level will increase and bubbles will appear.
Two to three times a day, pierce the cabbage mixture to release the gas bubbles. After piercing, the liquid level will drop down. I recommend a long, lightweight kitchen knife to pierce the cabbage. No need to use heavy blades (such as for meat); they can damage the glass jar. You also can use thin wooden sticks, such as chopsticks or bamboo skewers. Pierce the cabbage in a several places all the way to the bottom of the jar.
The fermentation process usually lasts three to four days. If the liquid no longer climbs up and no longer forms bubbles, then the fermentation process is complete, and the sauerkraut is ready. When this happens, close the jar with a plastic lid and place the jar in the refrigerator for storage. If you used a pot for cabbage fermentation, put the cabbage and brine mixture in a glass jar before putting it in the refrigerator for storage. The sauerkraut can be stored up to one year.
Sauerkraut can be served with meat, used in salads or served separately. For example, if you add to the sauerkraut pieces of boiled potatoes, chopped onions and sunflower oil, you will get a great salad. If you feel a surge of creativity, you can greatly vary the taste of sauerkraut by adding fruits or vegetables such as cranberries, peppers, apples and beets. Create your own unique taste of sauerkraut and please share it with us.
Check out other blog posts to learn more about:Frozen Synapse is the ultimate tactical game: you have full control over your strike team, directing their every movement. At the same time, your opponent is plotting to defeat you. Plan your moves, then hit the "Execute" button: both you and your enemy's turns are executed simultaneously.
Bite-size, hardcore strategy: a touch of X-Com and Laser Squad, with a striking sci-fi aesthetic.
Check out our weekly podcast at Visitingthevillage.com and visit the official Frozen Synapse site at Frozensynapse.com
If you're interested in the game, then please feel free to click on one of the icons above to get updates. The chat icon sends you straight to our IRC chatroom (irc.maxgaming.net #mode7games) via a web-based chat client - please get in touch!
If you join our mailing list, we will use it only to send you important Frozen Synapse and Mode 7 Games updates. These will be very infrequent and guaranteed to be interesting - we hate spam and we will never perpetrate it ourselves! We will never, ever give or sell your precious juicy email to any naughty people - promise.By Philip Shenon, New York Times
When the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey needed to find an outside lawyer to monitor a large corporation willing to settle criminal charges out of court last fall, he turned to former Attorney General John Ashcroft, his onetime boss. With no public notice and no bidding, the company awarded Mr. Ashcroft an 18-month contract worth $28 million to $52 million.
That contract, which Justice Department officials in Washington learned about only several weeks ago, has prompted an internal inquiry into the department’s procedures for selecting outside monitors to police settlements with large companies.
The contract between Mr. Ashcroft’s consulting firm, the Ashcroft Group, and Zimmer Holdings, a medical supply company in Indiana, has also drawn the attention of Congressional investigators.
The New Jersey prosecutor, United States Attorney Christopher J. Christie, directed similar monitoring contracts last year to two other former Justice Department colleagues from the Bush administration, as well as to a former Republican state attorney general in New Jersey.
Officials said that while there had been no accusations of wrongdoing on the part of Mr. Christie or Mr. Ashcroft, aides to Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey were concerned about the appearance of favoritism.
(Original Article)DETROIT - The lights for the construction crew around the new Little Caesars Arena are shining Wednesday, and when the new arena along Woodward is finished, it will likely host two home teams.
Detroit residents knew the Detroit Red Wings were getting a new home, but sources said on top of the ice expect some hardwood, as the Pistons could be coming home.
On the night when the Detroit Pistons opened their 2016-17 season, it sounds like they might move into the Little Caesars Arena. That has people thinking hell must have frozen over.
The deal isn't finalized, but Local 4 has learned there are just a few loose ends to tie up in the major deal. The construction company involved in the project was ordered to make changes to the blueprint, including the additional locker room space and some ground-floor seating to accommodate what could be the Detroit Pistons' trek back down I-75.
"(I'm) blown away," said Chase Lundin, who lives next to the arena. "I've heard rumors, but to hear that it's actually true is amazing."
Lundin has watched in amazement at what's sprouting up on Woodward Avenue. But many were only expecting to catch a hockey game and maybe a concert at the new venue.
Local 4 sources said if the deal goes through, the Pistons will open their next season downtown, making this the last year in Auburn Hills.
"It's a hike out to The Palace right now," Lundin said. "It's easier if you're downtown. You've got the Wings downtown, Tigers, Lions, and if you get the Pistons, it'll be that much better."
If the deal works out, all four professional Detroit teams will be within a four-block radius of each other. It's viewed as a win for downtown, Midtown and the people of Detroit.
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Copyright 2016 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved.New parking restrictions on city streets near the United Center have caused confusion among neighbors living west of Damen on the Near West Side. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Stephanie Lulay
CITY HALL — Thirteen city employees have been disciplined for their role in a scheme that blocked off a street near the United Center so their friends and relatives could park for free during Bulls and Blackhawks games, Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said.
Inspectors working for the city's watchdog staked out 16 games at the United Center from April 2015 to February 2016 — including nine Blackhawks playoff games — and witnessed employees of the Office of Emergency Management allowing 62 cars to park for free on the west side of Wood Street between Madison Street and Warren Boulevard, Ferguson said in his quarterly report released Monday.
As part of his office's investigation, Ferguson said he developed evidence that similar schemes have taken place "elsewhere in the city, including at other major venues, and involved other city departments," according to his report.
The street improperly blocked off by employees of the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications near the United Center for free parking is reserved for members of the news media covering games at the Near West Side stadium, where parking is always at a premium, according to the report.
RELATED: Free Parking By United Center All But Gone As Ban Extends To Western Ave.
Sometimes using plastic cones, employees blocked southbound access to Wood from Warren, directing members of the public to park elsewhere as part of the effort that broke city rules prohibiting "supervisors from directing other city employees to perform services for unauthorized purposes or accepting the benefits of such performance and giving preferential treatment in the course of employment to any person."
None of the employees involved in the scheme were identified by Ferguson.
The emergency management supervisor "primarily responsible" for the scheme retired shortly after being contacted by Ferguson's office about it, according to Ferguson's report. That employee's record notes the resignation came "resigned under inquiry."
Ferguson recommended that another manager in the emergency management department be fired after that employee "denied knowledge of any preferred parking arrangement despite multiple [emergency management] employees stating the employee was aware of the parking arrangement and personally arranged for individuals to park on Wood between Madison and Warren."
"Emails also confirm the management-level employee's knowledge and participation in the parking scheme," according to the report.
However, emergency management officials decided not to fire that employee, instead handing out a 30-day suspension, with department leaders telling Ferguson they were "not fully convinced that [the employee] set out to deliberately mislead" the inspector general's office.
Four other employees whom Ferguson had recommended be terminated for lying to investigators received 14-day suspensions, according to the report.
An employee in the Department of Streets and Sanitation who took advantage of the free parking also received a 14-day suspension, according to the report.
Three emergency management employees were suspended for 10 days, two employees were suspended for seven days and one employee was suspended for five days.
In response to Ferguson's report, emergency management officials vowed to "eradicate the practice of providing preferred parking" and develop ethics training for employees of the Traffic Management Authority while ordering leaders of all city departments the practice was prohibited, according to the report.
Read the full report here:
OIG 2nd Quarter 2017 Report 1 by Heather Cherone on ScribdAttackers who pulled off the massive bank fraud at the Bangladesh Bank in February did so by using custom malware and attack tools that were able to monitor the internal messages that conduct financial transactions, delete certain messages, and then insert others to send money to accounts they control, researchers say.
The tools targeted the SWIFT system, a platform that thousands of banks around the world use to exchange information on transactions, and researchers at BAE Systems in the U.K. said the toolkit is highly customizable and could be used in other attacks. The operation that targeted the Bank of Bangladesh in February involved attempted fraudulent transfers of more than $950 million, and $81 million of that is still gone. SWIFT (Society for World Interbank Financial Telecommunications) is a bank-owned consortium, and it provides client software for banks to use, though not all banks use the Alliance Access software.
Alliance Access is the system the attackers targeted in the Bank of Bangladesh operation, and the BAE researchers said they have identified some of the tools the attackers used.
“The custom malware was submitted by a user in Bangladesh, and contains sophisticated functionality for interacting with local SWIFT Alliance Access software running in the victim infrastructure,” an analysis of the tools by Sergei Shevchenko of BAE Systems says.
“This malware appears to be just part of a wider attack toolkit, and would have been used to cover the attackers’ tracks as they sent forged payment instructions to make the transfers. This would have hampered the detection and response to the attack, giving more time for the subsequent money laundering to take place.”
SWIFT released a statement on Monday, saying that the malware used in this attack doesn’t have an effect on SWIFT’s core network.
“We understand that the malware is designed to hide the traces of fraudulent payments from customers’ local database applications and can only be installed on users’ local systems by attackers that have successfully identified and exploited weaknesses in their local security,” the statement says.
Once on the bank’s network, the malware registers as a service runs in the Alliance Access environment. The tool has some specific jobs, and Shevchenko said he believes it was written specifically for the attack on the Bank of Bangladesh.
“The main purpose is to inspect SWIFT messages for strings defined in the configuration file. From these messages, the malware can extract fields such as transfer references and SWIFT addresses to interact with the system database. These details are then used to delete specific transactions, or update transaction amounts appearing in balance reporting messages based on the amount of Convertible Currency available in specific accounts,” Shevchenko said.
The malware looks for processes with with a specific DLL loaded in it and then will replace two specific bytes with other instructions, which essentially trick the process into thinking an important check has been done. The targeted DLL is part of the SWIFT Alliance Access software and is responsible for performing a number of tasks related to the Oracle database associated with the SWIFT client. The change gives the attacker the authority to execute database transactions.
With that authority, the malware has the ability to monitor and manipulate balances for various accounts and also can intercept and replace confirmation messages that are generated for transactions. The attackers also went to a lot of trouble to cover their tracks and Shevchenko said the tools they used could be used in other attacks on banks that use the SWIFT Alliance Access client.
“This malware was written bespoke for attacking a specific victim infrastructure, but the general tools, techniques and procedures used in the attack may allow the gang to strike again. All financial institutions who run SWIFT Alliance Access and similar systems should be seriously reviewing their security now to make sure they too are not exposed,” he said.Image copyright NASA Image caption A depiction of the global sources of CO2 which are dominated by the US, China and Europe
Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have surged past an important threshold and may not dip below it for "many generations".
The 400 parts per million benchmark was broken globally for the first time in recorded history in 2015.
But according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), 2016 will likely be the first full year to exceed the mark.
The high levels can be partly attributed to a strong El Niño event.
Gas spike
While human emissions of CO2 remained fairly static between 2014 and 2015, the onset of a strong El Niño weather phenomenon caused a spike in levels of the gas in the atmosphere.
That's because the drought conditions in tropical regions produced by El Niño meant that vegetation was less able to absorb CO2. There were also extra emissions from fires, sparked by the drier conditions.
In its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, the World Meteorological Organisation says the conditions helped push the growth in the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere above the average for the last ten years.
At the atmospheric monitoring station in Mauna Loa, Hawaii, levels of CO2 broke through 400 parts per million (ppm), meaning 400 molecules of CO2 for every one million molecules in the atmosphere.
The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago, say experts.
Prior to 1800 atmospheric levels were around 280ppm, according to the US National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
The WMO says that the rise through the 400ppm barrier has persisted and it's likely that 2016 will be the first full year when the measurements show CO2 above that benchmark, and "hence for many generations".
While the El Niño factor has now disappeared, the human impact on climate change has not, the WMO argues.
"The year 2015 ushered in a new era of optimism and climate action with the Paris climate change agreement," said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
Image copyright NOAA Image caption The air sampling station at Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii which recorded CO2 levels going through 400ppm
"But it will also make history as marking a new era of climate change reality with record high greenhouse gas concentrations."
The report also details the growth in other greenhouse gases, including methane and nitrous oxide.
In 2015, levels of methane were 2.5 times greater than in the pre-industrial era, while nitrous oxide was 1.2 times above the historic measure.
The study also points to the impact of these increased concentrations of warming gases on the world's climate.
Between 1990 and 2015 there was a 37% increase in radiative forcing or warming effect, caused by a build up of these substances, from industrial, agricultural and domestic activities.
While welcoming new initiatives like the global agreement to phase out HFC gases agreed recently in Rwanda, the WMO argues that nations must retain their focus on cutting CO2.
"Without tackling CO2 emissions, we cannot tackle climate change and keep temperature increases to below 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial era," said Petteri Taalas.
"It is therefore of the utmost importance that the Paris Agreement does indeed enter into force well ahead of schedule on 4 November and that we fast-track its implementation."
Around 200 nations who signed the Paris climate agreement will meet in Morocco in November to decide on the next steps forward.
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathBBC and on Facebook.I grew up playing Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2. Those games were my childhood. I could never stop playing those games. I'm a huge fan of Star Wars and when I heard about this game I was excited. I don't play video games as much anymore and I wasn't going to get the game. Well plans changed. I played the Star Wars Beta and it blew me away. Not only those this game feel like Star Wars Battlefront but it took it to a whole new level. It did exactly what I thought it was going to do. I'm going to list out the 10 reasons you should buy this game.
1. It's extremely beautiful. No really. The graphics are just fantastic. They put so much work into these maps it's incredible. They actually went to the movie sets and recreated then into the game. When you walk on Hoth you can see your footstep. On Endor the tress will collapse around you. Everything just looks amazing.
2. No campaign but it's really the multiplayer we are after anyways.
There's complaints there is no campaign. There really wasn't one either in both battle fronts. It was just instant action with objectives. They have survival now. Wanna surround 15 wave with your friend? You can do that. I think it's a good trade off. Honestly to me I love survival game modes. Let's get back to the multiplayer. Sure there's no campaign but that means they put 100% into the Multiplayer. The game runs smooth and everything is balanced out. I just feel like I'm in the Star Wars Universe playing with my friends.
3. 40+ on Walker Assualt.
I don't know about you but I love a game where it feels like a lot is going on. Literally it feels like a massive war is going on and it's epic. There's explosions everywhere. Dogfights in the skies, Luke an Darth Vader fighting somewhere, AT-AT unleashing hell, orbital strikes going off and just storm troopers and rebels fighting it out.
4. It's a lot of fun.
There's a variety of game modes. You'll never get bored! There's a mode called Heroes vs. Villians. WOW! This is what I'm talking about. You have the choice of picking Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke on the Hero side. On the Villians you can pick between Darth Vader, The Emperor and Boba Frett. They all have their unique playing styles and it's awesome! I'm playing the game and it amazes me how much fun this game is. My favorite game mode is cargo. It's capture the flag and it's just so addicting.
5. The game works well with friends.
It's not call of duty with a lobby system but it lets you pick a partner that you can spawn in with. Also you can creat a party and it will let you know when they join a game and automatically show a notification that will allow you to join their game. I'm having so much fun with my friends!
6. There's one game mode where it's just air combat. It's like space battles but with out the huge ship. I love it so much! What's more awesome then flying an X-Wing or Tie Fighter and blowing people out of the sky. Not only that you can be the Milleniuam Falcon and The Slave 1.
7. The music is beautiful. I opened the game and the beginning gave me goosebumps. It was warming to my love for the game. I love hearing the music as I'm playing the game. It just transports me into the world of Star Wars. I really feel like I'm in the game.
8. I love the card system in the game. It makes the game fair but adds variety. Te customization in the game is good but nothing special. It's really cool when you get to a higher leek as unlock the aliens or the black storm trooper. But customization to me is not a big part. The cards are amazing and the there's a variety of guns. I really love the cards. :D
9. There is 4 maps but they are brining out more maps with the season pass. Now I know people will say that they only sold half the game. I'm going to disagree. What they did was great business. Don't forget this is how people get paid. If you want it different you can go make your own game. It's also not easy. They have a "premium" version (DLCs) for people who want the other maps. This is so they can make more money. Honestly there's nothing wrong with that. It's just good business. Remember you don't have to buy it. I didn't an I was left with the game with all it's features and I love it. The game is worth the $60.
10. It's Star Wars Battlefront (EA)
It's not Star Wars Battlefront 3. It's a totally different game. Please just take a second to realize that.
This game is not perfect nothing is. It's a beautiful multiplayer Star Wars game. That's what is was made for and it's beautiful. They put so much work and effort. I can only imagine how long it took them. If they made the clone wars this game would take another year. Also it looks like they are moving into the new Star Wars movies for the game. I have a feeling the new maps will be from the movie. I would have no expectations from this game when buying it. If you love shooter games, Star Wars and playing with friends I would highly recommend this game.
Have fun!!! I'll see you online in a glaxay far far away! 😁
May the force be with you.Popular DJ and promoter Owen Money dies from cancer
Owen Muhammad AKA Owen Money Archant
A popular DJ and promoter who touched the hearts of thousands of people with his candid posts about his cancer battle on social networking website Facebook has died.
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Owen with his mother Faye at the event held to raise funds to send him to Hondarus Owen with his mother Faye at the event held to raise funds to send him to Hondarus
Owen Muhammad, who was better known as Owen Money, spoke openly about his illness after he was diagnosed with lung cancer in July last year.
The father-of-three, who was also a talented photographer, uploaded video diaries, pictures or written statuses detailing his condition throughout his battle.
He was given a life expectancy of just six months if he had chemotherapy but he bravely refused the treatment and decided to go down the holistic route by adopting a vegan and sugar-free diet.
Owen Money takes a selfie with Dr Sebi in Hondarus (Pic: Facebook) Owen Money takes a selfie with Dr Sebi in Hondarus (Pic: Facebook)
He also stopped drinking alcohol.
Owen refused to give up hope and after announcing his desire to visit world-famous holistic physician Dr Sebi in Hondarus a fundraising event was held by members of the house music community which made the £10,000 to pay for the trip.
During his stay he uploaded daily statues with him either posting a video or a photo of himself walking to the spring to fill his fluorescent pink kettle with water.
Owen with his partner Mary Desmond Owen with his partner Mary Desmond
On his return he continued with his honest posts and went on to defy medics by outliving his original prognosis.
He also travelled to Brussels to DJ at an event just weeks before he died.
Two weeks before he passed away on Good Friday he was admitted to hospital with breathlessness where tests revealed the cancer had spread to his other lung, liver, lymph node and brain.
The famous 'pink kettle' Owen used in Hondarus The famous 'pink kettle' Owen used in Hondarus
He was discharged and died nine days later at the age of 47 at his home in Edgware.
Mary Desmond, Owen’s partner, said: “Owen was loved by everyone that knew him. “He was always smiling and made everyone feel so comfortable around him. I feel privileged to have been a part of Owen’s life.
“Loving him was so easy and although he is no longer with us the love that we all have for him will never die.”
Owen’s funeral will take place at West Norwood Crematorium, Norwood Road, London, SE27 9JU, on April 12 at 11.45am.Presidential debate will be at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York
Photos show that Clinton's and Trump's podiums are of different sizes
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will have podiums of different sizes during their first presidential debate on Monday as new opinion polls put the bitter rivals neck and neck.
The two nominees will debate for 90 minutes straight on Monday starting at 9pm ET, with no commercial break. The event will take place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, with NBC News' Lester Holt as a moderator.
Reports previously claimed that Clinton's campaign had requested a custom-made podium to make up for the difference in height between the two nominees.
Clinton is 5'4" and Trump is 6'2". Her campaign first asked that she debate on a step-stool so as not to appear smaller than Trump, according to The Drudge Report.
Scroll down for video
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will have podiums of different sizes during Monday's debate. One of them is bigger than the other, as shown in this picture shared by reporter Rita Cosby
It is unclear which podium will go to which candidate (one of them is pictured). Cosby added on Twitter that she had been told that plywood had been added
Two students stood in as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton during the last preparations for the presidential debate on Sunday in Hempstead, New York
Clinton is 5'4" and Trump is 6'2". Her campaign reportedly first asked that she debate on a step-stool so as not to appear smaller than Trump
But the presidential debate commission rejected the request and instead allowed Clinton to have a custom-made podium, the website reported.
Photos shared by WABC reporter Rita Cosby on Sunday appear to show that the two podiums are of different sizes.
It is unclear which podium is destined to which candidate. But it would make sense for Clinton to use the smaller podium, which seems more adequate for a shorter person.
The debate is seen as crucial in deciding the outcome of November's crucial election.
Tens of millions of people are expected to tune into the 90-minute showdown when it kicks off at 9pm.
The contrast between the two candidates on the stage will be fascinating, with Clinton, who has more than 40 years of public service behind her as well as a stint as secretary of state, to the billionaire reality TV star.
The debate is being held one day after a Washington Post-ABC News poll revealed that Clinton's slim advantage over Trump from last month has evaporated.
She is tied with Trump at 41 percent among registered voters, with Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson at seven percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at two per cent, according to the poll.
In a two-way match-up, Trump and Clinton were even at 46 per cent of registered voters. The survey showed a statistical tie among likely voters as well.
Jeb Bush also seemed preoccupied with his height in September last year, when he was spotted standing on his tip toes while posing with his fellow Republican candidates
The debate will begin at 9 pm ET on Monday and will last for 90 minutes straight. Pictured, two Hofstra University students walk on stage Sunday
Monday's debate will be divided into six time segments of approximately 15 minutes, which will focus on major topics selected by Holt. Pictured are Sunday's preparations
Many analysts say debates usually don't win candidates the election but can well lose it for them. A single sentence or the slightest slip can do serious damage.
Clinton's running mate Tim Kaine said: |
an article in the same publication – a Communist Party mouthpiece – said that citizens’ public expression of “patriotism” was a “natural reaction,” but also cautioned against law-breaking. “Wisdom is needed in the expression of patriotism,” it said.
Global Times, also Communist Party-affiliated, on Monday rejected criticism that Beijing was allowing protests to turn ugly.
“There is no reason to suspect that the government is turning a blind eye to the violence seen over the weekend,” it said. “This is simply the view of those who make a habit of criticizing the government.”
The protests are expected to pick up on Tuesday, which is marked in China in memory of Japan’s occupation of parts of its territory last century. (The ‘Manchurian incident” on September 18, 1931 was an orchestrated act of sabotage, viewed as a pretext for Imperial Japan’s invasion of the region, which was occupied until the end of World War II.)
Panetta arrived in Tokyo on Sunday, and on Monday began talks with his Japanese counterpart, Satoshi Morimoto.HAYWARD — Anthony Pirone, a former BART police officer fired in 2010 for escalating a confrontation with passengers that led to the killing of Oscar Grant III, has been charged with unemployment fraud.
Pirone, now member of the U.S. Army, is accused of collecting unemployment checks from the state for about seven months even though he had a job, court records show.
Pirone is accused of cashing unemployment checks from May 2011 through December 2011 and lying to state officials about not having a job even though he had enlisted in the Army and began working full time at Fort Bragg.
Pirone began collecting unemployment in May 2010 after BART fired him for his actions on the Fruitvale station platform in the moments before Grant was killed by former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle, according to court records.
In May 2011, Pirone enlisted in the Army and began working full time but never notified the state unemployment office, court records state. In fact, Pirone is accused of lying at least 10 times in sworn affidavits that he was unemployed, the court records state.
The amount of money Pirone is accused of illegally taking from the state is unknown but when he was fired by BART in 2010, Pirone was making more than $100,000 a year in salary and more than $3,000 a year in overtime.
Pirone’s attorney, Bill Rapoport, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Pirone was charged on April 15. He was supposed to appear in court this week but is serving in Afghanistan and could not attend court. His case was postponed until next year, when he is scheduled to return to the United States.
Teresa Drenick, spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, declined to comment Thursday.
Pirone’s actions at the Fruitvale station the night Grant was killed were criticized by many, as he was blamed for escalating tensions between New Year’s Eve revelers returning home from San Francisco and BART police officers.
Pirone, a former member of the Marine Corps military police and a federal officer for Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, was the first BART officer to respond to a call at the station. The call was for a fight on a train and Pirone arrived at Fruitvale with his partner, Marysol Domenici.
Video recordings from the incident showed Pirone acting aggressively as soon as he arrived on the platform. He was recorded grabbing one of Grant’s friends by the hair and later, punching Grant. Pirone also was recorded yelling racial epithets at Grant.
Witnesses who testified in the murder trial against Mehserle also described Pirone as being one of the most aggressive officers on the platform during the early hours of New Year’s Day in 2009.Season 2: Episode 3
Previously, on Kev & Get It: Our contestants settled into the house and got to know each other a little better by holding a couple parties. Patricio and Enca immediately annoyed everyone else with their sickly sweet romance, while Matthieu and Harrison began to kindle their own. Gabriel slept with both China and Charlee, though it seems like he should watch his back: Charlee entered the house in game mode. Louise and Kyungri had a fight about the latter’s obsession with money, which soon led Kyungri to be rather unpopular in the house. Mitchell was shy, but soon opened up to Marjan, who has some tricks up her sleeve. Despite his bitchy exterior, Todd won the first challenge with his charisma. Matthieu had to deal with some drama from home, but was later surprised with a first call-out. In the end, Patricio, Enca, and Kyungri were in the bottom 3. Enca was saved by the judges, and even though Kyungri was unpopular in the house, she hit it big with the viewers and it was Patricio, with his desperate womanizing ways, who went home. Thirteen contestants are left. Who will leave tonight? Find out tonight, on Kev & Get It.~
Harrison: Hey, I made it past the first elimination! I was so sure that I’d be out first; I remember that Rosaline was nominated the first week and barely scraped through because that Maciej guy had cheated on his boyfriend and was super unpopular with the viewers… I’m glad that I managed to avoid the bottom and all that drama! Hopefully this week I’ll make it to the top.
Harrison: Hey Matt, congratulations on your first call-out! You deserve it!
Matthieu: Aww, thanks buddy! Come here, show me some love!
Harrison: *melting* Of course!
After the elimination, many of the housemates feel relieved and congratulate Kyungri and Enca, the survivors of the bottom three. Charlee, however, isn’t feeling generous nor relieved, and lets Enca have a piece of her mind.
Charlee: Listen, you’re safe this week, but trust me, if you hadn’t been saved by the judges, you would have been leaving instead of that boyfriend of yours. This competition is not for you and you know it!
Enca: I don’t understand why you’re so pressed! I won my place fair and square. In fact, you should be honored that I came here in the first place, my star power was what brought attention to this cast!
Charlee: Don’t try me, girl! You may think you have the upper hand but I’m warning you, your time here is numbered.
Charlee: Do I like being that aggressive for nothing? Hell no! With me it’s always strategic. I’m not going to make a fool out of myself unless I have something to gain out of it. Enca is my biggest competition here, so I’m going to try to intimidate her until she packs her bags and gets out of here.
Enca: Am I mad? No, a goddess doesn’t get mad. I understand why Charlee is jealous, but I can’t help it that I’m already famous and people normally gravitate to me. It is what it is. Charlee needs to see that that anger is just going to roll off me like drops off my peach. I’m not going to be keeping that Hate On My Body.
Meanwhile, Jessie expresses her admiration to Kyungri, whom she believes was the right choice to continue on in the competition.
Jessie: You know, Patricio was the right choice to go. You have so much more to give, I know that you’re just hiding it inside! Let yourself open up to others, unnie, I know that you’re much more than what you present to others.
Kyungri: I’m not so sure about that. I came here for one thing only, and that thing was almost taken away from me this week. I need to focus more on what I need. If I visualize it, I will have it.
Jessie: All right, well, you know that you have a friend if you want to ever let that guard of yours down. Don’t be afraid to be yourself around me!
Jessie: Beneath that icy exterior, I know Kyungri is hiding a gooey chocolate heart. I will make sure it comes to the light!
And outside the house, another relationship is quickly heating up.
China: I know about your life, you know. I’m a lawyer. I make sure I always know the details in every situation I’m in, it’s second nature to me.
Gabriel: So you know why I can’t offer you everything?
China: Please. I’ve won huge cases and made millions in settlements. I’m the youngest partner at my firm, I have all the success I’ve wanted. Love isn’t in my plans quite yet. Let’s just enjoy this while it lasts, OK? We don’t have to make it more complicated.
Gabriel: All right, let’s just live this out and see where we end up.
China: I know where we’re ending up tonight…
***
While looking at the colorful fish in the aquarium, Marjan thinks that each fish is each other’s soulmate, how they float around in the water just waiting to receive that food that falls from the heaven, from the stars… the stars! She suddenly remembers what she had seen a few nights before, and she quickly calls Aurora before she forgets.
Marjan: Hi, babe? It’s me! Yeah, the house is just as lovely as it was on the TV. Yeah, even bigger! Yeah, the fishes are lovely, all colorful and pretty. I was cooking the other day and looking at your new paparazzi shots in ‘Sup Magazine, you look gorgeous! Yeah, I saw your new boyfriend, is he all right? How is he? … Oh? You did what now? That’s actually really cute! How far? … How thick? … Oh, be careful with those things! If they get stuck, they never come out. I spent hours trying to get them out of my hair! … Why were they in my hair, you mean? Oh, because I was trying to curl the ends and they were the only round – what’s that now? Of course I’m playing nice! I’m the nicest person here, last week I was almost voted the most popular! … Oh, you mean that if you get votes, you’re not popular? … Anyway, there’s a cute guy here but he’s soooooooo not my type. I don’t know why he’s cute! He’s like a puppy, and you know how much I looooove puppies. Do you think I can take him home? … OK, yeah, I know that you’re busy! It’s no problem, honey, you know I’ll come home with the crown. I’ll be the biggest star! … Wait, STARS, Aurora, babe, I have something to tell you! Remember that guy from your season, the one who cheated on his boyfriend? … No, not that one. No, not that one either. No, the weird one. The one whose twin brother was also on there. Yes, YES. That one. Well, the twin brother is here! And from the looks of it, he’s trying to do the same thing to his boyfriend because he was all cozy with some other guy the other night, trying to count the stars in the sky which is just ridiculous, there’s like dozens out there…. OK, yeah, I’ll let you go! Just wanted to catch up. Yes, I love you too! China sends her love! Bye babe~
Uh oh. It seems that Marjan isn’t as innocent as she seems. Matthieu better be careful as he moves forward. And speaking of Matthieu, it seems that other people have their eyes set on him…
Charlee: So can you do it? You won the charm challenge last week, I’m sure you can easily sneak in there and see what’s up. Remember, the more dirt we know, the better off we are in this competition!
Todd: Honey, you underestimate just how convincing I can be. One swing of this perfectly coiffed head and maybe a wink or two and those boys will be eating out of my hand. Just you wait! They are putty in my hands.
But it seems like it is actually Todd who is putty in Charlee’s hands…
Todd: Aaah, I see. So you’re still with your ex? But aren’t you into Harrison now? What’s the deal with that?
Matthieu: Sometimes we walk down a path without knowing where it leads…
Todd: So, is there anyone you like here? Come on, girl, I knew you were on my team since Day 1. We gotta stick together! Now spill, let’s hear all the juicy gossip!
Harrison: Um, well… there’s this…… guy……. and, yeah, I’ve never been with someone so…. I don’t know how these things work…. but he’s dreamy…
Todd: Oh honey, your secret is safe with me! Don’t worry about a thing.
Todd: I know it looks bad, but hey, like Charlee said, it’s eat or be eaten. I have to make sure to know what’s going on so I can use it at the right moment. This competition is too important to just coast along, I have to take matters into my own hands~
Charlee: Now that Todd is doing my bidding… I have to do my own sabotage. I have my eye on someone, and I know exactly how to get to her. Time to put my next plan in action.
Charlee: Hey Jessie, you’re looking beautiful tonight! How about we go for a drink, I’d love to spend some time in the company of a beautiful lady like you!
Jessie: What?
Charlee: Oh come on, it won’t hurt! Just one drink, yeah?
***
The next morning, we find Jessie regretting her night. She doesn’t remember exactly how she ended up doing what she did… she gets out of bed and immediately goes out to let her anger and frustration out in a constructive way. What kind of awful person was she? How could she have let herself be swayed by the words of a girl she knew wasn’t good? Jessie feels a pit in the bottom of her stomach all morning.
Someone doesn’t feel that way, though. Charlee is bright and chipper the next morning, thinking about how she is slowly getting into the minds of her competition. Enca, down. Jessie, down. Matthieu, Harrison, down. Life is good.
Gabriel: Something on your mind, Charlee?
Charlee: If you only knew what was going on in my mind right now…
Gabriel: What?
Charlee: Oh nothing, I’ve just had a good night, nothing else. Don’t worry your pretty head.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the house, Mitchell and Marjan are getting to know each other even better…
Mitchell: My brothers used to tell me that the moon was made of cheese and it was always my dream to eat it up one day…
Marjan: Oh my God, me too! I even tried to jump up to catch it one day but I failed miserably… what a coincidence!
Marjan: Why am I attracted to this man? Why is his tattoo a turtle? Can he make it swim? Can I feed it? …
Harrison and Enca have begun to bond over love for music. Enca tells Harrison that he’s always welcome to her home to share music and spend some time together. A new friendship is born.
Harrison: You know, it’s hard for me to be outgoing in situations like these. I don’t know what I can do to be less shy!
Enca: What I do before I show my peach to my adoring fans is this: I close my eyes, count to seven, spritz myself with my lemon-scented energizing perfume, and then I tell myself, “Enca, you got this. These people are here for you. Believe in yourself.” And now, I’m telling this to you. Believe in yourself!
After this inspirational conversation, they take a quick selfie to commemorate their budding friendship.
At the same time, an unlikely group has gathered not far from where Enca and Harrison are having a heart to heart.
Charlee: And that’s why we need to be in an alliance! Gabriel, you have the brawn; Louise, you’re the baby of the house; Todd, you know everything about everyone; and I am the mastermind. It’s perfect!
Todd: I’m in!
Louise: Yeah, sure, why not?
Gabriel: Not sure I really need this, but all right…
Louise: I don’t trust her for a second… Sure, she seems nice and hasn’t been mean to me, but there’s something about her… I’ll be watching out for her.
Gabriel: I don’t trust her either, are you kidding? But it’s better to keep your enemies closer, eh? We’ll watch out for each other, don’t worry about it.
Louise: That sounds good to me!
***
Before the challenge is announced, some of the housemates settle down to focus their energies.
Kyungri: Are you ready to fight for the money?
Enzo: I am ready! This is going to be my challenge, I can feel it.
Kyungri: Let the money flow through your body! Say it with me: I am hungry!
Enzo: Is this lady for real? It seems to me that she’s a few pennies short of a dollar, I hope that she does end up winning that money because otherwise… she’s bound to short-circuit like one of those fem-bots in the Austin Powers movies! Does she even have a pulse?
Kyungri: I can feel it in my bones. The money is coming to me. The riches are flowing through my veins. Praise Shaman Unnie!
Matthieu hasn’t had much time to relax in the house, but he takes advantage of the down time before the challenge to find a secluded spot to meditate.
He tries to clear his mind, but it seems like there’s too much to think about. And, as if summoned by a spell, the person he’s thinking of turns up almost immediately. Harrison, unaware of Matthieu’s inner turmoil, cozies up to him to show him some pictures of his family at an outing, but he can’t seem to keep his eyes off Matt’s physique…
Poor Harrison feels like he must get distracted, and gets ready to go, but Matthieu stops him and asks him if he wouldn’t also like to have a picture with him to add to his collection on his phone… Harrison promptly melts again.
Harrison: I don’t know… it just feels so right, he’s so nice to me. I don’t know if I’ll be able to tell him soon, I can’t bring myself to do it and then hear that he only sees me as a friend! That would be the worst… I’ll just be patient and wait for the right time to come.
Matthieu: What a lovely evening I spent with Harry, I love his presence here in the house. It’s very calming. He exudes warmth! I love basking in it.
***
Soon, the bell signaling this week’s challenge rings, and all of the housemates gather to see what they’ll have to go through this week.
Ajmkv: Hello housemates! I hope you’re ready for a long night, because for tonight’s challenge you’ll be spending a night on the beach. That’s right, no beds, no blankets, nothing but your swimsuit to cover you up! You’ll become the moonlit beach babes of K&GI! However, your task this week isn’t just surviving a night under the stars, oh no. You also have a photoshoot first thing in the morning, so make sure that you’re fresh and ready to go. No matter how juicy the drama, or how exhausting the night is, you have to show your best face (and body!) because you are going to be shooting an international campaign for Coy/Coy Swimwear!
China: Daaaaamn, Coy/Coy swimwear? That’s one of the most important swimwear brands in all of SimNation! I have to win this challenge, this could be my foot in the door for my long-overdue model career!
Ajmkv: You all will be choosing swimsuits you like from the Coy/Coy collection and modeling them in both a group shot and a solo shot. It’s up to you as a group to choose a leader, and this leader will not only receive the center position, but will also assign all the other positions in the photo. Choose wisely, because a good leader can make you all look good, but a bad one can certainly put a damper on anyone’s smile. Your photos will be judged by the judges and by the viewers, and the winner of this challenge will win a solo campaign with Coy/Coy alongside the group campaign. Oh, and… your nominations this week are just one part of the eliminations, as the judges’ and viewers’ votes will figure into calculating who is nominated this week. So make sure you do well, because a bad challenge score can mean that you’re nominated for elimination! Good luck to all of you, and have a good night on the beach!
The housemates set out to nominate someone to lead the group in the challenge as they warm up next to the bonfire on the beach. It is cold, and the swimsuits aren’t helping, so some people decide to huddle up for warmth.
Matthieu: No use standing alone if we’re gonna be cold, eh? Do you mind if I come close for a bit?
Harrison: Oh! Um… definitely not! I’d love to be next to you.
Matthieu: That’s lovely, thank you. We’ll keep each other warm.
Harrison: *blushing intensely* I’m sure I’ll have no problem keeping warm next to you…
Meanwhile, Marjan is not amused by Charlee’s giggles about the fact that they wore the same swimsuit. Marjan knows that she wears it better.
As the night advances, people don’t know who to choose to lead the team in the morning. The person that becomes the group leader will receive a lot of power, so the housemates don’t want to give too much power to someone who doesn’t deserve it. Kyungri decides to take matters into her own hands.
Kyungri: We need to choose Enzo! Why are you all dilly-dallying? He’s the only one with experience! Just pick him and we’ll all be better off, come on now! Jesus, Mary, and Shaman Unnie!
Enzo: I mean, of course they should choose me, but I’m not going to be the one to say it. I’ll let them choose whoever they want… but I’d definitely be the right choice, yes. Thanks, Kyungri.
Mitchell: *Is sleeping because he got absolutely no sleep that night and he needs at least 8 hours of sleep a night in order to function properly the next day.* … *But he agrees with Kyungri.*
Charlee: Did I want that boring piece of Italian leather to be the leader? Hell no! But hey, every dog has his day, right?
***
Enzo gets chosen to lead the group given his extensive modeling experience. He assigns the following positions, much to the dismay of some and delight of others: China gets the other center position, Gabriel and Mitchell get the ends, Enca, Todd, Harrison, Louise, and Kyungri are more toward the back, and Jessie, Charlee, Matthieu, and Marjan get more visible positions. Enzo bases his decision on how comfortable people are with posing (though he puts Enca in the back because he knows she could probably outshine him and everyone else if put anywhere near the center). He also puts Harrison and Matthieu together because they’ve been standing together all night.
Enzo encourages Harrison to come out of his shell a little and push to create and interesting and attractive pose to sell the swimsuit. He also tells the girls to look as coy as possible to fit the brand, and while some girls succeed, China surprisingly has problems letting go and not smiling. Reminding her that she’s not at court, Enzo gets frustrated and decides to move along to Matthieu, who is also struggling to emote. It seems like he’s self-conscious in front of the camera. Everyone else does more-or-less all right, and Enzo declares that they are ready for the final shot.
Enzo: I did a good job! I pushed everyone to give me something worthy of representing the brand, and they all did all right. I’m sure that I’ve got this challenge in the bag!
Harrison: I don’t know how I’m supposed to be sexy, that’s not something I do! What was Enzo thinking, telling me to pose like that? Ugh…
Mitchell: *Is still sleeping…*
China: OK, I may not have done as well, but I really doubt that I’ll be in the bottom. All of the people in this house really love me, so I know I’ll be safe no matter what.
***
After the photoshoot, the contestants all return to the house to start the nomination process.
NOMINATIONS
This week, the contestants are nominating three of their housemates for elimination. However, their votes aren’t the only thing determining the nominees this week; they will be compounded with the judges’ and viewers’ scores to determine who is up for elimination. With that, let the second nomination ceremony… begin!
Kyungri: I nominate Todd, Marjan, and Gabriel. They’re all coming between me and my money. Todd is greedy, Marjan is dim but likes shiny things, and Gabriel is aggressive and territorial. None of them are safe to have around. We must get rid of them immediately.
Enzo: Gabriel is sleeping with my ex-wife. I have no problem with that. But he tried to create drama between me and him last week, and the more I think about, the less I want to interact with him. I nominate him. I also nominate Todd for turning into the complete opposite of the charming man I met last week. Marjan… just too cute for me.
China: Honestly, I’m not sure who to nominate, but I have to play by the rules every time if I want to win. And so, given the general strength of my competitors, I am going to vote strategically. I think these three individuals need to be knocked down a peg: Matthieu, Todd, and Harrison. I have nothing against them, but they are all pretty boys and you know how far those go in this competition without doing much… *shade noise during a Hudson winning flashback*.
Marjan: Why do I have to do this? I was just out there dipping my cute toes with their pink toenails in the ocean while the fishies swam around them, I felt like a Disney princess! Sigh… all right, I nominate Matthieu, Enca, and Kyungri. Can I go now? No? I have to say why I don’t want them here? I don’t know! They’re all lovely but I like the other people more, what do you want from me? …
Mitchell: I don’t like this part of the competition… I understand it’s necessary but I’m just not into personally choosing who I want to go… but I guess I don’t really like Gabriel, he’s big competition. Harrison is great and all, but he also fits in the role of the shy guy coming out of his shell and the editors will be gunning for one of us to go soon, so……. And finally, this makes me really upset, but I have to think about my future in this competition if I want to take my mom the money… and Marjan is already taking my mind off the game… *sniffs*.
Todd: Hmm… should I be strategic or just go with the people I really don’t care for? Ah, what the heck. I think China is beautiful, I live for her, but she has such a strange personality and I don’t know where I stand with her, so sorry girl, but you have to go. Enzo is really nice to look at, but he’s a stick in the mud and should go. And Kyungri, ugh, that robot. Get her out!
Matthieu: I thought long and hard about this one, and in the end I went with who I thought needed this the least. Marjan is really rich, she could probably do really well for herself. China is also already successful, she can do so much with what she already has. I like Enca, I really do, but she’s the most famous of us all, and I feel like she’s putting up a front. I want someone authentic to look up to, but so far she seems to be hiding behind a façade!
Jessie: I’ll be straight to the point: Charlee played with me this week, and I really didn’t appreciate that. I’m not someone’s plaything. We have to treat each other with respect, and she’s done nothing but disrespect all of the people here! I fear that Marjan is in over her head, half of the time I don’t know if she’s going to make it through the night with all these cliffs around here… and Enca, I’m sorry, but I don’t think your head is in the game.
Enca: I know people are nominating me left and right. I know I’m big competition! I do have the most successful single of the year, after all, even I would be jealous of my success. Anyway, I’m just going to go with who I think is nominating me: Charlee is definitely gunning for me, Marjan does anything she sees the smarter people do, and Matthieu just doesn’t seem to like me… did I get them right? I did, didn’t I?
Harrison: I really dislike doing these, you know. I think Charlee should go home because she’s manipulating everyone and I don’t like seeing that. Mitchell is a cool guy, too, but he’s too shy for this competition… yes, I know that I am shy, too. I’d like to see Kyungri go home, as well. She’s so driven it’s scary.
Charlee: Still going to go for Harrison. I know the audience is probably loving him, but he’s spineless and probably easier to take out than Matthieu, and you know how much these shows love cute couples like that, ugh. I also want Enca to leave, now, she is so pretentious, walking around here like she owns the entire place. Good for you for your success, but in here you’re just one of us and on our level. Similarly for Enzo, GET HIM OUT! He’s the most ridiculously annoying “model” type I have ever met. Who died and made him king of the mediocre models?
Gabriel: I haven’t forgotten what Kyungri said about me last week. She can go, no one needs that attitude here. Enzo is my direct competition here, the handsome dad. Heck, we even had children with the same woman so obviously we have similar backgrounds. I can’t have that in here! And finally… Mitchell, I can’t stand his self-deprecating humor. He needs a few more years to really feel comfortable in his own body, and then he’d be a good competitor.
Louise: I think I’ve done a good job of avoiding people’s nominations. I’ve made friends with everyone! I think I’m safe this week, but I’ll nominate my biggest competition just in case: Jessie, Charlee, and Matthieu. I don’t like Jessie, we’re too similar. I don’t trust Charlee at all, alliance or not. Matthieu… he’s big competition after last week. I’d like to see him go.
***
Ajmkv: Housemates, if you’ll please gather in the living room for our evaluation of your work in the challenge this week, posing for an international Coy/Coy Swimwear campaign. Afterwards, we’ll reveal your combined score and announce who will be leaving us. This week, your score will be a combination of the judges’ and viewers’ scores, as well as your own nominations. That’s right, your nominations are only a part of the equation this week and won’t determine 100% who will be up for elimination.
Charlee: That’s bullshit!
Ajmkv: This week to help us judge we have the always lovely and flawless Jdbw, who joins us all the way from the UK! He may look like he’s sweet, but honey, he’s is going to rip into some of you and I cannot wait to see this.
Jdbw: Thanks Baejmkv for inviting me to this lil’ island couture skin-show. Look binches, I wasn’t dragged out of the (often intoxicated) pits of host hiatus-dom to judge a bunch of Unnie-teurs. I’m expecting T, I’m expecting A, and I’m expecting every single letter of the slayphabet in between m’kay? (Sure, I don’t know the letters – I had a rough childhood, OK? I wasn’t watching frickin’ Sesame Street.) Show me what you got and make sure it’s H-A-W-T. … (That’s the right spelling, right?)
Ajmkv: Our viewers also ranked your photos online and have decided which ones they liked the best, and can I say that we have the sassiest viewers? You housemates aren’t ready for them. Their scores will be incorporated into your overall scores for this week, so let’s hope that you were able to impress them!
Before calling you out individually, let’s take a look at the final campaign shot for Coy/Coy. Remember that the winner will receive a solo campaign with them alongside the group campaign, so good luck to all of you!
Ajmkv: There you have it! Coy/Coy has already posted this on their social media feeds, and the world is going crazy for your hot swimwear looks. A billboard with this ad has already been unveiled in San Myshuno’s fashion district so you all should be proud of yourselves for doing an excellent job.
Kyungri: Dr. Kim will be pleased to see his work on display in all of the fine billboards and magazines of the world. He’s not cheap, that Dr. Kim, but he certainly has done an excellent job.
Ajmkv: We’ll now call you up individually for your evaluations, and first up is Kyungri:
Jdbw: Dr Kim best be earning commission because your silicone valley really put you in the best form for embracing your inner beach vixen. Do I think this is the best? Nope. Do I think there’s an air of squint in your eyes? I’ll say no, don’t want to get a lawsuit for borderline racism. But do I think the pose is romantic and the body is looking curvy like a plastic bowl on your kitchen counter? Yes Miss Korea, yes it does.
Ajmkv: Kyungri, this is a good look for you: simple, tasteful, and you’re actually showing some expression on your face. You manage to look sassy and, most of all, expensive. If I saw this ad in a magazine, I’d want to buy your swimsuit AND your fillers. Girl, you’re selling every part of this look! However, I do wish you had added a bit more oomph to the overall look.
Let’s hear what a viewer had to say.
@plasticgangnamunnie Saranghae unnie! I knew I should have gotten pack #3 at Dr. Kim’s, it looks sooo good on you! I can’t wait to go back and ask for the Kyungri special! #drkim #plasticunnies #thisfacedontmelt #askforpacknumber3
Scores:
Ajmkv: 6
Jdbw: 7
Viewers: 7
Next up is our Italian supermodel, Enzo.
Ajmkv: ENZO, I AM LIVING FOR THIS! I knew you were a model before this, but damn, boy, you knocked it out of the park! Your body looks amazing, your expression is dreamy and beautiful, and the night background adds an almost romantic tint to the photo. I love everything about it. I want to BE you.
Jdbw: Mr. Model by name, deed and reputation huh? Give this guy the role of Ken(zo) in the next Barbie’s Adventures in Planned Parenthood feature length film because Oppa got abs that could birth a new generation in a single contraction. I’m not surprised you did so well, I’m not surprised you nabbed the center role, I’m not surprised you made me buy 11 pairs of those swimshorts BUT the reason you’re not my top winner this round is exactly that – you didn’t surprise me. You got it, we know it – now what?
And now, for a viewer comment:
@daddiesforever91 This is why I like Enzo. Just look at that smoldering gaze, looking like he’s going to carry you home and look after you the whole way home… mmmmmm #daddiesofsimstagram #woof #gimme
Scores:
Ajmkv: 10
Jdbw: 9
Viewers: 10
Up next is China.
Jdbw: Did you read the brand name and just run with it literally Ms. Thing? This isn’t a casting call for Forever 21 and, whilst you have a fabulous smile, you’re selling swimwear not Colgate. Resting on pretty in a line-up of hotties isn’t doing you any favours.
Ajmkv: China… this isn’t my favorite picture of the week, to say the least. Your smile is beautiful and I love your tasteful swimsuit, but your expression just isn’t grabbing me as much as it should. You should have looked into the camera if you were going to be seductive. Instead, it looks like you’re looking at a faraway buffet dinner and thinking how you’re going to slice into that baked potato… you can do so much better than this.
The viewers weren’t very happy with this, either:
@highheelstocutabinch I was so disappointed to see this! China can do so much better, I’ve seen pictures of her in court that are better than this. #lawyerscanbemodels #bitchwut #disappointment
Scores:
Ajmkv: 3
Jdbw: 3.5
Viewers: 3
Up next we have Marjan.
Ajmkv: Now this is what I’ve been wanting to see from you, Marjan. More than just a princess, you look like a seductress here! I wish you were looking into the lens as your hair is cutting off those beautiful lips and that neck, but I do love this “ |
has been noncommittal.
A spokesman said, “We welcome any reliable data that helps the National Weather Service meet its mission requirements while also being cost-effective and properly reflected in our budget.”Pinterest Adult Swim
We talked to Tyler and his creative partner, Lionel Boyce, about sea creatures, writing TV music, and putting (animated) black characters on TV.
Tyler, the Creator's universe continues to grow, and its latest incarnation, The Jellies!, is now crashing into your screen every Sunday night. Written by Tyler and his creative partner and longtime friend Lionel Boyce, the cartoon is a treasure trove of original music, oddly relatable characters, and of course, some absolutely insane situational humor (like the lead character getting a gender reassignment, courtesy of Xzibit, in order to make sure his best friend has a date to the school dance).
EDITOR’S PICK
Despite the insanity, Tyler and Lionel promise that there's more to The Jellies! than some of their previous projects like Loiter Squad. Rather than just making slapstick skits, "We're relying on the writing," Lionel tells us. The jokes come fast, the music is phenomenal and provides for some great comedic moments (Tyler is taking the lead on scoring the show, and told us that we will be getting a soundtrack), and the lead character, Cornell—a black teenager unknowingly adopted by a family of jellyfish—is endearing in his naiveté. Tyler and Lionel have made yet another haven for their die-hard fans to dive into, but with episodes running at 15 minutes apiece, the show is a worthwhile watch for even the unconverted.
We talked to Tyler (while he was on a hike) and Lionel (while he was walking around Atlanta working on a secret TV project) about learning on the job, putting black characters on TV, and their all-time favorite cartoons.
How does it feel to have your own cartoon on Adult Swim? That's major, especially for people our age who grew up on Adult Swim cartoons.
Tyler, the Creator: It's cool! People know us from Loiter Squad and our live-action things, but doing something where we're not fully present in a physical way, people get to see how our brains work. I think that's interesting in and of itself. We had a bunch of ideas for Loiter Squad that we couldn't do physically, you know because we can't blow buildings up and turn into a fucking axe if you want, but with a cartoon, our imagination gets to roam.
LB: On Loiter Squad it was just us being crazy, but with this, we're relying on the writing. It shows we can do more than just fuck around with a skit.
There's so much that goes into making a cartoon, from the story to the characters to the music. So many mediums being showcased.
T: Even that in itself is a challenge for my music side. It's like, 'Okay, I need to make a song that sounds like a mariachi band.' That forces me to learn new chords, new cadences, and new pockets, just so I can make the music that fits in a 10- or 15-second scene.
It's tight, 'cause we go in not knowing what the fuck we're doing. We've never had a cartoon, we're writing a real story arc over time. Worst comes to worst, it sucks, and we'll still give 100 percent [on the next one].
Were you guys big Adult Swim heads when you were younger?
LB: Yeah, I've been watching Adult Swim since Home Movies. I still watch every night before I go to sleep.
T: Growing up, I was really studying what the fuck was going on over there. Whether it was a Family Guy rerun to Home Movies to Robot Chicken, all of that shit really spoke to my 14-year-old brain. Also growing up on Dave Chappelle and Jackass and shit like that really shaped our humor. When we came together, it just turned into [The Jellies!], and Adult Swim was the perfect home for it. It sounds like we're sucking Adult Swim's dick right now! Fuck them. [laughs]
You're working with some great writers as well. Is it collaborative, or are you guys calling the shots?
LB: Adult Swim had us bring in a list of, like, 20 episode ideas that they could approve or not approve. They approved most of them, and from there we went into the writing room. We had Carl Jones, JD Samuels, our friend Brian who did some writing on Loiter Squad; we had Jasper, who just has great ideas and loves cartoons more than anyone. We had Dan Curry, who writes with Eric Andre on his show; Angela Nissel who is a really good writer as well. We just sat in the room every day for a couple of months and just banged it out. It was really cool, we learned a lot from them. They taught us a little bit more structure, how to make our ideas more accessible to everyone.
In the first two episodes, you guys have done some pretty wild stuff already. Are there any ideas that were too crazy that didn't make it into the show?
LB: For the most part Adult Swim was down!
T: Being honest I think we scaled back. Just to make sure people look at it in a different light than Loiter Squad. There were definitely a few times where we were like, "Nah, this is too crazy. Let's wait so we can set the tone that this is something different." I mean we couldn't smoke crack. That's some FCC TV shit. But everything is good.
I love seeing Cornell, a black lead character, just living his life and not being typecast. While you guys were writing for him, were you actively thinking about filling the void, so to speak, as there aren't many black leads in the cartoon world?
T: Just the way we grew up, they do expect people of our skin tone to be a certain type of way. There's a certain type that people see. Neither me nor Lionel were like that, so when we made the character, we were like, "Oh yeah, let's make him black." Then we started to notice that he wasn't going to be like any other black cartoon character, where every five seconds you have to point out the fact that they're black.
Tyler, you're packing so much music into these short episodes. Are you making everything fresh for The Jellies!?
T: Yeah, I'd say 85 percent [of the music] is mine, everything made specifically for the show. It's rare that I use anything old.
LB: The tightest thing about that is we never have to worry about clearing songs or anything like that. He can literally make anything we want to put it the show.
Will we get a Jellies soundtrack soon?
T: Oh, of course! It's so much music. It's real scores too, like the intro is a real two-minute song, "Pop Yo Coochie" is like a real song. A lot of these things are real songs that do exist. One hundred percent you're going to hear some more.
"We were like, "Oh yeah, let's make him black." Then we started to notice that he wasn't going to be like any other black cartoon character, where every five seconds you have to point out the fact that they're black."
Tyler, you have The Jellies!, Nuts + Bolts, Camp Flog Gnaw, the clothing line, music. How do you balance it all?
T: I don't see any of it as work. I'm just doing what I'd be doing for free. With deadlines [laughs]. I get to work with my friends, they get paid, I get paid. Also I don't come from money, I come from a single-parent home. So trust me 100 percent, I'll always be working like I could lose everything tomorrow, and that's always in the back of my head.
So what are your favorite cartoons? Stuff you guys always go back to.
T: I love Family Guy, South Park is super cool. Clarence is my favorite cartoon right now. I always thought The Weekenders and Recess were super cool. Gumball is amazing. Adventure Time was cool.
LB: Xavier: Renegade Angel was one of the craziest shows I have ever seen. I've been watching Bob's Burgers, they have really good music in that show too.
T: I fucking love Big Mouth, dude. Watch it. I think the storylines are really good and I like how it's drawn. It's not too detailed where it takes you out of it, cause I didn't like anime growing up and I think that's why. There's something about Big Mouth though. They figured it out.
LB: Speaking of anime, I've been watching Dragonball Super, which is the greatest show of all time.
T: Trash! Only fucking goobers who didn't have any friends like that shit.
LB: Sounds like you didn't have any friends. You're a dirty yellow dingy white tee.
T: [mimicking Dragonball Super] 'I throw spitballs and have stupid hair!'
LB: You do have stupid hair and everyone knows it! [both laugh]
Are there any moments in the season you're really looking forward to in particular?
T: Someone is in a gay relationship, and I don't think people are going to take it lightly. I hope people have a sense of humor about it.
LB: The last episode is the greatest thing ever.
T: The wackest episode of the season… I'll spill the beans. We got this episode, the game show episode, and it's not that good. That's the only episode that we dropped the ball on, but it was too late. I asked Adult Swim if we could not have it air, and they said it wasn't that bad but I think them niggas was lying. When you see that episode, I know you'll think it's trash. We're better than that.
L: People might slap us just walking down the street like, 'What the fuck was that!'
If you were sea animals, what would you be?
T: An octopus is kinda cool. They can probably play instruments like crazy. But I'd probably be a whale. They're so big and peaceful, and who doesn't like whales? They have cool voices.
LB: Damn, I never thought about being a sea animal! I don't know. Fuck. Damn.
T: You were too busy watching dumbass Dragonball Z, you uncultured fuck.
LB: Oh wait, what's the shark that LL Cool J turns into in that one video? I'd be that.
T: You are so fucking stupid, Lionel. Oh wait, can I be the Little Mermaid? Oh my god, I'm a mermaid.
Watch now:Colm J. Meaney (;[1] Irish: Colm Ó Maonaigh; born 30 May 1953) is an Irish actor known for playing Miles O'Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999). He has guest-starred on many TV shows including Law & Order and The Simpsons, and starred as Thomas Durant on Hell on Wheels.
He has also had a significant career in motion pictures, and appeared in the film The Damned United, all three film adaptations of Roddy Doyle's The Barrytown Trilogy, and in Get Him to the Greek, as well as Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. In 2017, Meaney won the Best Actor IFTA for his portrayal of Irish politician Martin McGuinness in the film The Journey.
Early life [ edit ]
Meaney was born in Glasnevin, Dublin.[2] He began studying acting when he was 14 years old and entered the Abbey Theatre School of Acting after secondary school. He became a member of the Irish National Theatre and worked for the next eight years in England, touring with several theatre companies.
Career [ edit ]
Meaney's first television appearance was in Z-Cars on BBC 1, in 1978. He guest-starred on shows such as Remington Steele and Moonlighting before embarking on a successful film career; he received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for his role in The Snapper.
Meaney first appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation in its 1987 pilot episode, "Encounter at Farpoint", as an unnamed helm officer. His character became a frequently recurring one, and was given the name of Miles O'Brien as he became more prominent in the crew as Transporter Chief. In 1993, Meaney left The Next Generation for a main role in its spin-off Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and remained on that show until its final episode, in 1999. With 225 total appearances on Star Trek, he has made more appearances on the franchise than any other actor except Michael Dorn.
Meaney played Colum O'Hara in the 1994 miniseries Scarlett, the sequel to Gone With the Wind. He has played a minor recurring role as Cowen,[3] leader of the Genii on the Sci-Fi Channel (now Syfy) series Stargate Atlantis,[4] guest-starred on Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and appeared as Bob O'Donnell on the ABC show Men in Trees.
He was the only actor to appear in all three film adaptations of Roddy Doyle's The Barrytown Trilogy, wherein he played the father of the Rabbitte family. Due to rights issues, the family name was changed from film to film. His stage appearances include the Old Vic production of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten. Meaney starred in British comedy film Three and Out released in the UK on 25 April 2008. In July of the same year An Post (the Irish Post Office[5]) issued a postage stamp showing Meaney as Joe Mullen in the film Kings.[6]
In 2009, Meaney co-starred with Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx in Law Abiding Citizen, wherein Meaney played Detective Dunnigan. In March 2009, Meaney guest-starred as an Irish bartender on the St. Patrick's Day episode of The Simpsons, "In the Name of the Grandfather". In the same month the film The Damned United was released, a mostly fictional retelling of the 44-day period in which Brian Clough was manager of Leeds United. Meaney played the former Leeds manager Don Revie. He also co-starred in Soldiers of Fortune with Christian Slater and Ving Rhames. In 2013, Meaney co-starred with Steve Coogan in Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. In 2014, he appeared as The Horse in the BBC's three-part crime story, The Driver. For five seasons he portrayed railroad magnate Thomas Durant on AMC's drama series Hell on Wheels.[7]
Personal life [ edit ]
Meaney married Irish actress Bairbre Dowling in 1977,[2] with whom he had a daughter, Brenda, in 1984. The couple divorced in 1994.[8] He married French costume designer Ines Glorian in March 2007. They have a daughter together, Ada, born in 2005.[2][8][9]
Filmography [ edit ]
Film [ edit ]
Television [ edit ]Milenio Digital
Durante el fin de semana, una camioneta que trasladaba víveres para las familias damnificadas por el temblor en Oaxaca, fue saqueada. ¿Quién hace eso, hurtar lo que va dirigido a los más necesitados? Al menos unas 40 familias que requerían una bolsa de arroz para comer, tendrán que esperar.
Pero Oaxaca no es el único lugar en donde alguien osa robar… a los más pobres. Ahuacuotzingo, el municipio con mayor pobreza extrema en Guerrero, es el lugar número uno en este tipo de robos.
En este sitio los delincuentes son especialistas en hurtar los recursos destinados a la gente con más necesidades. Y entonces, esas personas que sobreviven gracias a esos apoyos quedan en la miseria total…
***
Régulo Guerrero Ríos creció en la comunidad de Rincón de Cozahuapa, en Ahuacuotzingo.
Él y su familia, 18 en total (sí, 18), comparten una casa de adobe y tablas. Se mueven dentro de ella descalzos: sus pies sienten el frío de la tierra sin aplanar. Mientras cuenta de su esposa y sus numerosos hijos, el hombre alimenta tres chivos que tiene desde octubre pasado. “Se me han muerto dos, porque no deja de llover y no tenía dinero para darles de comer”.
Los tres chivos son la esperanza de Régulo para ganarse unos 3 mil pesos de aquí a diciembre, mil pesos por cada chivo. Con ese dinero podría subsistir su familia desde ahora y hasta que termine el año.
Así es la vida aquí. Ahuacuotzingo es un municipio ubicado en la zona centro del estado, encallado entre cerros y carreteras sin pavimentar. Se compone de 68 comunidades y tiene 25 mil habitantes. La mitad de su población es indígena. El 60 por ciento vive en pobreza extrema, es decir, por debajo de la línea de bienestar y con menos de 750 pesos al mes. Como la familia Guerrero.
En situaciones similares están los municipios José Joaquín de Herrera, Zapotitlán de las Tablas, Cochoapa y Metlatónoc, según el último reporte del Consejo Nacional de Evaluación de la Política de Desarrollo Social (Coneval).
Las familias de esta zona viven del campo, la ganadería y de préstamos: “Dinero que le debemos a medio mundo para que los niños vayan a la escuela o para comprar un kilo de huevo”, cuenta Régulo.
Hasta agosto pasado, su familia también se apoyaba de por lo menos mil pesos que llegaban cada mes a través de Prospera, el programa de la Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (Sedesol) para abatir los índices de pobreza o al menos para paliar el hambre, pero la ola de violencia está complicando la entrega del dinero.
El pasado 25 de julio, un grupo de hombres armados interceptó una camioneta del Banco Nacional de Ahorro y Servicios Financieros (Bansefi), donde se trasladaba casi un millón de pesos del programa. Los delincuentes robaron todo el dinero y asesinaron a cinco policías y dos voluntarios de Prospera.
Antes, el 1 de junio, otra unidad de Bansefi y policías municipales fueron emboscados por un comando cuando se dirigían a Cualac, el municipio vecino. Los delincuentes mataron a tres policías y se llevaron tres millones de pesos. Todo, dinero para los más pobres.
En lo que va del año, las autoridades del programa han registrado al menos 11 incidentes de este tipo, cuatro de ellos en Guerrero. La directora de Prospera, Paula Hernández, dice que al menos hay 5 mil familias afectadas en este municipio y otras 470 mil en toda la entidad. Sí, casi medio millón de familias pobres robadas.
“Sin duda robar el dinero que va a una familia pobre es de lo más bajo, sobre todo porque el recurso de una familia Prospera va ligado a una corresponsabilidad ya cumplida: los niños ya fueron a la escuela, ya fueron al médico. En la mayoría de los casos, las familias ya deben ese dinero”.
La hija de Régulo, María Eugenia, es voluntaria del Programa 65 y más, destinado a entregar recursos a las personas de la tercera edad, y cuenta que la delincuencia tampoco se compadece de los “más viejitos”: el 7 de agosto organizó a un grupo de al menos 50 ancianos de las localidades Tlalchichilco, Zompazolco, El Planchado y Rincón de Cozahuapa para viajar a la cabecera municipal de Ahuacuotzingo. Tras los asaltos, la entrega de los recursos se realizaría en un solo punto.
“Alquilamos camionetas, como pudieron los abuelitos fueron, unos en sus sillones trepados a las camionetas, otros que ya no se pueden mover, y en la primera localidad, en el puente de Tecozaca, los malandros asaltaron tres camionetas y les quitaron todo el dinero”, recuerda María Eugenia.
Las familias y los ancianos afectados tendrán que esperar al menos dos meses para recuperar esos recursos. La logística para su repartición, según Paula Hernández, podría modificarse, de ahí la exigencia a las autoridades locales para garantizar la seguridad durante los traslados.
Pero poco pueden hacer en las localidades. El presidente municipal de Ahuacuotzingo enfrenta ya una investigación. El Consejo Estatal de Seguridad Pública de Guerrero dio a conocer que los cinco policías muertos el 25 de julio… no estaban dados de alta en el Sistema Nacional de Seguridad. Un desorden.
Y en el municipio vecino, Olinalá, su presidente Saúl Apreza asegura que los recursos municipales no son suficientes en materia de seguridad: con 36 agentes pide al gobierno federal que sea el Ejército quien resguarde la entrega de los recursos.
Mientras los pobladores de estas comunidades viven bajo el temor de ser agredidos de nuevo por los grupos delincuenciales, en Ahuacuotzingo la familia de Régulo Guerrero continúa a la espera del dinero. ¿Quién roba a los más pobres?One of my most vivid memories of childhood is sitting at the window of my parents' bedroom, looking out over the landscape of what was rapidly becoming post-industrial Wigan, then glancing down at the exposed bionic workings on my arm.
They were stickers, of course, given away free with the second issue of a new comic that had been launched in February 1977. When I looked out of that window I didn't see flooded quarries and exhausted coalfields, but the vista of possible futures offered to me by the new publication, which had pulled off the magic trick of distilling all my seven-year-old obsessions into one weekly newsprint package.
1977 was all about the Queen and the Sex Pistols, British Leyland and IRA bomb factories. That summer my name would be drawn out of a hat and I would be asked to be Prince Charles at a silver jubilee street party. I would decline. I wasn't Prince Charles. I was bionic, I was a dinosaur-hunting cowboy, I was a merciless lawman dispensing instant justice in a future metropolis.
In short, I was a 2000AD kid. Back then, the year 2000 seemed impossibly distant, a static-filled future that was either technological utopia or nuclear wasteland. IPC magazines had tapped into the new wave of commercial, popular science fiction such as Star Wars and thrown everything into 2000AD. The strips in the first issue (free gift: a space spinner) consisted of the Harlem Heroes, a team playing in a tough futuristic sport; a MACH 1, a cyborg hero (hence the bionic stickers in issue 2), Flesh! a gory tale of dinosaurs being farmed for food by time-travellers, and Invasion, a story about a lorry driver leading resistance against an occupying force of "Volgans" who had taken over the UK. Judge Dredd, 2000AD's most famous character, first appeared in the second number, but issue one had a revitalised Dan Dare, which gave me and my dad a touching moment of cross-generational bonding as he recalled the character in the Eagle comics of his youth.
For a seven-year-old, 2000AD was anarchic and fascistic and funny and frightening and gory and exciting and thought-provoking, all rolled up together. They called it 2000AD, presumably, because no one expected the comic to live that long. But 35 years after the first issue, which had a 26 February cover date, and in the year that Queen Elizabeth II marks her diamond jubilee, 2000AD is still going, delivering (in the magazine's own words) "thrill power" every single week since then.
It was brought to you by a green-skinned alien editor, Tharg, who sprinkled his missives with vocabulary from his planet in the Betelgeuse system including "zarjaz", "earthlets" and "scrotnig", and who reinvented the creators of the comic strips – hitherto only acknowledged as scrawled bylines hidden in corners of a pane somewhere – as robotic "script-droids" and "art-droids".
And what amazing droids they were. The list of writers and illustrators who got their big breaks through 2000AD comprise a roll-call of modern graphic novel greats. It could be argued that without 2000AD, the world today might not have the later works of Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, Bryan Talbot or Grant Morrison. Not to mention the characters such as Dredd, Strontium Dog, Nemesis the Warlock and the ABC Warriors.
Aside from the quality of the stories, part of the appeal was the sense of community the comic fostered on its letters pages, right from the start. This interactive element – appropriately ahead of its time – has only expanded in the internet age. All those old script and pencil droids have now been joined by a 2000AD "tweet-droid" who enthusiastically follows everyone back on Twitter and retweets any mentions of 2000AD, and the website has a busy forum with more than 66,000 members.
The year 2000 has come and gone without the megacities, dinosaur hunts and bionic men the comic promised, but it's reassuring to know the future is still powering ahead. Splundig Vur Thrigg!The containers, etc., we pulled out of the DeBary home w/ explosive devices. Many of these contain urine. But he also had all the ingredients to make bombs pic.twitter.com/wq6ttwr8dP — Volusia Co. Sheriff (@VolusiaSheriff) November 13, 2017
“My adult son is drunk, he’s boisterous, he’s knocking furniture down, he’s just out of control,” Scott Langer told the 911 dispatcher, according to a recording. “There’s a whole coffee table full of 12-ounce beer cans, plus he’s probably had I’m guessing a quarter of a 1.75 liter bottle of tequila. So he’s had a lot to drink.”
But the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office deputies who walked through the door of the suburban home in DeBary, Fla., on Sunday were facing more than the usual drunk and disorderly conduct.
Inside the house, law enforcement turned up a stockpile of potentially explosive chemicals and devices, including a hand grenade and a booby-trapped SpongeBob SquarePants lunchbox. The items allegedly belonged to Christopher S. Langer, a troubled 31-year-old whose father called 911 for help late Sunday afternoon.
Mike Chitwood, the Volusia County sheriff, told Orlando’s News 6 the seized chemicals included nitric acid and urea, substances similar to the components used in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
“That domestic violence call probably saved us from making national and international news,” Chitwood told the news station Monday. “He has all the components in there to make a weapon of mass destruction.”
According to a statement released on the sheriff’s Facebook page, deputies responded to Scott Langer’s 911 call at 4:11 p.m. Sunday afternoon. The officers then learned the intoxicated Christopher Langer had told his parents he had put an explosive substance inside a grenade. Langer initially denied knowing anything about a grenade, then admitted he had thrown the item out the window into the yard.
Christopher Langer (Valousia County Corrections)
“Upon searching the area, the deputy found a metal pineapple-style grenade with a paper clip in place to hold the lever and keep it from exploding,” sheriff spokesman Andrew Gant told the Daytona Beach News Journal.
The house and surrounding residences were evacuated and a bomb squad was called in.
“A search warrant resulted in the discovery of an estimated 200 containers inside the house containing unknown powders, acids and other materials,” Gant told the paper. “Many of them (about 79 at one point) have been placed into a containment area, and many have been determined not to be bomb-making materials but bodily fluids.”
Deputies also discovered manuals on bomb-making, booby traps and guerrilla warfare at the house. A bomb robot detonated a small explosive device in the back yard and another possible explosive was found inside the lunchbox, according to the sheriff.
“He had manuals inside of the house about how to create booby-traps,” Chitwood told reporters. “He had a lunchbox, a SpongeBob SquarePants lunchbox that was all set to go. All it needed was a battery and gunpowder.”
Chitwood said authorities also found about a dozen homemade blasting caps and jars of powder that had been removed from ammunition. “He just didn’t have time or get around to mixing all of these chemicals together to put his bomb in place,” he said. “But he clearly, clearly had intentions.”
County hazmat units and members of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives worked for over 13 hours to secure the scene. Chitwood said Langer also kept bottles of his urine in his bedroom along with chemicals he had purchased online. “If I was a roach, I wouldn’t live in that room,” the sheriff said. “That’s how despicable and dirty and feces- and urine-filled that room is. The rest of the house is in pretty good shape.”
The sheriff explained that Langer — who had been hospitalized four times for psychological evaluation — was a heroin addict and told investigators he was “anti-government” and “wanted to take revenge against the system.” He said his plan to was to hurt first responders. Just last month, law enforcement came to the same house after Langer overdosed on heroin. He was revived with Narcan, Chitwood said.
“Two weeks ago we saved your godd–n life, and now we’re here two weeks later and you’re talking about how you want to blow us all up,” the sheriff said.
Langer is currently being charged with making and possessing a destructive device. Chitwood told reporters his office is working with federal authorities to bring additional charges.
“He could have blown up the block,” the sheriff said.
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After a mass shootings, there is no easy answer about what to do with the siteIn this Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2013 photo released by Sabah Wildlife Department, a 3-month-old elephant calf tries to awake its dead mother at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve in Sabah, Malaysia. Ten endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in the Malaysian forest under mysterious circumstances, and wildlife authorities suspect that they were poisoned. (AP Photo/Sabah Wildlife Department) NO SALES, EDITORIAL USE ONLY
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Ten endangered Borneo pygmy elephants have been found dead in a Malaysian forest under mysterious circumstances, and wildlife officials said Tuesday that they probably were poisoned.
Carcasses of the baby-faced elephants were found near each other over the past three weeks at the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, said Laurentius Ambu, director of the wildlife department in Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo island.
In one case, officers rescued a 3-month-old calf that was apparently trying to wake its dead mother.
Poisoning appeared to be the likely cause, but officials have not determined whether it was intentional, said Sabah environmental minister Masidi Manjun. Though some elephants have been killed for their tusks on Sabah in past years, there was no sign that these animals had been poached.
"This is a very sad day for conservation and Sabah. The death of these majestic and severely endangered Bornean elephants is a great loss to the state," Masidi said in a statement. "If indeed these poor elephants were maliciously poisoned, I would personally make sure that the culprits would be brought to justice and pay for their crime."
The WWF wildlife group estimates that fewer than 1,500 Borneo pygmy elephants exist. They live mainly in Sabah and grow to about eight feet (245 centimeters) tall, a foot or two shorter than mainland Asian elephants. Known for their babyish faces, large ears and long tails, pygmy elephants were found to be a distinct subspecies only in 2003, after DNA testing.
Their numbers have stabilized in recent years amid conservation efforts to protect their jungle habitats from being torn down for plantations and development projects.
The elephants found dead this month were believed to be from the same family group and ranged in age from 4 to 20 years, said Sen Nathan, the wildlife department's senior veterinarian. Seven were female and three were male, he said.
Post-mortems showed they suffered severe hemorrhages and ulcers in their gastrointestinal tracts. None had gunshot injuries.
"We highly suspect that it might be some form of acute poisoning from something that they had eaten, but we are still waiting for the laboratory results," Nathan said.All photos by Guy D'Alema/courtesy of FX
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The last time I lived in Georgia, Atlanta-based rapper Ludacris was atop the Billboard 100 charts with "Money Maker" featuring Pharrell, from Release Therapy. The city of Atlanta has undoubtedly changed since I left the South in 2006, marked by signs of urban progression, from construction to demolition, but has retained its charm. A true Southern city, Atlanta's pace is perhaps a little slower than its counterparts in the Northeast, but its citizens are warm and genuine as you pass them while walking the streets. Beyond the media portrayals of trap houses and strip clubs, Atlanta is best defined by its people, its neighborhoods, its music. The city—a black Mecca for me, my family, and others—is almost mythological, a perspective skewed as much by what people wish from Atlanta as it is by its realities.
Donald Glover—actor, writer, comedian, and musician—aims to dispel the city's mythology with Atlanta, his new television series on FX. The clues are in the details. The show's pilot episode, "The Big Bang," begins with a nighttime altercation outside a liquor store where Earn (Glover), a Princeton dropout, tries to referee a disagreement between his cousin Alfred "Paper Boi" Miles (Brian Tyree Henry), a local rapper on the cusp of neighborhood stardom, and the young man who kicked Paper Boi's sideview mirror for reasons later revealed in the episode.
Authenticity is the first litmus test for the show. The altercation feels real, no different from fights witnessed in front of various QuikTrip gas stations dotting the American South. The drawl in the accents are real but not caricatures; the dialogue, partially fogged by marijuana smoke, devolves from requests for recompense for the side mirror to a critique of Paper Boi's latest mixtape. And as the overhead camera shot fades in the title credits—right as a gun is fired—we fly over sections of Atlanta, which includes a dilapidated, caved-in house. Atlanta has long been a capitol for black American wealth and influence, but the city's blight, its projects, also appear in Glover's Atlanta.
All photos by Guy D'Alema/courtesy of FX
The series comes with high expectations for Glover, the mercurial, shape-shifting artist who was last seen receiving a Grammy nomination for his 2013 rap album Because the Internet, an album that, like Ludacris's Release Therapy, attempted to repackage and reimagine Glover as a real, serious musician with real, serious ideas. Whether Because the Internet succeeded or not is up for debate, but Atlanta picks up where it left off: Glover, Atlanta's creator and executive producer, continues to wrest and maintain creative control. This ethos is echoed in the pilot when Earn's father, played by veteran actor Isiah Whitlock Jr., says of his son, "When [Earn] wants to do something, he does it. On his own terms."
It is clear Glover wants Atlanta to achieve a balance of natural, rhythmic comedy with drama and depth. While Louie tries for the same balance, and often fails with routine dives into the morbid and melodramatic, and Master of None makes the same attempt yet fails with stilted dialogue and comedic timing that rarely dips below the surface, Atlanta, at least in its first two episodes, succeeds. It's a testament to Glover's all-black writers' room for Atlanta, which situates its characters in the depths of Atlanta without buffoonery or canned jokes at every turn.
The second episode, "Streets on Lock," doubles down on the humor, drama, and depth. While Earn sits in lockup, awaiting processing and bail, Paper Boi—his single now playing on the local radio, thanks to Earn—becomes a local celebrity, attracting attention wherever he goes, even at home when a stranger in a Batman mask knocks on the door, confirms it is Paper Boi's residence, and runs off. Meanwhile, Earn and other men in lockup are entertained by the humorous machinations of a mentally ill individual, a lockup regular, until the man spits toilet water onto a police officer. Violence ensues, sirens blare, and every man—Earn included—looks down at the floor, not so much to avert their eyes but to admonish themselves for having forgotten themselves and their surroundings.
As for Glover himself, his portrayal of Earn is authentic and understated. His character often appears out of sorts, displaced, with the look of a man who crash landed back home after whatever happened at Princeton. He is low on |
"full of squirrels".
"It's quite hard to wash cars out here because there's no washing facilities so it's quite a problem for residents," they added.
Hillcrest Estate Management said it had tried a number of measures to deter the pigeons, including fake birds and noise deterrents, but had little success and installed the spikes in 2014.
The firm added: "Bird detritus can cause permanent damage to the paintwork on cars if not removed promptly and the worst affected leaseholders wanted action taken to try and improve the situation."
In September, Stevenage Borough Council, in Hertfordshire, put spikes on a tree in the town centre to prevent "mess and disease".
You might also like:Image copyright Dan Kitwood
The number of men in low-paid part-time work has increased fourfold over the past 20 years.
New research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found that one in five low-paid men aged 25 to 55 now work part-time.
While 95% of top-earning men normally work full-time, 20% of the lowest paid now work part-time.
That means wage inequality for men has risen over two decades, but for women the opposite is the case.
More women have had a better education in recent years and more have moved into full-time jobs. As a result their pay has improved and they have had less incentive to leave the workforce.
However, the research does not reveal why increasing numbers of low-paid men are working part time.
Jonathan Cribb, senior research economist at the IFS and author of the report, said: "To understand the drivers of inequality in the UK it is vital to understand the growing association between low hourly wages and low hours of work among men."
Less secure
There are two schools of thought about what might be happening. It may be that increasing numbers of men want to work part-time, although this seems unlikely.
The second theory is based on the sectors where these low-paid jobs are found.
Six in ten of them are in the retail, wholesale or hospitality sectors.
That might suggest men who previously worked in low-paid but secure, full-time jobs in sectors such as manufacturing have lost that type of employment.
Instead they have been forced into the traditionally poorly paid and less secure services sector of the economy.
Yet those are the sectors of the economy that traditionally have employed large numbers of poorly paid and part-time female workers.For my B-day in November she got me this beautiful
'Spring Blossom Fairy'.
I was still 5 then and still like TOYs! ("5", since I only count decades these days!) It was one of those amazing things where you go in a shop with a lot of dolls and gift stuff, and all of a sudden there's one that's just looking right at you and makes you smile. I never bought it, but Dorothy went back for it later in secret.
Well seasons do pass quickly when you're having such a bright time as this. Here's a few seasonal shots, one from Christmas at Disney, a New Years club photo, and one from Easter. There will be more over time. You can see that Dorothy decided to cut her hair with bangs again here. I understand, as I too have always subscribed to the 'Big Bangs Theory" of CUTENESS!
We're always looking to find more fun combinations for us to wear together. A good place to start, of course, are the thrift stores. You never know when you're going to find the start of an adorably sweet looking outfit!
One day we found this awesome teal satin dress at one of those stores. It was WAY WAY longer when we got it, so the first order of business was to hem it up to be more childlike. We call this one her Alice in Wonderland dress.(Later, we added a stiff and short white petticoat to wear under it, which really made it 'poof' out). So with that and me in my 'baby blue boi' variation, we now have a great set of matching outfits to wear to go dancing in!
Speaking of dancing, some of you, I'm sure, recognize this unmistakable brick background. It's the 'Castle', one of my favorite clubs of all time, in Ybor City, Tampa.
Here's a few more of us in that outfit combination. Some say we look like Little Bo Peeps. Of course for me, it's little 'BOI' peep.By: Raffi Grinberg, co-Director of Heterodox Academy’s OpenMind Platform
The audio recording of a recent meeting at Wilfrid Laurier University, in Waterloo, Canada has captured the academic world’s attention.
A teaching assistant named Lindsay Shepherd was reprimanded by her supervising professor, as well as a “manager of Gendered Violence Prevention and Support” and one other professor. Her crime? Screening for two sections of her communications class a recorded TV segment in which Jordan Peterson, among others, debates a recent law concerning the use of gender pronouns. Nobody in the video criticized trans people; the question discussed was whether or not the law should require Canadians to use the pronouns that other people choose for themselves (Peterson said no). Furthermore, Shepherd didn’t criticize or disparage students of any kind in any way, nor did she even endorse Peterson’s view; in fact, as she later stated, she disagreed with Peterson’s view. In her classes, she simply presented a clip without taking a stance.
It can easily be argued that there exist video clips that cross a line, and should not be presented in a classroom. But when I watch this TV segment, I see a respectful, level-headed debate with a philosophically diverse group of participants on a controversial legal topic. In a later conversation, Shepherd emphasized that this debate is currently one of the hottest issues in the national discourse and that it’s important to expose students to these differing perspectives because they will encounter them once they leave the university. (The title of the course is “Canadian Communication in Context.”) Nevertheless, at least one of Shepherd’s students filed a complaint, which initiated a bureaucratic response process.
Shepherd recorded the ensuing meeting with her supervisors; you can find the complete recording and a partial transcript of the meeting here. At times, the transcript is reminiscent of scenes from dystopian novels by George Orwell, Franz Kafka, and other writers who experienced the Soviet system.
This story, however, has a surprisingly positive ending. After the recording was made public, the President of Laurier issued an apology. Shepherd’s supervising professor Rambukkana also wrote his own open letter of apology in which he goes well beyond the minimum required, and asks whether perhaps teachers should focus less on goals of social justice and more on exposing students to multiple viewpoints.
Below, we analyze the transcript of the meeting itself, and then reflect on the apology. We conclude with suggested next steps for those involved.
In the meeting, Shepherd asserted that she was neutrally presenting a topic (the legally mandated use of new gender pronouns) that is in the current public discourse.
Shepherd: [C]an you shield people from those ideas? Am I supposed to comfort them and make sure that they are insulated away from this? Like, is that what the point of this is? Because to me, that is so against what a university is about. So against it. I was not taking sides. I was presenting both arguments.
But her supervising professor, Nathan Rambukkana, didn’t want her to remain neutral.
Shepherd: Like I said, it was in the spirit of debate. Rambukkana: Okay, “in the spirit of the debate” is slightly different than “this is a problematic idea that we might want to unpack.” Shepherd: But that’s taking sides. Rambukkana: Yes.
One side of this debate has seemingly become academic orthodoxy, which precludes the possibility that students might question it and think critically about it. In the words of Orwell from 1984:
Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
Shepherd’s supervisors did not disclose any information about the complaint.
Shepherd: I have no concept of how many people complained, what their complaint was, you haven’t shown me the complaint. Rambukkana: I understand that this is upsetting, but also confidentiality matters. Shepherd: The number of people is confidential? Rambukkana: Yes.
Even the policy violation was unclear.
Rambukkana: Do you understand how what happened was contrary to, sorry Adria, what was the policy? Joel: Gendered and Sexual Violence. Rambukkana: — Gendered and Sexual Violence Policy. Do you understand how — Shepherd: Sorry, what did I violate in that policy. Joel: Um, so, gender-based violence, transphobia, in that policy. Causing harm, um, to trans students by, uh, bringing their identity as invalid. Their pronouns as invalid — potentially invalid. Shepherd: So I caused harm? Joel: — which is, under the Ontario Human Rights Code a protected thing so something that Laurier holds as a value. Shepherd: Ok, so by proxy me showing a YouTube video I’m transphobic and I caused harm and violence? So be it. I can’t do anything to control that.
These amorphous accusations are reminiscent of Kafka’s opening lines from The Trial:
Someone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.
At Laurier—and other universities—can teachers be disciplined for being anonymously accused of violating an undefinable policy? If so, this has chilling implications for teaching and learning. Teachers will have to guess at what policies might protect students’ sensibilities, and eye their classrooms with fear. Each student is a potential accuser, so teachers must plan their lectures with the most easily-offended student in mind, taking account of all topics that could cause offense. In fact, since 2015 we have been hearing many reports of teachers self-censoring, “teaching on tenterhooks,” and cutting potentially controversial materials from their syllabi.
Throughout the conversation, Shepherd continued to articulate the value of showing students conflicting ideas.
Shepherd: But when they leave the university they’re going to be exposed to these ideas, so I don’t see how I’m doing a disservice to the class by exposing them to ideas that are really out there.
The ideas are “really out there:” the clip Shepherd showed had recently aired on TV. But Rambukkana later explained that there are some perspectives for which a stance must be taken by the teacher. For example:
Rambukkana: This is like neutrally playing a speech by Hitler.
Asserting that everyone you disagree with is Hitler is a typical application of concept creep. While it is easy to argue that Hitler’s views should not be portrayed neutrally in the classroom, can the same thing be said of Jordan Peterson, a professor at the University Toronto whose ire is directed not at trans people but at a Canadian law mandating pronoun use? Is opposing a recent law regulating language use really comparable to carrying out genocide?
(Even the question of how Hitler should be portrayed in the classroom might be worth some open debate. When I was in high school, our history class had a unit on the Holocaust in which we were shown Nazi propaganda films and asked to discuss what made them so effective. This was at a Jewish high school, in which many students’ grandparents were murdered in the Holocaust. I’d argue we benefited tremendously from that class.)
Such shielding ultimately harms the students; arguably, the greatest disservice is done to the trans students themselves, for they would most benefit from being able to discuss the merits of the bill and debate the topic with those who disagree with them.
The supervisors settled on the requirement that Shepherd submit for advance review any videos she wants to show her students. They left open the possibility that more consequences may follow, because:
Rambukkana: Frankly some of the things that we talked about are a little problematic.
The committee didn’t seem content to let Shepherd maintain her stance. Throughout the conversation you can feel their drive to convert her; they cannot accept that someone would want to maintain a view of intellectual freedom that they consider “problematic.” As in 1984:
“You are a slow learner, Winston.” “How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.” “Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane.”
Let us take the views espoused in this meeting and carry them to their logical end: Students at Laurier will graduate without ever having even heard ideas that run contrary to their own. When they do encounter people in the post-college world who hold those ideas, they will attribute bad intentions; they’ll assume that such people must either be insane, or as evil as Hitler. And thus when they, in turn, become supervising professors, they will make sure their TAs do not inflict any such views on their students, to shield them from insanity and evil. And so on. Until, perhaps, one defiant TA challenges them…
As mentioned earlier, this incident has taken a positive turn. Because of overwhelming negative media attention, the university president, Deborah MacLatchy, issued an apology to Shepherd on behalf of the university. It was minimal and pro forma; it reads like the apology of someone calculating political costs. It pivots away from the university’s bad treatment of Shepherd to condemn people on social media who targeted those involved “with extreme vitriol.” It ends by proposing a task force to look into a broad array of issues, including diversity and inclusion.
But Shepherd’s supervising professor did much better. Rambukkana went beyond the minimum necessary (apologizing for his mistreatment of Shepherd). Rather, he gave her the honor of actually listening to her arguments. He questioned whether it is appropriate for him to teach from a partisan social justice perspective, or whether it might be better for professors to be less heavy-handed and more open to “diversity of thought:”
Finally there is the question of teaching from a social justice perspective, which my course does attempt to do. I write elsewhere about reaching across the aisle to former alt-right figures as possible unexpected allies in the struggle to create a better more just society for all. But hearing all of the feedback from people and looking at the polarized response I am beginning to rethink so limited an approach. Maybe we ought to strive to reach across all of our multiple divisions to find points where we can discuss such issues, air multiple perspectives, and embrace the diversity of thought. And maybe I have to get out of an “us versus them” habit of thought to do this myself, and to think of the goal as more than simply advancing social justice, but social betterment and progress as a whole.
This willingness to question whether professors should teach from a particular political perspective is rare and commendable. Rambukkana recognizes that partisan teaching reinforces an “us versus them” mindset that is antithetical both to the pursuit of truth and to the pursuit of good public policy. Bravo to Professor Rambukkana.
We close with a few suggestions that might help turn this whole episode into something positive—something that makes Wilfrid Laurier University, and the academy in general, better able to live up to their stated principles:
1) We invite Lindsay Shepherd and Professor Rambukkana to join Heterodox Academy, a community of more than 1,300 scholars likewise committed to viewpoint diversity.
2) We suggest that Professor Rambukkana, and the other professors and teachers at Laurier, use the OpenMind platform to help depolarize their classrooms and foster mutual understanding.
3) Per Shepherd’s own recommendation, we encourage President MacLatchy and the Laurier administration to endorse The Chicago Principles to enshrine their assurance of freedom of expression.
4) We invite all readers of this essay to share their own stories of constructive disagreement; specifically, when a diversity of viewpoints led to productive outcomes. (Please share in the comments below, or email them to grinberg@heterodoxacademy.org.)
It isn’t easy to stand up to your boss—and maintain such level-headedness while doing so—especially when your career might be at stake. At the time, Shepherd couldn’t have predicted that this would be the outcome. So, just in time for (the American) Thanksgiving, we express our thanks to Lindsay Shepherd for her integrity, bravery, and sanity under the pressure of the orthodoxy.
It also isn’t easy to admit your mistakes, especially publicly; and it’s even harder to truly listen to another’s perspective and change your mind as a result. We give thanks to Professor Rambukkana for demonstrating humility and openness, as well as a commitment to improve Laurier’s learning environment for many students to come.
One last quote from 1984:
Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.
As this incident shows, individual actions of brave sanity will add up to a braver, saner academy.
Opinions expressed are those of the author(s). Publication does not imply endorsement by Heterodox Academy or any of its members. We welcome your comments below. Feel free to challenge and disagree, but please try to model the sort of respectful and constructive criticism that makes viewpoint diversity most valuable. Comments that include obscenity or that sound like a tirade or screed are likely to be deleted.Part of the reason, if not the reason people buy mechanical keyboards from the likes of Corsair and Das Keyboard is for that sweet, sweet extended key travel. The mushy membrane keyboards included with most desktops and the cursory chicklet keyboards of laptops simply don't have the depth of key travel and tactile feedback that rapid-fire typists and gamers demand. If you fall into either of those camps, I'd urge you to give a mechanical keyboard a try—it really does make a world of difference.
Weirdly, though, Corsair thinks the key actuation of a good mechanical switch is a little too high for the most l33t of gamers—they might even be losing precious e-sports dollars because of it. Enter the K70 and K65 Rapidfire keyboards, which are kitted out with the all-new mechanical Cherry MX Speed switch. The MX Speed boasts an actuation distance—that is, the point at which its switch is activated—of just 1.2mm and a light 45g actuation force. By contrast, my mechanical switch of choice, the Cherry MX Brown, has a much larger 2mm actuation distance and 55g actuation force. The idea is to give an advantage to e-sports players by shaving off precious milliseconds (microseconds?) from each keystroke.
Now, I know what you're thinking, and no, if you're not into your mechanical keyboards, it's doubtful you'll be able to tell the difference between an actuation distance of 2mm and 1.2mm. Even if you are, the difference is subtle. But, there is a difference, and I'm not so sure it's one I like. When compared side-by-side with a Cherry MX Brown keyboard, the Rapidfire's keys aren't as comfortable to type on. There's no discernible bump or click—one of the key selling points of many mechanical switches that helps identify when a key has been pressed—and the shallower travel makes it far easier to bottom out when typing.
The Rapidfire has a very similar feel to Logitech's G-series of mechanical keyboards, which boast the company's own Romer-G switches. The Romer-Gs also sport a low actuation distance and operating force—1.5mm and 45g respectively—and rather than help e-sports players hang onto their dollars, I suspect the Rapidfire is meant to help Corsair not lose any of its own to Logitech. Regardless, the shallower feel isn't one for typists, and even gamers might find that the reduced key travel negates the whole point of owning a mechanical keyboard in the first place.
That said, it is largely a matter of preference. If you're a fan of the Logitech G-series or you like the smooth clickless feel of a Cherry MX Red or Cherry MX Black switch, the Rapidfire is good choice, particularly as the rest of the keyboard is extremely well made. The chassis is made from a solid brushed aluminium and sports non-obtrusive but useful extra keys like a Windows key lock (which puts a stop to accidentally bringing up the start menu in the middle of game), as well as dedicated media keys and a lovely knurled knob for adjusting volume.
There's a comfortable detachable wrist rest included in the box too, as well as extra contorted and textured keycaps you can use on common gaming keys like WASD. Again, I don't think they make a huge difference to playing games (when was the last time you couldn't find the WASD keys without looking?), but it's nice to have the option. Round the back of the keyboard there's a USB port for hooking up a mouse or other peripheral, along with a largely pointless switch for changing the polling rate of the keys—why you'd want it at anything other than the fastest setting is a mystery. There's also full n-key rollover, which means in theory you can push all the keys at once and have each one be recognised by your computer—a feature that's useful for a small subsection of gamers.
Top of the "sounds awesome but is probably pointless" pile has to go to the built-in RGB lighting. Since its introduction by Corsair back in 2014, pretty much every keyboard manufacturer has hopped on the RGB bandwagon and brought out peripherals packed with all manner of flashy lights and gizmos. The trouble is, other than putting on a cool-looking light show, there's been no real practical reason to have RGB lighting. Corsair has tried to make it more useful by offering an SDK to developers, and there are a handful of games that support things like lighting up the F-keys to show how much health you have left.
But for the most part the RGB lighting is there because it looks pretty. Corsair's Utility Engine software allows for all manner of customisations, including custom macros and lighting effects. You can individually light up the WASD keys, for example, or have a wave of light flow across the keyboard when you drop a grenade in Counter-Strike. There's even a mode that lets you use the keyboard as a graphic visualiser when you're listening to music. Thanks to the sheer amount of customisation options, the software isn't always the simplest thing to use, but you can download pre-made profiles from other users over on the Corsair website.
At $169.99/£149.99 for the K70 RGB Rapidfire—and $149.99/£119.99 for the K65 RGB Rapidfire, which ditches the number pad—it's a serious investment. The price is comparable to competing keyboards like Logitech's G810, though, which goes for $159.99/£139.99. The price is somewhat offset by the legendary build quality of the Cherry MX switches Corsair uses, which are rated for 50 million key presses; the Rapidfire will likely outlast your next few gaming PCs.
But for my money, I'd skip the Rapidfire and pick up one of Corsair's other models with more traditional switches like the Cherry MX Brown. They're better to type on, and best of all you can pick one up without the RGB lighting for less money too. The standard K70 goes for about $130/£115—a very reasonable price for a well-reviewed, full-size mechanical keyboard.The police in Bayelsa have confirmed the death of an 18-year-old girl who was reportedly gang-raped by three men while running an errand for her parents in Yenagoa, the state capital.
The girl was believed to have hanged herself in Amarata, Yenagoa LGA due to the shame and stigmatization she experience after the unfortunate incident.
According to the Spokesman of the state Police Command, Alex Akhigbe, “I believe the deceased decided to hang herself due to the attendant shame and stigmatisation she experienced after the rape incident.”
Read the PM News report below:
He said that the command had launched investigation into the alleged rape charges filed by the deceased family. One of the family members, who pleaded for anonymity, said that the girl was reportedly gang-raped last week. “She was on errand for her elder sister and was allegedly raped at gun point by three boys who forced her into an uncompleted building.
“The girl was devastated after the incident. “After some days she told her sister and the husband her experience. Her sister’s husband who is a Pastor, asked her to describe any of her attacker. “She described one of the boys, but the boy could not be found; I believe Pastor counselled her (the victim). “The pastor has promised to pursue the matter to the court. “She swallowed a poisonous substance known as Sniper and she was discovered while groaning in pains and rushed to GloryLand Hospital. “The victim was discovered through the note she dropped before taking the poisonous substance,” the source said.Does Tool drummer Danny Carey like playing with our feelings? Maybe.
But on the most recent edition of The MetalSucks Podcast, which primarily focused on his side project The Legend of the Seagullmen, he did reveal quite an interesting bit about the new Tool album:
My co-host Brandon talked to Justin Chancellor earlier this year. Justin made us feel like Tool would have a new album out in 2018. On a scale of 1-10, how much did Justin lie to us? Danny Carey: “He did not lie to you. On scale of how much he lied, it would be zero. It’ll be out. It’ll be out in 2018.”
In a separate interview with Loudwire, Carey echoed a similar sentiment:
When pressed if fans can expect a new Tool album in 2018, Carey pushed his chips to the center of the table when stating, "Yes. I’m saying definitely. We’ll probably have it done in the first half [of the year] if things go as planned. There’s setup times and manufacturing – I can never predict all that, it seems like it’s constantly evolving. [What time of year it will be out] I can’t tell you." Since we've been waiting over 4,000 days since 10,000 Days was issued, knowing that there's only a 365 day waiting window upon us, we'll gladly take it.
But is he lying? Perhaps lying isn't the best phrase. I'm sure Danny thinks and hopes the album will be out next year, but will it be finished in time? Tool have said they were 90% done with the album in the summer going to be entering the studio this past autumn, and in the past Carey has he hoped that the band would be releasing the album "pretty soon," and we got our hopes up when we learned Maynard has begun working on vocals, typically the last step before completely. So, maybe he's not lying?
Meshuggah's drummer Tomas Haake has heard parts of the album and said that it's the "best [he]'s heard of Tool." So, should we be getting excited?
But then, I think back to a few years ago when Carey said there was hope for new Tool in 2013, and we know how that happened.
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Related Posts[Python-Dev] The next major Python version will be Python 8
Hi, Python 3 becomes more and more popular and is close to a dangerous point where it can become popular that Python 2. The PSF decided that it's time to elaborate a new secret plan to ensure that Python users suffer again with a new major release breaking all their legacy code. The PSF is happy to announce that the new Python release will be Python 8! Why the version 8? It's just to be greater than Perl 6 and PHP 7, but it's also a mnemonic for PEP 8. By the way, each minor release will now multiply the version by 2. With Python 8 released in 2016 and one release every two years, we will beat Firefox 44 in 2022 (Python 64) and Windows 2003 in 2032 (Python 2048). A major release requires a major change to justify a version bump: the new killer feature is that it's no longer possible to import a module which does not respect the PEP 8. It ensures that all your code is pure. Example: $ python8 -c 'import keyword' Lib/keyword.py:16:1: E122 continuation line missing indentation or outdented Lib/keyword.py:16:1: E265 block comment should start with '#'Lib/keyword.py:50:1: E122 continuation line missing indentation or outdented (...) ImportError: no pep8, no glory Good news: since *no* module of the current standard library of Python 3 respect the PEP 8, the standard library will be simplified to one unique module, which is new in Python 8: pep8. The standard library will move to the Python Cheeseshop (PyPI), to reply to an old and popular request. DON'T PANIC! You are still able to import your legacy code into Python 8, you just have to rename all your modules to add a "_noqa" suffix to the filename. For example, rename utils.py to utils_noqa.py. A side effect is that you have to update all imports. For example, replace "import django" with "import django_noqa". After a study of the PSF, it's a best option to split again the Python community and make sure that all users are angry. The plan is that in 10 years, at least 50% of the 77,000 packages on the Python cheeseshop will be updated to get the "_noqa" tag. After 2020, the PSF will start to sponsor trolls to harass users of the legacy Python 3 to force them to migrate to Python 8. Python 8 is a work-in-progress (it's still an alpha version), the standard library was not removed yet. Hopefully, trying to import any module of the standard library fails. Don't hesitate to propose more ideas to make Python 8 more incompatible with Python 3! Note: The change is already effective in the default branch of Python: https://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/9aedec2dbc01 Have fun, VictorA few days ago on this countdown I wrote about Jim Clark’s victory in the 1965 Indy 500, a win so dominant that helped to bring about the end of front engine roadsters at the Brickyard once and for all. But for all the praise that Clark and his Lotus 38 would achieve in that Memorial Day triumph, its origins stem from a tiny 2.75 litre machine that would rock the Indy racing establishment in 1961
In December 1947, Surrey based father and son duo Charles and John Cooper formed the Cooper car company along with family friend Eric Brandon. The trio had earned a strong reputation in the automotive world during the 1930s, with Charles having worked on the Sunbeam “Silver Bullet” land-speed project before setting up his own garage in 1934 just one mile south of the Brooklands race course. After spending World War II servicing fire engines to keep his business afloat, Charles was approached by his son over the prospect of using their garage to build a machine to the newly issued National 500 cc engine regulations, with the Cooper 500 making its competitive debut in time for the 1948 racing season.
During the next five years Cooper began to establish itself as one of the dominant force of junior level British motor sport, winning 64 of 78 major races between 1951 and 1954 and earning praise from drivers including Stirling Moss, Peter Collins, Ken Tyrrell, and a certain Bernie Ecclestone in the process. Buoyed by their success at the junior level, Cooper turned their attention to Formula One, entering a Bristol powered T20 for Mike Hawthorn during the 1952 season. Although Hawthorn and the team enjoyed early success at their new level, including a third place at the 1952 British Grand Prix, the team found themselves underpowered and under-funded compared to their international rivals, and after a 1956 season in which they failed to score a single point Cooper decided to take a drastically different approach in a bid to turn around his company’s fortunes.
For the 1957 season Cooper shocked the racing paddock by appearing at the first round in Monaco with a rear engined car, powered by a modified Coventry Climax engine based around an old fire-pump unit. Although the car was underpowered compared to it’s rivals, it’s rearward distribution meant that it was less liable to spins and much more effective at putting the power down to the road, whilst also reducing weight and improving cornering response due to the lack of demand placed on the car’s front tyres. After picking up two wins at the hands of Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant in 1958, Cooper went on to dominate the following season, picking up five wins including two for Jack Brabham on his way to that season’s World Championship. The laid-back Australian would repeat the feat in 1960, picking up five successive wins to wrap up the championship with two races of the season still remaining, and leading many of America’s biggest names to take an interest in the curious little bob-tailed machine.
After picking up his second successive championship in his T53 machine, Brabham and Cooper were invited by former 500 winner Rodger Ward to drive the car at a test session at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and after putting in encouraging lap times around the 2.5 mile course wealthy enthusiast Jim Kimberley agreed to sponsor Cooper to produce a specially built version of the machine for the 1961 500. Developed in just four months, the T54 that entered that year’s race was the only one of it’s kind ever built by the company, fitted with a longer wheelbase and offset chassis to address the specific needs of the famous Speedway. In a sea of Offenhauser powered roadsters, the Cooper stood out like a sore thumb, but after a few practice soon began to establish itself as a justified member of the Brickyard paddock. Despite limited running in the machine, Brabham managed to qualify the car in 17th place, and during the race slowly began to move his way through the field, although his car lacked power compared to his roadster rivals, the low weight and manoeuvrability of his machine allowed it to carry more speed through the turns, and very soon Brabham soon found himself running third behind the pairing of Eddie Sachs and AJ Foyt. Unfortunately for Brabham however, his car’s high cornering speeds placed significant load on his machine’s tyres, forcing the Australian to make three lengthy pit-stops during the race to replace the inadequate Dunlops.
Eventually Brabham managed to come home in a credible ninth place, completing all 200 laps of the event and earning high praise in the paddock for his underdog effort. Although rear engine cars had been nothing new at the Brickyard, Brabham and the Cooper marked the first time that such a concept had proven competitive, and over the years teams began to follow the lead that the Bob-tailed machine had paved during that race, culminating of course in Clark’s dominant victory in the Lotus 38 in 1965. The race would be the only time Cooper would contest the 500, the team instead turning its attention back to Formula One before ceasing operations in 1968.
The Cooper T54 may not be the most successful machine covered in this countdown, but the impact that came from it’s arrival at the Brickyard means that the kudos given to it is certainly justifiable. And with Sir Jack’s grandson Matthew set to make his debut in this year’s 500 it may be that rear engines aren’t the only legacy to come from the 1961 race.
For today’s video we have we feature a highlights package from that 1961 event, which also featured the first 500 victory for a certain AJ Foyt:
Advertisements“I want to be very clear about this up front, I will kill you if you try and take her from me.” Alice tightened her grip on Shelby, even as she turned slightly to keep her mother’s body out of Blake Hill’s line of sight.
For his part, Blake didn’t seem as intimidated as she hoped. “Will you? Those are big words, Alice, but killing isn’t as easy as the Sims make it seem. You think that the first life you take can be that of someone who helped train you, guide you, and is in fact actual family? I’m not so convinced. Whether you realize it or not, you take after Shelby, and she was cursed with much too kind of a heart to do something like that, a curse she passed on to you.”
“What about me, Blake? Think I won’t see it through?” Sean Pendleton was moving too, situating himself between his half-brother and his niece. Turning into fog wouldn’t do much to protect Alice or Shelby from Blake’s power, but at the very least it would give him another target to focus on. That might prove to be enough, if it came to that.
“Oh no, I have no doubt you’ll kill me, with cause or without. I’m surprised you made it through this many years of teaching together without putting poison in my coffee.” Blake was relaxed, much too at ease for a situation like this.
“I owed Blaine a favor, and paying him back by killing another professor would have been a dick move. Self-defense, on the other hand, is a whole other matter.”
Things were rapidly building toward a fight, and while Alice was ready to throw down if needed, that would put her mother at risk. “Let’s try and talk about this for a second. The only thing we all agree on is we want Shelby to be safe, right? Maybe we’re all after the same goal for her, in which case we don’t need to go after one another’s throats. In fact, it would stupidly put her at risk for nothing more than the sake of old grudges and whose fault it is that we reached this point. I’ve got news for you both, I’ve seen what happened, I know the whole story, and I can say with total certainty that it doesn’t fucking matter who deserves the blame for her condition. It was a bad situation, and a hard call was made. Rather than waste more of her life pissing and bickering, why don’t we focus on getting her somewhere safe until she can be cured?”
“Noble a sentiment as that is, I’m afraid it’s not an option yet.” Blake was still standing in the same space, but his footing had changed, as though he were bracing for something. Whether he was getting ready to counter an attack he expected or send one himself, however, was a mystery Alice couldn’t crack |
to you or to your device), then make parts of it available for research or use in products or through APIs. They're not crawling Google or any other sites, but rather seeing the precise behavior of devices as people use them to surf or search the Internet.
Clickstream data is awesomely powerful, but when it comes to estimating searcher behavior, we need scale. Thankfully, Jumpshot can deliver here, too. Their US panel of Internet users is in the millions (they don't disclose exact size, but it's between 2–10) so we can trust these numbers to reliably paint a representative picture. That said, there may still be biases in the data — it could be that certain demographics of Internet users are more or less likely to be in Jumpshot's panel, their mobile data is limited to Android (no iOS), and we know that some alternative kinds of searches aren't captured by their methodology**. Still, there's amazing stuff here, and it's vastly more than we've been able to get any other way, so let's dive in.
23 Search Behavior Stats
Methodology: All of the data was collected from Jumpshot's multi-million user panel in October 2016. T-distribution scaling was applied to validate the estimates of overall searches across platforms. All other data is expressed as percentages. Jumpshot's panel includes mobile and desktop devices in similar proportions, though no devices are iOS, so users on Macs, iPhones, and iPads are not included.
#1: How many searches are *really* performed on Google.com each month?
On the devices and types of queries Jumpshot can analyze, there were an average of 3.4 searches/day/searcher. Using the T-Distribution scaling analysis on various sample set sizes of Jumpshot's data, Russ estimated that the most likely reality is that between 40–60 billion searches happen on Google.com in the US each month.
Here's more detail from Russ himself:
"...All of the graphs are non-linear in shape, which indicates that as the samples get bigger we are approaching correct numbers but not in a simple % relationship... I have given 3 variations based on the estimated number of searches you think happen in the US annually. I have seen wildly different estimates from 20 billion to 100 billion, so I gave a couple of options. My gut is to go with the 40 billion numbers, especially since once we reach the 100MM line for 40 and 60B, there is little to no increase for 1 billion keywords, which would indicate we have reached a point where each new keyword is searched just 1 time."
How does that compare to numbers Google's given? Well, in May of 2016, Google told Search Engine Land they "processed at least 2 trillion searches per year." Using our Jumpshot-based estimates, and assuming October of 2016 was a reasonably average month for search demand, we'd get to 480–720 billion annual searches. That's less than half of what Google claims, but Google's number is WORLDWIDE! Jumpshot's data here is only for the US. This suggests that, as Danny Sullivan pointed out in the SELand article, Google could well be handling much, much more than 2 trillion annual searches.
Note that we believe our 40–60 billion/month number is actually too low. Why? Voice searches, searches in the Google app and Google Home, higher search use on iOS (all four of which Jumpshot can't measure), October could be a lower-than-average month, some kinds of search partnerships, and automated searches that aren't coming from human beings on their devices could all mean our numbers are undercounting Google's actual US search traffic. In the future, we'll be able to measure interesting things like growth or shrinkage of search demand as we compare October 2016 vs other months.
#2: How long is the average Google search session?
From the time of the initial query to the loading of the search results page and the selection of any results, plus any back button clicks to those SERPs and selection of new results, the all-in average was just under 1 minute. If that seems long, remember that some search sessions may be upwards of an hour (like when I research all the best ryokans in Japan before planning a trip — I probably clicked 7 pages deep into the SERPs and opened 30 or more individual pages). Those long sessions are dragging up that average.
#3: What percent of users perform one or more searches on a given day?
This one blew my mind! Of the millions of active, US web users Jumpshot monitored in October 2016, only 15% performed at least one or more searches in a day. 45% performed at least one query in a week, and 68% performed one or more queries that month. To me, that says there's still a massive amount of search growth opportunity for Google. If they can make people more addicted to and more reliant on search, as well as shape the flow of information and the needs of people toward search engines, they are likely to have a lot more room to expand searches/searcher.
#4: What percent of Google searches result in a click?
Google is answering a lot of queries themselves. From searches like "Seattle Weather," to more complicated ones like "books by Kurt Vonnegut" or "how to remove raspberry stains?", Google is trying to save you that click — and it looks like they're succeeding.
66% of distinct search queries resulted in one or more clicks on Google's results. That means 34% of searches get no clicks at all. If we look at all search queries (not just distinct ones), those numbers shift to a straight 60%/40% split. I wouldn't be surprised to find that over time, we get closer and closer to Google solving half of search queries without a click. BTW — this is the all-in average, but I've broken down clicks vs. no-clicks on mobile vs. desktop in #19 below.
#5: What percent of clicks on Google search results go to AdWords/paid listings?
It's less than I thought, but perhaps not surprising given how aggressive Google's had to be with ad subtlety over the last few years. Of distinct search queries in Google, only 3.4% resulted in a click on an AdWords (paid) ad. If we expand that to all search queries, the number drops to 2.6%. Google's making a massive amount of money on a small fraction of the searches that come into their engine. No wonder they need to get creative (or, perhaps more accurately, sneaky) with hiding the ad indicator in the SERPs.
#6: What percent of clicks on Google search results go to Maps/local listings?
This is not measuring searches and clicks that start directly from maps.google.com or from the Google Maps app on a mobile device. We're talking here only about Google.com searches that result in a click on Google Maps. That number is 0.9% of Google search clicks, just under 1 in 100. We know from MozCast that local packs show up in ~15% of queries (though that may be biased by MozCast's keyword corpus).
#7: What percent of clicks on Google search results go to links in the Knowledge Graph?
Knowledge panels are hugely popular in Google's results — they show up in ~38% of MozCast's dataset. But they're not nearly as popular for search click activity, earning only ~0.5% of clicks.
I'm not totally surprised by that. Knowledge panels are, IMO, more about providing quick answers and details to searchers than they are about drawing the click themselves. If you see Knowledge Panels in your SERPs, don't panic too much that they're taking away your CTR opportunity. This made me realize that Keyword Explorer is probably overestimating the degree to which Knowledge Panels remove organic CTR (e.g. Alice Springs, which has only a Knowledge Panel next to 10 blue links, has a CTR opportunity of 64).
#8: What percent of clicks on Google search results go to image blocks?
Images are one of the big shockers of this report overall (more on that later). While MozCast has image blocks in ~11% of Google results, Jumpshot's data shows images earn 3% of all Google search clicks.
I think this happens because people are naturally drawn to images and because Google uses click data to specifically show images that earn the most engagement. If you're wondering why your perfectly optimized image isn't ranking as well in Google Images as you hoped, we've got strong suspicions and some case studies suggesting it might be because your visual doesn't draw the eye and the click the way others do.
If Google only shows compelling images and only shows the image block in search results when they know there's high demand for images (i.e. people search the web, then click the "image" tab at the top), then little wonder images earn strong clicks in Google's results.
#9: What percent of clicks on Google search results go to News/Top Stories results?
Gah! We don't know for now. This one was frustrating and couldn't be gathered due to Google's untimely switch from "News Results" to "Top Stories," some of which happened during the data collection period. We hope to have this in the summer, when we'll be collecting and comparing results again.
#10: What percent of clicks on Google search results go to Twitter block results?
I was expecting this one to be relatively small, and it is, though it slightly exceeded my expectations. MozCast has tweet blocks showing in ~7% of SERPs, and Jumpshot shows those tweets earning ~0.23% of all clicks.
My guess is that the tweets do very well for a small set of search queries, and tend to be shown less (or shown lower in the results) over time if they don't draw the click. As an example, search results for my name show the tweet block between organic position #1 and #2 (either my tweets are exciting or the rest of my results aren't). Compare that to David Mihm, who tweeted very seldomly for a long while and has only recently been more active — his tweets sit between positions #4 and #5. Or contrast with Dr. Pete, whose tweets are above the #1 spot!
#11: What percent of clicks on Google search results go to YouTube?
Technically, there are rare occasions when a video from another provider (usually Vimeo) can appear in Google's SERPs directly. But more than 99% of videos in Google come from YouTube (which violates anti-competitive laws IMO, but since Google pays off so many elected representatives, it's likely not an issue for them). Thus, we chose to study only YouTube rather than all video results.
MozCast shows videos in 6.3% of results, just below tweets. In Jumpshot's data, YouTube's engagement massively over-performed its raw visibility, drawing 1.8% of all search clicks. Clearly, for those searches with video intent behind them, YouTube is delivering well.
#12: What percent of clicks on Google search results go to personalized Gmail/Google Mail results?
I had no guess at all on this one, and it's rarely discussed in the SEO world because it's so relatively difficult to influence and obscure. We don't have tracking data via MozCast because these only show in personalized results for folks logged in to their Gmail accounts when searching, and Google chooses to only show them for certain kinds of queries.
Jumpshot, however, thanks to clickstream tracking, can see that 0.16% of search clicks go to Gmail or Google Mail following a query, only a little under the number of clicks to tweets.
#13: What percent of clicks on Google search results go to Google Shopping results?
The Google Shopping ads have become pretty compelling — the visuals are solid, the advertisers are clearly spending lots of effort on CTR optimization, and the results, not surprisingly, reflect this.
MozCast has Shopping results in 9% of queries, while clickstream data shows those results earning 0.55% of all search clicks.
#14: What percent of Google searches result in a click on a Google property?
Google has earned a reputation over the last few years of taking an immense amount of search traffic for themselves — from YouTube to Google Maps to Gmail to Google Books and the Google App Store on mobile, and even Google+, there's a strong case to be made that Google's eating into opportunity for 3rd parties with bets of their own that don't have to play by the rules.
Honestly, I'd have estimated this in the 20–30 percent range, so it surprised me to see that, from Jumpshot's data, all Google properties earned only 11.8% of clicks from distinct searches (only 8.4% across all searches). That's still significant, of course, and certainly bigger than it was 5 years ago, but given that we know Google's search volume has more than doubled in the last 5 years, we have to be intellectually honest and say that there's vastly more opportunity in the crowded-with-Google's-own-properties results today than there was in the cleaner-but-lower-demand SERPs of 5 years ago.
#15: What percent of all searches happen on any major search property in the US?
I asked Jumpshot to compare 10 distinct web properties, add together all the searches they receive combined, and share the percent distribution. The results are FASCINATING!
Here they are in order:
Google.com 59.30% Google Images 26.79% YouTube.com 3.71% Yahoo! 2.47% Bing 2.25% Google Maps 2.09% Amazon.com 1.85% Facebook.com 0.69% DuckDuckGo 0.56% Google News 0.28%
I've also created a pie chart to help illustrate the breakdown:
If the Google Images data shocks you, you're not alone. I was blown away by the popularity of image search. Part of me wonders if Halloween could be responsible. We should know more when we re-collect and re-analyze this data for the summer.
Images wasn't the only surprise, though. Bing and Yahoo! combine for not even 1/10th of Google.com's search volume. DuckDuckGo, despite their tiny footprint compared to Facebook, have almost as many searches as the social media giant. Amazon has almost as many searches as Bing. And YouTube.com's searches are nearly twice the size of Bing's (on web browsers only — remember that Jumpshot won't capture searches in the YouTube app on mobile, tablet, or TV devices).
For the future, I also want to look at data for Google Shopping, MSN, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Yandex, Baidu, and Reddit. My suspicion is that none of those have as many searches as those above, but I'd love to be surprised.
BTW — if you're questioning this data compared to Comscore or Nielsen, I'd just point out that Jumpshot's panel is vastly larger, and their methodology is much cleaner and more accurate, too (at least, IMO). They don't do things like group site searches on Microsoft-owned properties into Bing's search share or try to statistically sample and merge methodologies, and whereas Comscore has a *global* panel of 2 million, Jumpshot's *US-only* panel of devices is considerably larger.
#16: What's the distribution of search demand across keywords?
Let's go back to looking only at keyword searches on Google. Based on October's searches, the top 1MM queries accounts for about 25% of all searches with the top 10MM queries accounting for about 45% and the top 1BB queries accounting for close to 90%. Jumpshot's kindly illustrated this for us:
The long tail is still very long indeed, with a huge amount of search volume taking place in keywords outside the top 10 million most-searched-for queries. In fact, almost 25% of all search volume happens outside the top 100 million keywords!
I illustrated this last summer with data from Russ' analysis based on Clickstre.am data, and it matches up fairly well (though not exactly; Jumpshot's panel is far larger).
#17: How many words does the average desktop vs. mobile searcher use in their queries?
According to Jumpshot, a typical searcher uses about 3 words in their search query. Desktop users have a slightly higher query length due to having a slightly higher share of queries of 6 words or more than mobile (16% for desktop vs. 14% for mobile).
I was actually surprised to see how close desktop and mobile are. Clearly, there's not as much separation in query formation as some folks in our space have estimated (myself included).
#18: What percent of queries are phrased as questions?
For this data, Jumpshot used any queries that started with the typical "Who," "What," "Where," "When," "Why," and "How," as well as "Am" (e.g. Am I registered to vote?) and "Is" (e.g. Is it going to rain tomorrow?). The data showed that ~8% of search queries are phrased as questions.
#19: What is the difference in paid vs. organic CTR on mobile compared to desktop?
This is one of those data points I've been longing for over many years. We've always suspected CTR on mobile is lower than on desktop, and now it's confirmed.
For mobile devices, 40.9% of Google searches result in an organic click, 2% in a paid click, and 57.1% in no click at all. For desktop devices, 62.2% of Google searches result in an organic click, 2.8% in a paid click, and 35% in no click. That's a pretty big delta, and one that illustrates how much more opportunity there still is in SEO vs. PPC. SEO has ~20X more traffic opportunity than PPC on both mobile and desktop. If you've been arguing that mobile has killed SEO or that SERP features have killed SEO or, really, that anything at all has killed SEO, you should probably change that tune.
#20: What percent of queries on Google result in the searcher changing their search terms without clicking any results?
You search. You don't find what you're seeking. So, you change your search terms, or maybe you click on one of Google's "Searches related to..." at the bottom of the page.
I've long wondered how often this pattern occurs, and what percent of search queries lead not to an answer, but to another search altogether. The answer is shockingly big: a full 18% of searches lead to a change in the search query!
No wonder Google has made related searches and "people also ask" such a big part of the search results in recent years.
#21: What percent of Google queries lead to more than one click on the results?
Some of us use ctrl+click to open up multiple tabs when searching. Others click one result, then click back and click another. Taken together, all the search behaviors that result in more than one click following a single search query in a session combine for 21%. That's 21% of searches that lead to more than one click on Google's results.
#22: What percent of Google queries result in pogo-sticking (i.e. the searcher clicks a result, then bounces back to the search results page and chooses a different result)?
As SEOs, we know pogo-sticking is a bad thing for our sites, and that Google is likely using this data to reward pages that don't get many pogo-stickers and nudge down those who do. Altogether, Jumpshot's October data saw 8% of searches that followed this pattern of search > click > back to search > click a different result.
Over time, if Google's successful at their mission of successfully satisfying more searchers, we'd expect this to go down. We'll watch that the next time we collect results and see what happens.
#23: What percent of clicks on non-Google properties in the search results go to a domain in the top 100?
Many of us in the search and web marketing world have been worried about whether search and SEO are becoming "winner-take-all" markets. Thus, we asked Jumpshot to look at the distribution of clicks to the 100 domains that received the most Google search traffic (excluding Google itself) vs. those outside the top 100.
The results are somewhat relieving: 12.6% of all Google clicks go to the top 100 search-traffic-receiving domains. The other 87.4% are to sites in the chunky middle and long tail of the search-traffic curve.
Phew! That's an immense load of powerful data, and over time, as we measure and report on this with our Jumpshot partners, we're looking forward to sharing trends and additional numbers, too.
If you've got a question about searcher behavior or search/click patterns, please feel free to leave it in the comments. I'll work with Russ and Randy to prioritize those requests and make the data available. It's my goal to have updated numbers to share at this year's MozCon in July.
Rand: What search sources, if any, might be missed by Jumpshot's methodology?
Jumpshot: We only looked at Google.com, except for the one question that asked specifically about Amazon, YouTube, DuckDuckGo, etc.
Rand: Do you, for example, capture searches performed in all Google apps (maps, search app, Google phone native queries that go to the web, etc)?
Jumpshot: Nothing in-app, but anything that opens a mobile browser — yes.
Rand: Do you capture all voice searches?
Jumpshot: If it triggers a web browser either on desktop or on mobile, then yes.
Rand: Is Google Home included?
Jumpshot: No.
Rand: Are searches on incognito windows included?
Jumpshot: Yes, should be since the plug-in is at the device level, we track any URL regardless.
Rand: Would searches in certain types of browsers (desktop or mobile) not get counted?
Jumpshot: From a browser perspective, no. But remember we have no iOS data so any browser being used on that platform will not be recorded.BY Carola Frediani | Tuesday, November 11 2014
Fred Benenson/flickr
Gabriella Coleman, a cultural anthropologist and professor at McGill University, spent years observing Anonymous, witnessing the group’s rise from within the trolling subculture to its current pursuit of cyber activism. Her new book, Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous, is the most comprehensive research to date about the hacktivist collective.
Professor Coleman travels through the complex and mysterious underground universe of online activism with the help of a necessary sense of humor, referring to it as “ultracoordinated motherfuckery.” Her book is certainly an anthropological feat, revealing the inner culture and functioning of Anonymous, as well as its complexities, with details that even the best journalistic accounts struggle to capture.
The book compelling covers all the activities of Anonymous: from the pranks and lulz of image board 4chan to the campaign against the Church of Scientology, from the attacks on PayPal to the rise of splinter group LulzSec, from the chat channels like AnonOps to the streets of Occupy. The author is also refereshingly open about her account of the hacktivist group and does not seek to hide her personal fears and troubles. TechPresident's Carola Frediani reached out to Coleman by phone. Below is a condensed and edited version of the Interview.
How successful was the last Million Mask March in your opinion? Was it a vital movement? Is Anonymous becoming even more entangled with street and offline activism?
It was not as big as the year before but it was still impressive, especially in London, where austerity measures run deep. I was impressed (and not all that surprised) that in Dublin, where I happened to be at the time, the mask and iconography were used by the water meter fairies who are disabling the meters that will be used to charge people for water. Anonymous has provided a ready made template for expressing dissent--whether it is during a large yearly march like Guy Fawkes Day or protesting a more local affair as is the case with water rights in Dublin.
In your book, you recount Anonymous’ roots within 4chan and troll subcultures, a beginning that makes Anonymous and its many activist operations - from the Arab Spring campaign to the Avenge Assange operation to the Ferguson campaign - even more surprising. The WikiLeaks financial blockade - which started in December 2010 and targeted MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and other banking institutions in response to the publication of US diplomatic cables - was one of the moments that led to such a transformation.
Within days, around seven to eight thousand people at a time were flocking to some of the Anonymous IRC channels, downloading specific software and using it to launch a DDoS attack on PayPal. You wrote in your book that Anonymous “really provided a platform through which people who were quite angry at the banking blockade, could express their discontent."
Do you think that those days are gone? We haven’t seen IRCs (chat channels) flooded with those numbers any more.
It was an exceptional moment, the equivalent of a large street demonstration. There were at least seven thousand people; it was the biggest political protest on IRC in history. At the time the Anonops IRC network was like the local bazaar: everyone went there, there were many rooms where people exchanged ideas. But because of the crackdown, many activists don’t trust IRCs any more, since they realized that authorities can infiltrate them very quickly. So anons became more scattered and the level of activities have never reached that one. At the same time, operation PayPal set such a high bar, in terms of participation, it was difficult to repeat it. Any way, activities never stopped, they tended to move to regional areas and to act in a sort of “guerrilla architecture.” During operation Ferguson we have seen again that kind of “open platform architecture” we witnessed at the beginning.
Anonymous, you write in your book, is “composed of multiple competing groups, short-term power is achievable for brief durations, while long-term dominance by any single group or person is virtually impossible.” Can you explain how leadership works in Anonymous and to what extent it is different from the traditional ideas of leadership and hierarchy? And why is this concept so confusing for many people outside that movement to understand?
Because it is difficult to understand. Anonymous is not the hive anons claim it to be, neither is it about finding the leaders, as media often try to do. It is something in between. At any one moment a technical team can be very important and tend to command power and authority just because it can make certain things happen, and within the team itself you might find a classical team working with different roles and strengths. But there's a way in which the infighting on one network prevents the complete pulling of power by a specific group. Of course people who are in secret channels tend to have more power but during many operations the public facing IRC channels could exert much influence on the secret channels. So we have team work, multiple factions, people who don’t hack and just organize protests, people on the ground who are independent from the hackers. We should talk of multiple nodes of leadership.
You call operation PayPal the largest DDoS civil disobedience campaign the world has ever witnessed. Later on you say that Anonymous actions are similar to direct political actions. But, as you note in the book, governments, prosecutors and judges would rather cast anons as mere criminals, if not cyberterrorists. So could you further explain this concept of civil disobedience?
Civil disobedience requires law breaking and law breaking alone do not constitute criminality. Most people participating in Anonymous operations were not always aware of the consequences of law breaking, even if they knew that they were breaking the law. In order to do a DDoS on PayPal they were also using botnets, which is ethically controversial. There’s a paradox here: if you want to take down a big website like PayPal you need a botnet, and that controversial use provokes the media attention which makes the operation successful. But from the perspective of people participating in that action, it was clear to them that they were engaging in some sort of direct action of civil disobedience.
Of course a lot of people understand anons as vigilantes, and there are still many negative associations to them, but overall anons managed to escape the terrorism frame, which is an amazing fact since there has been an effort to depict them as terrorists. At a certain point General Keith Alexander [the former NSA director] claimed Anonymous had the capability of taking down the power grid. It was just propaganda, and of course it never happened. And the propaganda didn’t work. It was too late to frame them as terrorists. Of course any real attack to critical infrastructures made under the name of Anonymous, and looking to come out of an existing group of anons, would be game over for them as activists.
Even if Anonymous’s actions are driven by an activist calling, they have been swiftly criminalized. Thanks to Snowden’s leaks, we even realized that intelligence agencies engaged in controversial tactics against cyberactivists: smearing campaigns, DDOS attacks to anon IRCs, spreading malware. Why did they target anons so heavily? Why has US hacktivist Jeremy Hammond - now sentenced to ten years - been one of the FBI's most wanted cybercriminal? Why is the United States so afraid of them?
The fear depends on the fact that geek/hackers are a group of people that hold a lot of power. Think of LulzSec, where a small hacking team was able to break into corporations and governments. These people can access data that others can’t access, causing total havoc. So they are a threat. People from the energy, financial and security sector just hated Anonymous.
Hammond was threatening to them because they were afraid he could provide an example to others, and the fact that he was politically motivated was even more threatening. One of the things that amazed me is that they let him hack for a long time; they probably could have arrested him earlier. It seems there was a strategy to nail him and set an example: “If you dare to to this, you’ll be nailed by the State.”
At the end of your book, you talk about the way Anonymous is also about hope, solidarity, rejection of the cynicism and the anxiety of our society. From trolling to solidarity, that's really quite a quick evolution. What kind of future developments should we expect from Anonymous?
It is always surprising when people decide to cross the line of cynicism and apathy in order to do something for others, and it was amazing how a full-fledged political movement arose from trolling, which is a very cynical culture. On the other side, it is really hard to gain attention today in the media, since we live in a spectacle culture, and Anonymous was not different: it needed spectacle to circulate widely. The problem is how not to be caught in spectacle for the sake of it, how not to to gain attention for itself. Anonymous has been able to combine the art and the visual imagery with the politics. It has been able to embody Internet politics - which usually feels disembodied - through the videos, the music, the masks.
Since it came from an extreme culture of trolling, it transferred some of those extreme tactics to politics as much as it transferred 4chan dedication to extreme free speech outside 4chan and the Internet, stretching forward to social movements.
Today hackers have become more politicized because of Anonymous, WikiLeaks, Snowden, and the Pirate Party. Maybe there will be more quiet forms of action and “sabotage,” like the recent hack of FinFisher. But I think we’ll keep seeing forms of hacktivism, whether they take the shape of Guy Fawkes masks or not.
Carola Frediani is an Italian journalist and co-founder of the media agency, Effecinque.org. She writes on new technology, digital culture and hacking for a variety of Italian publications, including L’Espresso, Wired.it, Corriere della Sera, Sky.it. She is the author of Inside Anonymous: A Journey into the World of Cyberactivism.The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson explains what the stakes are for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign following the release by The Post of a 2005 video in which he makes vulgar comments about women. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
The Washington Post’s Jenna Johnson explains what the stakes are for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign following the release by The Post of a 2005 video in which he makes vulgar comments about women. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post)
With less than a month to go before the election, a major political party is poised to walk away from its own presidential nominee — a situation with few precedents in American political history.
There is little to guide Republicans, collectively and individually, except the growing realization that they have risked their party’s survival by tying it to Donald Trump as he has led them into a crisis that is both extraordinary and utterly predictable.
Now the challenge is how to isolate and quarantine their standard-bearer so that GOP candidates up and down the ballot will not be infected by the public revulsion toward lewd comments he made about women in a newly revealed 2005 recording.
Grim GOP strategists now worry that Trump could suffer a bigger loss on Nov. 8 than they previously feared, causing spillover into down-ballot races once thought secure for Republican candidates. That means their control of the Senate is in even greater jeopardy; some doomsayers have begun to speculate that even their House majority may be in danger.
They also fear further bombshells before the election, given how much of his adult life Trump has spent within range of a microphone. “You think this is the last piece of oppo they’ve got?” one GOP strategist fretted as he contemplated the mountains of material that might be out there and available to Trump’s foes and the media.
In the wake of a new Washington Post report showing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaking in very lewd terms about women in 2005, some Republicans are calling for Trump to step down as nominee. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post)
Republicans’ realistic options for putting a hygienic distance between the party and the man who will represent it at the top of the ticket, however, are limited.
And doing so raises the danger of igniting an intraparty civil war and alienating Trump’s legions of passionate supporters, who are drawn to the incendiary outsider in part because they are disenchanted with mainstream GOP leadership.
Republican leaders have been nearly unanimous in their denunciations of Trump’s vulgar language and his boast that he felt entitled by his celebrity to make unwanted sexual advances.
But many party elders, elected officials and donors are arguing publicly and privately that Republicans must go further in isolating or even abandoning Trump.
Growing numbers of prominent GOP figures are publicly revoking their support for the party’s nominee, and some are urging that he be replaced at the top of the ballot by his running mate, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana.
“Donald Trump should withdraw and Mike Pence should be our nominee effective immediately,” Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) tweeted from his official account early Saturday afternoon.
In doing so, Thune became the first member of the Senate Republican leadership to urge Trump to step down. Thune serves as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, the third-ranking position in the party’s leadership team.
1 of 28 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × These Republicans cut ties with Trump after lewd remarks View Photos Following a Friday report by The Washington Post on a 2005 video of the GOP presidential nominee, various Republicans have said they no longer plan to vote for him and some call for him to drop out. Caption Following a Friday report by The Washington Post on a 2005 video of the GOP presidential nominee, various Republicans have said they no longer plan to vote for him and some call for him to drop out. Sen. John McCain Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) joined the cavalcade of Republicans withdrawing their support for Trump. “There are no excuses for Donald Trump’s offensive and demeaning comments in the just released video; no woman should ever be victimized by this kind of inappropriate behavior. He alone bears the burden of his conduct and alone should suffer the consequences,” McCain said in a statement. Susan Walsh/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
The South Dakota senator had endorsed Trump in May, saying: “We have to get it right in 2016 because the future of our country is hanging in the balance in so many different ways.”
Other Republican lawmakers also joined the chorus for Trump to drop out. Among them: Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Mike Crapo of Idaho and Reps. Martha Roby of Alabama and Jason Chaffetz of Utah.
“I’m out,” Chaffetz said in a televised interview Saturday. “I can no longer in good conscience endorse this person for president.”
Carly Fiorina, a former Republican presidential candidate, tweeted: “Today I ask Donald Trump to step aside and for the RNC to replace him with Gov. Mike Pence.”
For those who must share the ballot with Trump this year, the rallying cry has become everyone for himself — or herself.
“I think each person running for election has to make his or her decision about what is best, and act accordingly,” said Fred Malek, a major fundraiser and finance chairman of the Republican Governors Association. “I don’t think there is one formula that works for all.”
Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), who is in a difficult reelection battle, issued a statement Saturday declaring that she plans to write in a vote for Pence as president.
“I wanted to be able to support my party’s nominee, chosen by the people because I feel strongly that we need to change the direction of the country,” Ayotte said. “However, I’m a mom and an American first and I cannot and will not support a candidate for president who brags about degrading and assaulting women.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the party’s 2008 presidential nominee and a candidate this year for a sixth term in the Senate, announced that he and his wife, Cindy, also will write in a candidate — “some good conservative Republican who is qualified to be President” — rather than vote for Trump.
Practically speaking, there is no way for the party to rid itself of a nominee this late in the election season, short of Trump voluntarily dropping out of the race — something the celebrity real estate magnate declared Saturday that he would “never” do.
Many states have printed their ballots, and 400,000 early and absentee votes have already been cast, according to a tally by the United States Elections Project. The party would have to persuade states to put the new nominee on the ballot by appealing to secretaries of state and seeking emergency injunctions through the courts — no easy lift at this late date.
And even if Trump did withdraw, “it’s not like Pence automatically becomes the nominee,” said Nathaniel Persily, a constitutional law expert at Stanford Law School. “Remember poor old Ted Cruz,” the senator from Texas who came in second in the GOP primaries.
Major donors and |
tip identified Landeros, the statement said.
Landeros, who has not been apprehended, is a University of Houston student known to spend time at a local art studio, said Harris County Assistant District Attorney John Lewis.
Landeros was charged with criminal mischief and felony graffiti, both third-degree felonies, Lewis said. Warrants have been issued for his arrest.
JUST WATCHED Caught on video: Man spray paints Picasso Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Caught on video: Man spray paints Picasso 01:25
The student has numerous ties to the Houston area and investigators suspect he is still in the area, Lewis told CNN.
Earlier this week, a museum spokeswoman said the 1929 painting was expected to hang again soon.
"The painting went directly to the on-site conservation lab down the hall," said museum spokeswoman Gretchen Sammons. "The damage is being undone and the prognosis is excellent."
Menil Collection Director Josef Helfenstein called it an "unfortunate incident."
"It threatened the public's ability to enjoy a wonderful painting and violated the bonds of trust that enable museums to share great works with their visitors," Helfenstein said.The pop megastar cancelled a Rio concert last week and has now been forced to reschedule further dates
Following her cancellation of a concert in Rio due to “severe pain”, Lady Gaga has now also had to cancel a string of European dates.
Lady Gaga cancels Rio concert having been hospitalised with'severe pain' Read more
In a statement from concert promoters Live Nation, the pop singer is said to be “devastated” over the decision, made under the advice of doctors. “Lady Gaga is suffering from severe physical pain that has impacted her ability to perform,” the statement reads. “She remains under the care of expert medical professionals who recommended the postponement earlier today.”
The concerts, including five UK dates in London, Birmingham and Manchester, will be rescheduled in “early 2018”.
Lady Gaga suffers from fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition; the statement says she is going to use the coming weeks “to heal from this and past traumas that still affect her daily life, and result in severe physical pain in her body”. Last week she wrote on her Instagram that her condition was “not simply hip pain or wear and tear from the road”.
Her battle to manage the condition forms part of a new documentary, Gaga: Five Foot Two, which launches globally on Netflix on 22 September.This is an article from Curious Kids, a new series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions they’d like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome – serious, weird or wacky!
If a huge huntsman spider is sucked into a vacuum cleaner, can it crawl out later? I really, really need to know. – Lucy, age 8, Ivanhoe.
Editor’s note: for such an important question, we consulted two experts – a vacuum cleaner design expert and a spider expert.
Simon Lockrey, industrial design research fellow and former vacuum cleaner design engineer: It certainly could, depending on the vacuum cleaner.
If there is a clear way out, the huntsman could make its escape when the vacuum is turned off. That’s assuming the spider survived being sucked up, that there were surfaces it could stick to, and there were gaps big enough to squeeze through.
However, sometimes escape is not possible. This is because some vacuum cleaners have internal “doors” that only open on the way in, and not the way out. Think of a trap door that only opens one way! We had those in some of the vacuums I helped to design.
Not all vacuums have this feature. It is mainly for machines that have short openings and get tipped up a lot, such as hand-held vacuums. So without that one-way door, a spider may have a chance to escape.
But the big question is whether a spider would even survive being sucked into a vacuum cleaner at all. Put it this way: when a spider enters a high-speed cyclonic machine, it may be travelling super quick. Speeds vary depending on the model. However, there are new digital motors that can rotate five times quicker than a Formula 1 engine – that’s 120,000 revolutions per minute!
Probably a spider’s best bet would be to lay low until the vacuum cleaner is emptied, and then make a getaway from the bin it is emptied into.
Maggie Hardy, spider expert: When a spider is sucked up by a vacuum cleaner, it first needs to avoid being killed by the low pressure that sucks air and dirt into the vacuum. And second, the spider will have to heal from any damage (scratches, or even lost legs) caused by travelling through the brushes, hoses and chambers inside the vacuum cleaner.
We know spiders can survive in low pressure (like you find in a vacuum) and in low gravity, thanks to some research carried out in space by NASA.
The very first spiders in space were sent for an experiment designed by an American high school student named Judith Miles, in 1973. She wanted to find out how the “spidernauts” would respond to weightlessness in low gravity, because spiders on Earth use both wind and gravity to properly construct their webs. Two more spidernaut experiments were conducted on the International Space Station in 2008 and 2009, and you can compare the results you get on Earth with what the astronauts found in space.
The most recent study, in 2011, found that with some practice spidernauts build webs that are very similar to the ones spiders build on Earth.
Spiders have an exoskeleton (their skeleton is on the outside of their body). Spider movement depends on them being able to inflate and deflate their legs, so if they lose a leg sometimes there isn’t enough pressure for them to move their legs. If a spider loses one or more of its legs it will usually regrow them in the next moult (the next time they shed their exoskeleton).
Spiders are a delightful and important part of the natural world, and if they are in your house they are generally lost.
You can build your own spider hospital, in case you do find an injured spider in or around your home. Of course, first you should check with an adult or an expert to make sure the spider isn’t dangerous, and never pick up a spider with your hands – have an adult use a large piece of cardboard, or a plastic container.
Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:
* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au
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* Tell us on Facebook
Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. You can send an audio recording of your question too, if you want. Send as many questions as you like! We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.Clackamas Mall Shooting
View the Slideshow >>
(Gallery by Thomas Boyd, The Oregonian)
As up to 10,000 shoppers strolled amid holiday decorations and background Christmas carols, the Clackamas Town Center shopping mall erupted into a scene of horror Tuesday, when a masked gunman raced inside the mall and began firing dozens of shots.
Emergency 9-1-1 calls, tweets from customers and cell phone calls immediately portrayed a picture of violence, terror and confusion. Conflicting reports suggested the possibility of multiple gunmen and a half-dozen or more casualties, while the assailant apparently remained at large.
Police and emergency medical workers mobilized for the worst.
More
Early reports suggested two victims were killed and an unknown number injured.
An estimated 100 law enforcement personnel descended on the mall, including local police, state troopers and four tactical weapons teams, backed by members of the FBI and Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Clackamas Fire District 1 dispatched 22 emergency vehicles. A fleet of ambulances arrived.
Shoppers, employees and witnesses ran for the parking lots. Stores were locked down. Cell phone circuits became overloaded. Interstate 205 and neighboring streets backed up with traffic. Empty brass cartridges piled up on the floor of the Town Center food court.
Only hours later could authorities sort of what had occurred.
What's next
Clackamas Town Center will be closed today and reopen once the investigation is completed. Check the Clackamas Town Center Facebook page or website for updates or call 503-653-6913.
Witnesses:
Police invite witnesses who have not been interviewed to call Clackamas County's non-emergency police dispatch line at 503-655-8211.
Shoppers, employees:
Belongings left behind during evacuation will be securely held until the mall reopens.
An unidentified gunman, acting alone, fired up to 60 shots before killing himself. The original reports of two dead were confirmed as the only fatalities. One 15-year-old Portland girl was taken by ambulance to OHSU Hospital, where she was in serious condition Tuesday night.
Officials declined to identify the victims.
The gunman died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Lt. James Rhodes, a Clackamas County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said at a news conference. The gunman, reportedly 22, has been tentatively identified, but police did not release his name.
Shaun Wik was eating at Panda Express when he heard the gunman emerged near the mall's food court.
"I heard him yell, 'Get on the ground' twice," said Wik, 20, of Fairview. "Everyone scattered, hit the ground. People were getting trampled."
Bob Schwab, a World War II veteran who walks the mall for exercise, saw a surge of terrified shoppers rush out of the mall while one Santa took cover.
"I was by Santa Claus in front of Macy's when we heard, 'Pow. Pow. Pow,'" said Schwab, a Clackamas resident. "People screamed and ran. I saw Santa drop to the floor."
Sheriff Craig Roberts expressed sympathy for the victims, their families and holiday shoppers who lost their sense of security. He said about 10,000 shoppers were at the Town Center when the rampage erupted.
"For all of us, the mall is supposed to be a place where we can take our families, especially during the holiday season," Roberts said. "Things like this are not supposed to happen."
Roberts said a physician and two emergency-room nurses at the mall volunteered their services after the shooting, helping victims until emergency crews could arrive.
Vicky Lyashenko, 24, of Portland, said her best friend's sister-in-law, Kristina, 15, was the injured shopper, shot in the chest. She found out via texts from Kristina's family members.
Lyashenko said the girl will undergo surgery to remove bullet fragments. She said the girl is "stable." She declined to release the girl's last name.
According to police, the gunman, wearing a "Jason"-style hockey mask, entered the mall through Macy's department store around 3:25 p.m. The man, who may have been wearing body armor and black or camouflage clothing, hurried past a Salvation Army bell-ringer posted at the door.
Fourteen-year-old Hannah Baggs, leaving the mall, looked directly at the gunman just moments before he entered and opened fire.
"He was, like, 10 feet away from us, wearing a white mask and carrying something heavy with both hands," said Hannah, a freshman at LaSalle High School. "He went running into the store. I was scared, but I didn't tell my mom because I didn't want to get her upset."
In a flash, the sound of gunshots rang out and mall personnel rushed out the door, urging shoppers to leave.
"They said, 'Get in your cars. Get in your cars. We're not kidding,'" said Sharon Baggs of Southeast Portland, Hannah's mother. "It was so surreal."
Some ran from the mall. Others hid deep in stores that front on the concourses, hoping that the gunman wouldn't find them. Still others huddled together, crying.
John Canzano, sports columnist for The Oregonian, who was arriving at the mall to shop, reported that witnesses said they heard as many as 60 shots.
Canzano said the first thing he noticed was people running out of the mall, "kind of crying and upset." He stopped a person who said somebody was shooting in the mall.
"He called the scene, 'Not good, not good,'" Canzano said.
Police still are piecing together details of the incident. They have not yet indicated what the gunman's motive may have been. However, they are sure that the gunman acted alone.
"There was one and only one," Rhodes said.
Rhodes also said police did not engage the gunman and did not fire any weapons in the mall.
Immediately after the shooting, police officers began locking down the massive mall and blocking exits. While four SWAT teams conducted a store-by-store search of the 1.4 million square-foot mall, air traffic above the mall was restricted so helicopter ambulances could land.
The Sunnyside Road off-ramp from Interstate 205 was shut down during the search.
The mall's theaters, full of theater-goers unaware of the chaos outside, were escorted to safety.
At same time, several TriMet buses were called to take witnesses away for orderly interviews by police. Regular bus service was suspended on TriMet's 28, 29, 30, 31, 71, 72, 79, 152, 155 and 156 lines.
Some early unconfirmed reports indicated the gunman was carrying an AR-15 rifle, a semiautomatic, civilian version of the fully automatic, military M-16. Both rifles fire the same high-powered cartridge.
Police declined to confirm what kind of weapon they recovered. The floor was littered with empty shell casings.
An unconfirmed report indicated that that the rifle may have jammed at some point and that police found a full magazine on the floor.
Police worked late into the night, continuing to search retail floors, as well as concourses, service corridors and storage areas. There was no indication that they found anything unusual.
In addition, police will be viewing and analyzing surveillance video shot in stores and the mall's common areas to try to solve discrepancies in the witnesses' accounts.
Police also are working to contact witnesses who left the mall immediately after the shooting, before the investigation began.
Trauma Intervention Program volunteers were at the mall, working with those trying to gain perspective on the day's events.
Clackamas Town Center remained closed throughout Tuesday evening, which would have been one of the busiest days of the year. The mall also will remain closed Wednesday, according to a Clackamas Town Center statement.
A Facebook page has been established to express support for victims and families affected by the shooting.
Lyashenko said that she and young Kristina's family have been jolted by the shooting.
"She is so young, I just couldn't believe it was her," Lyashenko said. "You hear on the news about tragic things like this and you never expect it to happen to one of your loved ones.
"For something like this to happen during the holiday season is heartbreaking. It really makes you want to keep all of your family close because you never know what can happen."
Staff writers Heather Steeves, Steve Mayes, Molly Harbarger and Everton Bailey Jr. contributed to this report
--Add one more data point to the theory that Virginia is losing its status as a swing state: Outside interest groups and super PACs spent zero dollars on presidential TV advertising in the state last month.
Four years ago, when Mitt Romney challenged President Obama, such groups spent almost $10 million.
The figures were compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project from filings at major network affiliates in the state’s four biggest television markets — Washington, Hampton Roads, Richmond and Roanoke.
Polls have suggested that Democrat Hillary Clinton has a sizable lead over Republican Donald Trump in Virginia — last month’s Washington Post poll had her up 8 percentage points. Demographic shifts, especially in the D.C. suburbs, seem to be painting a layer of blue over a state that had been reliably red.
[See how Virginia voters feel about the race in a new 50-state poll]
That may lead outside groups to hold onto their money for more competitive states, said Steven Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington.
That’s the calculation being made by Democratic super PAC Priorities USA Action, which is focusing elsewhere because “it’s clear that Virginia is simply more challenging for Donald Trump than some of the closer states that we’re still fully engaged in,” said spokesman Justin Barasky.
Clinton’s selection of former Virginia governor Tim Kaine as her running mate “is probably going to add a couple of points to the Democrats’ margin in Virginia, and that makes it a bit tougher sell for ad buys that would be targeting the most swingy of the swing states,” Farnsworth said.
But don’t touch that dial just yet. Farnsworth sees an opportunity for Trump, who covets Virginia’s 13 electoral votes in his bid to get the 270 necessary to win.
“It’s clear the Trump campaign is making Virginia one of their priorities, and the electoral map suggests they should. It’s pretty hard for a Republican to win the electoral college without Virginia,” he said.
Crossroads GPS, one of the biggest Republican super PACs, spent nearly $3.6 million in Virginia in August 2012. This year, the group and its affiliates have yet to air presidential ads in any state, concentrating instead on protecting the GOP majority in the Senate. It doesn’t help that Trump has alienated many Senate Republicans, who have close ties to Crossroads and its related Senate Leadership Fund.
But Crossroads spokesman Ian Prior said the group could yet broaden its focus. “Whether Crossroads gets involved in some way in the presidential [race] remains to be seen,” he said. “We’re keeping our options open.”
Viewers who may have enjoyed a lighter-than-usual menu of pre-Labor Day political ads, take note: Tightening poll numbers, Farnsworth said, “suggest maybe there should be more.”This is a laser cut PC case to fit a mini ITX or mini DTX motherboard. It is designed to be modular, and as such you can swap out different back, side, front, top and base panels to add more fan or storage mounts etc. The DWG, DXF and AI files each contain all parts as different pages/sheets.
Main Features:
Customizable modular design
Designed to be cut from any flat 8mm thick material (Now available for 6mm material too)
Supports 2 slot graphics card up to 10" long (254mm)
Supports full size ATX power supply up to 180mm long (160mm max with 10" card)
Supports up to 6x 2.5" HDD/SSD or 3x 3.5" HDD
Supports up to 4x cooling fans
Very small form factor (W 224mm, D 272mm, H 167mm). That's the size of a sheet of US letter paper for the imperial people.
Some top and side panels are symetrical and thus can be mounted on either side of the case or in either orientation.
List of Modular Panels:
Base A: Mini ITX mounting base.
Front A: Front panel with mounting holes for 2 5mm LEDs, a power button and a reset button (panel mount).
Back A: Back panel with an IO cutout, 2 slot expansion card mount and a 92mm fan mount.
Back B: Back panel with an IO cutout, no explansion card mount and 2x 92mm fan mounts.
Side A: Side panel with mounting holes for ATX PSU and 2x 2.5" drives or 1x 3.5" drive. Asymetrical, right side only.
Side B: Side panel with mount points for 2x 92mm fans. Symetrical.
Side C: Blank side panel.
Side D: Grid vent side panel.
Top A: Blank top panel.
Top B: Top panel with 120mm fan mount above motherboard.
Top C: Top panel with 2x 2.5" drive mounts or 1x 2.5" and 1x 3.5". One 2.5" mount fouls card area.
Top D: Top panel with 1x 3.5" drive mount or 2x 2.5" mounts. Does not foul card area.
If you choose to make more modular panels for this case, please share them with the community by adding "HSBNE Cleverspace" to the beginning of the title. (Example: "HSBNE Cleverspace Nano ITX base".
This case was designed by HSBNE member Blufires. The Brisbane hackerspace has just got its first laser cutter, but its other resources are sorely lacking. The paint is peeling and the roofs are leaking. Please consider donating to our Kickstarter campaign (yet to launch) to help us get more and better tools and resources, renovate our space and provide outreach to our hacker community.June was a great month for the Open Web. First, Apple delivered a one-two punch with showing Mobile Me, powered by the native Web and SproutCore, and showing SquirrelFish as JavaScript starts to get a loooot faster on browsers. Firefox had a party as millions of people downloaded Firefox 3 final release, and immediately talked about 3.1 coming soon. The flywheel is moving. Opera 9.5 is also there, and IE 8 beta 2 is coming in August.
Velocity, the performance conference, also showed the interest in making the Web faster, as many tools were announced to help out us devs. We also saw a lot of cool uses of Canvas/SVG, as developers delve low level and see that they actually work very well.
So, we sit at the crux of two paths. On the one hand, browsers are getting faster and faster and adding great new technology for us (including small things like CSS variables. finally!). On the other hand, we are creating more compelling user experiences (e.g. 280 Slides, Mobile Me). These forces work with each other. As we do cooler apps that push the boundaries, the browsers have to come back with better performance and tools to match. Expectations are changing, and we need to match them.
Here is the full roundup:
Browsers
Standards
Performance
JavaScript
ExtJS
Dojo
YUI
MooTools
jQuery
Gears, AIR, and more
Design: CSS, SVG, Canvas
Showcases
UtiltiesNEW DELHI (Reuters) - Residents of the Indian capital woke on Wednesday to a third day of thick gray smog in one of the worst episodes this year, which disrupted dozens of flights and train services and caused a rash of health complaints.
People cross railway tracks on a foggy winter morning in New Delhi December 18, 2013. REUTERS/Anindito Mukherjee
New Delhi is among several Asian cities, including Beijing, that are suffering from toxic levels of pollution fuelled by industrial growth and a surge in the numbers of vehicles crowding their roads.
The cloak of fog draping much of north India forced dozens of flights to be diverted or canceled, disrupted train schedules and led to a doubling in the number of medical emergencies caused by breathing difficulty, officials said.
Runway visibility has been dropping to as low as 50 m. (164 ft) in Delhi over the past few days.
“Both departures and arrivals were stalled,” said airport spokesman Kapil Sabarwal, as planes hovered in holding patterns, waiting for conditions to clear.
Two passenger trains were canceled on Wednesday, while 60 trains were running late and 25 had been rescheduled on the third straight day of disruptions, said railways spokesman Neeraj Sharma.
The fine particles suspended in the fog ranged as much as seven times beyond the concentration that India considers safe, to reach a level the United States Environmental Protection Agency calls “hazardous”.
At that point, the agency urges that all outdoor physical activity be avoided and that victims of heart or respiratory ailments stay indoors, along with children and the elderly.
The fog mingled with high pollution was an extreme event “when the air quality goes from very poor to dangerous,” said Gufran Beig, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology.
Calm wind conditions and a smaller gap between extreme temperatures helped trap pollutants in the air, Beig said. The frequency and duration of such events have been rising every year since government records started in 2010, he added.
The only time this year that Delhi has choked in such severe air pollution was during traditional fireworks celebrations of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in November, which coincided with a foggy cold snap.
The number of patients seeking treatment for respiratory and cardiac diseases has risen by about a quarter since the fog descended on Monday, said Dr. Randeep Guleria, head of the pulmonary department at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, a leading hospital in the city.
Particle pollution is linked to many health problems, ranging from breathing difficulties to heart attacks, strokes and early death.by Allen St. Pierre, Former NORML Executive Director
First Unveiling of New Strain To Redefine The Medical Cannabis Industry
New Released Scientific Data Supports Medicinal Value, U.S. Government Ignores Scientific Data
Next week’s Patients Out of Time (P.O.T.) conference in Rhode Island features numerous speakers and interesting topics, but the announcement by Harborside Health Center of the development a new Cannabidol-centric strain of cannabis I suspect will be of great interest to patients, medical providers and cultivators.
I think it also a shining example of why the Drug Enforcement Administration should not bust and harass laboratories contracted or operated by cannabis wellness centers that test and analyze cannabis that is sold into the medical collective for the very reason that these forensic labs provide necessary patient information regarding potency, purity and medicinal effects based on plant strain.
Oakland, CA – The availability of a new type of medical cannabis strain will be presented for the first time by Steve DeAngelo, who has been featured on CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, and The New York Times as Executive Director of one of the nation’s top model and non-profit medical cannabis dispensaries, Harborside Health Center in Oakland, California.
DeAngelo will announce the availability of this type of non-psychoactive cannabis that has been lab tested with California strains with CBD (Cannabidol) at the 6th Annual National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics on Friday, April 16th at 12PM Noon at The Crown Plaza Hotel, 801 Greenwich Avenue, Warwick, Rhode Island.
Conference information can be found at: www.medicalcannabis.com
For three decades, DeAngelo has been an engaging speaker as he cuts through the stigma, and delivers the true facts about cannabis. His exciting and important presentation will include results of the first large scale analytical study of California’s medical cannabis supply, which revealed that one of the most medically efficacious cannabinoids—CBD—has been bred out of plants grown primarily for psychoactive effect. Only within the past year have CBD-rich cannabis varieties been identified, thanks to an analytical chemistry lab that DeAngelo helped launch.
Recent research has demonstrated that CBD is effective in slowing or reversing a number of different types of cancer; as well as other serious illnesses. In response to the shortage of CBD rich cannabis varieties, Harborside has initiated a program to identify such strains, and encourage growers to propagate them. Because CBD modulates the psycho activity of THC, some patients respond better to varieties of cannabis which couple low THC levels with high CBD levels, because they enhance medical efficacy while reducing or eliminating psycho activity. This is particularly true for cannabis-naïve patients, who have no prior experience with it, prior to receiving a recommendation from their doctor. “Ultimately, there will be greater demand for CBD-rich cannabis, than there is for cannabis that just gets you high” predicts DeAngelo. “Only a small percentage of people enjoy the psycho activity of cannabis, but almost everybody can benefit from its medical properties”.
The 6th Annual Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics is the only one of its kind in the United States for health professional to learn about the many benefits of cannabis therapeutics. Medical professionals can receive their CME (Continuing Education) credits for attending this forum through the University of California, San Francisco.
The New York Times: “Harborside Health Center, a nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, Calif., is looked upon as a model of how others could operate.”
Contact : Gaynell Rogers/Media Relations
415.298.1114
mcmcgaynell@gmail.comA massive New IRA bomb plot was foiled after gardai seized a staggering 6kg (13.2lb) of explosives in Dublin's north-inner city.
A massive New IRA bomb plot was foiled after gardai seized a staggering 6kg (13.2lb) of explosives in Dublin's north-inner city.
Massive New IRA bomb bust as 6kg explosive haul is seized in city taxi
Heavily armed detectives carrying sub-machine guns stopped a seven-seater taxi during a dramatic arrest in Ballybough shortly after 6pm yesterday.
Gardai, aided by the army and the bomb disposal unit, arrested two men and seized the lethal explosives.
Investigating gardaí now believe the material seized is TNT. It was initially believed to be semtex.
The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation by the Special Detective Unit (SDU) into dissident republican activity.
The Herald can reveal that:
A massive 6kg of explosives, as well as detonators, were recovered.
The new, military grade explosives were recently sourced and brought into the State.
Two men were arrested at the scene, one with close links to the New IRA.
It has also emerged that the second man arrested has no known connections to any criminal gang, leading to fears of a new recruitment drive by the dissident republican terror group.
Armed gardai also raided the house of a politician's relative, who has close ties to one of the men arrested.
A senior source last night stated that the explosives recovered were "big enough to blow up a street".
Damage
The explosives "would have caused serious damage if used. It is a major catch for gardai," said the source.
Gardai have said it is too early to rule out a link to the ongoing Hutch/Kinahan feud.
Dissident republican Michael Barr (35), who was murdered by the Kinahan cartel as part of the ongoing dispute, had links to the New IRA.
Last night, heavily armed gardai from the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) - an elite branch of the SDU - stopped a car at about 6pm.
The dramatic arrests took place near Spring Garden Street, Ballybough, on the capital's northside.
Residents living in the area were immediately evacuated from their homes, while a takeaway was also closed.
Two men, aged in their 20s and originally from the north-inner city, were detained. They had been placed under surveillance by specially trained detectives ahead of the interception.
They are being detained at Clontarf Garda Station under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.
The Defence Force's bomb disposal unit arrived at the scene shortly before 7pm under a garda escort, with a large section of the area closed off yesterday evening.
Members of the Dublin Armed Support Unit and army personnel, carrying sub-machine guns, stood guard as locals, including young children, looked on.
Online EditorsUnpleasant Thoughts You Had, and the Items You Purchased in Order to Stop Having Them
Unpleasant Thought: Even if war with North Korea is as imminent as the media would like you to imagine, and even if the sea levels are rising at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year, it’s probably still not okay that you don’t have any real retirement savings.
Object Purchased: Triple Cinnamon Cupcake, from the Sprinkles ATM.
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Unpleasant Thought: Maybe you are just bound to repeat the patterns from your parents’ marriages regardless of when and whom you marry.
Object Purchased: Capri Blue Surf Spray Candle, from Anthropologie.
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Unpleasant Thought: The Wedding Industrial Complex has been clouding your sense of what’s real and healthy and what’s imaginary and commercialized since birth.
Object Purchased: Sequined Pineapple Dish Towel, also from Anthropologie.
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Unpleasant Thought: You are now almost positive you pronounced it “car-CEREAL state” when you were drunk at that dinner party and trying to sound smart, and everyone heard it. Everyone.
Object Purchased: Tarte Rainforest of the Sea Color Splash Lipstick, in Daiquiri, from Sephora.
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Unpleasant Thought: There is no way of knowing if your new female acquaintance is being cold and competitive toward you or if your internalized misogyny is making you feel cold and competitive toward her, and being socialized all your life to expect indirect aggression from other women is causing you to project that feeling onto her actually lovely and well-intentioned words and behaviors, and there is ALSO no way of knowing how many potentially life-altering female friendships have been and will be lost to you forever in this way.
Object Purchased: Shroomami Warm Grain Bowl, from Sweetgreen.
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Unpleasant Thought: You have not called your grandfather in 96 days, and you tell yourself it is because he’s always taking a nap but you know that really it is because you are so selfishly and childishly afraid of his death and your death and of death in general.
Object Purchased: Graceful Gardens Planner & Datebook, from The Paper Source.
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Unpleasant Thought: There is no afterlife.
Object Purchased: 2-for-1 flip flops, in Coral Pink and Fuschia Islands, from Old Navy.
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Unpleasant Thought: You have wasted and squandered your many privileges.
Object Purchased: AIRism Stretch Cropped Pants, from Uniqlo.
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Unpleasant Thought: There is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
Object Purchased: Sustainable Vegan Bracelet, Woven in Cambodia, from BloomingdalesWASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Saturday touted gains made by a Wisconsin renewable energy firm as the kind of innovation that will bolster the United States.
President Barack Obama speaks to the Families USA's 16th annual Health Action Conference at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill in Washington January 28, 2011. REUTERS/Larry Downing
Obama, in his weekly address on the White House website, appeared in a video from the Orion Energy Systems factory in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a site he visited earlier this week.
He returned to the theme of driving American innovation through a mix of government action and private initiative that he outlined in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday.
“I’m here because this business and others like it are showing us the way forward,” Obama said in the weekly address.
Obama said in the coming days he will highlight “innovators across America” who are relying on new technology to create jobs, and allow U.S. firms to beat competitors.
“We’ll win the future by being the best place on Earth to do business. That is what we are called to do at this moment. And in my State of the Union, I talked about how we get there,” he said.
To spark innovation, the United States will need to invest in education, infrastructure and online networks, Obama said. He also advocated for tax breaks for company research and the need to set a goal for the United States to obtain 80 percent of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.
Orion relied on a small business loan and clean energy incentives to open its factory in a Manitowoc facility vacated by another local employer years ago, Obama said.
The factory now employs 250 workers who build clean energy systems with solar power and other sustainable technology.
Obama, a Democrat, has shown a more business-friendly approach aimed at moving to the political center, since he saw Republicans gain control of the U.S. House in the November mid-term elections.
In the Republican response, newly-elected Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said he feared that Obama’s plans for more U.S. investment would lead to more government control.
“Big government is blocking job creation not helping it,” said Johnson, a businessman before running for the Senate. “The president often speaks about making investments in our economy... Unfortunately I am afraid he means more government spending and more government control.”
Johnson challenged Obama to present Congress with a “serious” plan to reduce the ballooning U.S. budget deficit.The Central Bank on Dublin's Dame Street Source: James Horan/RollingNews.ie
THE CENTRAL BANK’s Dame Street premises in Dublin looks set to be sold in the coming months.
The bank and its selling agents Lisney have opened the sales process for the premises, including the Tower Building and Commercial Buildings, 9 College Green and 6-8 College Green.
The much-anticipated sale could see the buildings being sold as one or in lots. Reports indicate the sale is expected to make in the region of €65-80 million.
City centre staff will relocate to the Central Bank’s new building in North Wall Quay and the nearby Spencer Dock building.
The Central Bank has been in Dame Street since December 1979 and the move to North Wall Quay is expected to be completed in early 2017.
The Central Bank on Dublin's Dame Street
All city centre staff are impacted by the move, including employees based in Iveagh Court and the Central Bank’s lease on that building will not be renewed.
In all, more than 1,500 staff will relocate. The Currency Centre at Sandyford is unaffected by the move.
An announcement on the preferred bidder for the properties is expected to be made by the end of the year.
Architectural importance
In a statement, the Central Bank said it is “aware of the architectural, cultural and economic importance of the Dame Street premises to the city centre” and has commissioned Henry J Lyons Architects “to undertake an indicative masterplan study to inform potential renewal or redevelopment of the site and identify possible future uses”.
The Central Bank on Dublin's Dame Street Source: James Horan/RollingNews.ie
Paul Molumby, director of currency and facilities management at the Central Bank said the organisation is starting the sales process “with affection for the Dame Street properties, including the historic tower, which have served us so well, and excitement about the move to North Wall Quay area and the enhanced ways of working that at our new premises will bring”.
Molumby said the move is necessary as employee numbers increase.
“The Central Bank is committed to achieving full market value for the Dame Street premises, while recognising the public interest in the process,” he added.On Wednesday, 24 June 2015 at 23:14:05 UTC, Martin Nowak wrote: > First beta for the 2.068.0 release. There are 107 open pull requests in DMD, 32 in DRuntime, 78 in phobos, 25 in d |
need be. He’s not like Batman who never kills (in most versions at least), but he’s not someone whose way out of every situation is just to zap the badguy. He does tend to fall into the Sherlock Holmes type of hero more, IE, more cerebral, analytical.
He also is always someone who wants to explore the universe too. He hates just settling down somewhere and wants to see everything. We see this in Hartnell’s Doctor who leaves Susan when he realises that she wants to settle down somewhere, Troughton’s and Pertwee’s Doctor’s who hate the thought of being exiled to earth, Tom’s Doctor who hates having to go on mission’s for the time lords or the Brigadier, even Matt’s Doctor who can’t stand hanging around Amy and Rory’s flat for a week.
Sometimes his curiosity will put himself and others around him in danger such as in the first Dalek story, The Caves of Androzani and even Utopia.
In all instances he lands in somewhere that is clearly dangerous, but his own desire to explore an unknown planet ends badly for him.
Even physically as I have pointed out before the Doctor usually has to be somewhat Byronesque and more old fashioned looking.
He normally has long or big hair, a clean shaven face and wears flamboyant, Edwardian/Victorian era clothing, usually frock coats, scarfs and big hats.
See here
Tom Baker himself even said in an interview collected in the 1976 docu Whose Doctor Who (which is included on the DVD release of The Talons of Weng Chiang) that the Doctor was the most limiting role he has ever played. He said there were so many things he couldn’t do as the character because if he did then he wouldn’t seem like the Doctor anymore.
Jon Pertwee also said that the Doctor must always remain asexual, as that was an important part of his character.
Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy all tried to keep their predecessors performances in mind and even watched them before starting to see what the Doctors overall personality was.
Robert Holmes, the shows most popular and prolific writer was also adamant about making sure all of the Doctors were still the same person, as was Terrance Dicks, the shows longest running scrip editor who said the single most important thing was not to change his character too much.
I wrote the Fifth Doctor in much the same way as I did his predecessors. After all the Doctor is always the same character. His body changes, his manners and idiosyncrasies alter, but at the bottom he remains the same person.
–Bob Holmes
It must have been at a change over time for the Doctor, and he’d (Bob Holmes) been asked to do a story next season, but he wasn’t absolutely certain who the Doctor was going to be. And I said “isn’t that tough”, and Bob said. “Not really, the Doctors always the Doctor.” And that of course is perfectly true.
-Terrance Dicks
John Nathan Turner, the shows longest running producer was also adamant about keeping up key aspects of the Doctors character, such as his asexuality, and even his long hair! He even forced all three of his leading men to grow their hair out long.
With this in mind then its obvious that the Doctor can not be absolutely anyone. You couldn’t cast a big muscle bound actor like Sylvester Stallone who would play the character as a big gun toting action hero like Rambo. He would look out of place in every respect.
Now you might be thinking that a female Doctor could embody these characteristics that I have described, the Doctors love for travelling, the mystery around his origins and yes she could, but ultimately I think that another key part of the Doctors character that runs throughout all of his incarnations is his gender.
Really the Doctors gender has become a core part of his personality by default, simply because he has been a man for the past 50 years. To say the he is genderless is a lie.
All of his relationships have been from a male perspective. He was a grandfather to Susan, he was a grandfatherly, fatherly figure to most of his other female companions in Classic Who, he had a brotherly relationship with Jamie, a brothers in arms relationship with The Brigadier (though they also clashed as two alpha males at certain points). He has been a loving boyfriend to characters like Rose and a husband to River Song.
On top of that we identify with him as a man. Young boys look up to him as a role model, the image we have of the Doctor in our heads is of a British gentlemanly hero like Sherlock Holmes (which is probably why most people wouldn’t want an American Doctor either. Funny how you can say that you want him to remain British and not American without being shouted down as an anti American racist?)
To suddenly turn him into a woman would seem jarring after 50 years, feel forced and look out of place, as much as if we had him reveal his true name or decide to stop travelling.
Look at this scene from the Docu Drama An Adventure in Space and Time where William Hartnell the first actor to play the Doctor, who is played here by David Bradley looks across from the TARDIS console and sees Matt Smith’s Doctor. This was of course meant to show how he knew that his character would endure for 50 years.
Now imagine if it were a woman looking back at William Hartnell like Emma Watson who has been touted as a potential female Doctor. It wouldn’t seem like the same character at all. The change would just be too drastic. Physically it would be too extreme a change alone, but as we have been over any type of relationships she would have with other characters, would be different to the first 13 as they would now be from a female perspective. A female Doctor would actually be more drastic as it would mean that the Doctor was never male.
He was just a genderless being that could have either been a man or a woman and all of his male incarnations were just flukes. Apparently there was a 50/50 chance of the Second Doctor turning into either Patrick Troughton or Beyonce.
To me that wrecks the Doctor as a character as now he isn’t a character, he is just a title as, he can literally be anyone.
We can see this with Missy, the female version of the Master. To anyone who is being honest Missy was not even remotely believable as The Master.
Much like the Doctor, the Master’s character has a template that he must always follow or else he isn’t a character, he too is a title.
The Master’s template is as follows.
He must always want to conquer the universe. That is the Master’s basic motivation. He wants to take over planets like the earth as he believes that under his rule he can make them a better place. In some ways he sees his evil as being for a greater good, though at the same time he is a petty, hateful, bitter little man who is easily corruptable.
He is also a miserable pathetic coward who is willing to sacrifice billions of innocent lives to save his own too.
He is a highly manipulative character. He is always is able to twist people’s minds, prey on their weaknesses and strengths to his own advantage.
The Master in contrast to the Doctor will often be in a position of power as he will often have a forged alias and have lied, and greased and manipulated his way to the top of any society he is in. He will also often use this position to frame the Doctor or have him arrested.
He also despises the Doctor too. Initially he views the Doctor as a potential ally due to their friendship and also because the Doctor is another renegade time lord like him. The more the Doctor bests him the more he grows to despise him to the point where he is utterly consumed by his hatred for the Doctor. In the Deadly Assassin he remarks whilst in his burnt, emaciated body that his hatred of the Doctor is the only thing that keeps him alive in spite of the unimaginable agony he is in.
In fact there are only two things that can overcome the Masters overwhelming cowardice and fear of death, his burning hatred of the Doctor and his desire to rule the universe. In Survival the Master is happy to die in his final showdown with the Doctor if it means he can get him.. In the 96 movie when the Master is dangling over an abyss he refuses the Doctors offer of help and spits back in his face NEVER!
In Logopolis he gambles with the fate of the entire universe and thus his own life when he with holds the only thing that can save it unless its people bow down before him.In the Time Monster he tells the third Doctor that he is perfectly willing to risk his own life and all of time and space in order to rule the universe.
Finally the Master also physically generally tends to have shorter dark hair, dress in darker more toned down clothing and have thick facial hair.
The Master must always follow this template. If you don’t follow this template then you are not writing the character of the Master.
All of the original Masters followed this template as different as they were.
Roger Delgado the original Master followed this template, but he was more suave, and in control than those who came after. The Burned Master meanwhile followed this template as well, but he was bitter, hateful and vicious. Ainley followed it too, but he was more flamboyantly evil, dandyish and more of a lovable rogue. Roberts was more animalistic and savage, but he still followed the template.
John Simm’s Master has often been slated by classic era fans for being too wild and crazy but personally I didn’t mind that as he still followed the basic template for the character.
Simm’s Master sought to gain control of the entire universe like the others. His plan in Last of the Time Lords is to create a new time lord empire that in The Master’s twisted mind will create a new universal order, whilst in the End of Time he turns all of humanity into clones of himself in order to have an army that can sweep across the universe (he also later attempts to do the same to the time lords)
The Simm Master was manipulative too. He seduced Lucy Saxon, he tricked Martha’s family, he managed to get the entire United Kingdom to vote him in as Prime Minister, he tricked Joshua Naismith. He also established himself in a position of power as the Prime Minister and used this position to frame the Doctor as a terrorist.
He also hated the Doctor with a vengeance too. He held him prisoner and tortured him for an entire year.
Also much like the other Master’s whilst he was a miserable cringing coward who was afraid of death, he was still willing to die just to spite the Doctor as seen at the end of The Last of the Time Lords, when he willingly kills himself just to hurt the Doctor by making him the last of his kind once again. Also in The End of Time he risks freeing the Time Lords, the Daleks and all the other horrors of the time war in order to gain control of them.
Finally even physically he resembled the other Masters in that he too dressed in dark sharp suits and had a more normal, toned down appearance.
Thus I think Simm’s Master fit in perfectly with the other Masters. The fact that he was more of a hysterical maniac than Delgado or Ainley didn’t bother me at all. Simm and Davies managed to work that change to within the template of the character, and it made sense in a way as the Master at that point after everything that had happened to him would be more insane. Also it was always hinted that he was underneath his steely exterior a vicious psychopath.
Whilst he claimed that he never killed unless he had too and that once he ruled planets like the earth he would make them a better place there were many occasions in stories like The Sea Devils and The Deadly Assassin where he killed people for no reason other than seemingly his own sadistic cruelty. Thus to me the Simm Master was merely this side of the Master brought to the fore by a combination of the time war and possibly his own regeneration.
Missy meanwhile does not fit in with the template in any way. In fact she contradicts it.
To start with she is in love with the Doctor. So many fans deny that she was meant to be in love with him. Fans will often say “she was just messing with him when she kissed him”.
Well even if that were true that would still be crap. Basically the Master and the Doctor are now like Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd when Bugs Bunny dresses up as a woman and seduces Elmer Fudd. Gee remember when they were more like Holmes and Moriarty in Pertwee’s time or even Batman and the Joker in Simm’s time.
Now they are literally this.
The Master’s way of messing with the Doctor used to be things like, framing him for the murder of the president of the time lords, stirring up a war between his two favourite races the Sea Devils and humanity, luring him to a dying planet of cheetah people, framing him as a terrorist. Now its regenerating into a woman and forcing a kiss on him to make him sexually confused!
I’d say that’s a come down for a once great villain.
Still its not true anyway, Missy was not simply messing with the Doctor. She was meant to have at least some romantic feelings for him, and you can tell this just by what she says and does.
To start with she calls him her boyfriend when he isn’t around to other characters like the Half face man who has no idea who they are. If she is just messing with him why would she say that when he isn’t around?
Also he later kisses her and she smiles as he does it, and kisses him back. If she was just kissing him to mess with him then why did she let him kiss her and enjoy it?
She tells the Doctor not long after French kissing him that her hearts are maintained by him. She even mentions being jealous of Clara and just about everything she says to him throughout Death in Heaven is a flirtation of some kind “its our Paris”, “show a bad girl how its done”.
On top of that her entire plan that covered all of season 8 was to win him back as a “Friend”.
Now its true that in her next appearance she denies having any romantic feelings for him, but its presented very much in a the lady does protest too much kind of a way and later she says that traps are her way flirting. Who is it she always lays traps for? Then there is the fact that she blushes when he plays Pretty woman in her direction, and the fact that she goes out of her way to save him from the Daleks.
Still not convinced? Michelle Gomez who played Missy says in this very interview that it was hell for Missy having to pull back from snogging the Doctor, as she wanted to fuck him there and then in front of Clara.
It Was Hell Kissing Peter Capaldi
Steven Moffat also refers to Missy as the Doctors Ex in this interview here
Osgood offed by the ex
So in the show Missy kisses the Doctor 5 times (more times on screen than Rose and as many as River), she almost outright says she loves him, her plan is to win him back and the actress who played her and the person who wrote the episodes she was in both say that she was in love with him. Yet some fans still deny that there was ANY romantic aspect to 12 and Missy’s relationship. I guess though that just goes to show that they view it as being crap like me, but where as I say that its shit, they literally deny reality.
Some fans have argued that there was always a gay aspect to the Doctor and the Master’s relationship but this is as big a denial of reality as saying that there was no romantic aspect to Missy and 12’s relationship.
Originally it was intended for the Master and the Doctor to be brothers. Jon Pertwee conforms as much on an interview included on the Planet of the Spiders DVD as does Barry Letts. Thus Pertwee and Delgado always played it as such and it was planned in Delgado’s last adventure as the Master, called The Final Game to reveal that the two time lords were brothers.
Sadly Roger Delgado waA journalist has to be willing to stick their neck out in order to chase a story, but there are certain instances in which we draw the line.
Calling around to Roy Keane’s gaff to ask him about an alleged road-rage incident is one of them. But not for one Daily Mirror reporter, who decided to pop over to Chez Keano.
According to a report in yesterday’s Manchester Evening News, the Republic of Ireland assistant manager is currently under investigation after being involved in a road-rage incident with a taxi driver.
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Paddy Mulchrone, an ambitious Daily Mirror scribe, decided he wanted more details and paid Keane a visit at his family home in Bowdon, Cheshire, as he told Marian Finucane this morning on RTE Radio.
“He asked what I wanted,” said Mulchrone. “I said it was about an incident in Altrincham this morning and he looked at me wide-eyed in disbelief. I asked him if it was true, he said nothing. I put it to him further that it’s alleged he was swearing and making obscene gestures.
“He said: ‘What do you want from me? I’ll tell you what you want from me, you just want a quote. You can believe what you want now get the fuck away from me’. And he repeated it with his eyes dead at me, ‘get the fuck away from me’.”
Marian Finucane then put it to Mulchrone that confronting someone outside their own home might not be a very appropriate course of action, but the man in the Mirror didn’t entirely agree.
“You would like to think, not just Roy Keane, but people in the public eye would be able to deal civilly with a civil enquiry. I knew what was coming. I have tried to approach him before and he hasn’t much time for newsmen.
Story continues
“I don’t think knocking on the front door to invite him to comment on claims that are being made about him are an intrusion. It is courtesy, it’s a legal necessity in the game I have been in all my life.
“He could have said no comment, he could have referred me to a lawyer, an agent, a good friend who speaks for him normally in Ireland, anyone like that. He chose not to. He chose to give me foul-mouthed abuse.”
Move over, Fergie. Roy has a new favourite enemy.
Two of Man United’s most-maligned men reappear to help them beat Leicester
LIVE: Chelsea vs Manchester City, Premier League
Bojan, who? Jon Walters scores Stoke’s first Premier League hat-trickPreview:
Unfinished trailer in progress for Tapissary Talk's episode 10: "Parrot and Alley Rat in a Hurry"
Language of Symbols
This site displays work I have been sculpting in clay, and other works I have been assembling in the territory of my conlang (constructed language). The pages highlight the miniature, ceramic village of Ventiçello I built, and my invented language of 'contemporary' hieroglyphics, called Tapissary. I feed the glyphs into cycles for a grammatical blend unique to Tapissary. Inside, you’ll find illustrated stories and films that take you on a bilingual tour of the culture and history of the village.
Events:
Explore two versions of the Hieroglyphic Collages exhibit. The subject journeys through this invented language of native glyphs and its imaginary world. By clicking the link above, you will discover more information about the display and a short film presenting the exhibit.
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Podcast This new video podcast tells stories as a way to illustsrate Tapissary's glyphic vocabulary and grammar. Click here to watch the podcast
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To contact me, here is my email address:
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.To listen to Pryapisme is an experience in musical extremes in a lot of ways. The group empties as many styles and ideas into one song as some bands do on an entire album. It can be a challenging listen, but very rewarding at the same time. Let’s just say that this band will never be commercially popular in today’s simplistic mainstream music scene. But that’s not a deterrent to the French veterans, who play music without borders in all senses.
To describe their sound to new listeners can be a bit tough. There’s a real progressive electronic and metal backdrop which is the template, and add in an eighties-style Nintendo vibe with some blast beats and jazz fusion spots, and you can start to get a basic idea of what the group is about before fully delving into the actual recordings. Let’s just say that when the band suggests that this music is for fans of Mr. Bungle, John Zorn and Secret Chiefs 3, then I have to think that they really couldn’t have picked any better contemporaries. I’d also add in Frank Zappa from his Synclavier days for the electronic aspect of the group. And their love affair over their recorded catalogue with cats is a central theme that still continues at present, with many feline noises spread throughout their songs. Thankfully, with all that musical madness, the band is instrumental, which is welcome to me as vocals would take focus off the overall sound.
Diabolicus Felinae Pandemonium, by their own admission, is over three years of work, so the near hour of music is understandable. And in those ten songs, we’re treated to all the familiar aspects of the group that their fan base love, but on a larger scale considering their last three releases have been in EP format. The album starts off with ‘Un Max De Croco’, which shows that the same dizzying display of electronic fuelled technical prog is back in full force. Stand-up bass (courtesy of Matthieu Halberstadt of Ogino/Please Lose Battle) and various horn effects help layer their already demented sound that much further, not to mention vinyl pops and hisses for added effect during the quiet parts, and blast beats to pump up the sound. This is just as infectious and odd as I ever remember them being. ‘La Boetie Stochastic Process’ finds their way into some Asian influenced melodies, which is really interesting. The saxophone section in the middle to late part of the song (provided by Adrien Daguzon of Zibeline) and the up-tempo rhythm make for a danceable head-bobber. There’s even a woman’s sexual moans syncopated with the music in the last minute of the song, which has got to be a first for me upon hearing that.
‘100% Babines, Pur Molossoide’ has a mid-paced electronic groove that is the main basis for this song, with a litany of various keyboard effects thrown in to keep the listener on their toes. The song finishes with the relaxed purring of a content feline. ‘A La Zheuleuleu’ features video game music turned into epic progressive metal for the first part of the song, with the second half meshing progressive electronic tendencies before landing back into the prog metal atmosphere and beyond. The shifts are so seamless and done with such talent, which is a feat in and of itself. ‘Tau Ceti Central’ takes on a total jazz-centric approach with saxophone and tailored drumming pummeled with various electronic blasts thrown in to keep the Pryapisme sound in full effect.
‘Tete De Museau Dans Le Boudoir’ is almost like demented detective music with some weird cowboy western movie soundtrack as a backdrop, which moves into a lot of odd sounds with the familiar video game sounds prevalent throughout. ‘Myxomatosis Against Architektur Vol. IV’ gives us heavy riffs and guitar noodling, which is matched with keyboard craziness and feverish drum patterns, and it’s probably one of the more full-on prog jams on the album. ‘Carambolage Fillette Contre Individu Dragon Non-Decortique’ is a total throwback to 8-bit video games with guitars and synths thrown in, while ‘C++’ is totally synth-driven with drums, which gives me that Frank Zappa vibe that I alluded to earlier. ‘Totipotence D’un Erg’ finishes off the album as the longest song at over thirteen minutes in length. It’s a big amalgam of their overall sound, with all the best moments from Pryapisme’s various styles offered in this track. It would be hard to explain all the dementedness that’s going on in this song, but suffice to say that if you enjoy the group’s sound as a whole, this song will be totally satisfying.
It’s important to note that after all the influences mentioned take centre stage, there’s some great jazz fusion located underneath, which really gives more depth to the overall sound, and being a fusion fan myself, it makes me that much more excited to digest their material. And while this band is demented as hell, it’s done in an amazingly playful way, with classification for this band being damn near impossible.
My one gripe is that while this music is incredibly bright and brilliant, and overly technical and well-played, it can get to be a little too overwhelming at times. I think what worked so well about their previous EPs was that it was a quick blast of music without going too long, leaving the listener the ability to absorb all the madness properly, especially over repeated listens. I realize that this current album is the result of over three years of work, and they probably wanted to release it all at once, but it’s my one complaint that the music is served better in short to medium bursts, at least from this guy’s standpoint. But don’t let that deter you from enjoying the new album, because with repeated listens, I found myself getting used to the album length more and getting more lost in the material as I proceeded.
When it’s all said and done, Pryapisme keeps making experimental sounds that are for lovers of various styles of music, with the no-holds-barred attitude and ability to take chances proving fruitful to the listener, and showing us what’s capable in music when we really let go and have fun.Dear Warner Brothers CEO, I would like to start by saying I am a massive supporter of your studio and how you made the Harry Potter films. I come, figuratively of course, in front of you with a humble heart, to ask a request. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was released July 15 of last year. Your studio brought the world an epic finale to a truly epic series. We fans have been mourning and rejoicing since last summer. I believe I can speak on our behalf and say that we would much appreciate a complete set of the Harry Potter franchise. About a week ago, you released the details for the new Harry Potter Wizards' Collection. While it is very impressive, and while I, and most of the Harry Potter community would be proud to own such a collection, we do not want to feel cheated out of anything. The price tag is a bit hefty, and for all the extras and features that you offer as of the moment, I don't feel comfortable paying for this. If you go on the product's Amazon page, you will see that the rest of us devoted fans feel the same. We submit a firm request. You may even label it a condition if you are more comfortable with that. We want ALL of the features, extra scenes that were cut, documentaries, etc. that was shot for all eight of these legendary films. I for one know of rumors that much more footage was shot for the last film that was not presented in the movie. I've heard of scenes involving Professor Flitwick in battle, Hagrid fighting, and Hermione dueling Death Eaters. I would also love to see the extended dialogue and fight between Molly Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange. If there was any possible way to edit cut footage into these movies, albeit unfinished, it would make us absolutely thrilled. We have heard that David Yates shot an extra hour of footage for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. We just want to see all of this back entrance, secret snippets of film. If we could have all this footage and maybe more, anything you have that has been cut and back cataloged, we would gladly pull out our wallets and hand you our paper and plastic. Please WB, please listen to us. If you want this set to sell, include EVERYTHING under the sun. Make us proud Warner Brothers. Sincerely yours, Zachary White, a devoted HP and WB fan.The swimming pool was closed for repairs in February and was supposed to open in April. Instead, it remained shut down for five extra months.
Just in time for the beginning of fall, the Bud Kearns Pool in Balboa Park opened Monday.
It was closed for repairs in February and was supposed to open in April. Instead, it remained shut down for five extra months.
The pool was shut down while its 83-year-old main drain line was fixed at a cost of $149,000, according to San Diego's Parks and Recreation Department.
“We are very excited to be opening the Bud Kearns pool and returning this important amenity to North Park residents and the surrounding community,” said the department's director Herman Parker in a statement. “We appreciate the patience the community has shown while this major repair to the pool was completed. We know how important this facility is in providing the public a place where they can relax and stay cool especially when the weather gets warmer.”
But Bud Kearns still isn’t as good as new.
City staff plan to remove the perimeter curb around pool, restructure its gutter system to recirculate water and replace the perimeter fence. The city hasn't yet secured funding for those repairs. If it does, the pool could be closed again in February 2016 until the work is completed.
City Councilman Todd Gloria, whose district includes Balboa Park, said last month that those long-term permanent fixes are important.
"I'm going to have to keep shaking the tin can at City Hall to make sure we get the dollars to actually do that," he said.
More than $220,000 has been spent on upgrades to the pool and deck area in the last decade, according to the parks department.
The city estimates that 21,139 people visited Bud Kearns in 2014.
To view PDF documents, Download Acrobat Reader.Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Eggplants (or aubergine) are versatile fruits which are enjoyed across the globe. They appear in European, Middle Eastern and Asian dishes and usually taste quite different depending on region. There are also several variety of eggplant including: Italian, which is the dark (almost black) chubby kind we usually see in North America; Indian, which is a short variety which resembles a pear; and Chinese. Chinese eggplants are the long skinny kind which are similar in length to a cucumber. They are not as dark as other varieties and usually retain their vibrant purple colour when cooked. If you are having a hard time finding a Chinese eggplant, any kind will do for this recipe.
This recipe combines eggplant, tofu, and a Chinese five spice sauce which has a subtle flavour reminiscent of chai. It is easiest to buy tofu pre-fried for this recipe as it saves time and you don't have to deal with the dreaded deep-fry smell.
Tofu is available pre-fried from Asian grocery stores. There are several varieties to choose from including pressed, dense, cubed, triangles, marinated, or puffy. Feel free to experiment with all or any! My personal preference is for the puffy kind (you will know what I mean by 'puffy' if you squeeze the package). This kind of tofu is like a memory foam pillow with pockets of air throughout the curd, which is perfect of sucking up sauces and marinades.
For 4 Servings:
2 Chinese eggplants, cubed
1 package fried tofu, cubed
1/2 green pepper, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
oil for frying
Sauce
1 teaspoons five spice powder
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons corn starch, or rice flour
Sauce directions:
In a large measuring cup, or bowl, combine all ingredients and stir. *it is best to make this at least 30 minutes in advance to let the ginger steep.
Eggplant
Heat a drop of oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add the eggplant and fry for 5 minutes or until golden brown. Add the peppers, scallions and garlic and tofu and fry until the peppers are soft. Add the sauce and heat gently until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and serve over steamed rice.
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Dec. 29, 2017, 9:34 AM GMT / Updated Dec. 29, 2017, 9:34 AM GMT By David Wasserman
News analysis
WASHINGTON — Democrats ended 2016 dejected and despondent after Donald Trump shocked Hillary Clinton — and the world — by a tiny combined margin of 77,744 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to win the presidency.
A year later, Democrats are ending 2017 as the slight favorites to take back the House in the midterm elections, thanks to a surge of grassroots anti-Trump activism and an explosion of credible Democratic candidates.
It's an extraordinary turn.
For years, I've argued that House Republicans' twin geographic advantages — their dominance in the 2011 round of congressional districting and Democratic voters' tendency to cluster in cities and waste their own votes — meant that to reclaim the majority, Democrats would either need a resettlement program of their own voters or an unpopular GOP president in a midterm year.
The latter has come true. Trump's poor standing — just 41 percent approval in the most recent NBC/WSJ poll — have propelled Democrats to leads in voters' preference for Congress that may be too large for GOP gerrymandering to withstand.
For Democrats to pick up the 24 seats they need to get to the narrowest possible majority of 218 seats, they probably need to win about 54 percent of all major-party votes cast for the House. That's because in each of the past three elections, Republicans have won a four percent greater share of House seats than votes (for example, in 2016 they won about 51 percent of the vote but 55 percent of seats).
As 2017 draws to a close, the balance of polls suggests Democrats are narrow favorites to hit those thresholds; in fact, Democrats' main problem is that November is still more than 10 months away. In my view, five factors help explain this moment:
1. Demographics
Trump's upset was powered by white voters without college degrees. The problem for Republicans? Voters without college degrees have a dismal track record of voting in off-year elections. This is similar to the problem Obama had: His base of young and non-white voters also had a terrible history of showing up in off years. That didn't change after he took office, and it cost Democrats dearly in 2010 and 2014.
Simply put, 2018 is on track to be the "Year of the Angry White College Graduate." I'd estimate the college-educated share of the electorate will be around 43 or 44 percent next year, up from 39 percent in 2016. That's dreadful news for Republicans: These voters have indicated the highest intensity of opposition to Trump in polls, and we've already seen them power Democrats to victory in Virginia and Alabama.
2. No Leader? No Message? No Problem
Democrats' congressional leaders, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., are old-school coastal liberals with plenty of skeptics in their party's ranks. Between the likes of Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren, there's no consensus frontrunner for the 2020 nomination. And Democrats' "Better Deal" agenda isn't exactly brimming with groundbreaking new policy ideas.
If you're looking for one person who unites today's Democratic Party, it's probably not a Democrat: It's Donald Trump. When you're the party out of power, not having a clear leader can be an advantage — just ask the Republicans who won in 2010 by running as change agents and were the faces of their party in each state and district. For Democrats, a leadership vacuum is a problem for 2020, not 2018.
3. Check and Balance Voters
According to 2016's exit polls, 19 percent of voters had an unfavorable view of both Trump and Clinton. Down-ballot, these voters preferred Republican congressional candidates 63 percent to 33 percent. A likely reason? Most went to the polls believing Clinton would win the election, and voted for their local GOP candidate believing he or she would be a "check" on Clinton's power in the White House.
President Donald Trump boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base on Oct. 7. Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images
In 2018, this dynamic is working in the opposite direction. These voters still don't like Trump, but in a midterm there's no doubt as to the occupant of the Oval Office. Now, they may be inclined to vote for a Democrat as a check on Trump's power — and that might help explain why independents favored Democratic control of Congress by 12 points in the most recent NBC/WSJ poll.
4. History
Midterm elections tend to strongly favor the party out of the White House. The president's party has lost House seats in 35 of the 38 midterm elections since the Civil War. In midterms when the president's approval rating has been lower than 50 percent, the president's party has lost an average of 40 House seats — far more than the 24 Democrats need for the majority in 2018.
Of course, Republicans benefit from the fact there are far fewer competitive House seats than there used to be. Thanks to voters' self-sorting and redistricting, the number of "swing seats" has declined 56 percent since 1997. However, Trump's approval rating is also lower than Bill Clinton's was when Democrats lost 52 seats in 1994 and Obama's was when Democrats lost 63 seats in 2010.
5. Enthusiasm Gap
The adage most applicable to midterm elections? "Anger is a stronger motivator than love." Just as voters who disliked Obama were much likelier to show up in 2010 and 2014 than his supporters, those angry with Trump are much likelier to vote in 2018 than voters who are happy with the status quo. We've seen this dynamic again and again in 2017's special elections.
Some of the most worrisome signs for Republicans have been the stark turnout differentials between red and blue precincts. In Virginia's gubernatorial election, turnout was up 20 percent over 2013 in blue localities versus 13 percent in |
A recent NYT/CBS survey echos what other polling data has indicated: most Americans – like most people on earth – are sick and tired of war. Fortunately, we’ve never been closer to ending military expenditures than we are today.
The advent of instant social innovations, like Twitter and Facebook, are enhancing humankind’s hivemind and helping boost our self-awareness as a species. With a clearer lens into what is happening on earth, we gain access to new insights about our fellow humans.
For one, we’ll see how the vast majority of us – no matter where we come from – can co-exist non-violently with pretty much anyone else on earth. Knowing that the rest of the world shares our same desire and ability for peace will be integral to reducing politically organized violence. The more we collectively embrace the belief that war will end, the more we will actively seek to make peace happen.
As the peace movement grows, so too will awareness of the Military Industrial Complex. An interconnected world will expose war for what it really is: a business. More people will awaken to see that most of earths major wars are fabricated. Were it not for business entities entertaining shareholder interests, most of today’s large scale armed conflicts wouldn’t even exist.
Don’t believe me? Try taking the ‘profit’ out of war-profiteering. Imagine if the world’s biggest defense contractors were held financially accountable for the lives extinguished by their products… their passion for spilling blood would soon evaporate. All the cries of liberty, freedom, democracy, security, God or country would never lead to the scale of today’s wars if there weren’t big money to be made.
Yet since these huge financial incentives remain to drive it forward, we cannot simply wait for the war machine to shut itself down. The people whose very livelihood depends on armed conflict – not just the billionaires at the top, but the millions of regular people entrenched in the defense industry – all have a vested interest in keeping wars brewing around the world.
So why wait for anyone from the ‘defense’ industry to tell us when we can expect peace?
War will be over as soon as we – the world’s people – say it is over.
The onus for peace sits with anyone who wants to see an end to war – the world’s peacewarriors – to systematically dismantle military industrial complex. A challenging task, perhaps, but one for which we’ve never been better equipped to make possible.
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Tags: aware, complex, industrial, machine, military, peace, self, unity, warFirst, we briefly present a comparison of the near-surface temperature between the EMAC (T255) simulations for the reference period and the corresponding EI dataset. Subsequently, we present the results regarding the mosquito habitat suitability driven by the multi-criteria decision model from using the two high-resolution simulation datasets. Based on the CMIP5 multi-model ensemble, we then discuss uncertainties in climate model projections, focusing on robustness—a measure that examines the multi-model ensemble agreement—using two fundamental climatic factors affecting the mosquito habitat, i.e. the near-surface temperature and precipitation in the part of the globe that is relevant for Ae. albopictus (i.e. excluding oceans and land areas with less than 10% hsi). Furthermore, we discuss the hsi in view of the recently produced CMIP5 multi-model ensemble database.
Similarly, we performed a comparison for the precipitation flux. The two datasets are relatively strongly correlated with r = 0.87 [99.9% CI, p < 0.001]. b depicts the mean difference over the 10-year period (2000–2009), indicating relatively small discrepancies. The comparison for individual locations in b shows that the rainfall seasonalities typically compare well, although biases can be much larger than for temperature. As precipitation fluxes are highly variable ( b) and because uncertainties are larger than for temperature, it may be desirable to test the sensitivity of the vector distribution model to uncertainties associated with individual predictor variables in future.
The scarcity of global gridded observational data for the meteorological fields, required for the vector distribution model, makes the evaluation of our high-resolution global datasets rather difficult. However, the EI dataset is considered the best alternative for comparison. The EI dataset is provided on a coarser spatial grid than our climate model, corresponding to a horizontal resolution of approximately 75 km (at the Equator), where data were stored with a frequency of 6 hours. First, we evaluate our results against the near-surface temperature field from the EI dataset for the relevant period of 2000–2009. This was done after our data had been (bi-linearly) interpolated in time and in grid space, respectively. a displays the mean difference over the 10-year period (2000–2009). For the two results, we find a highly significant spatial (grid space) correlation, with Pearson's r-test correlation coefficient 2, r = 0.99 [99.9%CI, p < 0.001] showing that differences are generally small. Monthly climatologies for relevant locations (green dots in ) in all continents, for the decade 2000–2009, are shown in a. The comparison of the EMAC computed and EI assimilated seasonal cycles corroborates the good agreement, well within the 1σ variability, although in individual locations small biases can occur, which are, however, unlikely to have a significant effect on the results of the habitat suitability calculations.
(b) Habitat suitability maps
Extending previous studies of the habitat suitability of Ae. albopictus with a regional focus, here we employ the global GCM EMAC to simulate climatic factors that influence Ae. albopictus spatial distribution. The results from the relatively high-resolution global analysis can be compared with previous work for Europe and are additionally relevant for other parts of the world.
a shows that the Ae. albopictus climatically suitable region of Southeast Asia is captured by our vector distribution model, with an hsi above 90% in most areas. Owing to the lack of publicly available geospatial (gridded) data of the current presence or absence of Ae. albopictus outside its native range of Southeast Asia, the assessment of our vector distribution model results is limited. However, a qualitative evaluation can be conducted based on online information made available by CABI, a non-profit international organization concerned with environmental issues [2,62]. Following a simple analysis approach, by comparing the global occurrence (e.g. location coordinates) [2] against the corresponding ones from the habitat suitability map, it is evident that approximately 70% of the (sparse) geo-referenced data from the CABI database occur in the region of at least 35% hsi, estimated by the species' spatial distribution model. The several misses in non-climatically suitable locations (e.g. western India) are possibly associated with the fact that urban environments, which may help reproduce the necessary climatic conditions for mosquito establishment (e.g. providing water containers in dry areas), have not been explicitly considered in our vector distribution model. The coincidence with the vector distribution model prediction, under the current climatic conditions, is depicted in figures and. Apart from the fact that a number of points reported in the CABI database refer only to the country level, it should also be noted that in some of the reported locations Ae. albopictus may have already been eradicated or is under control. Therefore, it will be essential for the community to establish a global network that reliably monitors the vector distribution, and the data should be publicly available.
The global map in b shows that central and southern Africa (including the tropical rainforest) and equatorial coastal western Africa, approximately between latitudes 8° N and 16° S, currently provides suitable conditions for establishment of the vector. This is corroborated by recent disease outbreaks related to Ae. albopictus reported in Nigeria [2,5]. Suitable habitat conditions for the mosquito also seem to be provided by the coastal areas of southeastern Africa. A highly suitable environment is also found in tropical southcentral America, especially along the eastern coastal part of Brazil. Within the United States, depicted in a, the model identifies most of southeastern states as suitable habitat areas for the mosquito. Furthermore, we find quite suitable conditions for vector survival in the populated southeast coastal area of Australia and the North Island of New Zealand. This provides support for the strict measures that have been implemented in many developed countries with a currently high degree of habitat suitability to prevent the establishment and distribution of Ae. albopictus. Such measures are also needed in less developed countries with high habitat suitability.
b depicts the recent habitat suitability in the European and Mediterranean basin area, indicating that regions such as the central part of Italy, most of Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, western and northern coastal Turkey, have highly suitable climatic conditions for the establishment of Ae. albopictus were it to be introduced. It is also quite notable that the part of Israel where the mosquito has been reported is climatically suited as calculated with the high-resolution model. In §3(d), it will be shown that such locations cannot be resolved at a coarse grid scale. b also shows that parts of the Iberian peninsula, France, southern England and Ireland could actually be hot spots for a potential establishment as the current habitat conditions appear to be highly suitable for the vector, although it has not been observed or reported (yet). The low degree of suitability encountered in countries such as central-eastern Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and extending to Ukraine is attributed mainly to the winter minimum temperature and the relatively low annual average temperatures in these areas. It should be mentioned that sometimes Ae. albopictus has been observed in cities where our model predicts less suitable conditions. This is probably related to very localized urban environs where temperature and precipitation thresholds are being circumvented, such as in parks, gardens, etc. It might be necessary to define adjusted mosquito survival criteria for such conditions to be addressed in future work. From b, it is also notable that in the Mediterranean region coastal areas appear to be suitable habitats, related to the cooling influence of the sea in summer, which prevents temperatures exceeding 40°C in summer (also around the Caspian and Black Seas). On the other hand, in elevated areas, e.g. in the Balkans and Anatolia, winters can be cold which precludes mosquito survival. Similarly, in distinct areas in other continents the habitat suitability of Ae. albopictus can be closely related to topographical features and coastlines, which underscores the usefulness of relatively high-resolution climate simulations.
Figures and show the hsi for the mid-century projection under the SRES-A2 emissions scenario. Thus, owing to the expected overall global warming, the changes in global climatic suitability are reflected in the shift/alteration of potentially suitable areas for invasion by and/or establishment of the Ae. albopictus vector. The projected climate change leads to significant pattern shifts in South America and in some parts of Southeastern Asia. Moreover, parts of the northern-central territories of Mexico are becoming more prone to mosquito establishment, whereas in the United States, the habitable area, apart from being more suited, expands further beyond the southern states to include mid-western states. Also notable is some expansion of the climatically favourable range in the western part of the United States. From b, an overall decrease in future habitat suitability is evident in southern European and Mediterranean areas, although the overall pattern seems mostly the same as in the corresponding reference period, while at the same time an increase in habitat suitability is projected in some of the northern and eastern European states.
In addition, habitat suitability plots for specific regions around the globe referring to both simulation periods are given in the electronic supplementary material, figures S9 and S10. Also maps obtained using the corresponding EI data showing the climatological fields, predictor variable suitability scores and differences in habitat suitability when compared against the EMAC-based estimate, have been included in the electronic supplementary material, figures S15 and S16, figures S17 and S18, and figure S19, respectively.
The above results are summarized by the actual difference ΔS in habitat suitability pattern presented in figures and. Note that before taking the difference between the fields, we excluded areas with hsi less than 10% as they are insignificant for mosquito survival. A pronounced decrease in habitat suitability is manifest in the South American tropical rainforest and savannah regions, representing a change in the suitable range by more than 50%. A similar decrease occurs in the southeastern Asian nations Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, all in the Ae. albopictus native habitat zone. In contrast, we project an increased suitability over the northeastern United States, driven by the simulated warmer temperatures in future in conjunction with the increased RH. Overall, it appears that climate change induces a poleward shift of the suitable habitat conditions that is most apparent in Europe, the United States and eastern Asia, and to a lesser degree in southern Africa and Australia. For habitat suitability changes in specific regions around the globe, we refer to the electronic supplementary material, figure S11.
One conclusion can be readily drawn regarding the present and future climate scenarios. From the global habitat suitability maps for both the recent past and future projection, the regions with the most favourable conditions for mosquito establishment are, as expected, the tropical rainforest areas. This coincides in particular with the Ae. albopictus (original) native environment of Southeast Asia. Climate change seems generally to reduce habitat suitability in the tropical forest regions where Ae. albopictus is native. Owing to its high ecological plasticity, the decline of its native environment is unlikely to minimize its capacity to establish populations in other regions, especially in non-forested areas with dense human populations. Thus in response to climate change, where other regions become more suitable (than existing ones), mosquito populations may become established in these new territories. In future work, it may be desirable also to account for tropical deforestation in climate change scenarios and habitat suitability calculations.
Finally, the exposure of human populations to different levels of Ae. albopictus habitat suitability, i.e. referring to population and land area, is estimated using gridded population density data. For the recent past, we have used data available from the SEDAC service [60], while for the mid-century projections the population density was extracted using the medium-fertility scenario of the United Nations—Population Division [61,63]. Note that for the estimated population in the year 2050, changing patterns in human population (density) are not considered in this study. The results, summarized for six regions, are presented for the recent past and the mid-century projection in tables and, respectively. These estimates indicate that approximately 2.4 billion individuals and an area of nearly 2 × 107 km2 will be subject to high level Ae. albopictus habitat suitability (i.e. hsi greater than 70%) around the year 2050. Although the land area covered in the mid-century period is slightly less than in the recent past, the projected population growth together with the (habitat suitability) geographical distribution shift makes the mosquito threat even more important in future.
Table 2. hsi > 10% hsi > 35% hsi > 70% year 2005 individuals (×106) area (×106 km2) individuals (×106) area (×106 km2) individuals (×106) area (×106 km2) region Europe 540 4.5 315 2.4 141 1.0 Africa 596 14.0 410 8.8 256 4.5 North America 271 3.7 185 2.5 105 1.4 South America 314 16.0 298 13.7 239 9.5 Asia 1760 8.0 1310 6.5 1040 5.1 Australia 14 2.3 12 1.2 7 0.5 global 3495 48.5 2530 35.1 1788 22.0 Open in a separate windowTOKYO, JAPAN - OCTOBER 19: Dwayne Johnson attends the Japan Premiere of 'Hercules' at the Toho Cinemas on October 19, 2014 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Keith Tsuji/Getty Images for Paramount)
For most people, “I could eat a horse” is merely an expression. But we think that if anyone could make the idiom a reality, it might be Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
That’s because the 42-year-old actor and former wrestler, who is 6 foot 4 inches tall, polishes off about 5,165 calories a day (nearly double the daily calories an average American man consumes).
Johnson recently shared his diet with Muscle and Fitness magazine. He reportedly eats seven meals a day, and almost all of his meals consist of a protein, a carbohydrate and vegetables.
See a sampling of his meals below:
MEAL 1:
10 oz cod
2 whole eggs
2 cups oatmeal MEAL 5:
8 oz steak
12 oz baked potato
spinach salad MEAL 7:
30 grams casein protein
10 egg-white omelet
1 cup veggies (onions, peppers, mushrooms)
1 tbsp omega-3 fish oil
Walt Hickey of the website FiveThirtyEight says that based on this plan, Johnson eats about 10 pounds of food daily. He also devours about 821 pounds of cod every year, Hickey notes, adding: “The average American man in his forties consumes 2,734 calories daily, according to data from the USDA. Johnson eats roughly 1,000 calories a day in cod alone.”
Top athletes are known to feast upon plenty of food, Bleacher Report notes.Reading Time: 5 minutes
When an addict decides that it’s time to seek help and to make a stance toward recovery from addiction, the very first step has already been taken which is admitting that there are problems and a need for change. Sometimes, it can be difficult to be objective about our own drug abuse and it takes another person stepping up and saying, “Hey (insert name here) I think you should seek help for your marijuana abuse.” If you’re not sure if your marijuana has already slipped from a state of abuse to addiction or you’re just not sure you need help, consider the most common marijuana addiction symptoms and ask yourself if you are showing any of these signs of addiction—if you are, there’s a good chance that professional help may be needed.
If any of the marijuana addiction symptoms we are about to discuss show up in yourself or in someone you care about who smokes pot, there’s a chance that addiction could be a factor and that additional, professional help may be required.
1. Tolerance
The very first of many marijuana addiction symptoms that becomes evident is tolerance. When an individual smokes pot, at first it may only take a few puffs and he or she will feel the effects. After a couple of times of using the drug, it will take more and more in order to feel those same effects. In time, the user smokes more pot, more often and feels less of the effects—this is tolerance and it’s also the first real sign of marijuana addiction.
2. Withdrawal
Anytime there is a physical drug addiction present, withdrawal symptoms are a possibility. If you begin to experience symptoms of marijuana withdrawal when you don’t smoke pot, such as insomnia, anxiety or a loss of appetite, then there’s a very good chance that addiction has already set in. Physically, these symptoms will subside in about two weeks if you quit smoking pot altogether.
3. Loss of Control Over Marijuana Use
If you have tried to cut back, tried to smoke less and even told yourself or someone else that you wouldn’t smoke so much pot and then later went against your intentions—this could be a sign of marijuana addiction. Symptoms such as a loss of control over intended use are common in many types of addiction, including addiction to weed.
4. Spending too much time Getting High
Are you or is someone you love spending the majority of their time getting high? One of the more common marijuana addiction symptoms focuses on the amount of time that is spent getting high. If you are taking time away from other activities, spending time away from family or friends or otherwise spending time getting high rather than doing things that you once loved, there’s a good chance that addiction is a problem in your life.
5. Choosing Friendships based on Drug Activity
Do you choose your friends based on whether or not they smoke pot? Are you spending less time with friends who don’t smoke weed and more time with those who do? As marijuana addiction progresses and the real damage begins to set in you may realize that you are spending more time trying to hang out around others who take part in similar drug use activity and less time around those who (though probably would have better relationships with you) do not do drugs.
6. Smoking Weed to Relax
At the end of the day, do you have to smoke a joint in order to calm down? If you or a loved one turns to weed consistently as a means of relaxation and seemingly cannot relax without pot, there could be a more prevalent problem present with marijuana addiction. Symptoms such as this often persist and, contrary to common belief, marijuana does not actually relax, sooth or calm. In fact, the Office of National Drug Control Policy confirms that marijuana does not promote relaxation but actually increases violent crimes.
7. Lack of Responsibility
Do you stop taking care of your daily responsibilities when you smoke pot? If smoking weed has interrupted your ability to handle daily activities such as going to school or performing well at work, there may be a bigger problem. Another one of the more common marijuana addiction symptoms relates to the lack of productivity or responsibility that comes when an individual focuses too much attention on smoking pot and not enough attention on attending to regular responsibilities.
8. Getting High Despite Known Consequences
Have you suffered consequences as a result of getting high? If you have already suffered consequences and you know very well that smoking pot will continue to cause problems in your life, yet you still smoke weed anyway, you might be addicted. Marijuana addiction can lead you to do things that you otherwise may not do, such as getting high despite the fact that you know it is causing problems in your life.
9. Smoking Pot to Escape Reality
Marijuana use as a means of escaping reality is a sure sign of addiction. If you feel like you have to smoke pot in order to cope with work, school, home or your family, addiction is likely an issue in your life. Drugs should never be used as a method of escaping reality or to cover up what is really going on.
10. Trying to Cut Down—And Failing
Finally, one of the well-known marijuana addiction symptoms is making attempts to cut down on the level of marijuana usage and failing. If you lie to yourself about the amount of pot you will consume or you have told other people such as those you love that you will not smoke so much and then you still do, addiction is a problem.“Most dynasties are defined and circumscribed by region. The Roosevelts rode as high and far as the national fortunes of New York State. The Tafts go as far as Ohio takes them…. Not the Bushes. Their success is found in an essential rootlessness.” – Michael Powell, Washington Post, 2001
Jeb Bush’s announcement of a presidential campaign exploratory committee – and the gauntlet immediately thrown down by movement conservatives – might sound familiar to longtime political observers. But this is not merely because of its similarity to obstacles overcome by John McCain or Mitt Romney. It’s because the reception was nearly identical to that his own father received 51 years ago when he announced his campaign for the U.S. Senate. Indeed, the modern Republican Party’s evolution can be traced along the branches of the Bush family tree, as the ambitions of Bush men compelled a perpetual repositioning to appeal to the party’s activist base. Once a Northeastern and Midwestern party emphasizing fiscal prudence, cooperative multilateralism abroad and social moderation, the party became a Sunbelt party focused on deep tax cuts, international assertiveness rooted in American exceptionalism, and a cultural traditionalism skeptical of modern science while promoting religion in the public square.
The Patriarch
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In many ways the Republican Party’s evolution begins with a political neophyte seeking an open U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut who was joined at a rally by a fire-breathing Wisconsin conservative. The New Englander, a stately former Skull and Bones member at Yale who became a wealthy and prominent Manhattan investment banker, was Prescott Bush, George W. and Jeb’s grandfather. The imported political talent who headlined the event was a vehement anti-Communist offering red meat and rough edges: Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy was in Bridgeport to raise Bush's profile and fire up rank-and-file Republicans. But though he welcomed "Tailgunner Joe" to Connecticut, Pres later noted that he had “very considerable reservations… concerning the methods which he employs."
McCarthyism was not Pres Bush’s brand of Republicanism; indeed, Pres described himself as a "moderate progressive" concerned about the conditions in dilapidated urban slums, with which he had become familiar in his longtime role as state chairman of the United Negro College Fund. But his philanthropic efforts did not preclude a belief in the need for government support: once elected, Pres focused on affordable housing preservation, spearheading the 1954 Housing Act, which contained $150 million for 26 Connecticut cities, giving Connecticut more money per capita than any state. He exhorted Congress to "have the courage to raise the required revenues by approving whatever levels of taxation may be necessary" to fund education and research. He drafted legislation that expedited the construction of local flood protection works. He stood to the left of his party on everything from taxes and civil rights to infrastructure and immigration.
A Son Heads for Texas
Prescott’s son George H. W. Bush (“Bush”) left for Texas to make a name for himself outside of his father’s shadow. Bush moved his family to West Texas in 1948, during Texas’ first era of one-party rule, and started a company in the oil business. But by the time he decided to run for the U.S. Senate in 1963, he encountered a thriving Texas Republican Party. It had just elected its first United States Senator by prying conservative Democrats away from their ancestral home; perceived Democratic support of civil rights was anathema to many Democrats. Bush’s only problem was that the rank-and-file Texas Republicans were not much like the Connecticut Republicans who had elected his father.
According to Texas writer Molly Ivins, Bush would never truly be accepted in the Lone Star State, because "real Texans do not use the word summer as a verb … and do not wear blue slacks with little green whales all over them." Observing the 1964 race, Texas Observer editor Ronnie Dugger noted that Bush's campaign “gets its sparkle from the young Republican matrons who are enthusiastic about him personally and have plenty of money for baby sitters and nothing much to do with their time." Unfortunately for Bush, there were not enough of these types to nominate a Rockefeller Republican in a contested Texas primary.
Despite his East Coast upbringing, Bush was determined to fit in – whatever it took. He realized that whatever appearances might suggest, the substance of his campaign would need to be more Goldwater than Rockefeller. The party was changing, and the South was leading that change. Republicanism had come to the South from the top down, spawned in the silk-stocking suburbs of booming Rim South metropolises like Charlotte and Memphis by people not much different, culturally speaking, from the Bushes. But now, with the aid of Goldwater’s staunch opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Republicanism was spreading like wildfire throughout the Deep South. The John Birch Society types who flooded Republican events were highly suspicious of the Manhattan financier cliques, and so Bush provided an easy target. Wrote Richard Ben Cramer in his classic "What it Takes":
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“…[T]he nuts hated him. They could smell Yale on him. He was always saying stuff like, ‘We have the same basic goals…’ He couldn’t seem to get what was basic to the Birchers: being rid of him and everyone like him… like Eisenhower, Rockefeller… like all those rich, pointy-head, one-worlder, eastern-Harvard-Yale-country-club-Council-on-Foreign-Relations commie dupes!”
Bush strained to connect with the Birchers. He lambasted incumbent Democratic Senator Ralph Yarborough for voting to end the filibuster on the Civil Rights Act, which would, he claimed, destroy the judicial system. He proclaimed that if the United Nations seated the “Red” Chinese, the U.S. should “get the hell out” of the organization. He mused about ending all foreign aid except to arm the Cuban exiles. And he exalted capitalism’s virtues: "Only unbridled free enterprise can cure unemployment,” he said; capitalism “must be completely unfettered.” A proposal to establish a domestic Peace Corps was a “half-baked pie in the sky;” the federal government ought to abdicate all responsibility for alleviating poverty. Yet no matter how hard he tried, Bush never earned the right wing’s trust; even after his son was elected president, many conservatives still attributed George W.’s few moderate instincts to the insidious influence of his parents.
Bush lost the Senate race. But in 1966, the Republican establishment in Texas carved out a safe seat for him in a posh Houston area much more suited to his father’s style of Republicanism, and he won easily. Bush was in Congress when the 1968 Open Housing Act came up for a vote, and he decided to give each side a nod. Bush earned the wrath of conservatives in his district by voting for the final bill, but on the key procedural vote to send the bill’s toughest provisions back to committee, Bush sided with conservatives. Always, betwixt in between.
In 1970, Bush ran for the Senate again, running against conservative Democrat Lloyd Bentsen, who had ousted liberal Ralph Yarborough. With scant ability to draw contrasts, Bush lost again. He spent the next decade as Republican National Committee chairman, CIA director, and ambassador to China. In 1979, Bush began his quest for national office, and emerged as the moderate alternative to conservative darling Ronald Reagan, who had wowed the right with his spirited 1976 primary challenge. The primaries were a mismatch, but after their conclusion, Reagan confounded conservatives by choosing Bush as his running mate. Whereas Reagan had consistently espoused deep tax cuts, Bush had famously dubbed Reagan’s tax plan "voodoo economics." But now, he was part of Reagan’s team – a key step in the metamorphosis of the Bush clan.
George H. W. Bush: Transitional Figure
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Whatever Prescott Bush's views, his son took his cues much more from Ronald Reagan than from his father once ensconced in the vice presidency. George H. W. Bush’s gradual transition was quiet, but by the time he stepped out into the spotlight at the 1988 GOP convention to become the Republicans standard-bearer, the "voodoo economics" line was replaced with his famous "Read my lips: No new taxes!" pledge. Bush had outflanked Bob Dole in the primaries (Dole had refused a similar pledge, instead promising to eliminate the deficit), and Bush delivered his convention rhetoric with a convert’s zeal.
Of course, that all changed with the recession of 1990, which caused Bush to reevaluate his pledge and approve a bipartisan compromise to raise taxes and reduce the ballooning deficit. The deal was widely repudiated by House Republicans, whose posture had shifted dramatically since Bush had served there. Then, Republicans had been a docile minority, vastly outnumbered by Democrats after the 1964 landslide and loathe to rock the institutional boat. But as the parties polarized, the House Bush encountered was a much different one. Whereas the House Republican leader, moderate Bob Michel, enjoyed a collegial relationship with Democrats and retained the loyalty of older Republicans, the norm of bipartisan comity was conspicuously rejected by his successor, Georgia bombthrower Newt Gingrich.
Throughout the 1990s, Gingrichites skewered Bush’s 1990 tax deal. When Bush left the White House in 1993, he had embraced bits and pieces of Reagan’s agenda. But although conservatives originally fancied his presidency as "Reagan's third term," he was unable to accomplish the sweeping tax, regulatory, or social changes they sought. He never adopted the overarching Reagan philosophy of limited government nor Reagan’s aggressive posture toward hostile nations. Despite his efforts, he never seemed like a true Texan, conservative, or “regular guy,” and his gaffes fed this perception, as when he blamed his poor 1987 Iowa straw poll showing on supporters who were “at their daughter’s coming-out party, or teeing up on the golf course.” He was a transitional figure: an ideological, geographic and cultural bridge from one Bush generation to the next.
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This helps explain why George Bush struggled to connect with voters: he did not emanate a sense of place. He seemed forever betwixt and between his New England upbringing and his adopted Texas home. He never understood why he was so widely mocked for claiming to eat pork rinds, but any late-night talk show viewer immediately got the joke: he was trying too hard to be something he was not. It would fall to his son to complete the Bush dynasty’s evolution from northeastern Rockefeller moderation to evangelical Sun-Belt conservatism.
George W., Son of the South
When George W. Bush (“W”) first sought office in Texas, most people understood that his father’s central political problem had been his elitist bearing. In his own 1978 congressional bid, W faced similar issues. Democratic Rep. Kent Hance contrasted his local high school with W’s alma mater, Andover Academy; W exacerbated the problem with a commercial meant to highlight his vigor that showed him jogging, which he pulled after Hance noted that a West Texan would only be seen running if he was being chased. But by 1994, W learned his lesson. Having converted to evangelical Christianity, he incorporated religious imagery and themes into his speeches. Governor Ann Richards could not “out-Texan” him, and he upset her in a strong Republican year.
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The Party of Fiscal Prudence Embraces Deficits
George W. Bush's first significant proposal as a presidential candidate was a $1.6 trillion tax cut, and his first major accomplishment was its enactment. It was originally designed to insulate him from 2000 primary rival Steve Forbes’s expected charge that he was, like his father, “soft” on taxes. Green-eyeshades Republicans were aghast at the plan, which resembled the “voodoo economics” his father had disparaged.
Upon his election, W sent his proposal to Capitol Hill and, given projected budget surpluses, garnered bipartisan support. However, negotiations highlighted fissures in the GOP that amplified Bush family differences, with Republican resistance centered in their ancestral New England, home to Maine Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, Rhode Island’s Lincoln Chafee and, fatefully, Vermont’s Jim Jeffords (who would soon switch parties, due in part to W’s rightward tilt, throwing Senate control to the Democrats). Prescott’s Republican descendants remained – and they held the balance of power, which they used to whittle the tax cut down.
Despite the September 11 tragedy and subsequent national security expenditures, W pushed a 2003 proposal to cut $1.5 trillion in taxes over 10 years (and create budget deficits larger than those experienced under Reagan). This push reshaped the Republican Party’s congressional wing. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay had in 1995 deemed a balanced budget – the centerpiece of the Contract with America – the party’s top fiscal priority and predicted a “calamity” without it. Unable to pass it, the House passed a resolution exalting the virtuous effects of a balanced budget, such as lower interest rates, faster growth, increased saving and investment and higher productivity. By 2003, leading House Republicans disavowed all that. Of course, had it passed, the constitutional amendment would have rendered the Bush tax cuts unconstitutional.
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The inconsistency was just as glaring on the other side of the Capitol. In 1996, Senator Orrin Hatch had written that the balanced budget amendment was his "first priority… [because] continued deficits would devastate future generations.” But amid skyrocketing deficits in 2003, Hatch backed the tax cuts along with all but one Republican colleague, though just six years earlier they had all favored the balanced budget amendment. They apparently were persuaded by Dick Cheney’s logic that deficits “don’t matter.” The Bush-Cheney administration had transformed Republicans into a party heedless of mushrooming deficits – at least until the election of Barack Obama.
Culture, Religion, and Social Issues
At Home in Texas
If George H. W. Bush’s 1964 experience highlighted the cultural tensions he faced as a Yalie campaigning in Texas, then W did not seem to be conflicted. Religion helps explain this. W’s Christianity is not his parents’ mainline Methodist faith but an evangelical strain common in the South. During his 1994 gubernatorial campaign, W preached the gospel in Houston's mega-churches. He told the story of his 1986 awakening, tied to his liquor-soaked 40th birthday, the ensuing hangover and his snap decision to stop drinking.
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In 1994, W espoused the “compassionate conservatism” theme he had once recommended to his father. George H. W.’s clinical detachment was immortalized in 1992 when he mistakenly recited the instructions from daily talking points. “Message: I Care,” he informed a confused crowd. But W’s rhetoric carried the zeal of southern evangelicalism, not the noblesse oblige of Prescott’s New England communitarianism.
These tonal differences suggested significant substantive differences. Bush family members had long preached compassion, but their prescription for government assistance evolved. Prescott sought to use both charity and the levers of government to ameliorate the plight of the needy. George H. W.’s signature proposal was simply for government to recognize a “thousand points of light” (i.e., local charities helping the less fortunate). W, though, merged compassion with social conservative activism by fusing it with religion through his “faith-based initiative” first espoused by John Ashcroft in the mid-1990s.
Religiosity as a National Figure
Most Americans first encountered W’s religiosity when, during a 2000 presidential debate, he was asked to name his favorite philosopher. “Christ,” he said, “because he changed my heart.” Pundits panned it as a transparent attempt to woo evangelicals, but it worked: W won a majority of them in the crucial South Carolina primary. As president, he delivered speeches laced with religious references. In 2003, he implored the nation to have faith in "the loving God behind all of life, and all of history." This departed from his forebears’ style; rare is the New Englander who publicly discusses religion. W’s language grew even more religious during the Iraq war. When author Bob Woodward asked him |
—you name it. Only now, you don’t need mom and dad’s permission.
The owners, husband and wife team Sam Wells and Liz McArthur, have been collecting and selling toys, art, and other pieces of vintage together for more than 15 years. Since opening, Wells says the general reaction from shoppers has been fun to watch. “There’s been a lot of, ‘Oooh, I used to have that!’ and ‘Oh man, I always wanted one of those!’ with people reminiscing,” he says.
Along with fulfilling childhood toy dreams, the duo also sells vintage clothing, jewelry, and other collectibles—including a record player cabinet, couch, and artwork. It’s a mishmash of vintage, adding to the nostalgia shoppers feel when they walk into the store.
Toy de Jour is located at 2064 N. Western Ave. on the border of Logan Square and Bucktown, adding to the already thriving area off the Western Blue Line stop near Challengers Comics + Conversation and Margie’s Candies.
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Wildfire season is off to a troubling start in Ventura County, California, where flames raged all day Thursday and burned at least 10 square miles, including a very toxic pesticide plant. Local residents were evacuated from their homes and as were the students at California State University — all of them. Pesticide is a pretty poisonous substance when it's sitting in a jug, but when it catches on fire, toxic gases go everywhere. This doesn't happen often, but it has happened before. It's very dangerous.
The fire department dispatched a hazmat team to the site of the blaze about 50 miles west of Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon. It's their job to contain the fire at the plant and clean up the mess. In the meantime, though, locals are being sternly instructed not to breathe the smoke. Wildfire smoke is not good for you. Wildfire smoke mixed with burning pesticide smoke, however, is very bad for you. With the Santa Ana winds stoking the fire, the afternoon proved difficult from the 850 odd firefighters working to contain the blaze, but so far, they haven't contained it one bit.
This is only the beginning. With water from snowmelt expected to fall far short of its average, there's a lot of anxiety that this summer's fire season will be extra bad, and the record temperatures that will surely arrive won't help. But hey, wonderful weather doesn't come without its drawbacks. "This is a part of being in Southern California, just like earthquakes," one local resident who had been evacuated told the Associated Press.
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.Though expanding biofuel production is often lauded as a key strategy for decreasing carbon emissions, a University-based analysis found that the benefits might not be so extensive.
John DeCicco, a research professor at the University’s Energy Institute, reviewed existing studies that evaluated the effectiveness of biofuel as an alternative energy source. He discovered that the variety of computer models used does not accurately represent the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere when biofuels are produced.
Though biofuel, an energy source composed from organic or food waste products, has generally been deemed a leading eco-friendly option for reducing gasoline consumption, DeCicco said many of the studies are misleading.
“The government has sponsored computer models which have made a very basic accounting mistake,” he said. “Particularly, they count carbon dioxide uptake as it happens. They completely offset the carbon dioxide admitted when the biofuel is burned.”
In recent years, scientists and researchers have debated the advantages and disadvantages of biofuel compared to petroleum production.
DeCicco, however, said his work takes a step back to research fundamental mistakes made when measuring carbon dioxide uptake throughout the decades. His research argues against the assumption that biofuels decrease net carbon dioxide emissions.
Using a field of soybeans as an example, DeCicco talked about how these models fail to recognize that lands are constantly being used for production. Fields previously used to grow food are now providing for biofuel production.
“The computer-analysis methods forget to check what land is doing before it is used to grow soybeans for biofuels,” he said. “They think that the land is completely barren. That’s a very big mistake.”
Consequently, there has been no increase in the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as a result of increased biofuel production because the fields were already being used to grow food.
The research paper also highlights the use of carbon footprint models and their incorrect calculations that carbon dioxide emissions are lower with biodiesel than petroleum. The results are inconsistent with the realities of the carbon cycle, causing carbon footprint calculators to incorrectly estimate carbon dioxide uptake by crops like soybeans.
However, DeCicco remains optimistic for the future and believes that scientific critical analyses will help to remove these assumptions.
“I, alongside many researchers around the world, have begun peeling the layers of the onion,” he said. “It’s necessary because the scientific community has made some erroneous decisions.”Story highlights Douglas Kennedy was arraigned Thursday on on misdemeanor charges
He knocked down a nurse while he was holding his newborn son, attorneys say
Kennedy wanted to take his son out for some "fresh air," attorneys say
Douglas Kennedy is the son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy
Robert F. Kennedy's son, Douglas, faces misdemeanor charges over an incident at a New York hospital last month in which he knocked down a nurse while holding his newborn son, attorneys for both sides say.
He was arraigned Thursday on harassment and child endangerment charges, both attorneys said.
Kennedy -- a Fox News contributor -- was trying to take his newborn son for a walk "to get fresh air" outside Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, when two nurses intervened to prevent him from leaving, they said.
Kennedy, who was accompanied by a hospital doctor, allegedly twisted the arm of one nurse to move her away from a door and kicked another after she approached him on January 7, according to Elliot Taub, the attorney for both nurses.
The doctor who accompanied Kennedy, Timothy Haydock, was a longtime family friend, who said the nurses had initially agreed to let Kennedy take the baby outside.
"The nurses were the only aggressors," Haydock said in a statement delivered by Kennedy's attorney.
But Taub said both nurses had not recognized Kennedy as the child's father and intended to protect the baby, who apparently had not been discharged. They were trying to enforce hospital rules, Taub said.
Kennedy denied those allegations, saying "the nurse had no right to grab our child out of his father's arms."
His attorney, Robert Gottlieb, said his client was "calm and considerate" and only became aggressive when the two nurses tried to take the baby.
Gottlieb said one nurse said to Kennedy, " 'Absolutely not,' and got very aggressive."
"Dr. Haydock told the nurses he was going to go with (Kennedy)," according to Gottlieb, who said the baby was wrapped in a blanket and had a cap on his head. "He wasn't kidnapping him, obviously."
Gottlieb said one of the nurses then lunged for the baby.
He said Kennedy then pushed the nurse with his knee, prompting the woman to fall backwards onto the hospital floor.
Mount Kisco police not were immediately available for comment.
The late Robert F. Kennedy was the younger brother of slain President John F. Kennedy and a former U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator. He was assassinated in 1968 while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.These demands are not new – they have a long history spanning decades. Dr Krishnasamy had pointed out that it was the British, who in 1926-27 made the community SC – based solely on their deprived economic status. Here, he is perhaps providing a valuable hint to researchers in history who are open-minded for free frameworks. Historian Mike Davis in his book, Late Victorian Holocausts, writes about how the British rule disrupted “a complex network of social production including communal irrigation”.
A few generations back, the Devendrakula Vellalars were the custodians of this crucial component of agriculture in the villages of Tamil Nadu. It was with the complete colonial overhaul of agricultural land ownerships that the community seemed to have suffered grave economic setbacks and subsequently categorised as a scheduled community. Antagonistic and inhuman attitudes of some of the communities that emerged dominant did not help the situation either.
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The British also played their cards cleverly. They created fault lines by placing the Kallar community in criminal tribes and Devendrakula Vellalar in the scheduled community list. The ensuing enmity had gone on for almost a century and the dominant ‘progressive’ narrative put the blame on ‘Brahminical Hinduism’, resulting even in Islamist mass conversions in 1980s that shocked India. Except Dr M G Ramachandran, the Dravidian polity also perpetuated the fault lines created by the British. This often resulted in criminal and tragic loss of human lives, particularly of people belonging to Devendrakula Vellalar community.
In 1999, under the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, the police opened fire at estate labourers who were demanding maternity leave and that their daily wages be fixed at Rs 100 a day. In the incident which is now known as ‘Thamiraparani river massacre’, 18 people including two women and a two-year-old child died. In 2011, under the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) regime, seven men were shot dead by police during a rally against the detention of a community leader. Thus the path through which the community travelled even in the current decade has been one of thorns.Members of Edmonton's Muslim community say changes to the Edmonton police uniform will help build trust and reflect Edmonton's growing diversity.
This week, EPS announced it had commissioned a police-issued hijab that lays flat on the face and tears away if someone pulls on it, giving Muslim women on the force the option of wearing the traditional headscarf while on duty.
SherifElSayad is the Imam at Rashid Mosque in northeast Edmonton. He helped work with EPS to design the new hijab.
The Edmonton Police Service has developed a prototype hijab for female Muslim officers to wear while on duty. (Courtesy: Edmonton Police Service)
He said the hijab is a great step toward making Edmonton a more inclusive city.
"It will create more chances and opportunities for Muslim girls, for Muslim ladies to be part of the … police, maybe tomorrow the military, maybe afterward many other jobs."
“It's going to be a big motivation to many of the girls to be part of the police and to help that community,” he added.
Haneen Othman, 15, is also excited about the new uniform option. As a teen who wears a traditional Islamic headscarf, she said there are limitations to what kind of career she can pursue.
"I feel like it's really hard for us to follow our dreams."
But now she is excited to have the choice to work as an Edmonton police officer.
"As far as career choices go, I have like more to explore, less restrictions... not just me, but like, the entire Muslim community."
EPS does not currently have any members or applicants requesting to wear the headscarves, but says the new police-issued hijab is a proactive measure to encourage diversity.Like many women, Leslie Mait had a feeling about Hillary Clinton. The 55-year-old from Glen Ellyn, Ill., had followed her career as first lady, a U.S. senator, and secretary of state for more than twenty years. "Something in her experience just [made me think], 'I think she can do it in spite of everything everyone says.'" But unlike most Clinton supporters, Mait is a Republican who has never before voted for a Democrat for president.
She's not alone. Nearly half of female GOP primary voters said they could not imagine themselves voting for Trump, according to a NBC/WSJ poll last month, while only 40 percent of male GOP primary voters said the same. And with Trump's chances of securing the nomination looking better and better, this is proving to be a trying time for Republican women.
There are many reasons GOP women are planning on voting for Clinton. I spoke with a few of them to better understand what exactly is motivating them to break with their party.
"I kind of grew up with Hillary always in the background of my adult life. She's always had an influence on me."
Many women—particularly those who have watched her marriage flounder, her struggles to raise a daughter under media scrutiny, and her climb to the top of the political ladder against the odds—feel a kinship with Clinton that has less to do with politics and more do to with her biography. Asma Hasan, a Republican, considers herself part of an exclusive sisterhood that counts Clinton as its most distinguished member. She started at Wellesley College in 1993, the same year Clinton, a 1969 graduate of the college, became first lady. "I kind of grew up with Hillary always in the background of my adult life," the Denver-based attorney and author tells me. "She's always had an influence on me and how I see the world."
Hillary Clinton at Wellesely College Commencement in 1992 Getty Images
Hasan, who's 41, says, equally important is a more fundamental form of sisterhood. "There's still a lot of sexism out there. And I think that one way to deal with that it is to try to support each other and mentor each other, encourage each other, give each other advice," she says. "There are people out there that will not vote for her because she's female―because of sexism, that is perhaps latent and hard to identify....I'm a woman first before I'm a Republican," Hasan says. "And I feel like having a female president is an important goal for women. Men have had their chance for a long time, and we have to have a female. It's just time."
"I'm a woman first before I'm a Republican. And I feel like having a female president is an important goal for women."
Some women in the GOP have found themselves drawn to Clinton not out of love for her, but fear of a Trump presidency. (Indeed, Hillary Clinton's latest ad plays like a lowlight reel of Donald Trump's foreboding overtures: "He says we should punish women who have abortions..." says the voiceover.) Last week, former first lady Laura Bush hinted that she'd rather see Clinton in the Oval Office than Trump. And Christine Todd Whitman, the former governor of New Jersey, told Bloomberg's With All Due Respect last month that she would take four more years of a Clinton administration over "the kind of damage I think Donald Trump could do to this country, to its reputation, to the people of this country."
"He has no political experience," says Rumer Richardson, 26, former intern for Republican senator John Cornyn. "I don't think bringing people to such a state of anger and unrest, like he's done at all of his rallies, is something we need in office. And I would not want to trust him with international relations with Canada, let alone North Korea and Iran."
Sarah Miller, a 22-year-old senior at Northwestern University and lifelong Republican, told me she thinks Trump is a "buffoon" and a "travesty" for the GOP. Spurred by his rise and trying to keep an open mind, she went to a watch party for the second Democratic debate, in November. Compared to Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley, Miller, an economics major, says it was "striking" how Clinton actually "knew what the fuck was going on" with the country's economy. While she disagreed with most of Clinton's positions, "I can recognize when someone just knows more than I do, or when someone has seen more than I have."
"It's going to be someone who I wouldn't necessarily have chosen at the outset, but who's at least smart and who knows what she's doing."
As the once-crowded field of Republican hopefuls winnowed, shedding more moderate candidates, Miller grew increasingly disenchanted with her party. Trump's rise is "a huge part" of why she's planning to vote for Clinton. "I've gotten there out of lack of options, kind of accepting that she's the best, she's the most experienced, knowing, qualified option we've got left," Miller says. "It's going to be someone who I wouldn't necessarily have chosen at the outset, but who's at least smart and who knows what she's doing."
Getty Images
At the beginning of the primary season, Becca Wu, a 23-year-old who lives in New York City, was excited about Jeb Bush. She could even imagine herself voting for Marco Rubio, even though she saw his youth and limited experience on the national stage as disadvantages. But after both men dropped out of the race, she figured it was time to broaden her horizons—especially with a Trump presidency looming. "At this point, I'm thinking, 'Who can beat Trump?' And that's where I land with Hillary."
Unlike their older counterparts, millennial women in the GOP say her historic candidacy—and the fact that she's a woman—isn't a central part of their decision to vote for her, if it enters into the equation at all. Richardson says she scrutinized Clinton's platform more closely so she could dismiss criticism that she was only voting for her because of her gender. Even still, there's an undercurrent of hope for Clinton rising to the most powerful office in the world.
"I would love to have a lady president," Wu told me. "That would be so badass."Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption General Sir David Richards said if Nato didn't "up the ante" now, there was a risk that Colonel Gaddafi could stay in power.
The Defence Secretary Liam Fox says he agrees with the head of the Armed Forces that Nato needs to intensify its campaign in Libya.
General Sir David Richards told the Sunday Telegraph direct attacks should be launched against the infrastructure propping up Colonel Gaddafi's regime.
He said it was necessary to prevent the Libyan leader remaining in power.
But the UN's under-secretary general for humanitarian relief called for a temporary cessation of hostilities.
Baroness Amos, the UN's under-secretary for humanitarian relief, said there was an urgent need for an end to the conflict and she was concerned that "any upscaling" in the fighting would have a significant impact on innocent civilians.
Speaking to Radio 4's The World This Weekend, she said: "My job is to make sure that we all remember that it is the innocent people who are suffering and that we need a political solution as quickly as we can."
The UK and other countries have been bombing Libya under a UN resolution authorising force to protect civilians.
The Security Council resolution authorises "all necessary measures" to protect civilians under threat of attack - short of an occupying force.
The views of Gen Richards, Chief of the Defence Staff, are said to be supported by other senior Nato officers.
They argue increasing the range of targets from direct threats such as tanks and command sites would be legitimate, but would require the backing of member states.
'Within rules'
Col Gaddafi's removal is not a specified military objective of the action.
If we want to increase the pressure on Gaddafi's regime then we need to give serious consideration to increasing the range of targets Gen Sir David Richards
But in the interview with the Telegraph, Gen Richards said it would be "within the rules" should he be killed in a strike on a command and control centre.
He said the "vice is closing on Gaddafi but we need to increase the pressure further through more intense military action".
He said: "If we do not up the ante now there is a risk that the conflict could result in Gaddafi clinging to power.
"At present, Nato is not attacking infrastructure targets in Libya. But if we want to increase the pressure on Gaddafi's regime then we need to give serious consideration to increasing the range of targets we can hit."
Gen Richards said that if Nato withdrew its forces with Col Gaddafi still in power, "then there is a significant risk that he will launch fresh attacks against the rebels".
"The prime minister and I are on the same page. We are in total agreement that the only solution to this conflict is for Gaddafi to go."
Gen Richards added there had been "hardly any civilian casualties as a result of the extreme care Nato has taken in the selection of bombing targets".
Legitimate target
Defence Secretary Liam Fox said there had already been an extension of the targeting in Libya.
He told the BBC's Politics Show: "We were very clear, it's acceptable to destroy the tanks and military vehicles of Gaddafi if they're directly threatening the civilian population, it's legitimate to degrade the command and control and intelligence networks of the regime which are used to control those forces and provide that threat.
"So we've increasingly been dealing with static targets rather than the moving targets like tanks."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Liam Fox: 'It's legitimate to degrade the command and control and intelligence networks of the regime'
But former Nato commander Rear Admiral Chris Parry, who was involved in setting up two no-fly zones over Iraq, said the military plan had been made too hastily and the overall political and military aims had not been thought through.
Cdr Stephen Jermy, former assistant chief of staff for aviation, said the danger was stepping outside the mandate.
"Our mandate has been clear, to protect the civil population and actually what we really appear to be doing through our actions is much more to do with regime change," he said.
"There's no international mandate for that and if we were to do so it would break down the international coalition or the consensus that exists."
The comments come as a Nato official said it was aware of Libyan state media reports that as many as 11 clerics were killed in its strike on the town of Brega, but insisted that a "clearly identified" military command and control site had been targeted.theonewoody asked: Hold up! Just had a prompt idea if you're still doing them. You know you see those comedy videos of people high on pain meds after having their teeth out? And they are alternately cute AND hilarious because they're so out of it? Elsa has to go get her wisdom teeth out. Anna is there filming it for posterity as she acts all out-of-it and adorable/ridiculous. Just a thought :p
“Yer…heheh…Yer purdy…”
Anna’s cheeks hurt from the force of her smile, trying to keep the camera steady as Elsa flashed her a dopey grin. Two hours of this, and it was still just as funny to see the normally regal blonde like this. “Awwww…thank you, Els!”
Her girlfriend giggled, shaking her head a lot harder than someone normally would. “I wa’n’t talkin’ t’you,” she slurred, swaying a little and pointing a finger at something behind Anna. “Was talkin’ t’tha’ purdy lady o’er there!”
Anna scrunched her eyebrows, confused since she was the only other person in the room, and turned around to see…
“Elsa, that’s a plant.”
“And she’s fucking gorgeous!” her girlfriend suddenly exclaimed, words clear as her grin became far too adorable for her own good. Anna nearly arched an eyebrow at the surprising use of profanity before an irrational surge of jealousy passed through her.
Elsa sounded so sincere.
“Hey, hey…I’m your girlfriend, remember?” she reminded the giggling blonde, trying to make her tone light, but unable to help the hint of authority in it. “Not some…house plant. Elsa, she’s not even your favorite plant!”
Wait…why am I giving a plant pronouns?
“Yer my fav’rite plant,” Elsa giggled, booping Anna on the nose, blue eyes alight with mirth. “Yer a banana.”
Well, at least she changed the pronunciation to suit my name… “Elsa, bananas are–”
“Hey, d’you wanna marry me?” the blonde suddenly asked, the grin falling to frown as she furrowed her brow.
And Anna’s thoughts abruptly ground to a screeching halt.
“’cos I wanna marry you. Like, soon. But I dunno if you wanna marry me too,” Elsa continued, rocking back and forth in her chair like a kid with too much energy. “I got a ring ‘n’ everythin’! ‘course, I’m nervous ‘n’ stuff. ‘cos I don’t wanna mess up.” She paused to giggle again, a hand coming up to hide the wide grin that threatened to form on her face.
“’cos I really really really really really love you.”
Anna dropped the camera.
Epilogue: Anna excitedly says yes; crying and confusing the hell out of high-on-meds Elsa. When Elsa’s no longer high on meds, she barely remembers what happened, and is confused as to why Anna’s so happy and flashing her these looks like SHE KNOWS AND OH NO WHAT DID I SAY–
One week later, Elsa formally proposes.Last week Canadian rugby player Doug Wooldridge was squeezing in twice-daily workouts around his full-time job with an elevator repair company in Victoria, B.C., and scheduling his time off around national team games and training camps. The 30-year-old joins French rugby powerhouse ASM Clermont Auvergne this weekend, meaning that, after five years and 23 national team caps, rugby is finally his full-time job. At least it will be for the length of a three-month contract that represents huge progress both for Wooldridge and Canadian men’s rugby.
Doug Wooldridge quit his full-time job in Victoria to take a three-month contract with French pro rugby club ASM Clermont Auvergne. ( Rugby Canada/GETTY IMAGES )
“To raise our profile in Canada it’s important to have as many pros as possible,” said Wooldridge, a Lindsay native who plays club rugby with the Ontario Blues. “The more players we get playing professionally the better off we’ll be as a nation, just to get that experience coming back to the national team.” Wooldridge, a five-foot-11, 234-pound prop, joins the team as a “medical joker,” a designated temporary replacement for players sidelined with long-term injuries. Though the contract contains no guarantees, Wooldridge hopes to play well enough to persuade Clermont to bring him back next season. At 30, he knows he probably won’t have another chance to start a pro career. And his jump from provincial level club rugby to France’s Top 14, one of the world’s elite pro leagues, comes as Rugby Canada continues to establish its identity on the world scene.
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The women’s 15s squad finished second at the 2014 World Cup, while Canada’s women’s sevens team had earned an Olympic berth even before winning Pan Am Games gold last summer. Gaining a similar foothold has been tougher for men’s teams. The sevens squad is one of 16 teams still vying for the last Olympic slot, and the 15s went winless at the World Cup last fall. But even in losing all four group stage games, Canadian players gained the experience and exposure Rugby Canada thinks will benefit the program long term. Wing DTH Van Der Merwe scored tries in each of Canada’s games and led the tournament in metres gained in the pool stage, his performance earning him votes for the Lou Marsh Award. When Canada faced France, Wooldridge went head to head with Eddy Ben Arous, who plays club rugby with Racing Metro of the Top 14. When Clermont’s coaches first considered signing Wooldridge they didn’t have to wonder whether he could match strength with a Top 14 prop. That match had already shown them he could. “This is a top, top professional club. They wouldn’t bring him over unless they got a close look at his tapes,” said Gareth Rees, Rugby Canada’s CEO. “That’s encouraging and well-deserved for him.”
New Zealand might be international rugby’s undisputed superpower, but the Top 14 might be the world’s highest-quality pro league. It’s certainly the best-funded. According to therichest.com, six of the world’s 10 highest-paid rugby players belong to Top 14 teams. Wooldridge is an old rookie with a mid-season start date but Rugby Ontario high performance manager David Butcher thinks he will adjust quickly. Butcher points out that the hard-hitting rugby that characterizes the Top 14 fits well with Wooldridge’s style, and that moving to a tougher league gives Wooldridge room to grow as a player.
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Even at 30. “The French pride themselves on their scrummaging... and he prides himself on being the cornerstone of the pack,” Butcher said. “For a guy who isn’t in full-time rugby to step in to the World Cup and dominate international props is a testament to his talent.” If the Top 14 is rugby’s major league, Clermont, located in central France, could be its Boston Red Sox. The club has deep pockets and a dedicated fan base but has won just one league title, while finishing second 11 times over its 105-year history. That title came in 2010, with longtime Canadian national team standout Jamie Cudmore playing a key role. Twelve games into this season Clermont sits second in the Top 14, but neck surgery has sidelined Cudmore until at least April. Rugby Canada is glad to have a second Canadian on a top-flight pro club. Officials have said repeatedly that Canada will gain ground on more powerful rugby nations when more of its players are able to play and train full time. But Wooldridge making that exact move will hurt the national team this winter, since joining Clermont means Wooldridge will miss the Americas Rugby Championship, the six-nation international tournament that kicks off in late February. “I would love to play six nations but this opportunity is a small window,” Wooldridge said. “I’ve got to do it for longer-term life decisions.”
Read more about:Image copyright Getty Images
Apple reported a 13% drop in its second quarter revenue on Tuesday as sales of iPhones slipped.
The technology giant reported quarterly sales of $50.56bn (£34.39bn) down from $58bn last year - the first fall in sales for the company since 2003.
Apple sold 51.2 million iPhones during the quarter, down from 61.2 million in the same quarter of 2015.
China was a particular weak spot - sales there fell 26%. Results were also hit by the impact of a stronger dollar.
Apple shares fell 8% in after hours trading. Its shares have fallen close to 20% over the last twelve months.
Apple's chief executive Tim Cook said the company performed well "in the face of strong macroeconomic headwinds".
Analysis: Dave Lee, North America business reporter
Slowing sales in established markets hasn't been too much of a problem for Apple, as China has always been there to prop up its earnings and keep it posting quarter after quarter of record breaking profits.
But with revenues in China taking a hit, the whole company suffers.
The iPhone - the most successful technology product in history - is now officially in decline. The company had warned as much three months ago, but to see the numbers for real will give investors cause for concern.
Some have been calling recent events a sign that we're coming to the end of a golden age for hardware makers. The smartphone boom is past its extraordinary peak.
Apple, perhaps more than any other company, needs the next blockbuster category to come along. The Apple Watch is bringing in an estimated $1bn each quarter, but that's not enough. It needs another smash like the iPhone. But there's no sign of one coming any time soon.
What should Apple do next?
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Apple's quarterly profit slipped to $10.5bn from $13.5bn.
Nevertheless, it announced it would return $50bn to shareholders through an increase in share buybacks and a 10% increase in quarterly dividends.
Sales slowdown
Back in January the company warned that it was experiencing its slowest-ever increase in orders for iPhones and that this would cut into second quarter earnings.
Declining growth in smartphone sales has had an impact on the entire industry and companies are struggling to find the next area of innovation.
"The industry is in a lull between the mobile boom and what comes next in automotive, the connected home, health and industrial applications of the internet of things," said Geoff Blaber, from CCS Insight.
One bright spot for Apple was its services unit, which includes App Store downloads, Apple Pay and Apple Music. The division experienced a 20% growth compared with the same quarter in 2015.
Image copyright Getty Images
However, growth at that unit could be threatened by a new law in China passed in March. It requires all content shown to Chinese people to be stored on servers based on the Chinese mainland.
As a result Apple's iBooks and iTunes movies service were shut down in the country.
Apple said it hoped access to the services would be restored soon.
Apple vs. FBI
Apple was recently in a standoff with the US government over whether the company should help the FBI unlock an iPhone.
The FBI wanted Apple to build a program to unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook.
Apple refused, calling the government's order a violation of its rights. The FBI eventually turned to outside hackers to break into the phone.Story highlights Donald Trump claimed Sunday that the 9/11 attacks wouldn't have happened on his watch
Trump again attacked Jeb Bush over his brother's record on security
Washington (CNN) Donald Trump says he's not blaming George W. Bush for 9/11, but he claims that if he'd been president, the attacks never would have happened.
In an appearance on "Fox News Sunday," the real estate mogul said that since he's "extremely, extremely tough on immigration" the attackers wouldn't have been in position to commandeer U.S. flights.
"So there's a good chance that those people would not have been in our country," Trump said.
He took another shot at Jeb Bush for claiming that Bush's brother, the 43rd president, kept the nation safe.
"I'm not blaming George Bush," Trump said. "But I don't want Jeb Bush to say, 'My brother kept us safe,' because September 11 was one of the worst days in the history of this country."
Read MoreThe South African RW Johnson has undergone a transformation of youthful radical to smug “anti-apartheid” liberal anti-communist and scholar of the French Left (think Tony Judt-lite), resulting in the final incarnation of a pompous red-faced “liberal” colonial academic flinging reductionist tribal stereotypes into the public sphere. His intellectual credibility was forfeited a few years ago in liberal-left circles when he wrote a racist piece for the London Review of Books‘s (LRB’s) blog in which he compared the horrific xenophobic attacks in South Africa to baboons fighting rottweilers.
We are being besieged by baboons again. This happens quite often here on the Constantiaberg mountains (an extension of the Table Mountain range). Baboons are common in the Cape and they are a great deal larger than the vervet monkeys I was used to dealing with in KwaZulu-Natal. They jump onto roofs, overturn dustbins and generally make a nuisance of themselves; since their teeth are very dirty, their bite can be poisonous. They seem to have lots of baby baboons – it’s been a very mild winter and so spring is coming early – and they’re looking for food. The local dogs don’t like them but appear to have learned their lesson from the last baboon visit: then, a large rottweiler attacked the apes, who calmly tore it limb from limb.
Meanwhile in the squatter camps, there is rising tension as the threat mounts of murderous violence against foreign migrants once the World Cup finishes on 11 July. These migrants – Zimbabweans, Malawians, Congolese, Angolans, Somalis and others – are often refugees and they too are here essentially searching for food. The Somalis are the most enterprising and have set up successful little shops in the townships and squatter camps, but several dozen Somali shopkeepers have already been murdered, clearly at the instigation of local black shopkeepers who don’t appreciate the competition. The ANC is embarrassed by it all and has roundly declared that there will be no such violence. The truth is that no one knows. The place worst hit by violence in the last xenophobic riots here was De Doorns and the army moved into that settlement last week, clearly anticipating trouble. The tension is ominous and makes for a rather schizoid atmosphere as the Cup itself mounts towards its climax.
This piece of crude racist stereotypes provoked widespread outrage among intellectuals and academics all over the world, eventually culminating in an open letter condemning the LRB for continuing to grant old Bill Johnson with a platform. The letter was signed by the likes of Africa is a Country founder Sean Jacobs, political scientist Achille Mbembe and literature professor Paul Gilroy, as well as writers China Miéville and Teju Cole. Johnson was subsequently forced to find other platforms for his rants and raves, such as the South African website Politicsweb – which will publish anything – and reactionary publications such as the Spectator every now and again.
The LRB is known to not condone racism. But in 2010, instead of condemning or editing the obvious racism in his blog post, the publication chose instead to reduce it to a matter of “interpretation”.
Why then is the LRB–which I must confess is my favourite literary publication and is usually on the left–giving Johnson a platform in 2014? Granted, his piece in their latest edition is a review of Michael Jago’s biography on Clement Attlee – but a quick search on the LRB’s website (these includes blog posts) reveals Johnson has authored no less than five pieces since 2010; including a few on South Africa. Perhaps his reputation among the editors of the LRB still rests on the laurels of being their designated left-liberal anti-apartheid critic in the 1980s, when Johnson was still an Oxford don. Or perhaps they haven’t bothered to take the criticism they received in 2010 to heart.
Politicsweb, Johnson’s main platform, shares his politics, and until recently published fellow angophile racist and now rape apologist David Bullard. Politicsweb editor James Myburgh – who was an ex-Democratic Alliance (DA) insider and confidant of its former leader Tony Leon – is the sort of South African who feels the need |
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